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Sue Walkden It is with great sadness and grief that we have learnt of the sudden passing of Dr Susan Walkden, PWP's Prayer Secretary. Sue died at home on Sunday 23rd October having been at St Luke’s Church Parkstone in the morning. She did have a number of longstanding health issues and had been less well in recent months, but her going from us is a huge shock. Sue was for the past seven years a vital member of the Poole-Wau Partnership, a dedicated committee member and Prayer Secretary. The Service of Thanksgiving for Dr Susan Walkden took place at St Luke's Church, Parkstone on Thursday 17th November 2022. As former vicar of St Luke’s, friend and a Poole-Wau Partnership trustee, Rev Chris Strain was invited by the church and family to conduct the service. Rev Chris Strain writes: "We all feel a deep sense of loss of our dear friend, who was always such a joy to be with, and forever positive in spite of her own struggles. Please pray for her lovely family at this time, her many friends from so many different aspects of her life, including the medical profession (Sue was a radiologist at Poole Hospital), and pray too for St Luke’s Church who will feel her going from us so much." Archbishop Moses Deng Bol sent this tribute: "On behalf of Northern Bahr el Ghazal Internal Province, the Diocese of Wau and on my own behalf I would like to send our sincere condolences to the family, relatives and friends of Sue Walkden. Sue has been a very key member of PWP and her passing on will leave a huge vacuum in the partnership specially in the area of prayer. "Our partnership is guided by Acts 2:42 in which the early church dedicated itself to four activities including discipleship, fellowship, breaking of the bread and prayer daily. Prayer is the glue that holds the four activities together and Sue was responsible for it. The partnership will indeed miss her dedicated service greatly. "May her soul rest in eternal peace." Joseph Mamer, Bishop of Wanyjok writes: "We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing on of our dear and beloved mom. It's a great loss, we will miss her presence and her enormous contributions towards the development and growth of partnership. "We pray that the Good Lord receive and keep her precious soul in eternity forever till we meet again in heaven gloriously. "We sincerely send condolences to the immediate bereaved family and St Luke's community as well as all parishes in Poole Deanery. We will uphold you in our prayers and thoughts at this trying moment." Rev Chris Strain will be acting as Prayer Secretary for the time being. See our Upcoming Events page for details of Prayer Meetings in December and January: https://www.poolewaupartnership.com/upcoming-events.html . 2022 St John's Extension Appeal Progress Stage One of our 2022 Appeal was completed in March 2022, when £8,000 was sent to St John's College, Wau, to build the walls of the new building, which have now been completed. A further £12,800 has now been raised, partly through a grant of £6,500 from the Slavanka Trust, which should be enough to build the roof. The dedicated 2022 Appeal page elsewhere on this website has more detailed news of the progress of this appeal, including photos of the walls under construction: https://www.poolewaupartnership.com/2022-appeal.html 2022 Holes Bay Walk raises a record £4,700! Our largest annual fundraising event, the 2022 Holes Bay Walk, raised £4,238, which will grow to approximately £4,700 when Gift Aid has been claimed from HM Treasury. This is the largest amount the walk has ever raised. Many thanks to all our supporters who braved the very hot weather on Saturday 9th July 2022 to take part, and to those who sponsored the walkers so generously. This wonderful amount will enable us to continue supporting St John's College Wau by paying the salaries of Theology teachers. South Sudan bishops' visit to Poole a joyous success We were delighted to welcome six Bishops from South Sudan to Poole Deanery from 8th to 12th August 2022. Our long-standing friend Archbishop Moses Deng Bol of Northern Bahr el Ghazal Province and his wife Elizabeth Ajok Chan led the visit. Also with us were Bishop Joseph Mamer of Wanyjok and his wife Rev. Clarice Achieng Owino, Bishop Peter Jonathan Beria of Wau and his wife Janet, Bishop Peter Garang Akuei of Nyamlel and his wife Roda Ayen Martin Maker, Bishop Peter Marial Agok of Malek Rip and Bishop Peter Gatbel Kunen Lual of Maiwut. Visits between our two communities were always intended to be one of the main features of Poole Deanery’s Partnership with Wau Diocese. The civil war in South Sudan and more recently the Covid pandemic has made such visits increasingly difficult for several years, so we were overjoyed to welcome our South Sudanese visitors. Midweek services at St Michael's Hamworthy, St George's Oakdale and St Dunstan's Upton were well attended. Bishops were divided between the three churches and the services all featured interviews with them, with coffee and informal chat afterwards. The Question-&-Answer Evening on Thursday 11th August at St James' Church Poole was a highlight of the week, with some 55 people able to question the bishops on a variety of aspects of their ministry in South Sudan. This meeting was recorded on video and may be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64bRgGxwrW4 A business meeting between the Northern Bahr el Ghazal bishops and the PWP committee members was a rare opportunity to discuss the future of our Partnership, with some exciting developments agreed. A full programme of visits and events gave the bishops an opportunity to sample many different aspects of life in Poole: including a swim in the sea at Sandbanks, the work of Street Pastors, Routes-to-Roots' new centre, a concert at St James' Church, fireworks on the Quay and a boat trip around Poole Harbour, as well as many more informal gatherings. There is no doubt that the visit has been a joyous success, which has strengthened our links with our brothers and sisters in Wau. The photograph below shows Revd. Canon Lucy Holt, Rural Dean of Poole, with our visitors from South Sudan. A gallery of other photos from the week may be found here: https://www.poolewaupartnership.com/bishops-visit.html 
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Above: Dr Susan Walkden.
Two successful missions to Wau The organisations Rooted in Jesus and Flame International both undertook missions to Wau in October and November 2022. Rooted in Jesus is an interactive group course in Christian discipleship designed for use in Africa, the only material of its kind written specially for the use of ordinary African Christians. 85 people attended the conference, which ran for four days. A lifetime of civil war isn’t good for morale, pastors are not paid for their ministry, and food insecurity saps the spirit. The team sensed spiritual weariness but by the second day something of a breakthrough had been achieved, with a powerful sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit. One of the leaders, Barry Blackford, writes: “As we were praying the Spirit down after the morning teaching it felt right to ask Bishop Peter to give his testimony. It was very powerful & the Spirit poured down in power …This continued into the evening ministry session where ... most were touched by the Spirit and praised God out loud, often in tongues.” At the end of the conference, 79 people were commissioned to lead groups on their return home. The team went on to run another similar conference in Tonj Diocese. A more detailed report on the mission to Wau may be found here: https://rootedinjesus.blog/2022/11/21/rooted-in-jesus-returns-to-south-sudan/ Meanwhile in November Flame International, a UK-based charity with a vision to see people set free from the pain and trauma of war, terror and oppression took a team of 7 to Wau to run a 3-day conference and workshop for 50 Chaplains, officers and soldiers from the South Sudan Army, and a 5-day Trauma Healing Conference and Workshop for 52 Pastors, Mothers union and Youth leaders. The team also preached on forgiveness in several churches in Wau Diocese. The team stayed in the ECSS Guest House in Wau, which was built with the help of the Poole-Wau Partnership between 2012 and 2016. They report that, "although basic, it was very good. It was ideal for our purposes, and we were very well served." It is encouraging to hear that the Guest House is still in good order and being put to effective use. Read more about these two organisation here: http://www.rootedinjesus.net https://www.flameinternational.org Below: Group photo taken at the Rooted in Jesus conference in Wau 
Fourth year of severe flooding causes humanitarian crisis in South Sudan
We have received an update from Peter Akook, Executive Director of the Rural Development Committee Initiative, based in Wau, about worsening conditions in South Sudan. 2022 has been a very difficult year and conditions have been badly affected by climate, conflict and economic shocks, the effects of COVID-19, and inter-tribal and gender-based violence. Peter writes that “Prolonged flooding, due to abnormal rainfall, impacts agriculture and intensifies existing vulnerabilities of affected people. The cumulative impact of recurrent flooding also contributes to the destruction and damage to water facilities and limits access to basic services including health and education.” Continued conflict and instability in the country combined with extensive flooding for the fourth year running have resulted in large-scale internal and cross-border displacement. Over two million people are internally displaced and an additional 2.3 million South Sudanese remain refugees hosted in neighbouring countries. Deteriorating humanitarian protection concerns remain high, with people impacted by violence having limited access to justice and the rule of law. It is estimated that over two-thirds of South Sudan’s 8.9 million people are dependent on humanitarian assistance being provided by international organisations, such as the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the World Food Programme (see the links below for more on the work of these organisations in South Sudan). https://unmiss.unmissions.org https://www.wfp.org/stories/south-sudans-road-out-hunger https://www.tearfund.org/about-us/our-impact/where-we-work/south-sudan Links to find out more about South Sudan News Organisations: Sudan Tribune: https://sudantribune.com Radio Tamazuj: https://radiotamazuj.org/en Eye Radio: https://eyeradio.org Associated Press: https://apnews.com/hub/south-sudan The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/south-sudan BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=South+Sudan Radio Miraya: https://audioboom.com/channel/radiomiraya News Now: https://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Africa/South+Sudan Regular publications: Diocese of Salisbury Sudans Link, including quarterly Salisbury-Sudans Link Bulletin: https://www.salisbury.anglican.org/mission/the-sudan-link Renewal Magazine: https://wau.anglican.org/renewal-magazine/ The Church Association for Sudan and South Sudan, including twice-yearly Sudan Church Review: https://www.casss.org.uk AFRECS (American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans), including fortnightly E-Blast: https://afrecs.org Organisations working in South Sudan: St John’s College Wau: https://stjohnscollegewau.org South Sudan Council of Churches: https://sscchurches.org The Epicopal Church of South Sudan: https://southsudan.anglican.org ECSS Northern Bahr El Ghazal province: https://www.facebook.com/northerbahrelghazal/ CRESS UK (Christian Relief and Education for South Sudan): https://cressuk.org/blog/ UNMISS (United Nations Mission in South Sudan): https://unmiss.unmissions.org TEAR Fund: https://www.tearfund.org/about-us/our-impact/where-we-work/south-sudan World Food Programme: https://www.wfp.org/stories/south-sudans-road-out-hunger |
