Challenge and change
Sudan partners offer kids a bigger view of church
By Sean Brubaker
Daniel Kech Puoc and his wife, Achol Majok Kur, of the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church visited Calvin Presbyterian Church in Elwood City, Pennsylvania, to share testimonies of faithful Christians in the world’s youngest country—a country many believe is on the brink of genocide.
On a Saturday afternoon last summer, the usual crew of neighborhood boys were riding scooters up and down the avenue outside the church. When they saw the parking lot fill up they stopped to see what was going on. They have learned well that when the parking lot of Calvin Presbyterian Church, Elwood City, Pennsylvania, is full of cars, there is almost always food to be had.
Our church had the privilege of hosting retired mission co-worker Nancy McGaughey and guests from the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church, Elder Daniel Kech Puoc, financial secretary, and his wife, Madam Achol Majok Kur, chairperson of the Women’s Desk for the SSPEC Executive Committee.
I talked to the children who have been regular participants in our summer lunch program the past three years and sometimes join us for coffee hour after worship. Naturally, they asked if there was food and if they could eat with us. I made a deal with them, that they could eat with us as long as they stayed to hear our guests. They agreed, but noted they had to leave at 5 p.m. because they “had to be somewhere.”
Daniel and Achol began sharing around 4:45 p.m. They didn’t use any pictures, props or videos, but their stories and personas captured the attention of these boys. They were as captivated and moved by the traumatic stories of survival and faith as were the rest of us. Partway through Daniel’s testimony of God using disaster as opportunity in his life, he began to challenge us.
I don’t know if Daniel was aware of the group dynamics or place the boys have in our congregation, but he singled them out in a way that perhaps none of us would have dared. He asked them very pointedly if they were followers of Jesus. He asked them what they do for his church? What do they do for his kingdom? It was a somewhat awkward and tense moment. He got no answer and moved on, but a moment later the boys leaned over to tell me they could now stay till 5:15 p.m. Throughout the evening they leaned over several more times, “We can stay till 5:30 p.m. …We can stay till 6 p.m.” Some of them stayed for the entire 90-minutes of testimonies, challenges and encouragement by Daniel, Achol and Nancy.
By the end of the evening the boys helped pass the offering plate and at least one of the boys contributed some of his own money. It was clear to me they began to understand something about the church that night, which they might never have figured out from our summer lunch program, gospel conversations or outreach events.
On Tuesday morning they showed up for the summer ministry and were eager to talk about what they heard. “I can’t believe that lady went to those places!” “How do you know those people from South Sudan and why did they come here?” “Do you always collect money for things, and where does that money go?”
Something clicked. I’m not sure I could name yet exactly what it was, but it had something to do with the fact that these same people they hear singing on Sunday mornings, the same people who serve their lunches, are somehow connected to these people from South Sudan, and this missionary who does amazing things in dangerous places halfway around the world. The picture of what the church is to them had grown exponentially in one evening. Perhaps it has grown for us too.
Rev. Sean Brubaker is the pastor of Calvin Presbyterian Church in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania.He is passionate about seeing lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.