Fred Taban reflects on visit of Archbishop

A personal account by Fred Taban on the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury to Morobi Camp earlier in the year.

Touch a heart, change a life amongst South Sudan refugees. Archbishop Justin Welby did, will you please?

The 2^nd August 2017 will go down in the history of the South Sudanese refugees in Uganda as a historic milestone because of the visit of the archbishop of the worldwide Anglican communion to the Belameling Refugees Camp in the northern Ugandan region of Moyo. CRESS-SS is privileged to have been part of the organising team. During the preparations for the visit, I asked myself, “Why is the archbishop taking the trouble to visit the refugees from South Sudan, the war-torn country? Don’t we have plenty of problems and refugees in the world today for him to give us such a particular interest? ‘Truthfully I don’t know the answer but……….”

Reflecting on his trip and highlighting what he did and said, Justin Welby visit did touch the hurting hearts and souls. Just giving his time and coming personally into the filthy and muddy camps and spend an hour with the refugees is very telling indeed. His visit brought the message of love, hope and reconciliation from Jesus Christ.

Welby said he had come to visit the most import person, the refugee because, ‘the Bible tells us the refugee is specially loved by God. Which means you who are refugees are specially loved by God, that Jesus himself was a refugee and he loves you and he stands with you and the suffering that you have is the suffering that he knows. So I pray for you, I will advocate for you.’ These are indeed touching words of comfort to a hurting soul.

CRESS-SS joins in the call of the archbishop for an immediate end to the current conflict in South Sudan and we call on all those who can to support CRESS work amongst the refugees in Uganda and the IDPs in South Sudan. Please join us in praying and acting to bring an end to suffering.

By Fred Taban