Some may remember the Bishop of Wau, Bishop Moses deng Bol, who visited Poole 3 or 4 years ago.  

Moses has been a Bishop for seven years and he is still only forty one. I like this picture as it suggests that Bishop Moses likes to lead from the front, as any Bishop needs to do in South Sudan today.

This Deanery is linked
with Wau Diocese in South Sudan. We are one of the Deanery Links which Salisbury Diocese has with different parts of that country.

The link was officially approved by the Deanery in 2011 and is run by a small committee chaired by Jeff Neagle and Rev Chris Strain. It is referred to as “The Poole-Wau Partnership”.

The town of Wau is South Sudan’s “second city”. It is over 400 miles by road from the capital, Juba, which is where much of the country is centred.

Wau has a university and secondary schools, a major hospital, and facilities like the stadium in this picture.
When the link was set up in 2011 it had a population of 150,000, almost the same size as Poole. In fact, you could say there’s really not much difference between the two except that Wau is about 1000 miles from the sea.

 Wau Diocese is much
bigger than almost all other dioceses in the country. It is about the same area as England, but its population is not that big, maybe 2 million, so people are spread all over the place. Sometimes Moses makes a tour into more remote areas and is always received with great enthusiasm. On one 11-day journey in 2012 he confirmed over 1100 people, and a year later, over 2000.

The aim of the Link partnership is to share our lives---different as they are---with our sisters and brothers in the Diocese of Wau. By means of prayer, by Facebook and e-mail, by visiting when circumstances allow---all of which can work both ways; and by financial aid which is inevitably one way, of course.

The scope of our
activities can be seen in past issues of our quarterly newsletter. (see newsletter section above) 

a) The Holes Bay 7-mile Challenge Walk is our main fundraising event. It starts and finishes at Upton Country Park with a stop at St James’ half way round. Good fun and the weather is always good. We are planning to include a BBQ this year (2017). If your church hasn’t been involved before I hope you may consider it this year.

b) Building a Guest house for the Diocese was our main project up till early 2016, when it came into use. Its aim is to accommodate visiting lecturers and other professionals, and to earn revenue.

There are over 400 clergy in Wau Diocese, but until recently, many of them had not even completed Primary School level education. St John’s College has been set up by the Diocese to deal with this situation, and from a small start with 3 students in 2011, it now has 40 in 3 year streams. It is now going on to develop courses to train teachers and offer business studies as well. Support for St John's is our main project for the coming few years.

Our remit is to support
Wau Diocese generally, and the latest issues of the Newsletter highlight some of these.

• Aid (not our primary aim)
• Range of activities---including --- in different parts of the diocese---Peacebuilding/ Outreach/ Agricultural improvement
• We can also act to send money to Wau on behalf of other organisations

On the subject of food aid, we had sad news last week. This is for prayer and concern, not fundraising. Last week about 2000 people from nearby villages took refuge in the Cathedral Compound in Wau. At first the Cathedral staff had nothing to give them but water but we heard on Sunday that UN food aid has now arrived.

These are the churches of Poole Deanery. We think that about half are involved with the link in one way or another, and obviously we welcome as much involvement as possible from all the churches and are always looking to expand our contact with the churches in our deanery

1. From now onwards, we are offering to visit any of the churches in the Deanery with presentations on the Poole—Wau Link, and life and faith in South Sudan ---- suitable either for inclusion in services, or for home groups or other small groups. The material can take different forms and be tailored to suit your needs.

   If you might be interested, please get in touch with me or Chris Strain.

2. Would churches be interested in including specific prayers for South Sudan on say 4 Sundays spaced through the year? If you would, please let us know as we will be able to provide suitable prayers/ material/ information for agreed dates. A particularly significant date is 9^th July, which is S Sudan’s Independence Day. We wait to hear from you on this.

3. You may already be signed up for our Newsletter, which is our main means of communication at present. There is a sign-up sheet at the back. You also can sign up to our prayer e-mail list. You may also like to pick up our Annual Report if you haven’t already seen a copy.

This is a picture of
the Cathedral Compound, with the village people I mentioned.

Since Sunday (5th Feb), numbers have risen to about 4000.

Richard Tazewell
7th Feb 2017