Masango Matimura -- a fourth-year double major in Bible and Community Development at Daystar -- did his internship in the same area where the pastors' conference was held. Matimura participated in another pastor's training seminar working with some of the same Christian leaders as did the Bible Department faculty. Matimura also gained experience teaching English in the public schools, held Bible classes for interested students after school, distributed Bibles, showed the JESUS Film, dug rainwater harvesting holes, and even demonstrated the use of a sesame seed oil pressing machine.
According to Chinchen, Matimura reported that the same artillery shells -- now empty casings -- supplied to the Islamic government of northern Sudan by the Muslim nations in the Middle East and used to bomb churches and pastors' homes in southern Sudan are now being used to call people to worship.
"Only the transforming work of God in His upside-down Kingdom ways can take weapons of war and turn them into instruments of peace -- to be used for His purposes and His glory," says Chinchen. "That is our prayer for all of Sudan -- that God's peace will rule and reign throughout the country."
The Daystar educator's other example involves Nyawira Wambui and that Daystar graduate's work in Uganda. Part of the Bible Department at the university is the Peace Studies program, a critical need on a continent filled with tribal conflict and civil wars. Nyawira, who earned a Peace Studies minor while at Daystar, went to Lira, Uganda, to work among those displaced within their own country by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). This rebel force is known for capturing children, using them as child soldiers and as sex slaves, as they carry out their hit-and-run tactics from village to village.
For her practicum, Nyawira worked in an internally displaced people (IDP) camp, training women how to grow mushrooms as both a source of income and to provide alternative sources of nutrients. The Daystar graduate also taught them how to make soap jelly, distributed food within the camp, and led a Bible study.
"Africa needs more Nyawiras, people at the grass roots, identifying with the needs of people on the ground and [being] part of the solution for existing problems," Chinchen concludes.
AgapePress gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Dr. Del Chinchen to this article.
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