MAF brought help, hope and healing to the South Sudanese community of Lafon through a workshop designed to heal the scars of trauma and break a cycle of revenge.
Workshop Facilitator Thomas Titus, who also works as MAF’s Dispatch Team Leader describes how Lafon has suffered over many years due to its location.
‘Lafon is a crossroads for many different cattle keeping tribes that depend on their cows for their livelihood. Because of this, they are often victims of cattle raiding and even child abduction,’ he says. ‘In some places you can see where there used to be houses that were burnt down due to fighting in the previous war.’
Lafon lies 80 miles to the east of the capital Juba. The Pari community make a living raising livestock and growing crops on the edge of one of South Sudan’s largest protected wildlife areas, Bandigillo National Park. At its heart is Lafon Hill, a rocky elevation covered with terraced villages which is visible for miles around.
MAF has served Lafon airstrip with a weekly shuttle since January 2023. During the rainy season the roads of Eastern Equatoria turn to mud and the town is only reachable by airplane.
Peace and Reconciliation Programme Leader Jaap de With, who also works as MAF’s Partnership and Development Manager in South Sudan, flew to Lafon with Titus and Evangelist and Facilitator Raphael Joel for the Healing Hearts Transforming Nations Workshop.
‘The 30-minute flight is the safest way to reach the town because of poor road conditions and insecurity. During the wet season it takes two to three days to go by road with a high probability of getting stuck several times or breaking down,’ Jaap explains.
‘We offered to do a workshop in Lafon in partnership with the church. Small isolated communities like Lafon struggle with a lack of resources and unmet need. When we reached out with an offer to run a workshop, the church welcomed us with open arms.
‘Eastern Equatoria is a particularly challenging area as there are tribal conflicts even between neighbouring communities. When the next village is your enemy there will be many people carrying very bad trauma wounds. This leads to cycles of revenge that can last for generations.’
The team were joined in Lafon by Pioneers Missionary Olwen Frost, who had just concluded training on Bible storytelling and Biblical responses to trauma. Olwen was the main contact between the visiting team and the church as they prepared to come. She has been working with the Pari and Didinga peoples for the past two years, and flies with MAF to several locations.
Olwen has only warm words for the pilots who, she says, ‘Go beyond a regular pilot’s job to help in any way they can. MAF is my “bus in the sky” that takes me to and from all my meetings and workshops in Lafon and Chukudum!’
In their outdoor classroom, the participants move with the shade, as the day wears on. They learn about trauma and the possibility of healing through the redemptive purposes of God.
The deepest wounds, Titus notes, often come from the family. Lost opportunities for education, abandonment, neglect ¬– and physical poverty – have all left scars. The teaching about the Father heart of God, speaks to unmet need as people are invited to seek the things they have lost, in God.
The cross workshop is an opportunity to deal with bitterness. Participants nail their sins and struggles to the cross on scraps of paper and receive forgiveness and release.
Teaching moves from personal confession to community reconciliation the next day, as they learn about God’s ‘Holy Nation’. They are members of a heavenly kingdom that transcends family, clan, and tribe.
Understanding this, is the basis for the ‘Standing in the Gap’ exercise where participants give and receive forgiveness on behalf of their communities and families.
‘People let go of resentments they felt towards family members and the heavy burden of revenge,’ Titus shares.
The final celebration on the Sunday takes place after church as participants gather around their Kings’ Table. They crown one another with paper crowns, speak blessings and encouragements and declare their identity as children of God.
As the team pack up to leave, Olwen reflects on the workshop and how it related to her own ministry.
‘I enjoyed being there. I made notes to modify a little of my own trauma healing workshop so I can incorporate more on forgiveness. It’s good stuff!
‘The Pari really appreciated the workshop and your team – Jaap, Thomas and Raphael – were a very good fit.’
For the team, it is encouraging to know that Olwen will build on their teaching so others in the community can benefit.
Titus ends with a prayer request for the physical needs of the community. Many are hungry as they wait for the new harvest and rapidly spiralling inflation makes it impossible to buy food.
‘Pray for the people of Lafon as they are cut off now during the wet season,’ he says. ‘They are struggling with a lack of food. They also lack services because Lafon has no market, no road, and no secondary school. People have to bring everything from Torit which is difficult at this time of year.’
