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UGANDA: REFUGEE SCHOOL

From Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>
Date 27 Feb 1997 02:46:00
Message-Id: <32E3976A.150@quest.org.uk>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 16:03:54 +0000
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Organization: Anglican Communion Office
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Jan. 17, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
The Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.1.3.10]

UGANDA: REFUGEE BIBLE SCHOOL ATTACKED AND REOPENED

(Tear Fund, CMS) The Bishop Alison Bible School in Koboko in north-west
Uganda was razed to the ground at the end of October by Ugandan rebels
believed to be sponsored by the Government of Khartoum in their attempt
to
get the Sudanese refugees in the area back into the Sudan. Families were
made to stay inside their houses as the grass roofs were set alight.
Only
when the smoke and fire were threatening to kill them were people let
out.

The Bishop Alison Bible School provides training for people from the
Sudanese Diocese of Yei who have escaped from the civil war in the
Sudan.
Rebels attacked the school and the neighbouring Koboko Archdeaconry
Training Centre setting light to both of them. The principal of the
Archdeaconry Training Centre was threatened at gunpoint by the rebels
because of his role in sheltering Sudanese refugees.

No-one was badly injured in the attack although all the mud and thatched
buildings have been destroyed leaving staff, students, and their
families
without housing or belongings.

After the attack the students and their families evacuated the area and
went to the town of Arua where tents were issued by the UNHCR and Red
Cross. Now, thanks to the hospitality of the Diocese of Madi and the
West
Nile, accommodation has been found for them and the school rehoused. CMS
has appealed for extra finances to help provide emergency provisions for
the refugees.

In January Archbishop and Lady Eames went to Arua to open the new Bible
School. The Archbishop also preached at the consecration of Bishop
Eliaba
Menesona of the new Sudanese Diocese of Lainya and visited Sudanese
refugee
camps in Uganda. Lady Eames, who is World President of the Mothers'
Union,
visited Mothers' Union groups in the camps and other women's
initiatives.

Graham and Janet Buttanshaw, CMS missionaries at the school write of the
experience in October: "Gunfire seemed everywhere, yet miraculously
no-one
was badly hurt. Our house was riddled with bullets, but we were not
there.
We had already been advised to leave the site, and were staying in Arua.
Among our rescued belongings we found a card with Jesus' words: `Peace I
leave with you: my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives.
Do
not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid The words are
beautifully printed. The card is on the table beside me as I write this
letter. It has been ripped apart by a bullet. It's so easy for fine
words
to be ripped apart by human cruelty. How can peace withstand the harsh
realities of human violence? Is it left in shreds like the card? Peace
seems so fragile." The Buttanshaws then reflect on the birth of Jesus
the
Prince of Peace in their Christmas letter and go on to say: "Fear and
troubles abound. Yet in the hearts of many, where we might expect only
bitterness and despair, there is light and there is peace. Deep peace,
inner peace. The peace of Christ. Not always. Sometimes just enough to
keep
out despair. But a miraculous presence that defies the outward
realities."
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