Church of the Brethren Webcast Series

Nan Erbaugh, Bethany Theological Seminary student from West Alexandria, Ohio, has participated in three learning tours to southern Sudan over the past five years. Listen as she shares what she has learned about the nation’s long-time civil conflict, economic and social conditions, what she can do on a daily basis to stand in solidarity with her Sudanese sisters and brothers, and how the Church of the Brethren is poised to help.

At the same time that Nan Erbaugh enrolled at Bethany to respond to God’s call to ministry, she also considered a “long-distance” call: a desire to help the people of southern Sudan.

Nan’s three visits give her a timeline perspective of how the southern Sudanese are dealing with the long-time civil conflict. She is especially interested in strengthening village women’s groups, who often function as the community builders, and is encouraged by the efforts of the New Sudan Council of Churches in reforestation, supplying school scholarships, and underwriting small economic projects such as cooperative sewing enterprises.

Most meaningful to Nan are the relationships that she has developed. She hopes to return to Sudan in several years, and high on her to-do list is to renew acquaintances. Until then, Nan’s friends are never far from her thoughts, and they have a daily influence on how she lives her life here in the U.S. “If you return from an experience like that and don’t change, you've missed the point. I have to keep changing how I live my life as a way of helping them, including how I spend my money, how I view my studies, and educating others about their situation. My trips to Sudan have illustrated for me that if people anywhere in our ‘global village’ are being exploited, it is also my concern, even in Sudan.”