A farewell prayer for Darfur...

Months ago I started writing on this blog with the intent of probing my own thoughts. Since then the states of Kosovo, Darfur and Somalia have been on my mind while I research past and present violent conflicts there. Places like these are so far from my daily life and yet as I have researched each conflict I have felt a growing empathy in my heart for the people of each state. My heart longs for the day when Christ will return and heal these states.

March of 2007 was the month that I began this intellectual journey. Today I read through my past posts and was a little excited to see how much I have learned and how my thoughts have developed through the course of exploring this topic. However, I feel that there is much missing from my current line of thinking. Nowhere in my reading of past posts have I found a particularly thorough expression of the possible infeasibility of state aggression in the nuclear age. In fact my very first post in March of 2007 said that the general thrust of the blog was to explore this infeasibility. Whoops. I guess I had better get moving on this whole nuclear age examination thing. Of course I have not examined the Japanese-American conflict in WWII yet either...I believe that an examination of this conflict would provide serious answers to my questions about the infeasibility of aggression in the nuclear age. Also present on my docket for exploration, but left out of my current discussion is the issue of Joseph Kony and the people of Northern Uganda. I will at this time skip over the topic of Joseph Kony in favor of beginning the topic of Japanese-American diplomacy leading up to American involvement in WWII.

So I am leaving the topic of international policing with regard to Darfur and Khartoum. For ten months I have been writing in my little peaceful nook of University Heights. Meanwhile thousands of women and girls in Darfur have been raped and/or beaten. Thousands of Darfurians have died hungry and aching deaths. Hundreds of thousands of people have continued to live in meager IDP camps where neither food, water nor security are common. Hundreds of thousands of men have chosen violence; by joining active armies and rebel groups they have chosen to witness first hand the loss of friends, family members and sometimes even their own souls. All of Sudan has reeled back and forth in a fit of violent chaos as Khartoum, America, China and the UN all vie for power positions within northern Africa. Needless to say I am saddened that ten months have gone by and yet people continue to suffer so much in Darfur. The only fitting way I know to close my discussion on Darfur is with a prayer to the Almighty that His peace would come to the country of Sudan:


Father in Heaven, Your name is revered all across the earth. And yet there are places on this globe where Your glory seems absent. In particular the nation of Sudan is controlled by men and governments who love violence. I pray that Your kingdom would invade this great land. I pray that Your will would be done in the nation of Sudan just as it is in Heaven. Give the hungry people of Sudan food for the day. Forgive folks in Sudan for their sins: specifically bring Bashir to a place of repentance, bring him trembling face to face with your perfect glory
and reconcile him to Yourself through Christ. Teach mothers and fathers and children in Sudan to forgive their offenders: specifically bring the Christians of southern Sudan into a state of forgiveness toward the Khartoum regime knowing that you have likewise forgiven them. Do not lead the people of Darfur into temptation, but deliver them from the evil one who would destroy not only their state but their souls. Father, although it seems to me that presidents and generals of this day and age are ruling the situation in Sudan I know that this is a lie. Sudan is Your kingdom. All of the power rests in Your hands. All of the glory is Yours forever. Amen.