Celebrating 500 Churches

Hundreds of South Sudanese Christians gathered at the Akuem Cathedral on May 19 to praise God for working through Samaritan’s Purse to rebuild hundreds of houses of worship that were destroyed as a result of a brutal, two-decades-long civil war.

A total of 512 churches were built under the Church Reconstruction Program, a partnership between Samaritan’s Purse and local congregations that began in 2005.

Hundreds gathered at the Akuem Cathedral in South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el Ghazal State on May 19 to celebrate and thank God for the rebuilding of more than 500 churches destroyed as a result of a brutal, two-decades-long civil war.

The original church was first burned in 1992 and the people used temporary shelters to worship in until 2011.

The Akuem Cathedral can hold approximately 1,000 worshippers, making it one of the largest of the new churches.

Representing the Sudan Council of Churches, Bishop Michael Taban of the Sudan Pentecostal Church, gave thanks to the Almighty and then pointed to the church’s unfinished work of missions, evangelism, and discipleship in Sudan and South Sudan. Bishop Anthony Poggo of the Episcopal Church of Sudan thanked Samaritan’s Purse supporters worldwide for their partnership in the project.

Church members worked hard to gather raw materials and form bricks or cement blocks, which often took a period of several months.