Women and children are among the dead in scores of villages in southern Sudan that have been raided by Ugandan rebels over the last 12 months. Troops serving in the ruthless Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have also abducted hundreds of children and forced them to serve as soldiers and slaves.

Believers from several churches that were rebuilt by Samaritan’s Purse have been killed in LRA raids in Western and Central Equatoria states.

Samaritan’s Purse has reconstructed more than 360 churches in southern Sudan that were destroyed during the nation’s recent civil war. Sudanese believers from these churches and in villages throughout the south are asking for prayer for protection and for an end to the violence.

In a village outside the town of Maridi, the senior pastor of a church was shot by LRA rebels. He died on the way to the hospital. Less than a month later, the assistant pastor of the church was killed in a second raid.

“It was something planned against the church to take out the leader and cause the church to be in disarray,” said the senior pastor’s widow, Monica. “I’m still strong in my faith, but right now I don’t know what to do. I’ve left everything in the hands of God.”

An LRA attack on another village left 13 people dead, including a group of women and children who attended a church that Samaritan’s Purse helped rebuild.

A grandmother named Anna managed to escape from the rebel that was holding her at gunpoint. She tried to warn people in the village, but it was too late.

Anna’s two daughters were among the dead. One of Anna’s four grandchildren was taken from her mother’s arms and stomped on by an LRA soldier. The child died several days later.

Anna could only think of one reason why she wasn’t killed that day. “Maybe God wanted me to remain for my grandchildren,” she said.

People in another village were amazed when a 16-year-old girl named Esther returned after spending four years as an LRA captive. Her family and friends thought she was dead.

Esther was 12 when she and four other girls were abducted during an LRA raid and taken to a rebel camp. LRA commander Joseph Kony gave Esther to one of his officers as a wife. Kony is reported to have more than 30 wives living in different LRA strongholds.

Kony established the LRA in the late 1980s in a bid to overthrow the Ugandan government and establish a theocracy. Kony claims to be a spirit medium who communicates with the Holy Spirit and with angels he knows by name. He mixes elements of Christianity, voodooism, and tribal beliefs into a brutal and twisted cultic system that condones murder, rape, child abduction, and slavery to help advance his cause.

Kidnapped children like Esther are often forced to execute fellow prisoners as an example to others of the punishment for attempted escape. “Those who refused to kill others were immediately executed, as well as those who tried to escape,” Esther said. Esther saw countless people die, but is thankful that she was never forced to participate in the murders.

Soon after Esther was abducted, the rebels moved to a new camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo where she was held for more than three years. Determined to escape, Esther quietly slipped away from the camp one evening and fled into the forest. Early the next morning, she found a group of Congolese soldiers who helped her return to Sudan.

She lives with her family again and attends a local church built by Samaritan’s Purse.

The constant threat of LRA raids reminds Sudanese believers and Samaritan’s Purse staff that they all live and work in a dangerous and unsettled war zone. Church leaders recently gathered in Maridi to share their concerns, encourage each other, and call on believers everywhere to pray.

“If all Christians will give themselves to serious prayer, maybe God will answer and put an end to this,” a pastor said. “But if people are reluctant to pray, then it may take a long time.”

Samaritan's Purse , Sudan , Sudan Global Day of Prayer , Pray for Sudan