Safarig, a Global Mission Center designed for training pioneers, in the Darfur region of Sudan, was recently attacked and leveled to the ground by Janjweed militias. Homes were burned, and an Adventist Church was destroyed.

“Everybody fled for his life,” says Daniel Marach, a church leader in the region who moved with 46 church members and many others to an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Abujabra. The journey was especially difficult for women, children and the elderly, according to Marach. “Thank God we have arrived safely to our new home. No one was hurt,” he says.

William Oliver, a pastor in Sudan who recently returned from a camp visit to members of the war-displaced church, says, “When I arrived there, I was delighted to meet my church members from Safarig after such a long time of separation. It was an emotional time of reunion.”

On Saturday, July 17, church members organized a spirit-lifting Sabbath worship service with nearly 100 present, including visitors from the camp.

Church members do not have a proper place to meet for worship; they meet under trees, says Oliver. In spite of so many difficulties, the believers continue to worship God each Sabbath, he says.

“Please remember the many, many members who are fleeing, seeing their homes and churches destroyed, and yet rejoicing as they find a place to meet in the shade of a tree in a refugee camp,” says Homer Trecartin, secretary-treasurer for the church in the Middle East.