The Revd Canon Patricia Wick has recently moved back to the Diocese of York, having worked as a with CMS in South Sudan for the past seventeen years. Patricia shares her story...
At the end of 1997 I left the parish in Hull where I was working and in 1998 set off for South Sudan. I was a Mission Partner with CMS (Church Mission Society). Civil war was still raging in Sudan so I had to get used to dodging the bombs. My home was in Maridi (in Western Equatoria State) close to the Cathedral. From 1998 – 2009 I was a Provincial Manager for the programme of Theological Education by Extension and was responsible for ten Anglican Dioceses. In 2009 I became the Diocesan Coordinator for Discipleship and Training and was also made a Canon of All Saint’s Cathedral in Maridi. On finishing my MA studies I was then appointed in 2013 as the Principal of the Diocesan Training College – Chaima Christian Institute.
I finished my work with CMS in April 2015. As I reflect back over the last seventeen years let me share some of the things I have learned. If you are a Pioneer, have a sense of adventure and love a challenge then South Sudan was the place to be. I learned to trust God in a way I had never done before. Sometimes we were in situations where the only thing we could do was pray. I saw amazing answers to prayer became more expectant in my praying and my God became bigger than he had ever been before. I learned that in Africa things happen when they happen, so I became much more laid back and less stressed when things didn’t happen on time or didn’t work out as planned. I learned that people are more important than the tasks I had to do.