FRIENDS OF SOUTH SUDAN. After considerable thought, deliberation and prayer, the Trustees have unanimously decided that the time has come to close down the work of Friends of South Sudan.  Several factors play into this, the combined effect of which is to lead us to the conclusion that the Lord is clearly leading us in this direction.
Among those factors are the fact that finances have almost completely dried up and, because of my own increasing ministry commitments and priorities elsewhere, I simply don't have the time to give to promoting the work as I used to do or liaising with donor agencies who might be in a position to help.    This make the future of the work unsustainable and so necessitates this decision.
I am sure you will appreciate that we have not taken the decision lightly.  Sudan and South Sudan have been a major part of my own life and ministry for the past 15 years, and this particular work was established in 2007, following my departure from AIM International, but everything has its season and I have a great sense of peace as to the rightness of our conclusion.
It is with great gratitude that we can look back and see what, in God's goodness, we have been able to accomplish -

• over £1,500,000 has been sent to help the church in their various ministries
• tens of thousands of stranded South Sudanese have been rescued from Sudan and repatriated
• thousands of children have been clothed, fed and educated
• a significant number of church leaders have received theological training
• 7 Preachers' workshops have been held in Juba and Khartoum
• help has been given to widows and orphans and to thousands of others affected by conflict

and all made possible through the Lord's help and the generous giving of our supporters and partner agencies.
However, it is clear that the time has come to draw things to a close and so Friends of South Sudan will cease to operate as a Charity from 31st March 2016.

With this in mind, if you have a standing order in place, please could you make sure that no payments are made after this date as our bank will not be accepting any more donations from that time.  
Any monies that are left at the time of closure will be sent to UCAD - The United Churches Agency for Development - the joint Churches group in Juba through whom we have been channelling support in the last couple of years.
On behalf of the Lord's people in South Sudan and Sudan please accept our very grateful thanks for any and every way in which you have stood with and supported them and, very importantly, please don't forget them just because we're not around!
The Lord bless you richly, Rev John Brand. Chairman on behalf of the Trustees