Sr. Carolyn Buhs, who arrived in South Sudan at the end of October 2011, describes her life and ministry with Solidarity for South Sudan. This message was received on May 16, 2012:

Last week I was in Juba on the bank of the Nile at the Royal Garden Hotel. I was enjoying a seminar on Consecrated Life after the Second African Synod. It was a very historic moment for the religious in South Sudan. Thirty congregations were represented among the 60 participants. It was the first time for such a gathering and was very encouraging for the Comboni Missionaries, the Sudanese Sacred Heart Sisters, and the Sudanese St. Martin de Porres Brothers who have been labouring in the vineyard during the years of the war in Sudan. I was delighted to connect with the Kiltegan priest Tim with whom I had worked in Kakuma Refugee Camp. [For three years Sr. Carolyn worked with the Lost Boys of Sudan in that refugee camp.]

A great blessing was the joy with which I returned to Malakal and the coolness I met. The rain has not yet begun, as it has in Juba but the rain must be near...the dark clouds keep building up and then pass on. Our turn will come.

We continue to pray for peace. Next week I'll fly again to Juba and then to Agok for a three-week period of teaching English in the refugee camp there. We hope the negotiations with Sudan will begin tomorrow, God willing.