Covenant News

Covenanter Elected to South Sudan Assembly

CHICAGO, IL (January 14) - A member of the South Sudan Covenant Church recently was elected to the region's first political assembly as a representative of Unity, a South Sudan state (Wilyat).

Peter Thiep is a 2002 graduate of North Park University and former member of Sioux Falls Covenant Church, where he started attending when he came to the United States in 1995.

Thiep returned last year after a peace accord was signed in January to end a long civil war between South Sudan and the federal government. The war had raged all but 10 years since Sudan's founding in 1956.

The new Assembly of the Government of South Sudan consists of a Senate and Legislature and was established in October. Thiep will represent one of the oil-rich sections of South Sudan, says Jim Sundholm, director of Covenant World Relief.

Thiep had been actively involved with activities to help South Sudanese while he still was in the United States, says James Tang, a Sudanese associate pastor at Fridley Covenant Church in Fridley, Minnesota. "One of the things that made me happy is that he still remembers us. He is still working with us and bringing encouragement to our congregation there."

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