| Ross Wood |
|---|
Pastor Jim Gates asked me to write a blurb about what I do in South Sudan. Please enjoy this blurb:
Oddly enough, South Sudanese labor law, which governs workers in a country in which 76% of people are illiterate, requires that employees sign a form to receive their pay. One of my responsibilities is to collect signatures from the fifteen women that make up Samaritan’s Purse’s incredibly hardworking kitchen and housekeeping (this should really read “tent” keeping) staff on payday.
During my collection of signatures on my first month on the job, Miriam, one of the housekeeping staff, lowered her head embarrassedly as she awkwardly tried to grip a pen that I had pressed into her hand. Her hand shook with uncertainty as she struggled to scratch a mark next to where I pointed out her name. A South Sudanese coworker informed me that, more often than not, employers in South Sudan sign on behalf of their staff members to “save them from the shame.”
That collection of signatures coincided with the start of the Samaritan’s Purse Staff Biblical Literacy Program. This internal program drew on the wild success of the “Biblical Literacy Program” that Samaritan’s Purse pastors have been using to teach thousands of refugees in Yida Refugee Camp how to read English at a level that enables them to internalize scripture. Miriam, along with all of the other women of the kitchen and housekeeping staff, eagerly volunteered to attend the classes.
A month later, when payday rolled around, Miriam was the first to come. I found myself stressed with the moral dilemma of having to decide whether to forge the illiterate woman’s signature or force her to endure the “shame” of scratching a mark on the signature sheet. I handed over her pay and, under the weight of her shy smile, I went to sign the sheet on her behalf. As the tip of my pen hovered towards the signature sheet, Miriam snatched it out of my hand. She beamed as she shamelessly wrote “M-I-R-I-A-M” in large block print letters next to where her name was printed on the signature sheet.
Basically, that is the point of everything that I am trying to do these days with the support of First Pres Norfolk. I want to empower marginalized, at-risk people to live with bold dignity as a part of spreading the Gospel.
-Ross Wood
Ross Wood works as the Area Coordinator for Samaritan’s Purse in Unity State, South Sudan. He oversees a food assistance team that executes a monthly general food distribution for 80,000 refugees, a WASH team that provides clean water for refugees as well as other displaced people, a nutrition team that provides assistance to malnourished people, and a ministry program that reaches out to refugees and members of the local community. His friends find him to be uncomfortably charming, and his mother finds him to be thrifty but thinks that he lacks follow through.
Oddly enough, South Sudanese labor law, which governs workers in a country in which 76% of people are illiterate, requires that employees sign a form to receive their pay. One of my responsibilities is to collect signatures from the fifteen women that make up Samaritan’s Purse’s incredibly hardworking kitchen and housekeeping (this should really read “tent” keeping) staff on payday.
During my collection of signatures on my first month on the job, Miriam, one of the housekeeping staff, lowered her head embarrassedly as she awkwardly tried to grip a pen that I had pressed into her hand. Her hand shook with uncertainty as she struggled to scratch a mark next to where I pointed out her name. A South Sudanese coworker informed me that, more often than not, employers in South Sudan sign on behalf of their staff members to “save them from the shame.”
That collection of signatures coincided with the start of the Samaritan’s Purse Staff Biblical Literacy Program. This internal program drew on the wild success of the “Biblical Literacy Program” that Samaritan’s Purse pastors have been using to teach thousands of refugees in Yida Refugee Camp how to read English at a level that enables them to internalize scripture. Miriam, along with all of the other women of the kitchen and housekeeping staff, eagerly volunteered to attend the classes.
A month later, when payday rolled around, Miriam was the first to come. I found myself stressed with the moral dilemma of having to decide whether to forge the illiterate woman’s signature or force her to endure the “shame” of scratching a mark on the signature sheet. I handed over her pay and, under the weight of her shy smile, I went to sign the sheet on her behalf. As the tip of my pen hovered towards the signature sheet, Miriam snatched it out of my hand. She beamed as she shamelessly wrote “M-I-R-I-A-M” in large block print letters next to where her name was printed on the signature sheet.
Basically, that is the point of everything that I am trying to do these days with the support of First Pres Norfolk. I want to empower marginalized, at-risk people to live with bold dignity as a part of spreading the Gospel.
-Ross Wood
Ross Wood works as the Area Coordinator for Samaritan’s Purse in Unity State, South Sudan. He oversees a food assistance team that executes a monthly general food distribution for 80,000 refugees, a WASH team that provides clean water for refugees as well as other displaced people, a nutrition team that provides assistance to malnourished people, and a ministry program that reaches out to refugees and members of the local community. His friends find him to be uncomfortably charming, and his mother finds him to be thrifty but thinks that he lacks follow through.
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