COVID crisis at Oakhurst

Judy Adamson

“People should remain in their faithfulness to Jesus”: Samuel Majok.

Our brothers and sisters in Oakhurst need us. They need our prayers.

The pastor of the parish’s South Sudanese congregation, the Rev Samuel Majok, is aware of 15 families in the congregation and wider community whose lives and livelihoods have been turned upside down by contracting COVID. “The situation in my church is not good,” he says. “I do encourage people that they should remain in their faithfulness to Jesus Christ, but it’s a devastating situation.”

He explains that each family has several children, and while four or five of the families have gone through their two-week isolation period and been subsequently cleared of the virus, the rest are still confined to home.

This has been especially distressing for the family of his assistant pastor, John Deng, whose COVID-positive wife Arop Mayen collapsed on August 22 and was on life support at Blacktown Hospital until September 3, when she died. They have nine children, and not even Mr Deng could visit her as he is COVID positive himself.

He is also worried about the financial status of the families affected, as most of the breadwinners don’t have jobs that allow them to work from home. They work in aged care, in factories or other manual jobs that require their physical presence, have come home infectious and COVID has spread among the family unit.

Once confined to home, they are unable to provide income for their loved ones in Sydney and overseas – many are supporting family members in refugee camps in South Sudan and Kenya.

Samuel Majok asks for our prayers: • for Mr Deng and his family; • for the physical and financial effects of COVID on other South Sudanese families; • for people supporting and caring for those in need, that they would have strength, encouragement and not get burned out; and • for those still able to work, that “God would protect them in the workplace and also provide their basic needs”.

Members of the South Sudanese congregation and community are looking to Pastor Majok during this time, regularly giving his name to medical teams as their contact person. He has fielded calls from hospitals as far away as Canberra, where a South Sudanese man in intensive care put him down as next of kin. “Things have become very complicated, because I cannot be everywhere,” he says.

Rector of the parish, the Rev Jason Ramsay, adds that “the wider church community at Oakhurst has been very concerned for our brothers and sisters, and our hearts break for them as well. We’re doing whatever we can to support them, and we welcome everyone’s prayers.” SC