St. Luke's Center, Renk
Director, ECS/Renk Guesthouse, Renk
Grace Isaiah Kpari is the only woman priest in Renk who is married to a priest. Her husband, Gordon Binza Tombu, was ordained in 1994, following a career in the Sudanese Armed Forces. Grace, like the other five women, was ordained more than 10 years later.
Born in 1960 in the town of Yambio, she came to Renk Town in 1978, when her father took a job as assistant director at the hospital. Grace and Gordon, who was stationed in Renk at the time, married in 1979. Together, they have four children: John, 27; Immanuel, 21; Jim, 14; and Samuel, 13. Another child was stillborn in 1998. In 1985, Gordon was transferred to Malakal, taking his family with him. In Malakal, both Grace and Gordon joined the church at the local army barracks, and both worked as evangelists beginning in 1986. Gordon became a Lay Leader in 1987, while Grace joined the Mothers' Union the same year.
In 1989, the family returned to Renk following Gordon's retirement from the Army. He began studying for the priesthood and was ordained five years later.
Grace was asked by Bishop Daniel to consider the priesthood in 2002. For her, it seemed a natural thing to do, because she loves to "preach the Word of God and to bring those outside (the church) to the new life of Christ. I want to be a priest," she says with a beaming smile that lights up her eyes as well as her face, "because I want to serve others. God told me to do this."
She likes being a priest. "I only want to serve God."
For Grace, like the others, the hardest part of being a priest was hearing the rejection from so many who said woman could not be ordained, nor could they ever give communion to a man.
"At the (evangelism) workshop last week," she says, the question was asked again." But, she says, "then one person said that in the Bible, women are serving God. Why not women today?"
