St. Mattew's Cathedral, Renk
Ludia Galia Jambo is a Moro, and might have been born in the year 1939. She is not really certain of her age, which is quite common for those born in rural areas of South Sudan. She knows she was born in Mundri District, and knows that she was baptized by Bishop Oliver Allison, possibly in 1955, in a small river near her town. And she knows that she was married to her husband, Baranaba, the same year, and thinks she might have been 16 years old at the time.
Ludia, a tiny woman standing perhaps 5 feet tall, weighing perhaps 80 pounds, could as easily be in her 70s as in her late 60s. She doesn't pay much attention to exact dates; they are not important to her. Instead, she tells her history based on the history of Sudan.
Before independence in 1956, she was baptized and married. Her first child, Agnes, was born the same year. Agnes later died of illness, at what age no one is certain. Ludia's second child, Lois, was born around 1958, but could have been born earlier. Ludia does know that Lois was born after Baranaba was arrested and sent to prison in Port Sudan for taking part in the first civil war, which began the year before independence. A third child, John, was born in the early 1960s, after Baranaba was released from prison early when his eight-year jail sentence was shortened for good behavior. John died in the third civil war. The fourth child, Esther, was born a short time later, and is still living in Renk. Their son Gudwain, born in the middle 1960s (Ludia thinks), now lives in America. Roda, their next child, died like John in the third civil war. A daughter, Hever, also born in the 1960s, lives in Khartoum. Ludia and Baranaba's last child was stillborn.
Ludia grew up in a Christian family and went to church as a child. Her most vivid memory is that of being baptized by Bishop Allison in that small river, the one with no name that Ludia can now recall.
In 1990, Ludia and Baranaba and their family came to Renk, when Baranaba, serving in the Sudanese Armed Forces, was transferred here.
Ludia tells the story of how she became a priest:
"When I was 3, my father put me in school. Later, he took me out and said I was to look after the small children. I was very angry with my father, because I loved school. Then my father called me in and asked me why I was angry. I said it was because he took me away from school. He told me, 'Forgive me, my daughter. I want you to look after the children. Go after the work of God. Pray every time. Follow the work of Christ.' He told me that my children would learn and go to school. 'But you,' he said, 'look after the children and go to church. I am the father, and I did not go to school. But God taught me. God will teach you.'"
Ludia did all the work at home, then got married and had her children, and finally, in her old age, she says, God called her to the priesthood.
"In my old age," she says, "God called me to be his servant, to be a priest. I like to be a priest. In my old age, my body is very tired. There are aches and pains," she says, gesturing to her arms and legs with a sad smile on her face. "But when I go to the work of God, I become very strong. God loves me to be a priest.
"When I am a priest, I am very strong," she says, flexing her tiny biceps and grinning contently.
