Enemies turned brothers in Christ
Conflict and cattle-raiding become communion in a South Sudanese church plant
Photo: Paul Lueth preaches to a combined Dinka and Nuer congregation
Could you sit in a church pew next to someone who had robbed you? Could you worship alongside a member of a community that, for years, had been locked in a deadly conflict with yours?
In Turalei, northern South Sudan, a bustling town of around 100,000 people, a newly planted church is answering that question every week.
On Sunday mornings, the congregation is made up of both Dinka and Nuer believers. They come from opposite sides of an ongoing violent conflict but share the same service. Afterwards, children play together outside while the adults sit in the shade, eating together and talking.
A few years ago, people on both sides of the dispute would have called this impossible. So, how did it happen? Their explanation is clear: “God has done this.”
The border dispute
The conflict between the Dinka and Nuer communities in this border region began in 2017. While rooted in historical disputes over grazing lands and water sources – realities increasingly under pressure due to changing climate patterns – the tension has been compounded by local political and economic factors.
People from the Dinka and Nuer tribes could tell you many stories about how the long-standing conflict and years of cattle raiding has displaced families, disrupted trade and cost hundreds of lives.
“What is this Jesus, that we are able to speak to each other beyond tribes?”
One of the more recent incidents took place in late 2023, when under the cover of darkness, four young Dinka men crossed the border into Nuer territory. Local residents caught the young men in the act of attempting a cattle raid, and a skirmish broke out. Two of the Dinka men were killed. The remaining two fled, seeking refuge with Garang Turoah, a respected spiritual leader among the Nuer community. In line with Nuer tradition, Garang granted them sanctuary. Their lives were spared, but the Nuer community held them indefinitely, refusing to let them return home.
Finding common ground on disputed land
Paul Lueth, a local church planter and theology lecturer, knows the weight of this longstanding division firsthand. A Dinka from Turalei, Paul and his wife Regina Atany (both working with CMS) have lived through the ongoing instability of the border conflict. With no clear path to resolution, Paul and other Christian leaders on both sides recognised that if things were going to change, the two communities needed to start talking.
Paul worked with church leaders from both sides to host an initial meeting in early 2024, hoping a shared Christian faith could help the groups move towards reconciliation. Leaders from both tribes – including Garang Turoah – sat down together.
They started their gathering with prayer and worship, before launching into a discussion about how to peacefully share the disputed grazing land. They were surprised to find that their shared faith gave them common ground and helped them move forward. As one of them put it during that first meeting, “What is this Jesus, that we are able to speak to each other beyond tribes?”
Following this, the Nuer leaders made a formal gesture of reconciliation: they released the two young Dinka would-be cattle raiders they had been holding for several months.
Sustaining the peace
To build on this initial breakthrough, Paul, Regina and other local Christian leaders have spent the last two years running joint training sessions for both Dinka and Nuer believers.
Because traditional church buildings are scarce and often targeted for destruction during border raids, Paul has focused on training both Nuer and Dinka women to lead house churches. The teaching reinforces that the church is a community of people rather than a physical structure, transcending tribal identities.
At the same time, Regina Atany has been hosting savings and microfinance groups where people from both tribes sit side-by-side to learn and work together to build financial stability for their families. Regina also uses these gatherings to run a discipleship framework called Disciple-Making-Disciples, equipping women to share these peacebuilding tools across the border with neighbouring communities.
The ultimate result of this quiet, relational work is the new congregation in Turalei. What began in late 2025 as a small group of Dinka and Nuer pioneers has now grown into a steady, weekly community of over 450 people and counting, where former enemies are choosing to build a peaceful future together.
