There is great hope that can be experienced and expressed in a tribe. It is this sense of tribe that has power to root us into a community, while learning to appreciate and encourage the diversity of another tribe.

Especially during the peacemaking discussions in South Sudan, outsiders will continually talk about all of the adverse things that can happen with tribes, yet HVG believes we must learn to anchor into the some inherently good realities of tribes.

Since tribe is not just “blood” but has social, economic, and ecological implications, it is the hope of having “holistic identity” restored (blood, social, economic, and ecological) that needs be pressed into and explored.

God says “every tribe, tongue, and nation” will come to know Him, not that every tribe, tongue, and nation will be eradicated. This is the power of Pentecost as the “redemption of Babel”. Every tribe, tongue, and nation is infused with the unifying hope of The Kingdom, while celebrating their diversity. This is why the “hope of tribe” is not something that needs to be forsaken, but, I believe, needs to be recovered and lived into.

With this said, HVG believes we have a prophetic calling of hope, not just in South Sudan, but all humanity has this clarion call.

Let us be people who find exquisite creativity in seeing that not only is diversity meant to have unity, but that unity does not squelch diversity.

Learning to anchor into tribe needs to not only be intellectually explored, but ethically implemented. May we all be people who live the depth of this diversity out.