January 7, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — A prominent U.S. evangelical Christian leader, Franklin Graham, received a visit from the President of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, on Wednesday in Boone, North Carolina.

Franklin Graham welcomes the President of South Sudan government, Salva Kiir Mayardit, to Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in Boone, N.C., on January 7, 2009 (photo Samaritan’s Purse)

Graham is the president of the charity Samaritan’s Purse, which said it has spent more than $60 million in the South Sudan in support of four hospitals, new schools and food aid. He is also the son of the charismatic preacher Billy Graham, who gained a large following and was a friend to every living U.S. president.

President Kiir thanked Samaritan’s Purse for assistance during Sudan’s second civil war and for rebuilding 227 churches that were destroyed during the conflict.

During the war (1983-2005), the northern government of Sudan declared jihad against the partly Christian south, prompting some sympathy from Christians in the United States.

“Samaritan’s Purse did not run away from us,” President Kiir said. “They did not abandon us. We will never forget about you.”

Graham told Kiir’s ministers and reporters, “He has been a great friend to us. It is a great privilege.”

The Sudanese leader arrived to the town of Boone after spending Sunday through Tuesday in Washington, meeting with President Bush, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other officials. Kiir, who is himself a Catholic, thanked Franklin Graham and the ministry “for working to strengthen the faith of believers who endured horrible persecution,” said a statement from Samaritan’s Purse.

“Faith is important to the people to determine their destiny,” he said, then describing forced conversions to Islam during the war, in which some Christians renounced their faith.

“Those who resisted are the real Christians,” he said. “And they will have to be supported to become stronger.”

Kiir became the leader of the semi-autonomous region of Southern Sudan after a 2005 helicopter accident took the life of Dr. John Garang, the founder of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which is now the ruling party of Southern Sudan and a partner in the national government. SPLM has relied on foreign aid money to boost revenues from oil exports in its efforts to govern the vast southern region while contesting for power at the national level.

Samaritan’s Purse plans to rebuild another 110 churches in Sudan during 2009.

(ST)