Hi & Happy Holidays from New Zealand!
We arrived back 5 days ago after miraculously settled flights and are slowly adjusting to the cold and the time difference…but we are so happy to be home! Life definitely has its seasons and now is a time to rest, reflect and re-connect.
But first, here are a few updates and highlights from the last 3 months of our first term in Tonj:
Welcome to the Wilsons
We were so happy to have Steve and Larné Wilson – fellow Kiwis – arrive to join the IDAT team in November.
Steve is an engineer and Larné is a midwife and they are both brimming with passion and compassion and a deep longing to see revival in South Sudan. It has been wonderful having their friendship over the last month. We hope they will be with us for at least 2 years.
We were also blessed by having Destinee’s uncle Ted visit us for a month to help us plan effectively for our future in ministry and to be a super babysitter (position now vacant. Applications by email open) Thanks Ted!
Clinic snippets
In the last year, 17,000 patients were seen at the IDAT clinic for primary and preventative healthcare.
Between 10 and 30 babies were safely born each month.
Mosquito nets and safe birthing kits were distributed along with health education to target groups.
All these things are great, but we know the true impact of this ministry cannot be expressed in numbers, and will not be counted in this lifetime.
We are looking forward to the opening of the new clinic building sometime in 2016, and the freedom that will allow our medical team to expand and focus our services.
One more story for Christmas cheer…
The beautiful girl in this photo is called Look, and she is a miracle child. Shortly after arriving at our clinic she stopped
breathing. The family wanted to take her home to bury her but we begged them to let us keep resuscitating the child, and we cried out to God to spare her life. After more than half an hour without breathing she started breathing again, and the next morning was walking around the clinic grinning from ear to ear!
Finally, a huge thank you to our directors and the whole IDAT team for allowing us to be part of this incredible work, to everyone involved in KFSS and all who have stood behind us this year…and to Jesus, for being the reason for everything.
we appreciated your work it has never been easy to stay in South Sudan due to hot environment and other life challenges but your love of God and fellowship of the holy spirit and love you have for the people of south sudan made you to save them. i appreciate you and your family. may God be with you in all the way you go