Dr. Tom’s Back!

The people of Tonj are rejoicing that Dr. Tom is back! Oh, how they have missed the ‘kawaja’ cycling along the dirt road. Patients missed his silly jokes, villagers missed chasing him on his bike and coworkers feel like their family member returned home.

It is a testimony to our Lord Jesus that even though we treat our patients with modern medicine and have trained doctors on hand we also completely rely on Him and his healing power. Our clinic is limited in lab testing and equipment and asking for wisdom when making a diagnosis is critical.  Offering prayer and counsel is an important part of our treatment and we have our trained chaplains on hand to share with every patient. The alternative is for them to go to the local witchdoctor so we take seriously the opportunity to present the gospel message to them. Many of our patients come from villages several hours walk away and their visit might be the only chance to assess them physically and spiritually. From each visit we get a picture of what is happening out in the villages; food or water shortages, outbreaks, and if they have a church. This information can help us determine the best place to do our next CHE (Community Health Evangelism).

The Jesus Film!

Pastor Santino is one of our trained chaplains and He uses the Jesus film to make God’s Word come alive, especially in the villages where people are more isolated and there is a high rate of illiteracy. During the Christmas break Pastor Santino took the responsibility to reach out to an area we had never been to before. It was directly after counseling a patient in our clinic that had come from that region. He showed the Jesus film in nine places; three of them were markets, three homes and three churches. An astounding total of 4,161 people watched the Jesus film and 426 of them responded to the invitation to receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.

With security in our area getting worse, there are a lot of hostilities between clans in the villages around our town. God is faithfully using our pastors to meet the lost souls in the villages where a lot of these clashes begin.

One man was completely transformed after watching the Jesus film and sharing his heart with Pastor Santino, who counseled him and prayed with him. He confessed he wanted a peaceful life but all he has known is fighting and retaliation, never had he heard a message of love, grace and forgiveness.  To be accepted by Jesus brought this man to his knees and he laid down his weapons long with his heart.

Security Update!

“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” – James 1:27

The BIG question we keep hearing, “Is peace possible in South Sudan?”

Last August there was a peace signing between the rebel leader and a reluctant President after pressure from the international community.  Recently in January, South Sudan’s president dissolved the nation’s 10 states and created 28 new states! This left the country very tense as people tried to work within these new systems. Now the President has announced that his former vice-president, who he fired in 2013 and was leading the rebels, has been reappointed as his First Vice President. They seem committed to the peace treaty but it is still early days. The government army continues to be accused of attacking opposition bases in violation of the permanent ceasefire agreement.

This constant insecurity does make our mission work harder but it also opens the door to share with people who have a need for true peace, which we know can only to be found in Jesus Himself. Opportunity surrounds us and that is exciting. This is our prayer: Pray, the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matt. 9:38).