News from the Field Staff!

Our vision is to integrate our Christian beliefs into our medical ministry. We do this by creating an atmosphere of compassion, peace and acceptance of every patient and showing the love of Christ through excellence in health care that leads to evangelism and ministry opportunities.

Samuel Ngugi is a Kenyan serving In Deed and Truth Ministries as our clinic chaplain in Southern Sudan. He is responsible for ensuring every patient is valued and given the chance to receive prayer and the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior. First thing in the morning he arranges a testimony message to the waiting patients. Most days that is over 100 people who sit patiently coming to see the doctor. Tracts are handed out in Dinka for those that can read. Many inquire what the tract is about and want to know more about Jesus.

As the patients are seen by the doctor or nurse each patient is asked about their spiritual well-being together with their physical complaints. If they are wearing charms from a witchdoctor they are encouraged to go for prayer and counsel with the chaplain, Sabet or Albino.

When a patient isn’t open to further counsel then we immediately ask if we can pray for them before they leave. This is a special time between the doctor or nurse and the patient. It may be the only time they hear about Jesus.

Sam speaks fondly about his role in the spiritual care of our patients. He says, “It is great to witness to the Sudanese, they are so receptive to the gospel. I’m excited to see mother’s declare they will never put their trust in witchdoctors again and remove the ‘protective’ charms from around the children’s necks. Many times this is done at risk of being beaten by their husbands who purchased the charms from the witchdoctors.”

In an average day we see over 100 patients and more than half of those will ask for prayer from the chaplain and nearly all of those will ask Jesus to be their Savior. That is 150-200 people each week. The pastors in our discipleship program will also help out with counsel and sharing when they can. Witchcraft plays a huge part in this communities foundational beliefs and the lack of churches is a challenge in the villages.

As most of our patients come from far outside Tonj they cannot attend our church due to the distance. We have planted one church in an outside village and now two of our pastors have planted a church in a second village. The chief of the village allocated them land to build a church and told the villagers it was for the church’s exclusive use and he has given it to the church “forever.” Their first Sunday more than 15 people attended. Pastor Joseph went to look for a drum so they can bang it loudly before church notifying the people that church has begun. Hallelujah!

“Therefore, if anyone [is] in Christ, [he is] a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Prayer Requests!

• Specifically for the patients and their spiritual and physical concerns and wisdom for us as we minister to them.
• For God to give us opportunities for evangelism in the surrounding villages.
• Continued spiritual growth and unity of our staff.
• For the organization of our upcoming prayer walk in September.
• For the planning and arrangements for the Pastor’s Graduation Ceremony scheduled for October 6th.
• For Sabet as he spends 2 more weeks in Juba with Agum working on adoption papers. The court wants to give us a letter and we need a certificate of adoption. Please pray that specific certificate would be granted to us. We are not sure it even exists in the system but we serve a God who is ABLE to do exceedingly abundantly more than we ask or think possible!