Container Blessings!

Every other year we have filled a container with supplies for our mission hospital, CHE program, churches, compound and missionaries in South Sudan. I say ‘we’ because it really has been a team effort from passionate ministry partners, wanting to invest eternally in something worthwhile. Some of us get to be ‘hands on’ in the field but for many of you that is not possible and helping us fill and send this container to Africa was a way for you to participate in the work the Lord is doing in Tonj.

We asked for help and you guys gave joyfully and generously to this Kingdom need. From bibles to baby blankets, funds to buy medical equipment, new solar for the compound, chairs and benches for the growing church, it is an amazing gift of love, poured out from obedient hearts towards our loving Savior. We are blessed beyond measure and I am confident He will reward each one of you in abundance for the help you have given us.

Every chair will be diligently prayed over for the people who might sit on it each Sunday in church. Every baby blanket will be prayed over that it reaches the right family in need. Every bible will be prayed over that it will fall into the hands of someone that will open it and read the life changing words. It’s exciting to receive these gifts but more so to see how the Lord will use them to launch new projects, and new hearts, and new ministry opportunities for growth and change.

And thank you for covering this container in prayer. It left USA a little later than we planned in early March, risking being caught up in the rainy season if there were any delay. It arrived on time in Mombasa port in Kenya. It cleared the customs and moved through Uganda to the South Sudan border. We had exemption papers filed which saved us $$$’s on import duty. In fact, the container sailed seamlessly to South Sudan and I mentioned to a friend how unusual that was!! There’s ALWAYS warfare when shipping a container for the Lord. After all, it’s full of blessings that will be used to further HIS Kingdom. This container was no exception, the very next day the battle began. The driver stopped moving and the transporter wanted more money, refusing to take the container another step!! We convinced him to go to Juba but after that, regardless of the negotiations, they flatly refused to drive to Tonj. It’s important in these moments of ‘crisis’ to remember the battle belongs to the Lord and we need to ask Him for help when the situation is overwhelming. Truthfully, we didn’t know what to do as we had paid the USA Broker in full. So we cried out to the Lord and He heard our cry.

“O our God, won’t you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but we are looking to You for help.”
2 Chronicles 20:12

After being stuck one week in Juba, the broker agreed to cover the cost of moving the container to another truck and paying for it to go to Tonj. Our field director, Albino Dut stayed with the container for the entire ordeal and arranged for a crane to lift it and for a second transporter and security to take it to Tonj. Praising Him for His faithfulness to answer our cry for help and safely delivering our container from USA to South Sudan!

Sudan Conflict!

The conflict between two generals in Sudan has escalated to critical levels, creating a lot of fear in the East African region and  causing more than 150,000 South Sudanese to flee the capital of Khartoum in the North. North and South Sudan were one and the same country until 2011, but many South Sudanese continue to live in the North due to South Sudan’s instability, which has seen two civil wars breakout in the past 12 years.  Evacuations out of Khartoum have been chaotic, with no food or water for days.

The concern now is how will South Sudan cope with this influx of people crossing the border when 75% of the country is also dependent on humanitarian aid. The rainy season will only make this situation more difficult for those evacuating to keep moving and for organizations to reach them with adequate aid.  South Sudan’s own peace agreement is fragile and with an election planned for 2024, we are praying this conflict in the North will be resolved quickly. If it continues it will have a serious impact on civilian lives from both North and South Sudan and a devastating economic impact on the South.

Please pray for peace in the North to be restored and all neighboring countries to Sudan to assist the best way they can. Pray that God will give IDAT wisdom and resources to support those returning from the conflict areas to Tonj. Pray for South Sudan as we head into another season of food shortage and flooding.

Good Friday Celebration!

It is hard to believe that this time last year at Easter, we opened the doors to our new church and celebrated Easter with a dedication of the new building.

The church is thriving with a regular attendance of more than 1,000 people a week. This Easter we started the celebrations on Good Friday. The entire church started at the IDAT compound and walked through the town to the church, about two miles.

Senior Pastor Mabior led the parade and stopped at six locations to preach the gospel. He shared that Jesus, at His lowest point in his life, crucified and forsaken, trusted in God to deliver him. If you are suffering (that’s almost everyone listening), remember this is not the end of the story, there is victory through that death on the cross and Jesus’ resurrection. Suffering does not win, trusting in Jesus wins. Many followed Jesus and followed the parade to the church and came back on Easter Sunday.

Easter Sunday Celebration!

Following a fantastic Good Friday service, focus was now on Easter Sunday. This is one of our biggest church services every year and we usually have several of our church plants join us and the church was packed out.

Traditionally after the service we go down to the river and have a mass baptism.  This year’s baptism was amazing with 247 people from multiple Calvary Chapel church plants coming to be baptized in the Tonj river.

It took hours to baptize that many people but that didn’t deter the spectating crowds from bearing the 100°F heat, and hundreds of people lined the riverbanks, singing and dancing with great joy, cheering every time someone emerged from the water!

“I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.” Psalm 9:2

Celebrating Medicine Arrival!

Every year around April, before the rains start, In Deed and Truth Ministries trucks one year of medicine to our Maternal Child Hospital in Tonj.

It costs on average $6 to treat one patient. A large part of that cost is IDAT purchasing our own medicine rather than relying on government support. This allows us to buy better quality and a variety of medicine that would not otherwise be supplied. It avoids us closing the hospital due to lack of supplies and allows us to focus on which medicines are most needed for pregnant mothers, children, and newborns. It also allows us to provide for the community where no other hospital is helping, including rabies vaccine, snake antivenom and insulin for Type 1 diabetes.

We are so grateful to the many friends around the world that help us purchase our medicine supply for one whole year. It’s a huge cost paid in one lump sum. This year that burden was shared by a grant from Africa Mission Healthcare in Kenya, Spirit Run fundraiser by Horizon Prep School in San Diego, USA and a Fun Run organized by Bright Futures Child Aid and Development in Adelaide, Australia. It truly is a global effort that benefits 60,000+ patients every year.

Suzy in San Diego!

It was a whirlwind trip but a fruitful one as I networked and connected with partners to share the vision and goals of In Deed and Truth Ministries (IDAT) for 2023. Thank you to everyone that took the time to see me, share a meal with me and listen to how the Lord is working through IDAT in South Sudan. I would ask you to join me in praying for the areas of need that I shared and if we didn’t connect, please check out the YouTube channel @indeedandtruthsudan and watch the of IDAT 2023 1^st quarter update.

This video highlights so many areas of ministry, the Medical Mission Hospital, the medical outreaches, CHE, church plants, and bible training for our pastors.  Specifically, we asked for prayer and investment in this kingdom work. Here’s the needs:

• to raise enough funds to build our bible school in 2023.
• to have enough sponsors to pay our bush pastors a small stipend.
• for individual partners to prayerfully consider raising the amount of their monthly gift to help cover the monthly budget as the ministry has grown tenfold in four years.

It was wonderful to share at Horizon’s mission night and share about the seeds from faithful partners that have been sown for many years and are now producing great fruit.

I was also able to join in the Horizon Prep School Spirit Run that raised $15,000 to buy medicine for our hospital!

IDAT Church Plants

Please continue to pray for our church plants. We have so many people asking to get a church in their village. At the moment we are using the solar bibles in small listening groups within those villages that don’t have churches. Some of our pastors are going to 2-3 churches on Sunday to preach. This is our greatest need, to train more pastors.

The Holy Spirit is moving in our CHE villages and as people learn about Jesus they are turning away from witchcraft and turning to Him. We are experiencing a lot of healing of sickness without medication for many believers. Recently we had two families ask the pastors to come to their home and burn all their idols. As they were burning them and praying over the homes, the surrounding neighbors started taking off their charms and throwing them into the fire!!

This was a public declaration against evil and showed great courage as villagers are told by the witchdoctors they will be cursed and die if they remove the charms. I love these breakthroughs against satan as the power of the Holy Spirit is poured out and lives are transformed. Another village shared that since the witchcraft ended in their place, and the witchdoctor gave his life to Christ, the village is now prospering, and many are coming to the Lord. Gardens are producing more crop, cattle are healthy, they received  a bore hole, and neighbors are living peaceably together.

Last month Pastor Jim and Pastor Edmund from Intensive Care Ministries in Tanzania came in for an 11-day intensive inductive bible study. Pastor Jim also got to meet all the bush pastors that are not currently in school but will hopefully join a class once the Tonj Bible Institute is built.

As you can see from the photo we are overflowing and in need of a classroom and dorm.

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,” Revelation 7:9

Revelation 7:9 tells us Christ is sitting on the throne in heaven and believers from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people are worshipping Him for all eternity. This is the finale, showing what we exchanged our lives for. My goal is not only to be there worshipping the Lamb myself, but to spend my life bringing as many people with me as I can! I invite you to be part of that story in South Sudan!

Community Health Evangelism!

Since 2012, In Deed and Truth Ministries has been taking CHE into the surrounding villages of Tonj.  It has become one of our most effective tools for both evangelism and community development. The goal is to move communities out of physical and spiritual poverty and set them on a path that will change their lives for the better.  While we might be ‘band-aiding’ sickness in our mission hospital, statistics show that 90% of the diseases we treat are preventable.  It’s frustrating to have the same children coming back over and over with malaria, parasites, malnutrition, burns, and other skin infections.  CHE works to educate mothers and provide solutions to reduce the risks to these children and reduce the number of hospital visits.  A mother who has to walk 20-30 miles carrying a sick child often waits too long and then the child dies.

Monica Atiel (pictured) lives very far from our hospital and said her life has changed since we brought CHE to her village.  “I really appreciate CHE program.  Before my children were suffering all the time from high fevers, we didn’t know the cause and would stop feeding or giving water.  But now we learnt this is caused from the malaria.  The children now sleep under mosquito nets, which have no holes in it, and they sleep peacefully.  This was taught to us by one of the CHE trainers.  If they get a fever, we don’t delay but take them quickly for treatment to prevent further complications and convulsions.”

We have trained over 2,600 CHE volunteers that are serving in 46 CHE villages in and around Tonj. In addition to health lessons they also provide spiritual lessons and this has resulted in over 35,000 individual home visits made in 2022! As the community grows spiritually they naturally become more hungry to learn God’s Word and God’s truths. This has resulted in more than 2,750 people attending Bible Listening Groups every week!!

CHE perfectly complements the medical “Deeds” side of In Deed and Truth by bringing practical health lessons that can be easily implemented. We are currently doing two medical outreaches to CHE villages a week, where a medical team from the IDAT Hospital go out on motorbikes and take “clinic” to the people that can’t get to us. Over 4,600 patients were seen in 2022. Our team go with all the medicine and also a pastor.

Romans 10:14-15 says, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

CHE also perfectly complements the spiritual “Truths” of In Deed and Truth by church planting and preaching the gospel. We are currently in 46 CHE villages, adding a further 20 villages this year. Through CHE we have planted 32 churches in those villages.

We are excited to have 35 IDAT pastors (with more in training) taking the gospel to the remote villages of South Sudan! As more and more churches get established, we have prioritized the need for training pastors to faithfully lead these churches. In 2022 we officially started Tonj Bible Institute and we are praying and working hard to see a Bible school built in 2023. Join us in praying through this vision to equip every pastor to share the gospel and disciple this nation for the glory of God.

Passion and Vision for 2023!

This month marks 24 years since I took a huge step of faith and embarked on a journey that would change my life forever. I went on a mission trip to war torn South Sudan, where the threat of bombs and land mines were real. I landed on a dirt airstrip in Tonj and watched naked children emerge from the towering, sunburnt grass and run to grasp one of my fingers. A town recovering slowly from the previous year’s devasting famine. A town in distress and without hope.

The calling was strong, the love and burden for the people was deep and the passion to see Jesus give the hope He had given me, was overwhelming. I was moved by God to do something and my life has never been the same.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who builds it.” Psalm 127:1

I have spent years weeping, praying and fasting for the church in South Sudan to be raised up and reaching into the remotest villages. Many of you joined us on bended knee to intercede for South Sudan and today we celebrate the answer to those prayers with 32 church plants and 35 national pastors.

Last year we cried out to the LORD and asked Him for help in training our pastors. He answered that prayer and connected us to Intensive Care Ministries. We have now launched a class for 20 pastors to study and receive a diploma in Pastoral Ministry.

Our vision is to train two of these pastors to co-teach future classes in Dinka so ALL our pastors can get the benefits of Inductive Bible Study. In December, we launched Tonj Bible Institute (TBI) because we want to be an official Bible School, registered with the Ministry of Education and the Bureau of Religious Affairs.

We plan to add more classes each year to accommodate the growing number of pastors needed for the churches being planted. We are currently using our staff devotion room as a classroom for the lessons and our compound team rooms as a temporary student dorm.  Calvary Chapel Tonj is situated on a large piece of land that can easily accommodate this classroom and dorm. We found a reputable builder and his quote was very reasonable. We have gone before the Lord, asking God to supply the $50,000 needed to complete this project in 2023. It’s a BIG ask but we trust and believe in our BIG God who faithfully supplies all our needs and can raise up like-minded individuals to accomplish this vision. It’s very exciting and I can’t wait to see this project completed.

Above is a ‘Partner Pyramid’ showing the various levels of support we have thought and prayed over to present to you and ask you to prayerfully consider investing in building our Bible School. Could one of these levels work for you? There is a designation on our website donate page or you can send a check marked ‘TBI Fund’.

Meet William Majok. He is currently an assistant pastor of CC Tonj and currently in the bible school. William is excited to be one of the pastors chosen to teach future classes and will also run the school.

Please pray for him. You can read more about his story on our pastor’s profiles page: Pastors.indeedandtruth.org