All posts by Suzy Kuj

Medical Clinic, Ministry

Prayer Request

Babies

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;” – Jeremiah 1:5

Few days ago a woman brought her child to our clinic. Wut Manyuon Deng, seven days old was borne at home with a protrusion of intestines and other abdominal organs through the abdominal wall at the umbilicus partially without skin cover. The protrusion is 12 cm long and 6cm diameter at the end containing the intestines.

Medically this condition is called an omphalocele and it affects 5 out of 20,000 births. The problem is lack of complete development of the fetal abdominal muscles during pregnancy leaving a defect that allows herniation. This is the second case seen at our clinic within this year.

One of the amazing things in this particular case is that even with the culture of so much belief in witchcraft; the mother of this child was among the few who reported not to have gone through a witch doctor before coming to our clinic. She had heard  about our clinic a number of times and opted to seek first care with us.

We thank God that they came early enough and the child was not having any life threatening complications. This precious child needs specialized surgical correction of the defect as soon as possible. As we find out where this will be done, Please pray for:

  1. 1. God’s provision of enough funds-the parents has no money.
  2. 2. Patience and hope for the family.
  3. 3. No health complications.
  4. 4. Wisdom for the doctors involved.
  5. 5. Successful operation.
Ministry

Kids games in Tonj

Kids

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” – Matthew 19:14

While the Olympics were going on in London, we started our own Kids Games Olympic style for the kids in Tonj and the surrounding areas of Tonj. As you can see from the Photos not as flashy as the Olympics but these children had fun playing, and heard the gospel with open heart. Gabriel, Emmanuel Part of our Medical staff,  together with Donato and Santino and Albino form a team to go from village to village to conducting kids games.

Their main objective is to encourage the kids that they are important in the society no matter where they come from or family background. Many of them think that they are less important than others because they do not have nice clothes and shoes. This makes them not to attend Sunday school.

The games also create a good relationship between the children and their trainers. They will grow knowing that they have big brothers who care for them. They are taught how to respect each other and their parents. They are also taught to have discipline and work hard in school (though only a few of them go to school). Most of these kids do not have a chance to come to church on Sunday. Their parents discourage them by telling them that is not important. The children who come to the Sunday school in our church have a chance to play all these games.

After playing games in the villages all the participants are given shoes and this encourages them and boosts their self esteem. Their parents come to cheer them and Gabriel addresses them. He advises them to teach their children the word of God and to respect each other so they will grow up as good children.

We have been having heavy rains often and this has hindered Gabriel and his team from going to the remote villages. In future they are planning to go to even more remote villages.

Emma

Ministry, Pastor Training

Santino his heart for Maloney

Buuk

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” – Habakkuk 2:14

Pastor Santino has been preaching in Malony for a period of about four months. He is very excited of the outcome and how the people of Maloney are responding positively to the gospel. He have about sixty members in his church. He made one of them secretary and the other a treasurer. The chief of that area gave out the land for the church. The most interesting thing is that the chief  is not a believer in God, or witchcraft.  Santino has been mentoring two people who have a heart for winning souls in Maloney. These two are primary school teachers who have been helping him with evangelism in the evening  after school.

Santino goes from house to house to evangelize the people. He also goes about in the area wherever he can find people to witness to them the gospel of Christ. Every Wednesday when the medical team goes to Maloney outreach he goes to preach to them. The people of Maloney love God and and they also are willing to learn more about the word. He preaches to the sick and prays for them because they believe in the healing power of God.

Santino gave me a testimony of a certain member of his church who had leprosy. He got saved in a Pentecostal church in Wau and was also baptized. When he came back to his village there was no church, preacher or any spiritual leader. He back slid and his leprosy worsened. He then met with Pastor Santino who prayed for him and he gave his life to Jesus again. He believed that God is going to heal him. Santino prayed for him and the leprosy started to heal. He is one of the witnesses in Maloney that God is a healer.

Buuk

Santino wanted to go home to check on his family for two weeks before the school opens. The headmaster of a neighboring school who is also a member of his church requested him to stay for one more week.  This touched his heart so much and he felt like crying seeing how these people are hungry for the word of God. He believes that God has sent him and he has given his  heart for the people of Maloney.

Fifteen members of his church can read both English and Dinka. Fifteen can read Dinka and little bit of English. They requested well wishers to support them in getting Bibles so that they may be able to read and understand God’s word. They are hungry for the Gospel and what they have learned  by Santino’s preaching and they want to move a forward by learning more about the word of God for spiritual maturity.

The Headmaster of Pawel Primary School, sometimes called SalvaKir primary school, requested Santino to be teaching Christian Religion Education (C.R.E) in his school, for what a favor from God.

Please pray for Santino that God would continue to give him encouragement through the challenges. That Santino would be able to reach those who are still held captive by witchcraft and other traditions that do not glorify God.

Ministry, Pastor Training

Pastor Joseph plants a church

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Joseph

…”Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory…” – 1 Chronicles 4:10a

One of our discipleship pastors, Joseph planted a church in Warkar last Sunday. Before then he had been going house to house to mobilize and evangelize the people. When he shared about planting a church there, the people of Warkar were very excited.

Joseph with congregation

After praying over it speaking to them they came to an agreement of where the church will be, the young men and women participated in clearing the bush.

After they had completed all this work he reminded them that the following day they should come to church. On Sunday, the first service, there were about 40 people in the congregation.

He preached from the book of Matthew 28:19-20 where Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. He encouraged them that when they believe in Jesus they have to follow him. He told them that God is calling out for people who are willing to go out and win souls.

Teaching from the book of Exodus 32:1, Joseph said that when the people saw that Moses was so long in coming from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and asked him to make gods who would go before them because they did not know what had happened to Moses. He encouraged the people that they should turn away from some of their traditions such as witchcraft which is a form of slavery and turn to worship of the true God by repenting and turning to Jesus.

Please keep Joseph and this young congregation in your prayers.

Medical Clinic, Ministry

Prayer request from the Medical Clinic in Tonj

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Child with Nurse

“The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.” – Psalm 34:17

Yesterday we had two serious cases in the clinic. We had two children from neighboring villages who had profuse nose bleeding. A five year old boy was brought to the clinic in the evening with nose bleeding but was in stable condition. The medical team tried their best but could not control the bleeding with use of drugs or medical techniques. The child bled throughout the night until yesterday  morning. He bled for 18 hours  and lost a lot of blood and needed urgent blood transfusion. During the time for referral he had frank bloody diarrhea and he died while on oxygen due to severe anaemia.

The second case came around 1:20 pm, a child of about 6 years old was brought to the clinic with profuse nose bleeding and was losing 500mls of blood every hour. The blood was obstructing the respiratory or breathing system and complicated resuscitation. The child had a very high fever and yellow eyes. He died within 20 minutes of admission.

This was alarming to us that it might be a viral disease associated with bleeding, either yellow fever or ebola.

All the medical staff and Community Health Workers had an urgent meeting to discuss about safety measures and awareness on the cases. We referred an adult man to Wau Hospital with similar symptoms a few days ago. The Minister of Health was alerted of what is going on and he will be sending his team to do surveillance.

Please pray for the two families who lost the two children, also pray for our medical staff for protection against this disease.  Pray that God would strengthen them and encourage them as they continue to serve His people.