All posts by Suzy Kuj

Medical Clinic, Ministry, Mission Trips

A Call to Missions! by Amy Brewer

God gave me the great opportunity to work with In Deed and Truth for three months. From the start of my trip, God had every step planned out. I lived my entire 27 years of my life in the state of Texas until January of last year. In January I ventured out to live in cold Colorado for a short season to live closer to my brothers, sister in law & nieces for a time. I had known about IDAT for a few years from their website and getting updated by their blog. I had never really considered serving in Tonj. But, for some reason I can’t explain except for God’s always greater plans- I emailed the stateside coordinator Jeamette at this time to see if they needed a nurse’s help. In just a day or so she emailed me back & said where in Colorado are you? We were close enough to meet in person and we did so the very next week! At this time I had only been in Colorado a few weeks. God had this meeting in mind way before I even considered moving to Colorado!

Amy

Fast forward 6 months later I’m on a plane headed to Africa! I was scared and anxious not knowing what to expect! After arriving in Tonj, South Sudan I immediately knew my life would never be the same again. Serving the Dinka people in the clinic and by having the opportunity to be apart of Community Health Evangelism has truly given me a joy I can’t explain. Seeing people walk for days many times barefoot and always with limited food & water to be seen at the clinic is humbling. The Dinka tribe has so much strength and culture. They welcomed me into their lives and sometimes homes with open arms. God gave me strength each day to love on another person. The need in South Sudan is so great. I have seen this now and it cannot be ignored. I’m so thankful IDAT has been there so many years. God willing they will continue to do awesome things for the kingdom in Tonj, South Sudan. The ministry and clinic is truly a bright light. To me it is just like the city on a hill. So many people receive medical care and most importantly the loving Gospel message from Tonj and even villages far away.

Dr. Tom

Many of the Dinka tribe’s stories are heartbreaking and makes you wonder what could God’s plan possibly be? One of the stories that I will never forget happened in my first few weeks in Tonj. The ambulance had gone out to pick up a patient from the outlying village Thiet. When they arrived at the clinic the story came out. The woman had been in labor for a couple of days & pushing for hours at home in her village. Many woman had tried to help her get the baby to be delivered. When nothing was working one of the men out of desperation used a spear to stab the baby’s head & literally drag the baby out. The baby passed away immediately & the mom was near death when she arrived from blood loss & the trauma. The next day she was taken to Wau for a blood transfusion and recovery. I’m not sure how long it will take this woman to get over the trauma from something so heartbreaking. I pray and ask God frequently to give her peace and understanding. I ask God to give me understanding! This horrible situation has caused my faith to grow. I have realized that I will not always understand, but need have faith that God is always just & good.

Lepers Colony

The difficult lessons and people I met in Tonj is something that has changed my life forever. My time there was truly in God’s plan. I feel blessed and full of joy thinking about what God showed me. He is great, just and full of compassion. He knows what the Dinka people need more than I ever could. He is in control of everything. He uses all to His glory and I count myself blessed to be used by Him. Everyday in Tonj wasn’t perfect by any means. I learned very hard lessons in a place so far from my family & everything that is familiar. I had to rely on God in ways I never thought possible. Sometimes I prayed to Him to just get me through the next hour. I would pull through then ask God please come be by my side this hour. Being in that kind of unity with The Lord is what He wants. I pray that God will continue to work in Tonj and maybe He will send me to serve the Dinka people again!

Medical Clinic

A Blessing to the Community by Nurse Sham Musyoki

In Deed And Truth Ministries clinic exists to bless the community of Tonj and Glorify God though our good works.  We not only provide a wide variety of health services which include  immunization, maternity services and curative services to pregnant mothers, breastfeeding mothers and children under the age of five years, we also pray for every patient and believe the Lord brings each and every person to us for that purpose.

Each Community Health worker has been trained specifically by In Deed and Truth to work alongside our doctors and nurses.  As we focus more on prevention measures like immunization and health awareness we have seen this area of our ministry grow rapidly. South Sudan has one of the world’s greatest infant mortality rates with most children under five not vaccinated at birth putting them at high risk to the many deadly diseases affecting our area.  We praise God for the opportunity to be a part of helping these little ones and saving lives daily.

 

Clinic under the tree
Immunization Clinic under the Mango tree
Kuj Family

Agum’s Adoption

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God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1:5

This scripture sums up how we feel about Agum being part of our family and ultimately God’s family.  She was in Khartoum, age 1 1/2 years when we learned her mother, a single parent and sister to Sabet, had died unexpectedly in 2005.  Though we never met Agum, we felt immediately called to bring her into our family and for the next four years we talked about her and prayed for her.

Agum

In 2008, when Agum had just turned 5, she moved to Tonj with Sabet’s mother.  After spending a few months interacting with our family we moved her into our home in January 2009 and started the process of making her legally part of our family.

At that time South Sudan and North Sudan were still one nation and we were advised to wait until the separation of nations was complete.  Knowing this process in an undeveloped country could be challenging we set about getting her a birth certificate and passport.  Law in South Sudan permits Sabet as the uncle to take Agum as his own child.  Getting her birth certificate and passport was quite easy and encouraging that the remaining process would be the same.

The culture of South Sudan recognized Sabet as the ‘natural’ parent of Agum but if something should happen to Sabet it did not secure Agum’s future within our family.  For the purpose of her feeling safe within our family and getting her a US passport for ease of travel, we immediately started a legal adoption process after the independence of South Sudan in 2011.  Having my name as the mother on her adoption certificate is critical.

This process has been ongoing for 2 years and not gone quite as we had expected.  After completing the entire process, including a high court judge stamping his approval and recommendation and Sabet’s parents agreeing to handing Agum’s custody to our care, the child and welfare ministry in Juba rejected the application.  This was based on us not going to a court inside the state we live (which we were not told to do) and meant doing the entire process again. This whole period consumed more than a year of our time and meant we would not be able to take a furlough as planned.  It had been suggested that the government were buying time as South Sudan has an ‘incomplete’ adoption process.

Knowing this process would delay our visit to USA for a much needed furlough we decided to apply for a visitors visa at the American Embassy in Nairobi back in February.  We were told 8 weeks for them to contact the Juba officials that we have legal rights to travel with Agum but to date we have not received any response from the embassy.  In June we had to go to the embassy to renew Jed and Hannah’s passports and we took this opportunity to ask a few questions about Agum’s process.  They were very kind and basically said that Juba had not responded to them!!!

So now we face starting the process again, at the right court in Kwajok and praying for favor.

Sabet has talked to the judge in Kwajok and he has a court appointment on Monday July 29th, with his parents and Agum present in the court.  Now with this new political situation we are hoping he can safely proceed and accomplish this first step.  Then we will need to see what happens with the Juba ministry of child welfare.

Your continued prayers are needed and appreciated.  We are asking our prayer team to cover this court appointment on Monday and the completion of the adoption of our daughter in Juba.  Please pray for Agum, her heart is tender and we have had tearful moments as her little mind works overtime to figure out why it is taking so long.

Praying God’s will be done.

Suzy (for Sabet and Agum too)

 

 

Medical Clinic, Ministry

Transformation Is Our Prayer

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2 NLT

It is always a joy to watch someone’s life be transformed by the Holy Spirit, it is a very special Holy experience that can not be easily explained.  Our prayer for the people of Tonj is that they would experience transformation in the same way each of us has experienced it, that would leave no doubt that there is one true and living God who continues to perform  miracles every day.

Part of our outreach to the community has involved our medical clinic team reaching out to the patients through home visits.  The following testimony was such an encouragement from Sham, one of our nurses on the medical team, I hope it will bless you as it blessed us.

We visited Hyzindia village to the home of Veronica Abeny and Mary Nyaruon.  Veronica has three children who are under five years and Mary is an expectant mother with the first baby. With the rainy season starting, we have begun educating pregnant women who visit our clinic on ways of preventing malaria and this has raised a lot of awareness to the community around. Veronica Abeny previously had brought the children to our clinic suffering from malaria and Mary Nyaruon had visited the clinic suffering from malaria. We decided to visit the two ladies after we noted there were high cases of malaria from their village of Hyzindia. We went  to visit them and gave them two insecticide treated  nets. Many neighbors came and listened to the health talk and also heard the gospel.  They were so appreciative to IDAT and the great work God is doing through the ministry and said it was an encouragement to the community.

IDAT Medical Team Distributes Nets
IDAT Medical Team Distributes Nets
Medical Team Praying with the Residents of Hyzindia
Medical Team Praying with the Residents of Hyzindia
IDAT Team Fellowship and Share on the Outreach
IDAT Team Fellowship and Share on the Outreach