Prayer Walk!
It was great to come back home to my family after many weeks away in the USA. The trip was a success; I connected with supporting churches, home fellowships and many individual ministry partners. In addition to the San Diego and Tonj prayer walks, it was a great blessing to be joined this year by Eastgate Christian Fellowship in Florida (pictured) who hosted their own prayer walk. This has been our prayer that the burden of raising support for this ministry would be shared by those around us. Thank you everyone who walked, prayed and supported this annual event. There is a light shining in South Sudan for Jesus Christ as a result of In Deed and Truth Ministries being there, thank you for continuing this journey with us and walking this path.
IDAT Church Plant!
We have been encouraged to get feedback from the Tonj community how praying for patients in our medical clinic has blessed them as much as receiving the free medicine. Even the government officials have acknowledged and praised the extra mile we go for each of our patients. This has really encouraged our staff, who serve diligently around the clock to bring the hope and love of Jesus Christ into their medical surrounding. One story that stood out is about Mary Wenglay. Her mother and uncle openly practiced witchcraft and always turned to it whenever Mary or her siblings were sick. Earlier this year Mary’s younger brother died after the family refused him medical help and practiced witchcraft on him. Mary was hit hard emotionally by the death of her younger brother. After some time the other brother got sick and again her mother and uncle insisted in witchcraft rituals. Mary decided to do whatever it takes to get her brother to our medical clinic. There she heard the gospel and met with one of our pastors. She prayed with him and asked Jesus to be her personal Savior. What she heard totally transformed her life from that moment on. Her brother made a complete recovery after receiving treatment and medicine. One of our pastors visiting Mary’s village called Kwanyria heard her testimony and started praying with her for her mother and uncle’s salvation. Many of the villagers were curious at Mary’s transformation and Pastor Joseph felt the Lord telling him to ‘have church’ under a tree. Many villagers now come to church on Sunday and Mary’s mother has turned from witchcraft and asked Jesus to be her Savior and both her and Mary have been baptized. The Lord used this young lady’s faith to reach an entire village with the Gospel. This new church is very grateful for what the Lord has done through Mary (pictured far right in blue with the church) and through the IDAT Medical Clinic to bring them this church in their village. It is our greatest challenge to direct new believers to churches when they come from remote villages that have not heard the gospel but we can clearly see God at work despite these difficulties. As our community health evangelists (CHE) continue in training we are excited for villages such as Kwanyria to be impacted by this program that will provide follow up care and support both spiritually and physically to new believers.
“This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” – 2 Corinthians 9:12
Praise and Prayer!
- Praise the Lord for the success of our annual prayer walk fundraiser.
- Please pray for our three Community Health Evangelists in training and the three villages they will impact.
- Pray for Sabet’s family, his sister died suddenly from meningitis and left four children orphaned ages 8, 5, 2 and 6 wks.
Thanksgiving was a wonderful celebration and time to reflect on God’s boundless provision. We look to Christmas with great joy and anticipation for what the New Year will bring to South Sudan and In Deed and Truth Ministries. Jesus came simply and humbly to provide a sacrifice for our sins. What an amazing free gift of unconditional love that we have been given. We pray all that read this newsletter have also received that free gift, the greatest, most precious and priceless gift ever given to us. Have a blessed Christmas celebrating the gift that Jesus is to the world, a gift of eternal life.
Suzy, Hannah, Jed and I got to visit the UK for a short trip. Unfortunately Agum was not able to join us as she did not get her visa but she had a fantastic time staying with our friends in Kenya. It was wonderful to visit family, friends and two supporting churches that have prayed over us and walked with us for several years. We had the opportunity to visit both churches and share with the saints what the Lord has accomplished through In Deed and Truth Ministries in the past 6 years. As we shared all that has happened in that time it was a great reminder of the many blessings the Lord has bestowed on us and to give thanks for His faithfulness throughout. The medical clinic is now in its sixth year and our first class of pastors are getting ready to graduate next year after 3 years of training. It is wonderful to see how the Lord is working in the UK, an area of prayer for Suzy and I for years. When we first married and would visit over 10 years ago we had to drive 2 hours to London to visit a Calvary Chapel church and now there are over 40 in the UK! Mildenhall Baptist church became our church family while we were pregnant with Hannah and they have continued to love and support us since, it was wonderful to see them again and share the blessings and struggles of our work in Sudan. At the 2006 Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa mission conference we met Pastor John Brown, an American missionary to the UK who has planted a church in an area close to where Suzy went to school. After the conference we traveled back through the UK and visited Pastor John in Norwich. It was a real joy to be able to visit Servants Church (pictured praying for us) a second time and pass on a challenge the Lord has pressed on our lives: that we are all missionaries because being a Christian is a call from Christ to come to Him, die to self and live for eternity. Pray for the church in the UK, it has a very cynical audience that needs love and the grace of Jesus Christ. Suzy and I stayed with Suzy’s sister and did some fun tourist sites with the kids before Suzy returned to Kenya, collected Agum and went back to Sudan and I went on to the USA for this year’s fundraiser prayer walk. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and rest, thanks for all your prayers.