“And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.” – Joel 2:28

Mapel is a small town about 18 miles away from Tonj. It’s for the Lou tribe , otherwise known as Jur Chol locally. They have their own dialogue and well known for how hard working people and very amazing powerful traditional dance. We have mentioned in the past, we have been evangelizing remote villages and have worked with church leaders from this area for more than 8 years. The church always is battling with witchcraft, worship of idols, ancestral spirits worship and traditional beliefs.

This time in March, we have taken the STS to Mapel, if anything was clear from the training, it was the fact everyone participated was bringing a point of view on the stories was fresh and enlightening to the participants, I believe it was the  Holy Spirit working,  and people  opening their hearts to His conviction, revealing His truth from the stories of the Bible, I have seen the excitement when the lights came on, I saw eyes were wide open and the mouth opening wide, and hearts are comforted with the Truth of same Bible stories, that they have heard before and amazed of the treasures that are seeing for the first time.

The other thing I notice in the training, is the excitement of the Mapel men and women, that they could do this on their own, they could go through the story, ask question and come to these truths alone, without the help of a pastor or someone who reads, Never ever before they could hear the word or read it (most people are illiterates) and understand the Spiritual observation and apply these spiritual application to match their present lives today.

What a blessing is to have the tool of the oral inductive Bible study in the STS.

At one point learning and discussing the Mary, Martha story, the conclusion that brought by Mary Nybang, one of the old ladies in the training, and I quote here “we have been the Martha’s (the Women in the Church) for a long time in the church just being busy with cooking, cleaning and never been the Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning from Him, Always we felt we couldn’t because we can’t read, always dependent on our husbands to understand the word of God. Now STS gave us the opportunity and the tool to be independent and be at the feet of Jesus like Mary, we are able to learn the stories and ask questions and get all the treasures of the word of God, we are now sitting at the feet of our Lord and we are able to be the daughters Mary’s.”

What a blessing to hear Mary Nybang testimony from Mapel, I can testify to what the Lord is doing using the STS among the Lou tribe.

They were more than 50 pastors and church leaders including 10 women, from various villages around mapel town.

Pray for the Lord to give us the wisdom, as we pray for Oral bible school in small villages in the 4 areas that our pastors comes from, Maple, Tonj East, Tonj North, and Cubit.

Our 13 pastors have been doing the stories since last year, they have testimonies from their own churches, each one of the pastors trained his own church leaders from 5 people to 15, we are very excited to see they are putting emphasis on training leaders, starting in their own villages and churches, very glad they are putting what they learn on practice.

Let me take this opportunity and share my heart with you, I love to continue work with some pastors after they graduate, I would like for them to train others, specifically in the mention 4 areas, Mapel, Tonj east, Tonj North and Ciubet (pronounce Chuaibet).

Pray for Santino Bak  one of the pastors in our school, who his heart is to train STS and to be a CHE (Community Health Evangelism) trainer, he is sharing with me how it’s very important to train to transform, he sees STS and CHE are tools for transformation.

Santino would love to go around and teaches in these 4 centers STS, we are praying for a bike for him so he can use it to visit and train these 4 centers with the simply stories and possibly CHE training in the Future.

God is doing someone great among the pastors would love your prayers and support for it to continue and many would be saved and transformed.

The year started well and our Bible School Pastors Training opened on 23^rd January. Our Bible School teachers Joe and Nancy Losee arrived on 20^th January and we thank God for the safe flight and for protecting them this far. Some of our Pastors came on 21^st January and you could see joy in them as they are happy to begin this semester’s training.

We have thirteen Pastors in our Bible school. Eleven of our Pastors have returned to class as of 27^th January. One Pastor is at home sick and we were told the other Pastor was ‘on the way coming’.

The teachers are finding it a blessing and fun to be back to teach the Pastors again this semester. They have already had some lively discussions during class time as they finished the 5^th Manual on Bible Doctrine and even now as they are working through the 7^th Manual of the BTCP curriculum.

Please pray for Joe and Nancy…that they will have good health and for their safety while here in S Sudan…that they would have the grace needed while here and the anointing of the Holy Spirit for teaching these precious pastors who desire so much to be taught the Word of God.  Please pray for the pastors and their families whom they have left back in their villages while they are here at the Bible Training Center for the next three months…for grace for the pastors while here and for their families to have the Lord’s protection from the constant cattle raids; for their families to stay healthy and for the Lord to provide for all their needs.

We also again thank each of you who continue to support this ministry with your finances and prayers. Together we will see much fruit harvested as we labor in HIS Kingdom and together we will share in HIS reward when He returns.

“In him we were also chosen,having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” – Ephesians 1:11-12.

I saw baboons. You heard me, baboons.
We were on the “road” from the “airport” in Rumbek, and a whole gang of baboons were in the road, scampering off when we got close. It was seriously sinking in with me that I’m in Africa when I saw those critters.

After a few false starts, Dave, Tom and I finally made it here to the In Deed and Truth compound. We arrived in the late afternoon, so Sunday was our first full day here. We fellowshipped with the church that meets here on the grounds and it was nothing short of awesome. Rythmic clapping and voices singing in Dinka dialect wafted through the morning air, making the small thatched pavilion where we met feel like holy ground. Sabet taught from Exodus a really encouraging and challenging word. The upcoming referendum fairly permeates everything here, as is understandable, since it looms like a storm on the horizon. Sabet reminded the people that God knows the suffering of the Sudanese people, and he desires to help, and the greatest help of all is the salvation of Christ.

The next day I got sick. Not just “ew, I don’t feel so good”, but a rip roaring projectile evacuating kind of sick. I don’t remember much of the day, other than having to stop teaching the pastors mid point in order to run to the bathroom. Not the dignified start I’d hoped for.

The pastor’s class is wonderful, and today, feeling much better, I really felt much more closely connected to them. I’ve never had to speak through a translator before, but Sabet does a great job…and everyone is so kind to me as I feel my way through this. Either way, we’ve had some great discussions.

Santino gets led into the classroom by holding onto a stick that another pastor leads him with. He’s blind. He sits attentively through every hour, asking questions and joining the discussion. Serving people as a pastor with a disability is a daunting prospect in itself. Doing so in these harsh conditions is remarkable. God’s grace creates amazing heroes.

“You must pray for us” Joseph, another pastor said to me as we left the classroom. “Pray for us, we will pray for you, and maybe you will come and teach us again.”. I pack his words like precious, fragile heirlooms into my heart.

We will pray for you Joseph.