Category Archives: 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!

From Stephanie Staubs!

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God is doing some amazing things out here in South Sudan. The malaria out here is still bad and the clinic is still very busy some days we are seeing more then 100 patients a day. Right now we have a baby who is 1 month old and came in on Thursday barely breathing and convulsing every couple minutes. My job most was to keep him breathing. We were not confident he would make it i was having to bag him a lot just to get him to breath. I am happy to say I no longer have to sit with him to keep breathing he is breathing on his own now. Yesterday was his first day without convulsions and this morning we were able to take out the NG tube.      He is doing much better then when he came in. He is very tired and sleeps all day so we are still keeping him here to observe him. God definitely is healing this boy! We have had many opportunities to pray with him and his family.

God is really teaching me a lot here. I am making many new friends and love learning the culture. I have a little over 3 weeks left and it feels like time has flew by!

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Vulnerable Street Children!

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Tonj is about 63 Miles away from Wau, which is the biggest city around here. One of the issues the city is effected by is  Street Children. Children from  3 or 4 other states goes to Wau and lives in the street, involved in all kind of problems that you could imagine, from stealing to getting abused by people, to some time  even  getting killed in the street.  The city is really effected by it.  So some people from Wau decided to round up all the street children and sent them to the state where they come from originally and ethnically.  So we have received here in Tonj  about may be 30 kids, mostly from the area of Tonj and some from other state and counties. the county here also rounded the small number of the street kids in Tonj town and put them with the same group came from Wau totaling the number to 54 kids.

I was looking for one of the kids I know, so I went to see him in the place where I heard they are keeping the kids, to my surprise I see all these kids in the building that are suppose to be the county offices, still under construction, so they have 1 big hall, they have just a 1 big piece of tarp and nothing else to sleep in. There were some police men guarding the kids, and to keep them off problems. The commissioner of the town is working hard to feed them, but we all see its very hard on him with the limited resources he has.

 

I started going through the kids, looking for this one kid I know, I started to notice many of the street children are with wounds, rashes and scabies around their hands, and different parts of their bodies, most of them wore torn filthy clothes that filled with lies.

Since We have a clinic, I asked our clinic staff if we could help these kids, and that what they have done. Our clinic staff including Dr. Tom went to the place and saw all the kids and started treatments to many health issues these kids have got. the following day they took the kids to the river made them wash their bodies and then applies this lotion to heal the scabies.

Stephanie Staubs ayoung lady missionary with us here for 3 month, gave money and bought all the kids treated Mosquito nets. We had Donated T shirts from American, donated Harvest Crusade t-shirts as well, that we were very thankful to still have some of them, we gave these kids these T-shirts, and it was a huge Joy for us to see the smiles on these little one faces.

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Few days ago I had a meeting with the Director for child protection State level , He came all the way from Kuajok to see these kids, I was impressed by the level of care they have shown during the meeting towards these kids, they have shown seriousness about the kids being  reunited with their families and reintegrated them back to the society,  a representative of a UNICEF was present as well. Big Job awaits them.

In the meeting they have invited us to help the kids in anyway we can, since they know we are faith based mission organization, they invited us to minister to the kids, sharing the Bible with the children and teach them about God.  We happily accepted the invitation, actually we have already felt free to show Jesus film and share the gospel message with them before they gave us the permission to do so. Pastor Kibe and Pastor Santino went one night and showed the Jesus film to the kids, for many of them it was the first time to see a movie about Jesus. Kibe is planning to show more Movies that will teach God’s love and good value to the kids, Walking with Jesus and God story to mention few.

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Commissioner Mario Monydiedh handing T-shirts for the street children

 

These Children are as young as 7 years old to 13 years old, all boys, In fact, the few weeks we have been working with them now, we have seen behaviors makes us so concern about the little one that are among them, and we pray the reunion would happen as fast as possible to save these little one from the older one influence.

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Stephanie and Kibe are going to have continuous ministry with these kids, where they will play kids games and sport event once a month.

We are starting a fundraiser from here in conjunction with some people back at home church in California for the purpose of feeding these kids. It will cost about $100 to  feed a child for a month,we are hoping to raise funding for 54 children for up to 3 month, hoping by then they have all be reunited with their families and found homes to live. if you want to donate please go to the website. https://www.indeedandtruth.org/donate.php

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Please pray for wisdom, as there are reasons for these kids to leave home, some  kids are not happy with the thier families and are not willing to go back to their home. some stories are just sad stories led the kids in the street, we are planning to share some of the stories in the coming weeks, so we really urge you to pray for wisdom as we work with these kids and share the gospel message with them day to day.

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Welcome R. K. and the Bridge to South Sudan

The Bridge International has been a partner with us from the very early days in 2000.  This month was very special as we welcomed the founder and director R. K. Ulrich to visit our work in Tonj.  R.K. was on a tour of ministries and really went out of her way to make sure she got time with us, not so easy when we are living in the middle of nowhere! The Bridge has faithfully supported our pastoral workshops throughout the war, as well as the late pastor John Riack, and our current pastor training programs.  It was our joy to introduce her to the pastors she has helped school and for her to actually go out to one of the church plants. Her time was short but very encouraging to us.  In April 2007, during a trip around Florida, we visited and met R.K. and her husband Steve for the very first time.  During that visit R.K. and Suzy chatted about the challenges of running your own non-profit.  This was an area we were unsure about and the Lord used her to confirm some things in our hearts and In Deed and Truth Ministries was born!! Thanks R.K. for coming , it was such a blessing to be with you.

R.K. with some of the pastors

Blake Rosemann from Eastgate Team

I must say this has been the most unique experience of my life. The culture is amazing, the people are astounding, and the hand of God is truly moving here.

To see God working so actively is quite remarkable. Every action and prospect here on the compound has to be taken with full faith in our Lord. Nothing can be done here without Him. With such limited resources we have be a part of massive undertakings. With few people and even fewer tools, it seems as though God simply provides for everything. I have never been part of a group so devoted to God and people. The gospel is being lived out here in Tonj. It is honestly one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed.

Sabet and Suzy have welcomed us in with open arms and have made this experience truly enjoyable. I thank God that He has let me be a part of His enormous plan. I have such a heart for the South Sudanese people now. My prayers will continue to be here no matter where I am.