Category Archives: Rancho Del Rey Church

Mission Trips, Rancho Del Rey Church, Teams, Uncategorized

Tiffany’s Blog

Welcome from the Pastors

A Welcome from the Pastors

We have now been here 3 days and to our great surprise, because we came on a weekend, we had some time to ease into our responsibilities.  Every time we talk about starting on some of the tasks that we will be working on, Suzy has given us a grin accompanied by “enjoy your rest while you can because tomorrow we are going to work you hard”.  All talk of work stops at that point.

We woke up to sounds of barn animals and far into the day the rooster kept crowing.  The group soon split in half between those who wanted a longer morning and those who wanted to go to the cattle action at 7:30.  The group that went came back with pictures of the cows that we were named after.  One of the great gifts here is our new cow names, for you can only get them here in Sudan.

Church followed breakfast and the white people sang rounds of Humble Thyself with the Dinka people.  We sounded pretty good!  Stacy commented that even though she came before they didn’t have a church service while here.  She was really happy to be part of this one and excited about the prospect of this being her church body for the next year.

We went to the market after lunch where there was no getting around how different we were.  The Dinkas are friendly and our hands were shaken by many strangers.  Tim and Alicia got traditional Sudanese outfits but the rest of us just stared clothing that would not be too out of place in America.  It is funny how there is so much polyester in a place this hot!  The hard thing was the many reminders of our foreign state in this far land for instance they butchered the cow in the meat market that morning and a mangy dog was still roaming for an unattended piece, a woman danced in front of us putting her arms out blocking our way until paid, and a unclothed child followed and hung on us and cried when we left.  There are situations in this world that you will come to that nothing can prepare you for but the Lord’s strength is sufficient to give grace in all situations.  We are finding these everyday.

The evening cooled down and we got yet another wonderful meal which I would compare to chili over white rice.  Some of the compound workers played volleyball and the medical clinic jobs got passed out.  We are 
all ready for the busy week to start.  I know that once it does it will soon be the weekend and that our time here will be almost up.  We just got here but I already feel 2 1/2 weeks are not enough time for us in Sudan.

Signing off- Tiffany McKeighen

Mission Trips, Rancho Del Rey Church, Teams

Alicia’s Blog

“Yom” here (that’s “Alicia” to the rest of you back home!).  I was 
told that my Dinka name means “cow with brown spots,” especially 
“spots around the face.” OK, so my Irish heritage is CLEARLY coming 
through here, folks!! Can’t get past those freckles!! So… How do I 
even begin to describe what we’ve experienced here so far? It’s just 
downright amazing. I now understand why so many of our Rancho del Rey friends were unable to fully describe what it was like here in Tonj. 
So… I guess I will make my attempt!! LOL! In a nutshell, the trip 
has already gone beyond my expectations. I could go home tomorrow and feel satisfied (but I’m so glad we have 9 more days)!

First, the welcome at the airport. Unbelievable! I was fighting away 
tears as so many ministry workers and community residents were 
standing at the airfield with expressions of pure joy and glee on 
their face at our arrival. I immediately felt loved and wanted here. 
That was huge!

Evidently it is much greener now than in February, because Sheena, 
Stacie, Mike and Amy were just in awe of the flowers, grass and 
bushes everywhere! I have to admit that it was much more beautiful 
that I’d imagined. Picture gorgeous purple flowers just popping up 
around the buildings; delicate butterflies buzzing through the 
bushes… all against the wide African sky and soft green grasses. 
Just picturesque.

God’s timing has been so evident already in our time here. First, 
because we arrived on a Friday afternoon, we had today (and will have tomorrow) to get acclimated to life here in Tonj and our daily responsibilities. For example, today Sheena, Stacie, Tiffany and I spent the morning shadowing John Paul (the clinic officer) in the clinic. We got our first tutorials in wound care and in treating malaria patients. I got to do my first injection (into an IV bag that was exciting enough for me right now!) and Sheena was awesome in giving a huge shot in the rear to this poor little boy suffering from 
malaria. We’ve also been promised to be woken up if a mom comes in during labor. I and the rest of the girls are also excited to be working with John Paul in doing prenatal care on the moms that come in. What an amazing privilege! Monday is supposed to be one of the busiest days in the clinic (and of course our first “official” day on the job!) so please especially pray for us that day! Tim and Mike also start their teaching in the pastors’ discipleship center that day too… so pray for them as well! Which brings me to the men… they spent the day working on the electricity in the training center, and in trying to fix the solar panels. Lots of guy labor stuff. 🙂

This afternoon was amazing. After taking us on a tour of the town, Sabet and Suzy took us over the bridge, past the cattle camp and outside the city to the area where they are going to start building their house! It was just a crazy place–TALL, tall, tall grasses everywhere on a flat plain. It looked very African! So once we drove off the side of the main road (which is Tonj really isn’t a main road!) we literally drove through 5 foot tall grass for like 15 minutes on this barely discernable path to where they would be building. All I could think as we’re driving along is “oh my gosh… I can’t believe how many snakes must be out there in that grass!!!” And then… they stopped the car and were like, “oh, let’s get out and look around!!!” AAAHHH!!! (Cameron, I was really counting on your daily “please don’t let mommy see any snakes in Africa” prayer at 
that moment!!!) At first I hesitated and sat in the truck like an idiot. But then everyone was walking around and I was seeing some really sweet picture opportunities… so I decided to “get out of the boat” so to speak and go for it. Well, the moral of the story is that none of us saw any snakes, and we had some totally cool moments out there, just standing in this unspoiled, picturesque area of Sudan. We got some great pictures of our team… some funny pics of Tim and Mike (you have to wait till we get home for those!) and just had this amazing time.

My motto for life lately has been, “When else am I going to be able to… (fill in the blank)”. And boy, I’ve been able to put that into practice here! So far I’ve used that line to justify getting kissed on the lips by a giraffe, sleeping with frogs, lizards and spiders in our room, and now walking out into tall African grass. I know that there is more (and there will be more!) coming this week… and that’s exciting to me! Life is meant to be lived!

Well, I better sign off for now (it’s my turn for the shower)! Oh one more thing. We got to experience our first African thunderstorm tonight! Probably 1 hour after returning from our trip around Tonj, it started raining! So while we were enjoying a fabulous dinner of lentil burritos, we watched the lighting flash in the distance and heard the rain on the tin roofs. Then, as dinner was dying down, so did the storm!! That was a cool God thing! Anyway… we so appreciate your prayers and your love. We can’t wait to get back home and share 
with you all that God is doing here in Sudan!

Rancho Del Rey Church

Walking by faith in flats!!

“For I can do EVERYTHING through Christ, who gives me strength.”  (Philippians 4:13)

Most of you know, I’m a city girl. I don’t camp. This has been the ultimate camping trip for me!! God has given me incredible strength! It’s HOT! There are bugs, big spiders, animals that don’t stop making noises, numerous bats, and funky diseases. Really God?? Me? Africa?? A wise woman once told me “God does not call the equipped, He equips the call.” So true! God has totally equipped me and given me strength to do everything.
I helped deliver a baby! Okay, well, I held the flashlight and washed the baby, but still. Sheena and I helped Jean-Paul (the doctor) and Kathryn (the nurse) delivered a baby on Monday night. The mama started having very random contractions and then all the sudden her water broke and a few pushes later a cute baby boy come into this world! This was her 10th child, so we gave him the Christian name “Zebulun” after Jacobs 10th child.
I had a very “proud wife” moment today. I had the opportunity to listen to the pastors teaching today. I started off listing to my hubby, Todd, teach. Wow!! How excited and proud I was of my husband! I was amazed that he could teach so passionately from the Bible while a man kept spitting out the window. (Dinka men spit regularly throughout the day). After listening to Todd I switched classrooms and listened to pastor Matt. I laughed out loud as he acted like a possessed man and snorted like a pig. Matt, Todd, and Steve have done an incredible job training the pastors.
Three years ago I lead Rancho del Rey KidsGames. We were in our new facility with NO air conditioning in 105 degree weather. Little did I know God was preparing me to bring KidsGames to Sudan. This has been an amazing week with the kids. We have ministered to over 700 kids in 6 different villages! We put on skits, share the “wordless book”, and we have even sang a song, which we learned in Dinka, and we played games. The World Water Bucket Competition has been a huge hit. Not all the teams ended up with water in the end bucket but they sure had fun trying! I loved watching all the parents on the sidelines laughing at their children as they competed in the relays. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to meet all these wonderful kids!
Just when I thought I had experienced it all… I went shopping with Suzy & Sabet today at the local market. BANG! Ummm…was that a gun shot?? Sabet quickly went to see what happened. We stood still. Sabet came back and told us there was a crazy man with a gun and it was not safe for us to be there. Normally in that situation I think I would have totally freaked out but I stayed calm. It helps when you’re with a highly respected couple in the community.
This trip has been a 24/7 walk by faith trip for me! I am so thankful that God called me here. The funny thing is that all the people here think that we came here to help them; what really happened was that they helped me. God has stretched me! I now have a closer relationship with Him because of the things I have experienced and because of the things I have seen here.

Rancho Del Rey Church

Thadd’s day in Sudan

The first thing I saw yesterday morning was my Dad, leaning over the mosquito netting. Telling me good morning. I had slept like a rock, seeing that I had spent the previous day playing soccer all day long at KidsGames. My Dad and I prayed out on the porch of our room, and then did our devotions. I am in Nehemiah 3. At breakfast, Sabet and Suzy gave us the low-down on the whole day. It was the usual schedule. Except I was scheduled to work in the clinic instead of doing construction. That made a big difference in my day. I walked over to the clinic with John-Paul, the doctor of the clinic (he is like a superhero, literally!) Sheena showed me how to clean a wound, and I did that with her for a little while. After that there were not that many wound care patients. They all were mainly people who had to be given drugs, do stop some pain or another. I was designated, along with a woman named Dorothy, to lead them to the pharmacy, where they waited to be given what they were prescribed. Every now and then we had a slight emergency. Like a Little boy who had pneumonia or someone with malaria. But at one point there was a woman who was carried into the clinic, screaming. We were able to lay hands on her and pray. We found out later that she has yellow fever, and also was a little mentally unstable. There is no real treatment for yellow fever, except rest and fluids. So she stayed in the clinic until later this evening. We also had the boy with a head wound that Sheena sutured earlier in the week, come back for a checkup. He had a infection in his wound, so we cleaned it and prayed. And gave him some medicine to take home, At two o clock we took our lunch break. And talked over what we had seen, and what we were going to do. After lunch I worked in the clinic until four o clock. And then we had to leave for KidsGames. I was stuck between my dad and Mike Yordt. We took the truck, while Sabet drove everybody else, in a different car. I think that my dad and Mike made more jokes on the way there than I have ever heard in my life! It was partly due to the fact that we were driving through tall grass and trying to find a village with almost no visible road. And we had our translaters, yelling from the back of the truck, to tell us to turn every five seconds. Our kids Games went awesome, we had 128 kids. And the winning team in the water bucket competition, had four ounces! (The most yet). When we got back we all washed up and ate dinner. Over all, I think that this experience has been life-changing, and I am hoping to come back (already). I also think that I will never, ever, ever take a ice cold glass of water for granite, anymore.
Love yall, and keep praying.
P.S. last night, there was a woman in labor all night. She finally gave birth to a son, her 10th child. She wanted a Christian name for him along with his Dinka name, and she asked us to help name him. She asked us if we could think of a Christian name with the significance of the number 10. We gave him the name Zebulun, because he was the 10th of Jacob’s children.
Rancho Del Rey Church

Champaigne Wishes and Caviar Dreams!!

Yan Cio Makur (my name is Todd), and I really want to express thanks from all the team members for the prayers that you have all been lifting up…please keep at it, we can use all the prayers you can afford to give on our behalf.
Today was pretty typical of the rest of our days, I start the morning with a long relaxing shower, followed by an all-you-can-eat breakfast, and then it’s off to the river for a little water skiing while the water is still glassy…this re-occuring dream is shattered by the sound of a braying donkey, which awakens me and reminds me that I’m not in Kansas anymore…or America for that matter. I could go on and on about how different things are in Tonj, but I’ll summarize by saying that God is indeed stretching all of us in unique and various ways.
Today was Sunday and we went to church at a leper colony. The people were very gracious and gentle, I think Stacie said it was the highlight of her week. We met for church under a large shade tree, the pews were worn logs about 4 inches in diameter stretched across two other sticks that were buried in the ground. The sticks that were buried in the ground had a fork at the top that held the pew (log) in place. Church started when we got there, and they all started singing in their typical African Tribal fashion (one man starts, and then everyone responds, repeat, add tribal drums on hand made instruments). Matt spoke to them about Mark 5 (the woman with the issue of blood that was healed when she touched the robe of Jesus in the crowd). Sabet interpreted, and it was FANTASTIC! Imagine the same Matt that walks around and really gets into his sermons, teaching through an interpreter that is mimicking his movements…we loved it and so did they.
After church we immediately went to a remote village to perform KidsGames for the Bongo tribe. Everywhere we go, Danielle is taking tons of pictures (big surprise, I know) and the people LOVE seeing their pictures on the back of the camera after it has been taken…as such, she is a huge hit wherever we go. KidsGames is great, but I would rather share with you about the pastors we have met since we have been here.
The people of Tonj are such an incredible inspiration, that I already know that I am going to miss them when we leave. I’ve had 2 opportunities to teach the group of 80 pastors already, and it has been amazing. I also found out that this training session was by invite only. Sabet said that if he had opened up the training to every pastor in the region, that we would have had many, many more. These pastors have small flocks that meet in mud huts with grass roofs. The pastors love God and they desperately thirst for Biblical teaching. They sit for 4 hours on wooden benches in a concrete building with a short 15 break in the middle. Most of them watch and listen intently while taking notes in a small notebook that was given to them at the beginning of the week. As I was teaching through Ephesians 6, and talking about Godly parenting, one pastor stood up to ask a question. Instead of asking a question he stated that life is hard in Sudan and very few have the education that is needed to raise their children in a Godly way, so he suggested that I stay in Sudan so that I could teach them how to raise their children. To which I responded by saying that my daughter ALSO needs to be raised in a Godly way and so I would have to go home. They all laughed, but the truth of the matter is that they really do long for this type of teaching. And you don’t have to be a Seminary graduate to teach these men, you just have to know your way around the scriptures, and have a willing heart. The pastors are awesome men that truly inspire us, pray for them as they leave and go back to their flocks.
Everyone on the team is doing an amazing job in this remote place, I’m thrilled to be working alongside these people. And the same can be said of the permanent staff here in Tonj, Jean-Paul the doctor is truly a man with a heart for God and a gentle and loving spirit. Kathryn, the nurse assistant is energetic and loves God with all her heart. And of course Sabet & Suzy are an inspiration to us all.
There’s a head-cold working its way through our team, so please pray for health and strength. We miss you all, but really feel that God is using us in a mighty way.