CHE!

Over the past month the IDAT Community Health Evangelism (CHE) team has had the privilege of meeting with the leaders and churches of 8 different villages to share the CHE vision, and to gather information about the communities’ attitudes and resources. Every single village has begged us to please come back and start the CHE program! The very first chief we met said that what his people needed the most was Jesus, so he was excited to hear that sharing the gospel and discipling believers is a key component of the CHE program. We have heard many encouraging stories during our community visits. For example the Christians of our church plant, Calvary Chapel Warrak, were so moved by the suffering of people in their community they started a special church garden in addition to their own personal gardens. Every few weeks the people from the church would gather together to plant, weed and harvest sorghum and peanuts. Then they built a shelter for storing the crops in, and distributed the harvest to widows and needy people in their community.

In the village of Bobi, where there was no school for local children, Pastor Pasquelo, who was trained by Sabet and graduated in 2012 from IDAT Bible school, has volunteered his time during the week to run a small village school under a large tree. His only resources are a blackboard and chalk!

It is awesome to witness the fruit of our ministry in these remote villages. One transformed life can transform an entire community! That is where CHE is so powerful. It teaches ministry is about relationships, which are more important than having all the latest equipment and right facilities. Simply take what God has provided you with and be the best steward you can be, no matter how small the resources or insignificant you feel, give it to the Lord and allow Him to use you and bless you! It is awesome to see the initiative of a few CHE champions being so blessed by God. They get it…they are more blessed to give than to receive. They are not waiting for us to make a difference with their people, they are making the difference themselves. They are the future of South Sudan that can transform this politically messy country into a nation that glorifies God. We are working with 10 potential villages for future CHE centers. We are praying for 10 supporting churches in USA to ‘adopt’ a CHE village and commit to praying for their leaders, elders, chief, CHE volunteers and CHE committee. Please email us if you are interested in more information about adopting a village.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
–Mark 10:45

Visiting Friends!

Our family was blessed to take some much needed time together to visit Troy and Jeamette Lock in Idaho. Jeamette served IDAT as the stateside coordinator for 13 years. This was followed by a visit to Montana to spend time with Amanda, who was a mission pilot in Africa with AIM AIR and medevac’d us when Matoch (7 year old boy) was shot in 2010.

August, we are doing an East Coast drive up to Rochester and back. We’ll be visiting ministry partners and friends along the way. Please email us if you would like us to share with your church group or if you can offer us a place to overnight.

Security!

At the beginning of July, South Sudan marked it’s 5th anniversary whilst renewed fighting broke out in the capital city, Juba. Clashes resulted in many military and civilian casualties. The entire country has been on alert for the past month. Thankfully, Tonj has not experienced the violence and bloodshed but like all areas people are suffering from lack of medicine, food and supplies caused by the insecurity. Please pray!

Sabet’s Back!

After nine months of separation our family is happy to have Sabet back. We recognize the challenges our family face after such a long time apart and have prioritized spending quality time doing activities that will help us adjust quickly. Thank you for your prayers. We have a busy summer planned and we’re excited we’ll be together travelling and serving.

Our first really fun event was visiting our friends, the Alligood’s, in Orlando where we spent four days relaxing and catching up after 9 years. They kindly arranged for us to go to Universal Studios for free!

Sabet just returned from 9 days in California where he attended the Calvary Chapel Pastor’s Conference. He visited our sending church, Horizon Christian Fellowship in Rancho Santa Fe. Pastor Bob encouraged him and introduced him to Will Graham, the grandson of Billy Graham, what a blessing! The pastor’s conference was a time to sit, be spiritually fed and refreshed in the Lord. Sabet travelled with one of our board members, Dr. David Pierce. A BIG thank you to those who hosted Sabet and David. They enjoyed times of fellowship and meals with many of you, thank you!!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30

Measles and More!

June and July are our toughest months in the medical clinic in Tonj. Many contributing factors cause this particular season to be more challenging but it’s mostly due to the clinic being understaffed while our team rotate to take rest. Another factor is the high number of patients seen can jump from 100 to over 200 people every day. This is mainly due to increased malaria cases in the rainy season. This year we have the added challenges of displaced people, lack of food and a measles outbreak. Despite this we have only lost one patient to measles and God has expanded our team and provided cover for our team rotation.

Please pray for God’s hand on our team, each patient we treat, for His healing power, love, mercy and grace to be poured out in abundance over every day we serve and that our team would be effective in communicating His love and grace through good deeds and sharing the truth of the gospel.

Church Plants!

Before leaving South Sudan, Sabet was able to meet with the pastors and elders of four churches we planted in villages near to Tonj. He got to hear the awesome work God is doing among these faithful servants and through their churches. They shared about the tough times they were going through, how they are hated and persecuted for their faith but this makes them more determined to faithfully continue in worship and service to God in their villages. The testimonies they came with were really encouraging and evidence of the fruit that comes from a Spirit led church. Please visit our blog at blog.indeedandtruth.org to read a full testimony of these stories.

Please pray for Calvary Chapel Tonj and for the churches and pastors in and around our area. God is doing an amazing work and we are excited to see Him moving in the hearts of His Saints. Pray the message of Agape love would fill hearts and replace the hate and retaliation that Dinka’s have towards each other.

We Made It!

We have been back a month from our trip to South Sudan and many of you know Mama Sabet went to be with the Lord. She was an amazing lady who had battled with cancer for the past year. Our family are so blessed and comforted by many of you sending us encouraging words and messages. God’s timing was so perfect for Suzy, Hannah and Rosa to visit, with Mama passing away the day before they left Africa.

Mama’s new beginning meant a new beginning for our family as we fulfilled our promise to her to love and care for her 14 grandchildren by stepping up our support for them. It is so comforting to be part of God’s family, I feel safe, secure, loved, accepted and provided for. Mama was really asking us to do that for these precious ones.  So our goal is to find sponsors for all of them so we can provide a safe and loving home, send them to school and meet their basic needs for food and clothing. Thank you for standing with us to meet this need.  We have half the kids sponsored already.

Here is Hannah with her 14 cousins (and a few extra’s who couldn’t miss a chance to pose with Hannah). All the children have a very special place in our hearts. For information on sponsorship, email Rosa at info@indeedandtruth.org.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” – 1 Peter 1:3-5

CHE!

art of CHE (Community Health Evangelism) is teaching the Word in the villages using a method of bible storying called ‘Simply the Story’ (STS).  An area we outreach to, called Pagol, recently received its third STS training with 28 people, representing five churches, in attendance. Our pastors spent 3 days strengthening and encouraging these church leaders who are using STS in their programs.

Pastor Santino shared a testimony of a lady who attended this workshop. Since her previous training, Sarah Alual memorized the story of Jesus and the storm while being on the boat. Sarah then went from home to home in her neighborhood and told the story to her neighbor and as a crowd gathered to listen to her, five people came forward to receive the Lord as Savior as a result. That’s what you call transformational ministry! This is our heart and so exciting to witness South Sudanese being used by God to minister His love to their own people.

God is Faithful!

We have seen a few IDP’s (internally displaced people) in Tonj and one family got our attention. The seven year old daughter was severely malnourished and her 2 year old sister was refusing to open her eyes, possibly as a result of measles.

We sent out an email prayer request and Dr. Jono shared in devotion about the power of God to heal. Our entire clinic staff laid hands on Abuk and finally, after 1 month she is opening her eyes and seeing. Her family were so excited to show us God answered our prayers and our South Sudanese staff were so blessed to witness the power of our healing God first hand.

We are blessed to be a part of a power and a work that is greater than us, it’s about Jesus only. Please pray as Sabet returns to USA this month. Pray for our family as we transition back into life together after 9 months of separation. Pray for Dr. Tom as he leaves for 2 months to cover our team while they rotate for their break. Pray for the Wilson’s as they travel to Europe to attend a family wedding and for the Macleod family as they hold the fort during this challenging rainy season. We are already experiencing high patient numbers due to malaria.

The Macleods Return!

Steve and Larne Wilson arrived along with the Macleod family and Jono’s youngest brother Anthony. All are from New Zealand and we are excited for the vision the Lord has given us for this next year of serving together in South Sudan.

Churches Adopt CHE!

CHE (Community Health Evangelism) is a big topic on our agenda and the Macleods really want to be involved in helping that program to keep going in the villages. We have 10 CHE centers around the Tonj area and we are praying for 10 supporting churches to each ‘adopt’ a center and commit to pray for our CHE program in that village. As we link our partnering churches with these villages our hope is that they can visit, get involved, train CHE’s and make key relationships on the ground building on those relationships year after year. Our team will spend the next few months collecting data from the clinic patients about the challenges and needs the community are facing in their homes as well as recording which villages do not have churches etc. This will help us determine the direction our CHE program should go and the areas we should reach out to first. From there we plan to start with three villages that we believe the Lord will clearly show us. We are planning a Training of Trainers (TOT1) 5 day workshop for our entire South Sudan team and if you’d be interested in learning more about CHE, attending a TOT1 training and receiving your TOT1 certificate we welcome you to join us. You can contact us for info.

God is Working Here!

Meet Yar Achol and her son Chol. Our pastors met her in the clinic when she came out of total desperation.

She had visited over 10 witch-doctors to get healing for her son, of which none worked and she run out of things to sell, so the Lord brought her to our clinic. Our doctors suspect the child has hydrocephalus. Surgery is not available in South Sudan and without it he may die. We shared with Achol about Jesus and she believes He brought her to us. After much counsel she decided to ask Jesus to be her Savior. Since praying the child has not had any seizures which were a regular occurrence. She said she now has peace and is not afraid of what will happen to Chol.

“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” – Psalm 46:10

The Container Arrived!

PRAISE GOD! The much awaited container has finally arrived safely in Tonj. It was a troubled journey, starting with port strikes in Los Angeles, corrupt customs control in Kenya, more delays at the Uganda border waiting for calculations and payments of import duty to South Sudan and then it was in storage for the past nine months in Juba due to the rainy season, poor road conditions and erupting insecurity. It finally left as part of a UN convoy to ensure added safety on the road for the shipping company.

It arrived here in Tonj the last week of February things damaged and missing but most of the important items made it to us. We are so grateful to everyone who donated items for our house, the medical clinic and for the compound. As we unpack we are praising God for each item and thanking Him for the person that gave it.

“It is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’” – Luke 4:8

It is interesting to me that our family has not been able to return to South Sudan and the entire time we have been ‘stuck’ in USA, our house in South Sudan was ‘stuck’ between building phases, mostly due to insecurity. With the containers arrival we can now complete the final phase of building and when our family returns we will have a ‘new’ home to move into.

Clinic Testimony!

Eight months ago, in the middle of the night, Angelina Arop walked an hour, breathing though every contraction, just as she had been shown during her pre-natal check-ups. This time it wasn’t a rehearsal, she was in full labor and hoping to make it to In Deed and Truth Ministries’ medical clinic. Our professional medical team were ready for her and after much encouragement and prayer, Angelina safely delivered her baby girl, Adut. Clinic chaplain, Pastor Judah prayed with her and shared with her about trusting her child in the Lord’s care. He reminded her to get vaccinated and to bring the child to us and not a witchdoctor should she have any health concerns.

Recently, Angelina noticed a deformity in her child and on seeing one of our community health workers (CHW) in the market, she asked him about it. CHW Emmanuel Akol encouraged her to bring the baby to the medical clinic. Dr. Tom, clinical officer Simon and Snr. Nurse Annie, who assisted in her delivery, checked Adut and all agreed she needed an immediate surgery. The government hospital has recently started performing surgeries in Tonj and were able to help her. The surgery was successful and she returned to our clinic a week later to thank God for his protection. She explained she would have gone to the witchdoctor a year ago but now she trusted Jesus, and asked him to be her Savior!!

Suzy Going to Africa!

When I said goodbye to Sabet in August I had no idea it would be months before our family would be together again. After another lengthy phone call to immigration with the same “your case is under review”, I chose to officially become a Floridian! We can no longer put our lives on hold, our ministry needs are demanding our input and attention. So until Agum has her citizenship, we will commute as necessary to South Sudan. This April, I will be going to Tonj to see my husband, welcome a new family joining us for 6 months and possibly longer, spend time with the Macleod family and plan for their next term, work on reconciling the Africa book keeping, Lord willing spend time with Sabet’s mum and the children, find two full-time carers for the children, write profiles for each child and look for committed long term sponsors, sort through the container and give some input on finishing our house. It’s a lot of ‘stuff’ to do in only 4 weeks, so I am taking some helpers, my daughter Hannah (she’s so excited and I’m so proud that she has worked hard to raise her own support) and Rosa Ewing, who has recently joined our ministry stateside, and has a desire to understand all areas of our work so she can better serve the ministry. Please be in prayer for our trip, for security in country, for our health, for Jed and Agum as they remain in Florida and for all we need to accomplish in a short time.