Dear family and friends,

Thanks for your prayers for our journey to Africa – boy did we need them! It was over 30 sleepless hours from when we left our accommodation in Brisbane, to when we arrived at the mission house in Nairobi.

Bryan you certainly have a God given gift for building relationships with people in positions of influence, and it was great to see you in action at Brisbane airport. For those of you who don’t know we had a bunch of top notch medical equipment donated last week for IDAT including an oxygen concentrator, portable ultrasound (good for outreaches), fetal doppler, ECG machine, and 4 monitoring devices. Toshiba also gave us a top of the range $60,000 ultrasound machine which is 2 years old for only $5,000 (which Mahu Pressy and a Tauranga church paid for) – this will be awesome for obstetric care in Tonj. However our airline wanted to charge us $51/kg for this medical equipment – $2500!!! Our multiple calls to the airline for an exemption on charitable grounds were totally rejected. But then Bryan got onto the case, and many phone calls and emails later we were talking to the manager at Thai airlines in Brisbane called Steve. Well for some unknown reason Steve decided he loved us (I suspect Bryan built us up to be modern day Mother Teresas, but parents are allowed to do these things), and not only did he personally check in our 13 items of luggage, and ‘approve’ our oversized and overweight hand luggage, and call ahead to Bangkok to ensure that they didnt try to charge any excess fees, but he also allocated us 2 whole rows to ourselves on the first seats behind business class, and gave us free tickets to the business class lounge where we were able to relax and eat heaps of free food while waiting for our plane. We knew this was favor from God due to the prayers of friends, family, and the IDAT support team (thanks for sending out that email to everyone Suzy).

However when we boarded the plane we descended pretty quickly from the ‘mountain of the Lord’ to the ‘valley of despair’! The 9hrs to Bangkok, 4hrs in transit, then 9hrs to Nairobi were definitely the most stressful of the past year. Zoe did pretty well, as long as she was eating and drinking junk, and her cartoon marathon was not interrupted, she was happy (usual rules out the window!). But poor Ellisha just couldnt sleep, couldnt feed, and couldn’t stop crying. We would have felt sorry for the other passengers on the plane, but Ellisha’s cries were echoing so loudly in our ears that we weren’t capable of thinking of anyone else. It was hard to know whether to just keep torturing the people sitting around us, or to take her on laps around the plane (which also settled her slightly) to spread the misery amongst everyone. At times we had to have 5 minute cycles of holding Ellisha so that during the 5 minutes off we could pray and regain our sanity!

However in the scope of life it was only a day, and the plane did finally land in Nairobi, and immigration and customs were both super kind to us. So shortly after we arrived we were picked up by an IDAT staff member (thanks for arranging this Sabet & Suzy), and off to bed in the mission house.

Now that we are all rested again and with the perspective that hindsight brings, we are actually thankful that God allowed us to go through this horrible valley experience, as it has been a great reminder of our limitations and weakness. It is almost hilarious to think that we were travelling on the planes to become missionaries, and yet were the most weak and pathetic people on the plane! But what a great reminder to us that actually this is the truth every day – we are weak, and sinful, and very very human – but Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness. When we are weak, then we are strong. We are definitely not modern day mother Teresas! But we serve a loving and merciful God, and we are very excited to be going to share this love and mercy that we have received with the people of South Sudan.

Love you all heaps, and thanks for your prayers and support

Jono & Destinee.

Save the Date!

Our Prayer Walk is back!! Mark your calendars for Saturday November 1, 2014 from 10am – 2pm. If you are in Southern California, we invite you to join us at the Del Mar Surf Station for a time of fun and fellowship as we celebrate all the Lord has done over the past 2 years. We will walk along the beach and lift up prayers together for South Sudan, asking the Holy Spirit for wisdom, favor and provision. This is a fundraiser and we ask you to invite neighbors, family and friends to ‘sponsor’ your participation in the walk. This year we hope to raise $75,000 to start another 3 year discipleship school for 50 indigenous pastors. This class will begin in February 2015.

In 2012 we graduated 13 pastors from our previous class. Pastor Judah is a full-time chaplain for In Deed and Truth’s medical clinic; Pastor Joseph is an evangelist showing the Jesus film on his bicycle and has planted 5 churches; Pastor Santino planted and pastors a church full-time in our outreach village of Maloney; Pastor David broadcasts Dinka messages on Christian radio. The remaining 9 pastors have churches all over Warrap state with as many as 500 people per church. We see the fruit of the seeds sown from this class and can’t wait to see how the Lord will work through this new class.

“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” – Colossians 1:10

We are in need of teachers and one year interns to help with this class – contact us.

The Macleod Family!

Missionaries Jono and Destinee Macleod are joining In Deed and Truth Ministries to serve as medical doctors. They are from New Zealand and have two young daughters, Zoe 2 ½ and Ellisha 7 months.

They both graduated from Auckland medical school in 2008. Jono works mostly with pediatrics and Destinee mostly in obstetrics and gynecology.

Although they grew up in different parts of NZ, they both experienced the call to be medical missionaries at the age of 10. In 2012 they spent a year volunteering at Tenwek Mission Hospital in Kenya. During that year God broke their hearts for South Sudan. In Deed and Truth has partnered with Tenwek over the years so they visited us for a week and sensed the Spirit nudging them to join our team. Through much prayer and seeking the Lord’s will, their burden for South Sudan just grew stronger and stronger and a year after their visit they approached us about serving with In Deed and Truth.

Everyone is so excited they are coming and our only sadness is Suzy and the kids will not be ‘in country’ for their arrival. Having raised our children from babies in South Sudan we fully understand the challenges they face coming with their little ones. We ask you to pray for the protection of their health, especially from malaria. They arrive in Nairobi on September 13th and move to South Sudan on September 22nd.

Sabet is Leaving!

That’s right! At least one of our family can leave for Africa. Sabet will be sworn in as a US citizen on September 17th and fly to South Sudan on September 20th. He arrives in Nairobi Kenya late Sunday night and joins the charter to Tonj early the following morning.

This travel itinerary needs a lot of prayer. First he has to get his US passport within 2 days of being sworn in. We were told this is possible but not guaranteed. Then he must make all his connections in order to get to Nairobi before the charter leaves. There is not room for a dealy or missed flight!

We are so excited he will be able to travel with the Macleod family to make sure they are welcomed and have everything they need. This has been our greatest burden about being delayed in USA. Even though we have made our plans we understand the Lord is the one to direct our steps.

Prayer Requests!

• Pray many would be generous with their time and money, come out for the prayer walk, and be an amazing witness in the community of Del Mar.
• Pray for the Macleods as they adjust to the heat and challenges of South Sudan.
• Pray for Dr. Tom as he returns from his summer break and rejoins the team in Tonj.
• Pray for Dr. Jan’s re-entry process in the Netherlands. He was covering Tom this summer.
• Pray for favor for Sabet’s travel plans.
• Pray for one year interns and bible teachers to volunteer in 2015.
• Continue to pray for Agum’s immigration process.

So my time in Tonj, South Sudan has come to an end. I am amazed at how much God has taught me in the last 3 months. I stand in awe as I think of all the miracles He performed. While I was there I was able to do many things in the clinic. My favorite was working with the babies. There were nights that I stayed up to watch them and nights I stayed up praying for all of our patients. There were patients that came in to our clinic that I couldn’t believe were still living let alone that they would live to see another day. Some I resigned myself to think that they wouldn’t make it. But God had other plans as He reminded me of His mighty power again and again. As I prayed with many patients and many families my heart would break for those who lost loved ones and for those who were watching their loved ones suffer. God opened doors through the prayer and work of In Deed and Truth for us to minister to the patients and families that came in. Sometimes it was hard for me to talk to them because I didn’t speak their language but God used things as simple as a comforting touch or a hand to hold to show His love and give His comfort. We also had pastors sharing bible stories while our patients waited and our Community Health Workers talking to them about general ways to prevent sickness. One of our pastors goes into different villages and shows the Jesus film. I could see God using all of these things to draw the people of Tonj closer to Him. God has also used this time to draw me closer to Him as I was far from home and as things that came up that broke my heart or made me sad I was able to find comfort in Him and know His plan is so much better than mine. I made many new friendships in Tonj and it was hard to leave, but like I just said Gods plans are so much better than mine.

Love, Stephanie

Malaria in South Sudan stills the number one killer, especially among infants and children. One way to combat this fatal disease is through using treated Mosquito nets, In our clinic in Tonj we see a huge number of patients with malaria, 90% of the 100 and plus patients we see daily is malaria. The other issue it’s the same patients with the same problem of Malaria we see more than 2 times a month, the medication are very good, we use Coartem (Artemether. Lumefantrine) one of the best malaria drug. So we suspected the issue to be in something else, from our lab and our CHE program we discover the issues are people habits and awareness more than curing and anything else. We do have a Community health Education (CHE) program here in TONJ that takes place in the community through home visit and dialogue about diseases and prevention, one of the Topic that is discussed is treated Mosquito nets, use and benefits. We also discuss that in our daily health talk during the clinic work hours, especially in the morning. We have seen a great interest from the homes we visit in our community and from patients that come to our compound, Not because we talk about the only, but we believe because we have put value in the , what Mosquito net I mean we didn’t give the MN away for free, we have asked them to pay a montery value that will give value to the Mosquito nets and I CAN SAY IT WAS VERY SUCCESSFUL. In the past people look down on the this type of Mosquito net, they have even nicked name it Makuien Akol meaning the bright face Bull of the day, they mean people see you through the net very clearly even at night time. No privacy, everyone hate it specially the adults and couples. Now they have a better understanding of the use and why treated one are very good, therefore they have better value to these Mosquito Nets. The price is asked of them for one mosquito net is half the price in the market. For example if its 15 ssp we asked 7ssp. And in no time they were all gone. We have made sure it didn’t end up at the hand of the traders, we have limited the quantity that one person can get and also we made sure to target Mothers and children, weather in clinic , homes we visit or the villages. We also serve outside villages like Malony where we have satellite clinic. Beside the home visit and the clinic distribution, we recently received street children that were collected and brought to Tonj from Wau. ( the second largest city in South Sudan), we have given Mosquit nets to them, about 54 children and 15 adults caretakers for the children. This group were sleeping no nets no matteres just a Tarp pastic sheet on the floor. More than 350 Mosquito nets that we were able to give and These Mosquito net are one of the best ones many people confirmed that, they have seen many bugs that are dead by the time they are ready to go under it. To sleep.

MAF has donated all the Mosquito net, KeA one of MAF missionaries who was station in Juba, Through MAF Sweden arrange for all these treated Mosquito nets to be donated to people of Tonj.

This is one of the best gifts people can receive in this season of rain, flood and Mosquitos. More than 250 house holds that has received at-least one Mosquito nets.

Thank you MAF and Thank you KeA!