Kathryn Lewis

Thoughts on life and death

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I held a brand new baby in my arms the other night. A new life, one that God chose to give. How perfectly crafted he was – and rightly so, for his mother is beautiful. All her years, all her hard work, the nine other children she gave birth to, none of these had decreased the beauty God gave her when he created her. Her husband clearly had taste, for his other wife was similarly tall and beautiful. She spent the whole night with her “sister wife”, and I’ll never forget the look of wonder in her eyes as she watched me wash the tiny form of her stepson (stepson? Is that right?). A valuable experience for her, because in her womb another life was growing, and in a few months, it is her child that I will carefully wash.

 

We named him Zebulun, after Jacob’s 10th son. I say “we”, but I didn’t really have any part in the naming. The team did – nine people who came on a short-term mission trip from the Rancho del Rey church in California. Their coming brought new life as well… new life to them, many of whom had never left their comfort behind. It brings a fresh spirit to you, to see more of the world that God has made, and more of the people for whom He died. You know this, if you’ve ever done it. Their coming brought new life to us, who begin to grow weary in doing good; their joy, their wide-eyed innocence, their sweetness, their willingness to do whatever the Lord says; they ministered to me, for I know that a month ago I was in their shoes, and I hope I brought a freshness to those who were here before.

 

Each member of the team gave his or her testimony in staff devotions as the week went by. And one by one the messages the Holy Spirit had lain on their hearts, the experiences through which He had brought them, ministered to the men and women who work in this ministry. And one morning, they gave an invitation, and for the three people who responded, new life began. I praise God! I want to dance, and caper, and laugh, and sing; for in heaven, the angels are doing so, and I want to join them. For three new siblings, who would not do the same?

 

Psalm 104:30 says that when God breathes, life is created, and He renews the face of the earth. The previous verse talks about the other end of the cycle, for when He takes away their breath, they die and return to dust. The team left, their time here came to an end. One day I will leave, and I’ll have to face what they’re facing now, a return to the normal life; to the temptation to care for comfort, to resist the call to prayer, to worry about what I will eat and drink and wear, to desire to accumulate things and ignore people. I pray this experience will never die, but will keep bearing fruit, bringing life.

 

I held a baby in my hands the other day, but this one was not brand new. “Macerated stillbirth” is the technical term; she died before she ever came into the world. She was almost perfect, but not quite, though her mother, Gongich, is beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that as Kate examined her earlier that day, I was just staring at her face; I sketched her profile in an idle moment, while Kate searched for a heartbeat she would never find. All the platitudes, all the spiritual band-aids come to mind; the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. They filled my head as I wrapped her still, soft body in a blanket and put it aside to give to Gongich’s family to bury later. I would never put a live baby aside like that.

 

Ecclesiastes 7:13: Consider what the Lord has done; who can straighten what He has made crooked? I certainly can’t; there was nothing I could have done to save that child. But I couldn’t have made her either, couldn’t have crafted those pink toes or that soft hair. And I trust the God who made her, who made Zebulun, the One who orders life and death. I remind myself of the truth: that He is good, that He is just, that He is loving. And then I look around, and there is evidence all around me: in the family that rallied to Gongich’s side; in Sabet, who prayed for her in a language I don’t understand; in her ability to continue to smile.

 

 I don’t fear my own death; my family knows that when I die, I want my funeral to be a party; rejoice  for me, because I’ll be in heaven. So I rejoice for Gongich’s daughter, that she got to skip the burdens of this life and go straight into the Father’s arms. Sometimes I’m tempted to be jealous of her. But no, life isn’t all burden. Though she never had to battle with sin, neither did she feel the wonder of learning that her sins are already paid for. So I’ll just carry on, hoping that I can continue to help in the Father’s work, that I can see others come to know that wonder: God loves me, and died for me! Wow! His death has brought so much life. For every stillborn child I hold in my hands, I’ll also get to hold a live, crying Zebulun. And everyone I see come to new life in Christ will never lose that life. And best of all: in heaven, there will be no more death.

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.
Rancho Del Rey Church

Stacie in Sudan!

Hi everyone! Stacie here. Or, Yar as I am known here. I still can’t believe I am writing you from Sudan, Africa. I had one of those “I am in Africa right now” moments earlier in the day. I’ll get to that in a minute. For starters, I’ll let you know what we did. Because our first two days in Tonj were so hectic and because the next few days will be also, we did not do Kids Games today. Today we just worked in the compound. Breakfast was at 8:00. We had these yummy donut thingys. I can’t remember their name. Then, at 8:30, we had devotions with the compound staff. Sheena led devotions today. She gave her testimony and shared Proverbs 3:5,6. She did a great job.
After devotions, most of us went off to the pharmacy. We did an inventory of all the medications and supplies they have. It was a big project and it took a long time. We worked from 9:30 to 2:00 and still weren’t done. Matt and Todd taught the pastors. Today they discussed relationships with wives. Their culture is very different. How do you tell these men to love their wive(s) when they didn’t marry for love? Its strictly a business transaction. So Matt said, you need to love them like Christ loves the church. Someone asked, when I show love to one of my wives, the others get mad, what do I do? Matt couldn’t say, “you should only have one wife, divorce the others.” We can’t encourage them to abandon their wives and kids. So, he focused on teaching them to instruct the next generation to only having one wife. The cultural differences are huge, to say the least.
At 2:00, we had lunch, which was PB & J sandwiches. After lunch we went back to the pharmacy to keep working. A little later, the time came to begin dinner preparations. In this case, dinner was a goat. Sheena volunteered to kill it… and she did. While we don’t think it’s wrong, Amy and I did not want to hear it, see it or meet the goat before it died. We waited in the pharmacy while the deed was done. A little while later, a few of the pastors taught us to sing a Dinka song. It was really fun to learn it and sing it with them. I wrote it down phonetically so I could sing it, but I’m sure it looks nothing like the real words. Our goal is to sing it at RdR…. We’ll see….!
After that, the pastors began dancing. This is when I had one of my “I’m really in Africa” moments. It was exactly what I would expect tribal dancing to be: singing, stomping feet, kicking up dirt, sticks and jumping around. After a bit, some of the guys jumped in and then Sheena! I stuck to dancing with the kids on the sidelines. Everyone laughed when they danced. It seems everything we do is funny to them! The dancing went on for a while. Then once it was over, we stayed and talked with them for a bit. Here is how a lot of my conversations went: Are you married? No. Why? God hasn’t brought me my husband yet. If you were in Sudan, you would be married, God will bring you your husband in Sudan. At this point I laughed nervously. Then one guy said, do you agree to get married in Sudan? I said, no I have to get married at home. It was really funny. Some guys asked how many cows it would take to marry Sheena!
For dinner we had an African meal: goat, kale type stuff, beans and tortilla thingys. All my thingys have a name, but I just can’t recall them. For my friends and family, yes I tried everything! So, that’s a wrap up of today. This trip has been amazing, overwhelming, filled with joy, filled with tears. There is too much to write about here (plus I am out of room!). Words cannot express how much strength God has given me. I have been stretched in so many ways. It is awesome to be here, relying on Him to get me through the day. My favorite thing I have done so far was washing the hands of the kids at Kids Games. They put their handprints on a banner with paint and I got to clean them off. It was a special time to connect and serve the kids, praying for them while I did so. I can’t wait to get home and tell you all about the things we have done, all I have experienced, and how God is working in our lives and the lives of the people in Sudan.

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