The Container Arrived!

Yeah!!! Thank you for praying, yes, the container finally arrived after many delays. It’s here safely on our compound bringing medical equipment, much needed food, bibles and most importantly the solar equipment for the new clinic and ward. Amazingly nothing was missing. We praise God for His hand in delivering that container to us.

Please pray for Offgrid Tech’s solar team planning a trip in late October to install this equipment. If you would like to be part of that team and have some knowledge of solar power, please email: trips@indeedandtruth.org. We are looking for 2-3 people who can fund their trip, and spare 2-4 weeks to help with this installation, from late October to mid-November.  We can put you in touch with the team leader so you can ask questions and to see if it will be a good fit. We’ll put you in touch with the team leader so you can ask questions and see if this trip will be a good fit for both parties.

Isaiah 55:10-11 says, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Visitors Galore!

This year we have been blessed to receive many volunteers; making July our busiest month yet! Many of our new helpers are young adults, here for 6 months to serve the Lord and the people of South Sudan. It’s been so awesome for Hannah, Agum and Jed to have fellowship and ministry together with these amazing people. Molly is 20, from Utah, and helping the Macleods with homeschool as well as serving in the clinic. Paul is 18, from California and is helping with our media needs and medical clinic outreaches. Alleytia, is 26 and grew up in Africa as an MK. She’s a nurse from Australia and is serving on the ward. Pray for Danielle, she’s 17 and arrives in September to serve in the clinic.

Then we had the additional pleasure of welcoming back some very special people. Board member, Dr. Dave Pierce, Troy and Laura Willis from CA (Troy was on Suzy’s first trip to Tonj in 1999) and the McAlister Family from Eastgate Church in FL.

With so many volunteers we were able to host a workshop for Troy to share the gospel with the police dept, visit a CHE village, do a medical outreach, take food to the lepers’ colony, host a pastors conference and unload the container!!

They all were amazing, blessed us tremendously and left their mark on South Sudan. Pray for Molly, Paul, Alleytia and Danielle who are staying until December.

New CHE Village!

We are so excited to be launching CHE in three new villages. The CHE Committee from Kunyuk initiated a seed project to bless their community. They voluntarily cleared the way for a local well to be accessible for collecting water again.

Their example to serve selflessly is one that will hopefully inspire other villages to do the same. We thank God for touching their hearts and putting this desire in them to implement change and start making a better life for their families and community. Working together to transform lives, we love that!! That is CHE!! Please pray for all three villages, Kunyuk, Maloney and Ariam Duar.

God’s Provision!

This year we were able to purchase our much-needed solar power for our clinic and ward. Thank you to everyone who gave a donation to that fundraiser. The Lord touched so many people to help and this extra power will allow us to use better equipment and save more lives. With such an elaborate set-up, Sabet went to Missouri to the Missionary Training Center of Ethnos 360 and completed his Solar Electric Technician course, which has equipped him to install and maintain this new system safely.

The container carrying the new solar system arrived in South Sudan during our rainy season and is still on the road which has been washed out in several locations.

Please pray it arrives safely. Pray for Santino Kot, the IDAT staff escorting the container to Tonj.

CHE Committee Training!

It was an awesome blessing to bring the committees of the three new CHE villages, Maloney, Ariam Duar and Kunyuk together for a 2-day CHE committee training conference. Each community has selected 13 committee members who will oversee the program within their community. Training sessions included, importance of Wholistic health care, God’s vision of community, and various health and spiritual topics. Leaders from our established CHE programs in Guaria, Warrak and Bobi also came and shared testimonies of the huge impact CHE has had in their own villages, which was a great inspiration to the new trainees. We finished with a big feast of local delicacies and some loud passionate Dinka & Luo dancing!

Please pray that our final day of Committee training goes well later this month, and that the Holy Spirit will move powerfully to bring deep transformation to Maloney, Ariam Duar and Kunyuk. Pray for the Maloney church leaders Pastor Kharlo and elder Rebecca. They also oversee the new church plant in Ariam Duar. Pray also for Pastor Marko from Kunyuk. These pastors are part of our sponsorship program and still in need of support. To see their profiles, go to: https://pastors.indeedandtruth.org

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Testimony!

This is Ajak. She had a miscarriage at around two months gestation and began to bleed huge clots in the middle of the night. Thank God we had our volunteer nurse from Australia, Alleytia, who is serving with us for 6 months and overseeing the ward patients. When Alleytia arrived Ajak was shivering, damp, restless and in shock. Destinee has O negative blood and we have been able to save a few lives using her for blood transfusions. Alleytia took a pint of Destinee’s O neg blood out and began to drip it into Ajak. She placed a couple of large IV lines and also gave plenty of IV fluids. She then changed her into dry, warm clothes and prayed. Ajak’s blood pressure slowly crept up as did her temperature. She began to breathe more easily, and the shivering subsided.

Our team shared God’s love with her and valued her as Jesus values her, showing love in Deed and Truth.

Medicine Arrived!

What a tremendous blessing to be able to purchase medicine for an entire year, serving over 50,000 patients. A massive thank you to all our partners who give towards this critical need. It costs an average of $3.50 for every patient we treat. This medicine arrived just in time for our heavy malaria season, which runs from now until October.

We are particularly busy right now because government run facilities are striking and they have no medicine. Also, our reputation in the surrounding villages is growing and more and more women are coming for their antenatal care and delivery. This is very exciting; our maternity team have delivered 60 babies so far this month. Our ward has been bursting at the seams and we have added a few beds to accommodate the numbers. If you would like to partner with us in providing medical care to pregnant mothers and children under 5, please donate through our website and designate ‘Medical Clinic’. For less than $5 a patient you can provide life-saving treatment to impoverished families and help keep our clinic open 24 hours a day.

CHE!

Our Community Health Evangelism program is exploding. We are doubling our field activities to reach 6 villages in 2019. In the past we have mobilized teams to persuade villages that CHE is beneficial. But now, because of the testimony of how well our three current villages are doing, we have so many villages that want CHE. We have selected three villages that we feel are ready and this month we will begin the training of the committees that will oversee the program. This is usually elders of the village that are well respected.

Please pray for the new CHE villages of Maloney, Ariam Duar and Kunyuk. Ariam Duar is a recent church plant after Pastor Santino went there with the Jesus film. Because of the extreme poverty, and there is zero development, CHE will completely transform this village.

Jeremiah 32:38-40 says, “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.”

Testimony!

We want to share with you a testimony of God’s miraculous healing power. Mapet is an 11 year old boy who came to our clinic about two months ago after developing swellings in his neck and abdomen. Our hearts sank when we found rock hard masses the size of grapefruit as we immediately suspected cancer. We organized for him to travel to Juba for biopsy and confirmation of diagnosis, and laid hands to pray for healing.

Unbeknownst to us, he never went to Juba because his Uncle faced a series of unfortunate events which depleted the funds we had provided. Six weeks later, Mapet came to tell us that he never made it to Juba, but that God had completely healed the masses growing in his neck and abdomen. When we examined him we could find no evidence that these swellings had ever been there – such an exciting miracle for our team to witness!

Easter!

It was hard for our family not to be in South Sudan for Easter. But what a joy to see our national pastors and church leaders step up and lead the church though this special time of celebrating Jesus’ Resurrection.

Good Friday they marched to Freedom Square in the center of town and Pastor Muordek, one of the sponsor pastors and an elder of CC Tonj, shared the Gospel with the community and had a great response with several people receiving Christ as Savior.

We’re praising the Lord for record numbers of 1,500 people coming out for the CC Tonj Easter Sunday Service held on the IDAT compound.

Baptism!

After the Easter service everyone walked down to the river and witnessed the baptism of 42 people! What a special day to get baptized and show the world we are a NEW creation in Christ Jesus only made possible by His death and the shedding of His blood on the cross for our sin. A testimony of our faith in the Resurrection and promise of Eternal Life.

Do you remember little Mattiang, the brave boy who had his leg amputated last year? We are so excited, he also decided to be baptized!

“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”
– Colossians 2:11-12

Going Home!

Sabet, Agum and Jed arrived back in Tonj safely. Suzy is still dealing with insurance issues and planning to travel on May 29^th with Molly Dittmann.

This month our clinic has hit record number of inpatients already and we are not even in the height of the rainy season. Our 21-bed ward was overflowing this week with 24 patients! Please pray for our team as we deal with so many critically ill patients.

Praise God, we are ecstatic to announce the solar power fundraiser  has been fully funded! This means more children will receive the critical care they need.

Pray for Molly as she joins our team and serves the Macleod family, helping to homeschool their children so they can focus more on the medical clinic.

You can click or copy the link to read her story and help her reach her goal.  https://www.indeedandtruth.org/campaign.php?id=5

Kuj’s Stateside!

One of the first things we had to learn as missionaries is to be flexible! And this past month has tested us in this area as a family and ministry. We’ve changed flights and plans to allow us to be stateside a little longer to aide in recovery and deal with insurance following our recent road collision.

What started out as a spirit-filled, ministry road trip to visit supporting churches and partners in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, unexpectedly took a different path when another driver turned in an intersection without yielding, smashing straight into us!

Even though it was so scary, especially for the children, we are thankful that we were not seriously injured, and neither were the passengers in the other car. It’s a miracle we all just walked away. We were taken to the hospital for precaution and Suzy, who absorbed most of the impact, was given a CAT scan, which showed no internal injury. In the hospital we both felt this was a spiritual battle and we should continue as planned, visiting partners and churches. Battered and bruised we rented a car and continued on the journey. The next day we received word our beloved pet dog of 9 years, Uchi, was sick in Tonj. Very quickly her condition deteriorated, and she died. We had already reached a point of desperation after the crash, the kind of desperation that says, STOP… PRAY!! And as we reached out through Instagram and Facebook, that’s exactly what many of you did. Stopped and prayed with us. The team effort to cover our family in corporate prayer throughout that week was so powerful and we are so thankful.

“I sought the Lord in my day of trouble.
My hands were continually lifted up
all night long.” Psalm 77:2

Sabet, Agum and Jed are now planning to travel back to Africa at the end of April. Suzy and Hannah will travel with a volunteer a few weeks after that.

Please pray as Suzy gets continued treatment and heals from her injuries and as we work through the insurance issues.

New Church Plant!

For the past 10 years we have been ministering in a village called Maloney, through medical clinic outreaches, which led to a church plant. We have chosen Maloney to be our 4^th CHE (Community Health Evangelism) village. A couple of weeks ago Pastor Santino and Dr. Jono went to Maloney to encourage the church and visit with Pastor Kharlo. When they got there, they found another church visiting from a village called Ariam Duar, around 10km from Maloney. A month back Pastor Santino went and showed the Jesus film in Ariam Duar, and the village were very excited to learn about Jesus. At the end Santino preached, and 50 people accepted Christ. Since then they have been meeting each Sunday for church under a tree and have two young men that they have selected as church leaders for pastoral training.

Ps. Santino with the New Church

The people there are in extreme poverty, and there is zero development – the closest borehole is 10 km away in Maloney, so the people are drinking dirty water from a shallow well. When Santino and Jono visited there were around 80 people all worshipping God as they arrived, and it was such a beautiful sight! Next time Pastor Santino visits he will take them some solar audio bibles, so they can start bible study listening groups to learn more about Jesus.

Prayer Requests!

*Pray for our quick healing so we can get back to South Sudan.
*Pray for Molly Dittman. She will travel with Suzy and serve for 6 months as a homeschool teacher to the Macleod children.
*Pray for our pastors, we still have a few needing sponsorships.
*Pray for the new church plant in Ariam Duar.