Happy Healthy Homes!

The ‘Happy Healthy Home’ initiative is part of our CHE program. CHE is continuing to gain momentum in the villages of Bobi, Warrak & Guaria. Over the past few weeks our team have visited several hundred homes of CHE participants as part of our ‘Happy Healthy Home’ competition between the villages. We encourage CHE families to implement changes in the home to make a Happy Healthy Home and receive a certificate. They are evaluated on eight physical components, like child vaccination, sleeping under mosquito nets and using a tippy tap for hand washing. They are also evaluated on seven spiritual components like being part of a bible study, and able to share their testimony.

We were so blessed to see so many homes having implemented all 15 criteria! Warrak won the award for the most completed Happy Healthy Homes, and Bobi for the most participating homes (almost the whole village!). Over the coming weeks we’ll be having feasts in these villages to celebrate their achievements.

 “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” – Psalm 127:1

Maternal Waiting Home!

South Sudan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, and one of the key contributors is women giving birth in remote villages without any skilled health attendant or way of getting help if there are complications.

Our medical clinic has a thriving Antenatal program but a lot of the women who attend our clinic come from villages miles away for their check-ups so they don’t come back during labor. Thankfully, we can predetermine those women with high risk through ultrasound and advise them accordingly.

Last year, Dr. Destinee Macleod proposed we start a small maternal waiting home for women with high risk pregnancies living in remote areas so they can stay in their final weeks of pregnancy and have a safe birth.

The maternal waiting home is a hut big enough for the entire family to come so children can stay with the mother. It is built on our land so the mother can be monitored closely and attended to in labor.

In March, Achut along with her husband and daughter arrived to stay in the home. They had lost their two previous children, and scans showed potential complications in this pregnancy.  Achut gave birth safely to her first son at our clinic, and she named him Richard after our missionary who passed away in March while building our new Maternity & Pediatrics ward here in Tonj.

Volunteer Short Term Missionaries!

One of the ways God is using short-term missionaries is through training programs. These vitally needed trainings can only happen when we have the extra help. This year we have volunteer STM from March up until October. Amy Nilsson is a nurse from New Zealand and was here last year for 5 months and staying 4 months this year.

She has been training our new Community Health Workers, none of which have been through any formal training. She set out some learning objectives and ran a training workshop teaching them key skills they need for working in the clinic; setting up infusions, giving injections, wound dressings, assessing patients and recognizing a deteriorating child. They were all very eager to learn.

Email us for more information on volunteering short-term.

Please pray for us as we enter into the busy malaria season.

Medicine Arrived!

Every year, before the heavy rains start, we truck thousands of dollars of medicine from Kenya to South Sudan. This enables our clinic to stay open year-round and provide lifesaving medicine to pregnant mothers and children.

Last year we saw over 40,000 patients and this year we expect the number to rise. During the rainy season from May to October, we see increased numbers of malaria patients sometimes over 300 in one day! It only costs $5 per patient to cover the running costs of our medical clinic, which includes year-round medicine supplies and staff.  EVERY patient hears the gospel, and many receive Christ through our three full-time chaplains who offer counseling and prayer.

God has called us and entrusted to us this amazing work for His Kingdom and His Glory. We know He owns it all and we’re the instruments He is using to accomplish wonderful things here in Tonj. When God directs us to share the needs of this ministry we take that responsibility seriously trusting the Spirit to stir hearts in response. As you pray for our ministry this month, please pray if this is an area the Lord is directing you to be involved in. We currently have 52% of our monthly needs met by fully invested financial partners. This is an opportunity for you to join us in furthering His Kingdom!

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” – Psalm 24:1

CHE in Bobi!

This past year you have helped us establish CHE in three remote villages. Community Health Evangelism (CHE) is thriving and every week we are hearing testimony after testimony of lives being transformed through CHE.  Our villages are currently working on getting their “Healthy Happy Home” certificates. Bobi homes are digging pit latrines which in turn will reduce the spread of diseases.

By supporting our CHE training you are saving lives in three remote villages in one of the poorest countries in the world. We believe CHE is working effectively because we have you, our amazing prayer partners, covering this program and we know that prayer changes lives. Hundreds of people are coming to know Jesus as their personal Savior. Churches have been planted and are growing dramatically. Household incomes have increased, death in young children has decreased. Instead of turning to witchcraft to solve their problems they are turning to Jesus. He is answering prayers for healing, protection, and provision. This is what CHE is about, focusing on preventing problems while growing in Spirit and Truth. Join us in praising God for the fruit of our CHE program!

A New Smile!

It’s so awesome to see the body of Christ working hand in hand to bring a new smile and more importantly a new hope to people born with a cleft lip. A volunteer medical team from Samaritan’s Purse notified us they would be in Juba repairing cleft lips in April and if we could register any patients that have a need, they would send an airplane to pick them up, do the surgery in Juba and drop them back to Tonj a few days later. This is the third time we have partnered with Samaritan’s Purse to transform lives through cleft lip surgery.

Almost all people born with any kind of disfigurement in South Sudan are considered cursed, they are often shamed, shunned by their peers and abused. Over 20 patients were sent to Juba and treated. This is a new beginning for them physically, socially and spiritually as they return home with a new smile.

He Is Risen!

Easter is one of our favorite times of year when we celebrate our Risen Lord and hold a large baptism. Rosa, our stateside coordinator, was visiting us along with her daughter Katherine and son-in-law, Alex. The week was jam packed with celebrations and outreaches.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” – John 11:25

This year our celebrations started in our compound on Good Friday. We hosted our church and the IDAT family for an evening service where Sabet gave a message and an altar call.

We closed with breaking bread together, followed by a viewing of The Passion of the Christ movie. We estimated over 500 attended.

Easter Sunday!

Easter Sunday was filled with fun, dancing, singing and an Easter egg hunt for the Sunday school.

Three of our church plants came together to celebrate Easter. I love the way they abandon themselves in worship and praise. You can see our short videos of the singing and dancing on Instagram at @idatsudan.

Baptism!

After church we all came back to the IDAT compound for the baptisms. Sabet and Pastor Santino baptized 56 people.

Easter Monday!

One of the things we love to do is an outreach to the lepers colony. This year we cooked a meal for them and distributed dry food as a gift from our church. The CC Tonj ladies along with our volunteers helped with the cooking and serving.

There are over 40 families living in the lepers colony and they are completely dependent on outside help to survive. Jed organized a bucket of mangoes and some kids games for the children.

Prayer For Richard’s Family!

Richard was volunteering with IDAT for 2 months to help with the building of the new maternity ward. He died suddenly of a suspected heart attack on March 31st, just one month into his time with us. Pray for his family in New Zealand and our team who are devastated by this tragedy.

Community of Faith in CHE!

At In Deed and Truth Ministries (IDAT), our volunteers, missionaries and African leaders, serve and live together within our community of Tonj. As well as living ‘within’ the community we strive to follow the call of Jesus to live IN community as the Body of Christ, not the culture we come from, but laying that aside and coming together and living out the Kingdom culture of forgiveness, acceptance, serving, giving, loving, praying and worship. We are different ages, cultures and personalities. We have very different testimonies of our walks with Christ, but we all feel called to serve the most vulnerable here in Tonj and hope God will use us to bring His redeeming love and grace to our brothers and sisters of South Sudan.

CHE is a community health evangelism program that values community and thrives within community. Pastor Joseph Yuot is leading the CHE program in one of our CHE villages called Guaria. As a result of a healthy, thriving CHE program, several CHE’s are leading group bible studies in Guaria, using the solar powered audio bibles. It is very exciting to hear that people are listening to the Word of God and coming to Christ. These new believers are eager to learn and follow Jesus and really want to be baptized. Not only is God transforming this community, but they have made a community decision to burn all idols and charms given by the witchdoctors!

This is now a community of faith and an answer to prayer that CHE would truly transform entire villages.

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” 
– Romans 10:17

To supply one audio bible into the villages cost $35. We would love to distribute 100 audio bibles to our CHE communities. If you feel led to buy an audio bible for our CHE program please designate a donation through our website or send a check marked “Audio Bibles”.

Pastor Sponsorship!

IDAT has five church plants and many national pastors helping to establish and grow biblically sound churches in Tonj and the surrounding villages.

Our pastors are nationals, led and discipled by Sabet and are godly, faithful servants. They are dedicated to the call on their lives and with our assistance of sponsorship, just $50 a month, we can really help them provide for their family while doing the work of the Lord.

Pastor Joseph is one of 13 of our pastors that graduated from IDAT’s discipleship training school in 2012. He is an amazing teacher and evangelist whose enthusiasm for sharing the gospel is quite contagious. He has served with IDAT since 2009 and is involved in church planting, discipleship, Jesus film outreaches, chaplaincy and CHE.

In caring for the community of Guaria Ps. Joseph genuinely loves his people and tackles the presence of witchcraft directly. Through his unwavering commitment to Jesus Christ, we are seeing true transformation of this village. His leadership of CHE is a testimony of his faith in Christ. It is our desire to bless and support him along with our other pastors. We are currently making profiles, so please contact info@indeedandtruth.org to sign up or to get specific information and answers to any questions.

In Deed And Truth!

As Christians we are to be a reflection of God on earth and we are to care for others and seek ways to serve them. The Bible reminds us it is not enough to be a believer and do nothing:

“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs, what good is it? So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself.” – James 2:15-17

God’s love for us should compel us to love others and make sacrifices for people just as Jesus sacrificed Himself for us.

These children had not eaten for days and were part of a family in desperate need of help. Your donations enabled us to build them a tukul, feed them and reunite the family. Both parents received Christ and the father is now working and providing for his family. There are so many families like this. Please pray. Together we changed this family for eternity!

Here in South Sudan we are surrounded by the poor and needy and caring for others is part of our daily lives. We always want to be ready to help in whatever situation the Lord brings before us. In January alone, the needs were quite overwhelming, so we added a benevolence fund to the donate page on our website. This fund will keep money designated specifically for helping those in need that the Lord brings to our door.

But sometimes we hear of problems in the community and act without being asked. Like in the village of Timtok, a devastating fire got out of control and burned several homes, cattle and food. Three families lost everything. When our team took bags of sorghum and groundnuts to meet their immediate need they were amazed. They didn’t think anyone cared. We told them God sees you and He cares so much about you because He created you and loves you. It’s so awesome to be able to share God’s love and provision and to tell them that this is one of the ways Jesus shows His love through the actions of His children here in Tonj and around the world. Pray for these families as they rebuild their lives. Together we are making a difference!

There is no greater joy than bringing a blessing to those most in need. Recently we did an outreach to the lepers colony by cooking and feeding them a special meal. It’s was only possible because of the kindness and compassion of our partners to give generously to our benevolence fund. Together we showed love!

Church Building Fundraiser!

Here’s an update on the church building fundraiser. We have a $20,000 match, which means every dollar you give will be worth $2!! You can go to our website to follow the progress and/or give through a designation online or memo your check “church building”. Together we did it!!