Deborah Achok came to our clinic severely malnourished. She’s 18 years old and has a 3 month old baby boy called Kuol. Since giving birth she has not been able to keep food down and vomits if she tries to force it. Her husband abandoned her and so her mother and her sister accompanied her and Kuol to our clinic.
The mother was concerned because the family paid money to a witch-doctor and Deborah’s condition just got worse. So they concluded that witch-doctor put a curse on her and the baby, who was now struggling to get enough food from his malnourished mother. So they then went to another witch-doctor who sold charms to them to protect them from the curses of the previous witchcraft. After weeks of mother and child both deteriorating they were finally brought to our clinic.
As I was doing my morning rounds with Pastor Santino, Dr. Jono filled us in on Deborah’s condition. Immediately we could see she was not in good physical health and both her and the baby were wearing charms. We chatted about that and the sister told us about the visit to the witch-doctors. After a lengthy presentation of the gospel and why witchcraft and wearing the charms are so harmful, Deborah asked me if I would remove them. It was my pleasure to not just cut them off but throw them into the fire.
I then asked Deborah if she would be willing to take that step of faith one step further. And she said she was ready. Santino further counseled the sister and the mother and all three ladies together prayed and asked Jesus to be their Savior. Hopefully they will come to our church on Sunday. Please join us in praying for that.
P.S. Lots of photo’s, news and prayer requests on our Instagram.
It is so wonderful to all be together as a team. Our Christmas was amazing and there has been many celebrations since coming home. If you are not getting our online prayer requests and updates please fill out this form to be added to the list. We are attempting to post Instagram pics daily, you can find us @idatsudan.
A HUGE thank you for your generous support of In Deed and Truth Ministries and our family in 2016. We are ready for what the Lord brings in 2017 and we stand together with you to pass on the HOPE we have through Jesus Christ. The Bible says:
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord” – Jeremiah 17:72
Please pray for us to be used effectively. As we start a New Year we want to not only start strong but finish strong. The daily spiritual warfare waged against us is real. The enemy is relentless in trying to discourage us and bring us down. Jesus offers us solid hope so our confidence is found in Him, and nothing we face this coming year will change that. As we serve this community and enter remote villages, taking the Word of God and our friend Jesus to our brothers and sister here, we pray they will find faith, have their lives transformed and be filled with hope. Will you join us and help us through a commitment to pray for us and IDAT every day?
Off The Charts!
We are so proud of the hard work and dedication our team pours out and this last year was no exception. We saw an incredible 39,429 patients in 2016 and every one of them heard the gospel!! More than half were children under the age of five years. Most of our patients come from the surrounding villages, walking very far and without any money. These areas are on our radar for starting CHE and planting churches. It is amazing to me how the Lord has taken such a small, rural clinic with minimal staff and resources and touched so many lives. On an incredibly low budget of just $200,000 a year, our impact and reputation in the community is matchless. We fund the cost of flying in our own medications and professional staff from Kenya. Our goal is to bring hope as well as healing and we do this without charge in Jesus’ name. For only $5, you can help us provide one patient both hope and healing in 2017.
This is Adhel, she was miraculously healed in 2015 as a newborn. This miracle led to her grandmother and mother both getting baptized. They recently came back to visit us! It is a great joy and privilege to be part of this work. It also has challenges as we are understaffed and funding commitments are only 52% of our budget. Could you pray about pledging a monthly amount to help us meet this need?
Gabriel!
Our first medical missionary recently graduated from medical school in Kenya and returned to Tonj to start his one year internship with In Deed and Truth Ministries.
Gabriel Gojoh finished high school with no hope of a job and no chance for further education. He began working in our clinic seven years ago as a CHW (community health worker). He had no experience but we trained him medically and began to disciple him in God’s Word. He had never trusted Jesus Christ and saw life as hopeless. That soon changed and he began following Jesus, attending and serving in church. Over the next 4 years we saw his life transform. He became our #1 CHW and truly loves Jesus. When a grant opportunity arose for us to send a CHW to the Presbyterian University of East Africa to study Clinical Medicine, Surgery and Community Health, Gabriel was our first choice. It was challenging to get a Kenyan school to except his South Sudan high school diploma but perseverance and prayer paid off. Today he is qualified and ready to serve. If you feel led to support Gabriel monthly or with a special gift, please go to visit our website’s donation page and designate your gift for Gabriel.
We are praising God for the opportunity He provided for Gabriel to go to medical school in Kenya. Against the odds, Gabriel was accepted at the Presbyterian University of East Africa three years ago and excelled in his class as an ‘A’ student, studying clinical medicine, surgery and community health.
Gabriel with fellow IDAT medical students.
Today, Sabet and I were able to celebrate this momentous occasion of having Gabriel graduate as a clinical officer (physician’s assistant). We are thrilled to have him return to Tonj as an intern for In Deed and Truth Ministries and serve the Lord under the guidance of Dr. Jono Macleod. Thank you for praying for him.
Thank you for your prayers. Our family arrived safely in Nairobi, Kenya. We fly into South Sudan on December 15th. The next 10 days will be filled with purchasing supplies, preparing our charter to fly to Tonj and adjusting to the 9 hour time change!
Family and friends send us off from Florida to Africa
Our family is blessed to be ‘chosen’ by God for His mission in South Sudan. We don’t go in our own strength or power but with the knowledge that our God is the Lord, He is greater than ourselves, gracious to use us in ways we don’t feel equipped or worthy. He gives us true comfort and assurance our names are legible for all of eternity in the heavenly leaves of His book of everlasting life. We embrace this calling with full trust in Him and a confidence that none can reverse this blessing.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.” – Psalm 33:12
Some might say this is a good time to be getting out of the USA. Some might say this is a bad time to go to South Sudan. It depends really on what we are focused on. Both countries have uncertain futures that generate fear in people. We’re focused on what we know is true and certain, our never changing Rock, Jesus Christ. He cares about our lives wherever we live in this crazy world!! He is the Prince of Peace and we have peace about leaving. If God is the center of our lives and we are in His will, we have nothing to fear. We will continue to pray for Godly and honest leaders for both countries, true revival. We will continue to seek God for our lives and our ministry, to live in such a way that those around us will experience His love, mercy and saving grace. What a tragedy that no matter where you live in this world, your eternal security is not based on who will lead your country but who is leading your life, your heart, your soul? If you are living with fears and uncertainty and want the same assurance our family has please visit the website PeaceWithGod.net.
A New Home!
This will be our last newsletter from USA. With our departure date of December 4th looming we are frantically packing and planning for our next term in South Sudan. We are planning to return for a three year term. When we left South Sudan we were sleeping in a tent and this month our house was finally finished just in time for our return.
Kuj Family House in Tonj
Our old house was two team rooms knocked together. This new house has three main rooms, a kitchenette and bathroom, the ceiling is higher, the rooms are deeper, there’s a wraparound veranda, giving us a lot more space. The security is always a top priority and we gave this a lot of thought based on our years of experiences living in South Sudan. This house has no windows facing the outside fence, so any sneaky intruders cannot hide and break in the house out of view of the guards. They’ll be forced to come to the front of the house where all the windows have glass, wire mesh and security bars. No stray bullets flying through the windows from outside either!! All three kids will be in one room, directly connected to our room. The metal roof has been treated with a heat resistant coating, insulated and together with the gypsum ceiling we should be able to reduce the temperature in the house. With the ceiling fans we hope to get from 120°F into the 90°F range (we’ll let you know if it works). Hopefully we won’t have any mice or rats running around at night either! A massive thank you to all who donated to help us build our family home.
Visits!
It is goodbye for now but we really hope many of you will choose to visit us and our mission work at some point over the next three years. God is moving and doing an amazing work in South Sudan and we want to share with you.
Kuj family Leaves for Africa!
With South Sudan having so many problems we appreciate your prayers for our transition. It has been quite a crazy month since we realized we are actually leaving. The excitement of going home and being with our team and friends is mixed with sadness as we say goodbye to family and friends here. This is the longest we have been out of Africa in seventeen years but despite this all three kids are looking forward to going back and for that we are truly thankful.
Eastgate Christian Fellowship has been our home church family while we’ve been in Florida and we are so grateful to Pastor Rob and the church for the love and support they have given to us. But there are so many of you that have reached out and helped us get through this ‘season’ and we are truly grateful for the body of Christ and the old and new friends we have had the privilege of spending time with on this journey. When we arrived on the West Coast, we had no idea we’d be leaving from the East Coast and not saying goodbye in person to those of you we cherish there, it is very hard.
