Lingir Village!

As we’ve been working with our CHE – Community Health Evangelism program we’ve been visiting and praying over our CHE centers and asking God to direct our paths. We want to connect each CHE village with a church community in the USA as prayer support for that village. As we visited them it was evident the need for prayer covering for each of these centers. Over the next few months we will introduce these villages to you and highlight their critical prayer needs, starting with the village of Lingir.

Lingir is a Dinka village located around 30km from Tonj, which is a 2 day walk to our clinic. Although Lingir’s core community is about 250 people, it is located in the center of a cluster of 15 other nearby villages with a total combined population of around 3000 people! This is a community we don’t know personally but have attended to a number of very poor and malnourished patients from there in our clinic who describe extreme poverty in their village. So we knew we needed to check it out.

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14

There is no medical clinic near to Lingir, and no means of transport other than walking, so people face a 30km walk to Tonj to access our medical care, a daunting prospect for pregnant women and small children.

There is a fantastic local man called Lual who sometimes travels to Tonj to buy malaria medicines for the community. However he had run out when we visited. He is very passionate about helping his community and earlier this year mobilized the community to volunteer their time to build a mud brick structure for a medical clinic in the hope that it would encourage the government to provide a health worker and medicines. Unfortunately the rains came before the structure could be protected with a roof but they hope to rebuild next dry season.

On our recent visit it was heart breaking for the IDAT team to witness this remote community with so much need in so many areas. Dr Jono said, “The community of Lingir is possibly the poorest place I’ve ever visited in all my years of missionary work.” They have no medical clinic, no school, no employment, no market, no bore hole for clean water, no access to vaccination, no trained birthing assistants, and many children severely malnourished from lack of food. It is a real challenge for each family to produce enough food during the rainy season to last them a whole year. As a result many of the children we saw were malnourished, and most people were living off just one meal per day. During the rains it often floods, destroying their precious crops.

A large proportion of the community had symptoms of malaria. Another challenge is access to clean water. There is no borehole in the region, so people rely on collecting water from the river or from small wells that have been hand dug but have dirty water, and often dry up in the dry season.

The sub chief is also a prominent witchdoctor who appears to have a lot of influence over the people. We saw places of animal sacrifice and spirit worship as we travelled around the village. The people were really encouraged by the gospel message that IDAT Pastor Joseph shared. We praise God for the opportunity as several made commitments to Christ.

Please commit to pray for Lingir and all the challenges we have shared. Pray for a church to raise up in USA and partner in prayer with this village. Pray for our CHE program to be established there.

CHE!

Over the past month the IDAT Community Health Evangelism (CHE) team has had the privilege of meeting with the leaders and churches of 8 different villages to share the CHE vision, and to gather information about the communities’ attitudes and resources. Every single village has begged us to please come back and start the CHE program! The very first chief we met said that what his people needed the most was Jesus, so he was excited to hear that sharing the gospel and discipling believers is a key component of the CHE program. We have heard many encouraging stories during our community visits. For example the Christians of our church plant, Calvary Chapel Warrak, were so moved by the suffering of people in their community they started a special church garden in addition to their own personal gardens. Every few weeks the people from the church would gather together to plant, weed and harvest sorghum and peanuts. Then they built a shelter for storing the crops in, and distributed the harvest to widows and needy people in their community.

In the village of Bobi, where there was no school for local children, Pastor Pasquelo, who was trained by Sabet and graduated in 2012 from IDAT Bible school, has volunteered his time during the week to run a small village school under a large tree. His only resources are a blackboard and chalk!

It is awesome to witness the fruit of our ministry in these remote villages. One transformed life can transform an entire community! That is where CHE is so powerful. It teaches ministry is about relationships, which are more important than having all the latest equipment and right facilities. Simply take what God has provided you with and be the best steward you can be, no matter how small the resources or insignificant you feel, give it to the Lord and allow Him to use you and bless you! It is awesome to see the initiative of a few CHE champions being so blessed by God. They get it…they are more blessed to give than to receive. They are not waiting for us to make a difference with their people, they are making the difference themselves. They are the future of South Sudan that can transform this politically messy country into a nation that glorifies God. We are working with 10 potential villages for future CHE centers. We are praying for 10 supporting churches in USA to ‘adopt’ a CHE village and commit to praying for their leaders, elders, chief, CHE volunteers and CHE committee. Please email us if you are interested in more information about adopting a village.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
–Mark 10:45

Visiting Friends!

Our family was blessed to take some much needed time together to visit Troy and Jeamette Lock in Idaho. Jeamette served IDAT as the stateside coordinator for 13 years. This was followed by a visit to Montana to spend time with Amanda, who was a mission pilot in Africa with AIM AIR and medevac’d us when Matoch (7 year old boy) was shot in 2010.

August, we are doing an East Coast drive up to Rochester and back. We’ll be visiting ministry partners and friends along the way. Please email us if you would like us to share with your church group or if you can offer us a place to overnight.

Security!

At the beginning of July, South Sudan marked it’s 5th anniversary whilst renewed fighting broke out in the capital city, Juba. Clashes resulted in many military and civilian casualties. The entire country has been on alert for the past month. Thankfully, Tonj has not experienced the violence and bloodshed but like all areas people are suffering from lack of medicine, food and supplies caused by the insecurity. Please pray!

Sabet’s Back!

After nine months of separation our family is happy to have Sabet back. We recognize the challenges our family face after such a long time apart and have prioritized spending quality time doing activities that will help us adjust quickly. Thank you for your prayers. We have a busy summer planned and we’re excited we’ll be together travelling and serving.

Our first really fun event was visiting our friends, the Alligood’s, in Orlando where we spent four days relaxing and catching up after 9 years. They kindly arranged for us to go to Universal Studios for free!

Sabet just returned from 9 days in California where he attended the Calvary Chapel Pastor’s Conference. He visited our sending church, Horizon Christian Fellowship in Rancho Santa Fe. Pastor Bob encouraged him and introduced him to Will Graham, the grandson of Billy Graham, what a blessing! The pastor’s conference was a time to sit, be spiritually fed and refreshed in the Lord. Sabet travelled with one of our board members, Dr. David Pierce. A BIG thank you to those who hosted Sabet and David. They enjoyed times of fellowship and meals with many of you, thank you!!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30

Measles and More!

June and July are our toughest months in the medical clinic in Tonj. Many contributing factors cause this particular season to be more challenging but it’s mostly due to the clinic being understaffed while our team rotate to take rest. Another factor is the high number of patients seen can jump from 100 to over 200 people every day. This is mainly due to increased malaria cases in the rainy season. This year we have the added challenges of displaced people, lack of food and a measles outbreak. Despite this we have only lost one patient to measles and God has expanded our team and provided cover for our team rotation.

Please pray for God’s hand on our team, each patient we treat, for His healing power, love, mercy and grace to be poured out in abundance over every day we serve and that our team would be effective in communicating His love and grace through good deeds and sharing the truth of the gospel.

Church Plants!

Before leaving South Sudan, Sabet was able to meet with the pastors and elders of four churches we planted in villages near to Tonj. He got to hear the awesome work God is doing among these faithful servants and through their churches. They shared about the tough times they were going through, how they are hated and persecuted for their faith but this makes them more determined to faithfully continue in worship and service to God in their villages. The testimonies they came with were really encouraging and evidence of the fruit that comes from a Spirit led church. Please visit our blog at blog.indeedandtruth.org to read a full testimony of these stories.

Please pray for Calvary Chapel Tonj and for the churches and pastors in and around our area. God is doing an amazing work and we are excited to see Him moving in the hearts of His Saints. Pray the message of Agape love would fill hearts and replace the hate and retaliation that Dinka’s have towards each other.