How does a 3 year old boy only weigh 13 lbs (6kg)? This is Mabior, he came to our clinic weighing only 6kg because of chronic diarrhea and not enough food at home. He stayed 5 days until his diarrhea had finished and he started putting on weight. Our clinic will do follow up visits weekly until his weight is OK. His mother’s a Christian and prays for Mabior. The past few months people have really struggled for food while they wait for their crops to grow. Our clinic is committed to helping these precious children.
This is the time of year when our clinic is seeing record number of patients. Infant mortality is still one of the highest in the world. Although we appear small in size, do not be deceived…. our little clinic in Tonj is being used by God in BiG ways!! He is taking our ‘loaves and fishes’ and multiplying it to provide medial care to thousands of vulnerable women and children every month. We never know how we will get there but somehow we always do. This week alone critical medicine arrived the day we ran out!!
These children were fighting for their lives and hanging on by a breath and through prayer and treatment they made miraculous recoveries but even better, their families turned their hearts towards God.
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.
Pastor Synok in front of the storage shack for the church garden harvest
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!
Pastor Pasquelo with his students from Bobi
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.
Kuj Family at Yellowstone National Park
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!
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!
Kujs and Alligoods at Universal Studios
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.
Ajak is one of our patients with measles
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.
Pastor Joseph (left) and Pastor Santino (right) pastor IDAT church plants. They are pictured here with Deng, a new believer from a church plant in Kornyok
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.
Where to start?? So much has happened since we arrived back in Tonj just over 2 months ago. We arrived back refreshed from a wonderful break in New Zealand – thank you to everyone who made our visit special!- with a sense of both anticipation and trepidation… and were pleased to find that we feel more at home in Tonj than ever before. Not least due to having a lovely house to live in, but also in a deeper way, with a growing sense of belonging and peace.
We are enjoying our home, our vegetable garden, our chickens, our friends, our work, having Anthony here, and the green grass and cool air that the wet season brings.
Our world before and after the beginning of the rains in Tonj
Unfortunately, along with the green-ness, this rainy season has come with malaria, malnutrition (it is almost a year since the last harvest time), and a measles epidemic. Our clinic is bursting at the seams, and we are daily amazed by the numbers of sick women and children that our small but committed team see, treat and share the love of God with. Because of this, we have rolled up our sleeves and got stuck in to the clinic, and not much else! Here are just a couple of stories from among the many incredible recoveries we have watched happen before our eyes over the last 2 months.
Rapid malaria tests – an essential tool in our work
Achol & Abuk
When we met Achol last month she was little more than a skeleton, weighing only 13kg (about the same as Ellisha) at the age of 7. Her sister Abuk was 2 years old and for the past month had been unable to open her eyes. Both girls were sick with measles. They were both starving because the family’s food and money had both run out. The family stayed at our clinic for some days, sleeping on our balcony (AKA isolation unit). The whole IDAT team laid hands on Abuk one morning and prayed for her vision to come back, as blindness is a daunting prospect for a 2 year old in a country with no welfare. Achol’s mother has since joined our church, and a few weeks ago we celebrated the restoration of Abuk’s eye sight (though not yet complete). Meanwhile, Achol visits us often and warms our hearts with her big grin.
Abuk#2
Abuk, whom everyone here at IDAT has come to love
One night I got a knock at our window at 2am, calling me to see young girl who was in a terrible state. Her muscles were so stiff she couldn’t eat, speak or even more her arms and legs. She was suffering from painful muscle spasms that had prevented her from sleeping for weeks. And more worrying, she was struggling to breathe, which is a poor prognostic factor in tetanus. She’d been taken from witchdoctor to witchdoctor with no improvement, and as a ‘last resort’ they’d been told to try the Christians at IDAT. The father later told us he thought his daughter was as good as dead. Well, we laid hands on Abuk and prayed for her several times each day while giving medical treatment, and rapidly her muscles relaxed, she was able to eat, talk and walk again. The family were amazed at the power of God and want us to go and share Jesus with their community, where it turns out her father is a chief
