September 2013 Newsletter

September 19, 2013 Tyler Paulson 4 Comments

Operating for Jesus!

Our vision for our medical ministry is that it would Glorify God through healing and transforming lives both physically and spiritually. Lack of medical care continues to be one of the greatest needs in Southern Sudan and our ability to meet those needs definitely leaves us feeling inadequate and overwhelmed. That is why we fully rely on Jesus and His Spirit to do above and beyond what we ask or think is possible. Jesus said he came to give life abundantly and we want those around us to trust in Him for that abundant life that starts with transforming the heart. Everywhere Jesus went He healed and spoke truth and life into people’s lives. Following His command to GO and make disciples, healing and preaching in His name, a group from Tenwek Mission hospital partnered with In Deed and Truth for a 10 day surgery clinic outreach. We enlisted the help of the local government hospital to host the surgeries in their newly overhauled theater which is barely used and lacking in equipment. They provided the space and we provided the rest. Together with Tenwek mission surgeons and medical staff we provided spiritual support to each patient through our pastoral care and provided Community Health care through local IDAT medical staff during and after surgery. The fruit was the completion of 52 successful surgeries and 5 commitments to Jesus Christ, with the gospel being presented and heard by more than 100 people. It is our greatest joy to watch a handful of our graduated pastors serving the ministry and the community. They shared Bible stories every day to the waiting crowds, patients and caretakers. Pastor Joseph always excels in engaging the people in these Bible stories. Hearts were clearly touched and many seeds were sown.

We love Tenwek’s mission statement “We treat, Jesus Heals!” That really was the message behind this outreach which has opened the door for many future medical clinics. Arriving ‘blind’ into the bush is no easy feat for any surgeon even with extensive mission experience so we are hopeful that this trip will prepare Tenwek and our team for future clinics and allow more complicated surgeries to be performed. It was quite a logistical task to gather equipment and drugs together and ensure everything was in place and we are thankful for the Lord’s guidance and wisdom as He guided every step and allowed us to be a part of this life changing event.

Most of the surgeries were for hernia or hydrocele but an emergency caesarean section was needed for one of our ANC patients who labored for 4 days without progressing. Usually in such cases both mother and baby perish even if we are able to transport them to Wau. So it was amazing to share the gift of surgery our Lord Jesus provided for her and to be able to deliver a healthy baby and also to witness her relief as she survived this traumatic labor

“Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” – Luke 10:8-9

Prayer Requests!

Sabet recently went back to court in Kwajok to file again for Agum’s adoption. He was given the run around but persevered and completed the case with the judge who has sent his recommendation that we adopt Agum to the Ministry of Child Welfare in Juba. He will go to Juba later this month to see if there is any progress. Our prayer is that the Ministry of Child Welfare would start communicating with the US Embassy in Nairobi as we actually only need a visitor visa for now. The embassy said their hands are tied as the Juba authorities have not responded to them. In the meantime our family is in need of a break to get rest and do some fundraising but for the last 5 years we have not traveled together as a family. This is our greatest prayer need.

Please continue to pray for all our team and staff as they serve the Lord in South Sudan, that they would be filled with His Spirit and walk in His ways.

Medical Clinic, Mission Trips

From Stephanie Staubs!

September 18, 2013 Sabet Kuj

God is doing some amazing things out here in South Sudan. The malaria out here is still bad and the clinic is still very busy some days we are seeing more then 100 patients a day. Right now we have a baby who is 1 month old and came in on Thursday barely breathing and convulsing every couple minutes. My job most was to keep him breathing. We were not confident he would make it i was having to bag him a lot just to get him to breath. I am happy to say I no longer have to sit with him to keep breathing he is breathing on his own now. Yesterday was his first day without convulsions and this morning we were able to take out the NG tube. He is doing much better then when he came in. He is very tired and sleeps all day so we are still keeping him here to observe him. God definitely is healing this boy! We have had many opportunities to pray with him and his family.

God is really teaching me a lot here. I am making many new friends and love learning the culture. I have a little over 3 weeks left and it feels like time has flew by!

Medical Clinic, Ministry

God’s Power of Healing! (from Mike Kibe)

September 13, 2013 Sabet Kuj

Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

² Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

³ Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases, Ps 103:1-3

We have seen many cases of children in bad situation and through prayers and our limited supplies, ability and facility, God is coming forth as usual and healing these little ones, we are seeing His miracles first hand every day. When the Doctors are out of options, they just wait on God and the Lord Jesus, and in deed he has been so gracious the last 3 weeks, that many children and patients turn a corner and come back to life even when all odds were against them.

There is this child, one year old who was brought convulsing. He was in a very bad state, and the doctors had to be there to help him breathe. Nobody thought the child will make it, they were to go to Wau but the family had no money so they had to stay. Praise be to God the child can now breathe on its own.

Uncategorized

Treated Mosquito nets from MAF

September 9, 2013 Sabet Kuj

Santino Shareing the gospel to street kids that recieved Mosquito Nets

Malaria in South Sudan stills the number one killer, especially among infants and children. One way to combat this fatal disease is through using treated Mosquito nets, In our clinic in Tonj we see a huge number of patients with malaria, 90% of the 100 and plus patients we see daily is malaria. The other issue it’s the same patients with the same problem of Malaria we see more than 2 times a month, the medication are very good, we use Coartem (Artemether. Lumefantrine) one of the best malaria drug. So we suspected the issue to be in something else, from our lab and our CHE program we discover the issues are people habits and awareness more than curing and anything else. We do have a Community health Education (CHE) program here in TONJ that takes place in the community through home visit and dialogue about diseases and prevention, one of the Topic that is discussed is treated Mosquito nets, use and benefits. We also discuss that in our daily health talk during the clinic work hours, especially in the morning. We have seen a great interest from the homes we visit in our community and from patients that come to our compound, Not because we talk about the only, but we believe because we have put value in the , what Mosquito net I mean we didn’t give the MN away for free, we have asked them to pay a montery value that will give value to the Mosquito nets and I CAN SAY IT WAS VERY SUCCESSFUL. In the past people look down on the this type of Mosquito net, they have even nicked name it Makuien Akol meaning the bright face Bull of the day, they mean people see you through the net very clearly even at night time. No privacy, everyone hate it specially the adults and couples. Now they have a better understanding of the use and why treated one are very good, therefore they have better value to these Mosquito Nets. The price is asked of them for one mosquito net is half the price in the market. For example if its 15 ssp we asked 7ssp. And in no time they were all gone. We have made sure it didn’t end up at the hand of the traders, we have limited the quantity that one person can get and also we made sure to target Mothers and children, weather in clinic , homes we visit or the villages. We also serve outside villages like Malony where we have satellite clinic. Beside the home visit and the clinic distribution, we recently received street children that were collected and brought to Tonj from Wau. ( the second largest city in South Sudan), we have given Mosquit nets to them, about 54 children and 15 adults caretakers for the children. This group were sleeping no nets no matteres just a Tarp pastic sheet on the floor. More than 350 Mosquito nets that we were able to give and These Mosquito net are one of the best ones many people confirmed that, they have seen many bugs that are dead by the time they are ready to go under it. To sleep.

MAF has donated all the Mosquito net, KeA one of MAF missionaries who was station in Juba, Through MAF Sweden arrange for all these treated Mosquito nets to be donated to people of Tonj.

This is one of the best gifts people can receive in this season of rain, flood and Mosquitos. More than 250 house holds that has received at-least one Mosquito nets.

Thank you MAF and Thank you KeA!

Ministry, Mission Trips

Vulnerable Street Children!

September 1, 2013 Sabet Kuj

Tonj is about 63 Miles away from Wau, which is the biggest city around here. One of the issues the city is effected by is Street Children. Children from 3 or 4 other states goes to Wau and lives in the street, involved in all kind of problems that you could imagine, from stealing to getting abused by people, to some time even getting killed in the street. The city is really effected by it. So some people from Wau decided to round up all the street children and sent them to the state where they come from originally and ethnically. So we have received here in Tonj about may be 30 kids, mostly from the area of Tonj and some from other state and counties. the county here also rounded the small number of the street kids in Tonj town and put them with the same group came from Wau totaling the number to 54 kids.

I was looking for one of the kids I know, so I went to see him in the place where I heard they are keeping the kids, to my surprise I see all these kids in the building that are suppose to be the county offices, still under construction, so they have 1 big hall, they have just a 1 big piece of tarp and nothing else to sleep in. There were some police men guarding the kids, and to keep them off problems. The commissioner of the town is working hard to feed them, but we all see its very hard on him with the limited resources he has.

I started going through the kids, looking for this one kid I know, I started to notice many of the street children are with wounds, rashes and scabies around their hands, and different parts of their bodies, most of them wore torn filthy clothes that filled with lies.

Since We have a clinic, I asked our clinic staff if we could help these kids, and that what they have done. Our clinic staff including Dr. Tom went to the place and saw all the kids and started treatments to many health issues these kids have got. the following day they took the kids to the river made them wash their bodies and then applies this lotion to heal the scabies.

Stephanie Staubs ayoung lady missionary with us here for 3 month, gave money and bought all the kids treated Mosquito nets. We had Donated T shirts from American, donated Harvest Crusade t-shirts as well, that we were very thankful to still have some of them, we gave these kids these T-shirts, and it was a huge Joy for us to see the smiles on these little one faces.

Few days ago I had a meeting with the Director for child protection State level , He came all the way from Kuajok to see these kids, I was impressed by the level of care they have shown during the meeting towards these kids, they have shown seriousness about the kids being reunited with their families and reintegrated them back to the society, a representative of a UNICEF was present as well. Big Job awaits them.

In the meeting they have invited us to help the kids in anyway we can, since they know we are faith based mission organization, they invited us to minister to the kids, sharing the Bible with the children and teach them about God. We happily accepted the invitation, actually we have already felt free to show Jesus film and share the gospel message with them before they gave us the permission to do so. Pastor Kibe and Pastor Santino went one night and showed the Jesus film to the kids, for many of them it was the first time to see a movie about Jesus. Kibe is planning to show more Movies that will teach God’s love and good value to the kids, Walking with Jesus and God story to mention few.

Commissioner Mario Monydiedh handing T-shirts for the street children

These Children are as young as 7 years old to 13 years old, all boys, In fact, the few weeks we have been working with them now, we have seen behaviors makes us so concern about the little one that are among them, and we pray the reunion would happen as fast as possible to save these little one from the older one influence.

Stephanie and Kibe are going to have continuous ministry with these kids, where they will play kids games and sport event once a month.

We are starting a fundraiser from here in conjunction with some people back at home church in California for the purpose of feeding these kids. It will cost about $100 to feed a child for a month,we are hoping to raise funding for 54 children for up to 3 month, hoping by then they have all be reunited with their families and found homes to live. if you want to donate please go to the website. https://www.indeedandtruth.org/donate.php

Please pray for wisdom, as there are reasons for these kids to leave home, some kids are not happy with the thier families and are not willing to go back to their home. some stories are just sad stories led the kids in the street, we are planning to share some of the stories in the coming weeks, so we really urge you to pray for wisdom as we work with these kids and share the gospel message with them day to day.

In Deed And Truth Ministries