“But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.” – Job 12:7-10
Mary Agum is from Hyzindia village, about 2 km from our the IDAT clinic. She has been attending our ANC clinic and has a bad obstetric history having lost the previous delivery during birth due to macrosomia (big baby). The previous was a home delivery.
When she went into labor this time round she decided to deliver in our clinic. She was afraid and we were able to comfort and reassure her that God holds the life and breath of her baby in His hands. And so we put our trust in him, prayed and went to work. Although the delivery was difficult, with God’s help we managed to assist her and delivered a healthy baby boy weighing 4.5 kg (9.11 lbs) who scored well after delivery. She was so thankful and we are seeing the fruit of our ANC program going out into the community. We are praising God for this young life.
“But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” – Luke 18:16
As each Sunday the church gathers, part of our congregation is made up of kids. They join us at the beginning of our service at 10 am. Before they can be released to their classes we have songs that are relevant to them. It is happy to see them sing in both English and Dinka. We have one teacher very committed to the Sunday school and I had a chance to help her for two Sundays. I realized that the kids are very attentive and creative and can remember past lessons, which was a great blessing to me. We have been having one class but are implementing a second class such that we can be having two classes every Sunday. We believe and hope that this will help in reaching many kids and increase effectiveness. It is always happy to see the kids have fun outside after their classes. They do various forms of games.
Pastor Kibe with the Sunday school
We believe that in reaching the children, we are reaching not only this generation but a generation to come. These kids are still fresh and their minds are quick to learn. The bible tells in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”.
I also travelled to Malony last week with the medical team where after ministering the word to the adult patients, I called the children aside and it is kind we had another wonderful service. I shared the word from Genesis about creation and fall of man. We then prayed together and had a couple of songs. The kids were very excited and kept telling me that I should do the same next time I visit.
Pastor Kibe with Kids at Maloney Outreach
I also visited the head teacher to the local primary school, which has a population of 97 pupils. I shared with him our idea of showing the Jesus film to the pupils in school and requested Him for permission to do so. He was okay with it and promised us that when they begin the feeding programme sometime later in April we are welcome to go and minister to the pupils as well as show the Jesus film. This we feel is a breakthrough worth praising God for.
These are part of the effort we are making to make the gospel get to the children, and have them won for Christ. Statistics show that about 85% of Christians give their lives to Christ when they are still children.
Prayer Points
Pray that we shall have breakthroughs in many other schools to air the Jesus film and share the gospel regularly.
Pray for our Sunday school that we shall have enough teachers and helpers.
Pray that these kids shall make their personal choices to follow Christ.
Home visiting has been part of our program to bring up healthy families especially focusing on pregnant and lactating mothers. Today we visited Rebecca Koikathia family in a place called Manyatta about 3 km from our Clinic. She has three children and is expecting the fourth child. We decided to visit Rebecca after one of her friend’s who visits our ANC clinic told us about her. Rebecca has had bad obstetric history of losing pregnancies in the first trimester and we felt that she needed some encouragement, follow up and prayer.
We did the antenatal check up while in her home and encouraged her to visit our clinic. She was so very thankful we took time to see her and is now willing to start her ANC program and even join our Sunday church service. While in the homes we share some health tips on simple adjustments they can make to have a healthy home, which in turn brings overall better health to the entire family. We are really seeing our vision to have our clinic more community based start to take shape and and even we are seeing growth. Please keep praying for the Community Health Evangelist (CHE) program as we combine to the two ministries for the Glory of God.
True christian fruits are seen when mere men chose to put their faith in Christ and in His word despite their hardship, cultures and what the world teaches them. One of the greatest hindrances to the gospel here is a culture that is so much implanted in belief in witchcraft and sorcery. The community believes in them greatly, that is their first option in case of a disaster or sickness. We know that this is idolatry, and God does not want His children to practice it.
Today we saw this change. One of the guys who has been very keen to discipleship is Peter. He is a student in secondary school, and he is born again. He has been coming to our ministry premises at IDAT every week where we spend time in the word of God. He also comes to church every Sunday for fellowship. We also pray together. His story is that of breaking away from tradition by not only embracing Christ but also His teachings.
I see him as a good example of what Paul said to the church in 1 Thessalonian 1:9b, “…and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living God”. Peter’s dad was sick two weeks ago, his brothers were planning to have their dad taken to a witchdoctor (which is kind of the norm here) but Peter said no. He suggested they take him to the hospital in Juba since that is where his dad works. Peter feared that the brothers will not take his advice since they had also taken their dad to a witchdoctor for treatment last year. He came to me asking that we pray together and ask God that his dad not to be taken to a witchdoctor. We prayed and after 3 days Peter came back with a testimony that his elder brothers had agreed to take their dad to the hospital. On Saturday March 17th, Peter came with the good news that his father was now well and had been discharged from the hospital.
This story is one among many others that we witness everyday here ay Tonj. The Bible tells us that we are not to live as the unbelievers do, Ephesians 4:17-18, 24
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart…But we are to put on the new nature which is created in the likeness of Christ”.
For Peter it took courage to say NO to what was ungodly, to walk away from what the culture advocates and to follow what the Bible says.
Prayers points:
Peter and other believers that they will continue to trust in Jesus in difficult situations and they will severe any ties with the witchdoctors and spirit masters.
Pray for Peter’s growth and continual commitment to discipleship.
Pray for his Dad and brothers that they will fully trust in Jesus and that they will accept Him as their Savior.
So we just completed our fourth and final training for this group of trainers! It’s so exciting to see their motivation and hard work now almost a year after they attended the first training. The trainer teams have all started committees in their communities, and most of them hope to finish training those committees by April, which is when the real fun starts!
During our training we discussed leadership skills and responsibilities, biblical roles of men and women, and Farming God’s Way! Though the afternoons were hot, most of us managed to stay awake through each lesson. We also gave each training team some time to share how things were going in their communities. Everyone was really moved by what Pastor David of Lurchuk shared. He and Athunta (pictured above) went to visit a woman in their community who had just given birth to twins. They took some clothes they bought, some food, and also prepared a CHE lesson about infant nutrition and feeding to share with this young mother. During their visit they were not only sharing with her words about God’s love, but they were demonstrating it with their lives. The woman was so touched that she wanted to know more about God and decided to give her life to Christ! She started attending the church where David pastors. Not long after, however, one of the twins died. In the midst of this tragedy, the woman now had a church family that loved her and took care of her during this time, grieving with her. And then, just a few weeks ago, the woman was baptized.
What a powerful testimony of the faithfulness of these two trainers not just to share the word of God and give health teachings, but to come along side someone and really be the body of Christ to that person. And there were many testimonies of how each team is working to seek that transformation in their own lives and the lives of others.
One trainer, Pastor Joseph, shared with me today that what he really likes about CHE is how it helps people grow closer to God. And that’s the point of the Kingdom of God, God’s glory and our good.
