Hello all. Nothing out of the ordinary . Today we had a third child in 3 weeks convulse aspirate and die. In each case the parents have waited 5-8 days with child being sick then gone to witch doctor then finally showed up at our clinic. It is hard to imagine in America that witch doctors still have so much influence here. Truth is they do and families argue whether to bring the sick to our clinic or the witch doctor.Tonight a child with convulsions was brought into the clinic . They were headed to the witch doctor when the convulsion started so they came to us first. I pray the child makes it through the night and we are hopeful because they never made it to the witch doctor.I see around an average of 60 patients daily. I enjoy the little ones . The scarey thing about little ones is that usually they get better but they can go bad very quickly and unexpectedly. I spend a lot of time training the community health workers I work with. I tell them what I am doing and thinking and why. Some day they may be out in the villages treating the malaria and common things to be able to get care to those in far villages (hours of walking away) so we can treat the malaria sooner. The community health workers are smart and maybe someday will put the village witch doctor out of business.
Church in Pictures and Pastor Kibe
One of our greatest burdens has been for the church we planted in Tonj town. When Sabet is not there we don’t really have an assistant pastor to help us. Because we teach in English with translators we attract an international crowd. Last year we were finally able to move the church off of our compound and into the community which has caused it to grow. Recently our team began praying for a missions minded person with a pastor’s heart to come alongside Sabet in pastoral care of our team and national staff. As we sought the Lord and His will for Tonj we realized the church was also lacking cover when Sabet is not around, even though our team always jump in to help, it can be challenging for them. As we shared the need with fellow missionaries while in Kenya, we were not expecting such a fast response. A missionary friend and pastor of Calvary Chapel Nairobi said he thought a young man in his church fitted exactly what we were looking for. So Kibe has joined our team and today was his first experience in a South Sudanese church. He has ministered in rural and troubled places in Kenya but had never flown or traveled outside of Kenya. The elders prayed for him as we welcomed him into the church and community.
Sabet started teaching through the book of Acts. Below is our church in pictures:
IDAT team leading worship
Sabet playing cajón
Margit playing guitar
IDAT team worshipping
Church in prayer
Sabet praying – notice the bullet holes in the wall, a reminder left from the war
Hannah collecting the offering
Sabet teaching Acts
Jed and Agum get a ride home after church
Home Sweet Home
It’s always good to hear our kids say “home sweet home’ as we bounce along the dirt airstrip in Tonj with our team waiting anxiously under terminal “tree” to greet us. We are blessed with children that don’t get tired of the heat, dust and poverty surrounding them. Thank you Jesus for these three special blessings in our lives, Hannah, Agum and Jedidiah.
It was a crazy week for us with the embassy appointment requirements as well as packing to go back to Tonj. We were blessed to get a flight share that could carry our family and our new pastor Kibe. It has been a long time since we flew out of Wilson airport and avoided immigration in Juba, so it was a very nice treat for us. They welcomed us at Rumbek airport and cleared our family as Southern Sudanese returning home!! And 30 minutes later we were landing in Tonj and it felt so good to be home. Little notes were waiting on our doors that just made it so much more special.
And even though February is typically the hottest month we are now enjoying cool breezes. Pray for us as we prepare for 6 weeks of visitors from Diguna mission, Every Village, World Gospel Mission, Simply the Story and the Bridge International.
Update on Agum’s Visa
Thank you so much for the covering of prayer for Agum’s visa appointment. It went very well and we were encouraged. Even if things do not work out we know the embassy are for us and will help us to know exactly what is required. We were asked to wait a few weeks while they verify her papers and documents so we are just waiting to get that email! As soon as we know we will be sending out an update. Again we really appreciate your prayers and words of encouragement.
Prayer for Agum’s Visa
Dear Family and Friends,
We just entered our 5th year without taking a furlough because of the difficulty in getting Agum’s adoption finalized. We are really in need of a family time in the USA, visiting family, friends, churches and ministry partners. Sabet was finally able to get a court order stating we are the adoptive parents, stamped by the high court in Juba. This has been a long road for Agum who has been part of our family for the past 4 years. With the country separating and no proper policies in place, it has not been clear to us the correct path we should take in pursuing the adoption. The American Embassy in Nairobi were very helpful but even they told us they had not processed any Southern Sudanese adoptions since the country separation. So in order for Agum to travel with us on our furlough we need to apply for her to have a visitor non-immigrant visa from the US Embassy. This has to be done in Kenya as the South Sudan embassy has limited services. In order to get her a visa we need to satisfy embassy officials that we have legal parental rights and she is able to legally travel as part of our family. We hope and pray that what we have finally received from South Sudan courts would satisfy that requirement. Then secondly, we have to show that we are planning to only visit with her and return to Africa after the visit! With our ministry supporting our furlough I think this can also be shown to be the case. So we have set up an interview for Agum at the US Embassy in Nairobi for Wednesday 13th February at 6:45 am. We then leave to return to South Sudan on 15th February. We were warned that the process may need an investigation before issuing a visa and this could take time, so we are hoping they will email us while we are in Tonj and we can collect the visa in April and then leave for the USA the same month. This doesn’t give us much planning time but we are trusting the Lord and His timing for issuing this visa. We have a great peace about the whole process. Agum tearfully asked us a month ago if we would go to America without her and we told her absolutely NOT. So our request is to please pray the Lord’s will be done on Wednesday as we go to this appointment and for Agum’s heart to be protected throughout the process.
We love you all and hope we get to see you in person very soon. Thanks for standing in the gap.
Sabet and Suzy