Well I have never been accused of stealing someones toes while they slept till now. On Sunday I got called into the room with a man who was shot in his foot Saturday. Everyone knew the toes which had lost their blood flow needed to come off for they had developed gangrene. He was asleep with ketamine and I removed the 3rd-5th toes to keep him from loosing his foot leg and possibly life. On Monday when he noticed his toes being gone at the time of the dressing change he started a little uproar but me being blessed by not knowing much Dinka was oblivious to the going ons. By the next day all was better for his father realized that we did what needed to be done and all are my friends again. I am glad I did the right thing and we never gave the young man the chance to make the wrong decision.Word is if I was at the cattle camp and stole someone’s toes they would shoot you. I am know known as the crazy toe stealing kawaja(whiteman). Fame and notoriety that what I am all about.

We are all blessed because out of twenty gunshot wounds we only had one case of gangrene which we quickly took care of I believe the drains and debriement we did all day Sunday prevented a lot of gangrene. We had learned our lessons well on caring for those wounds . Most of all we are blessed by God who brings all healing. All week long we have been caring for the wounded and seeing our usual cases. The numbers have been down some because of less malaria with the dry season and I believe our aggressive treatment of malaria is knocking down the numbers. I remember 2 years ago we were seeing many seizing aspirating children with malaria at this time of the year. God is good.

We were visited by members of the UN several days ago Dennis tells me. They said they were evaluating the cattle wars and everyone in the area was saying how much In Deed and Truth workers helped in caring for the wounded. They came by to see our work and give us thanks. Made me feel good. Though we do not do this for the thanks we all I hope work to bring God glory because it is His hand that brings all healing.

Another friend of mine from Canada named Ed came by this week. His group puts in bore hole wells for free. They are looking at the possibility of placing bore hole wells with solar powered pumps to bring water for cattle in areas where there is grass during the dry season and no water. It would be done for the Tonj and Cuiebet tribes so they could stay home more and there would be less chance of fighting.That would be nice.

Speaking of gangrene on Thursday a teenage boy was brought in he had an infection of his chest that started one month earlier at his clavicular area . One week ago he was taken to the village surgeon ( witch doctor, traditional healer) and he received a cut . When he got to us you could smell the gangrene from a long way off and I was fearful that one of the gunshot wounds had went bad. I saw the boy and his whole chest was covered with pus and dead skin. The community health worker asked me if he was going to die and I said I do not think so but I do not know where we will get skin to cover the muscle. I removed on Thursday and Friday most of the skin and subcutaneous tissue down to muscle on his chest for it was all dead and infected. We have him on antibiotics and after we get the infection under control we will try to figure out how to cover the chest wall. Mike Stick, any suggestions? Pray for that young man .

Today I preached on Proverbs 3:5 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” A lesson we must live by daily here. We also lead the singing – Dennis, Pritty and Sham my fellow workers and Robert a friend. We have lots of fun practicing on Saturday nights and we have fun leading the singing. It is a great motivation for the congregation to sing loud when I help lead the singing. I taught the Dinkas the word yee haw today. Love, Tom

Written by Suzy Kuj

“Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.” – Psalm 62:8

Lual Mawar is 25 years old and lives about 4 hours walk from Tonj in a village called Thon. He is married to one wife and has a small child.

Yesterday afternoon, while tending to his cattle in the camp, he was shot. The cattle raider sprung from a bush and shot him at close range and stole 55 cows.  Lual lay on the ground helpless for more than 4 hours. Eventually a boy found him and raised the alarm. A passing motorbike carried him to Tonj where he arrived late last night and was admitted into our clinic.

Last night, while our staff gathered for prayer night, we were interrupted by the guard to come and tend to Lual. On examination the doctors were skeptical if Lual could survive. He had lost a lot of blood and the bullet had entered through the chest and exited, leaving him with one collapsed lung. He was having severe pain and blood loss. Some of us remained in the compound and prayed while the others ministered to the patients physical needs and also prayed over him.

This morning we were surprised even to find this young man alive and sitting up. Pastor Judah, recently graduated from IDAT’s Discipleship Training Center, lead prayer over him and explained to Lual how the Lord Jesus loves him so very much and spared his life so far. He asked him about his faith and the time he spent laying on the ground after he was shot. Lual said he thought he was going to die and was so scared. We prayed with him and he asked forgiveness for himself and vowed not to retaliate this offense.

After praying we explained that as he had survived the night the next step was to get him to a medical facility where they could truly assist him long term. We all agreed Wau hospital was also limited in what it could do to help him. While we contemplated this another man, Ater, was brought in from the same cattle raid last night. He had endured a night in the bush with a gunshot wound to the upper arm shattering his humerus bone. He walked to the clinic to get help.

Both of these cases needed advanced medical care beyond what was available to us. We notified the relatives that evacuation was necessary and asked them to gather money in preparation. Suzy contacted MAF to see if any flight was in the vicinity and could divert to collect the patients and take them to Juba Training hospital. Unfortunately, the victims were not in a position to collect money as home was so far. MAF confirmed there was in deed a flight available but we were not able to help due to lack of funds on the ground. The last thing we wanted was for the patients to reach Juba and be stuck with no money. So we were about to cancel the medevac when the commissioner called Sabet and vowed to contribute money to the cause, this in itself was a miracle and the timing was perfect. This promise meant we were able to move forward and immediately called MAF and rescheduled the pick-up. Both patients were carried to Juba with MAF’s assistance.

Pray the seeds of faith planted would be watered and take deep root in their hearts. Already we are seeing the repercussions of retaliation, just one hour after the medevac a man arrived with a gunshot wound to his face. There is no exit wound and he is in severe shock and pain.  Our understanding is he was trying to get back the cows that were stolen.

We ask for prayer for him as well as protection over our staff as they tirelessly work to serve this community. Jesus, our Prince of Peace, has spoken and said “peace be with you.” We have full confidence in His presence and ability to give us strength to endure each difficult case.

Without MAF we could not complete our work, fly in our medical staff, medicines, missionaries, food and supplies and fly out these frequent emergencies.

Thank you MAF for your generous support.