Happy 1st Birthday ROSS!

One year ago on July 9th we joined our brothers and sisters of South Sudan in celebration and witnessed first hand an historic occasion as the ROSS or Republic of South Sudan gained independence from North Sudan and became her own nation.

Since then the border areas to the North have suffered a lot of conflict with many losing lives, homes and mostly the peace they had enjoyed since the end of the civil war in 2005. It’s hard to describe to people who have never lived in a war zone but there is constant fear, anxiety and uncertainty because life is fragile and might not be the same tomorrow as it is today. Please pray for our country which has come a long way since the days of war but still has far to go to. The people have suffered so much and continue to live without stability, healthcare, education and a purpose in life. Pray In Deed and Truth would be effective in making a difference.

Church Plant!

Another celebration of birth is our second church plant this year in the small village of Maloney that we have been serving with weekly medical outreaches for the past 2 years. Two pastors currently in our Discipleship training school made it their mission to plant the church and are currently living in this remote village. Their hearts were stirred through Simply the Story training and Community health Evangelism training, and they passionately wanted to bring God’s Word to the Maloney people. They approached the village chief to allow them to meet under a tree every Sunday. The chief who is not a Christian, listened to their request and asked what kind of church. Pastors Joseph and Santino explained they were sent from our Bible school and this type of a church is more like a protestant church, so he called both pastors in front of a crowd to present their request. The Chief followed their request with a speech on how God has been good this year to their village, from a school being built by UNICEF to Australian NGO ‘Kingdom Assignment Sudan’ building a clinic and helping us to keep a Community Health Worker on staff in Maloney. He was excited at the thought of God giving them a church and acknowledged God had blessed them. He left the meeting with the pastors and immediately walked them to a piece of land they could have for their church. It was a miracle and turned into a celebration in keeping with Dinka culture, they were gifted a goat and officially welcomed to the community to begin the work of the church.

The first Sunday they met under a tree and had 15 people and that number has already grown in a month to 40. There has been some spiritual warfare and opposition so we are asking you to pray for this baby church to grow strong and be a light in this community. Pray Joseph and Santino would not get discouraged while leading this amazing work for the Lord Jesus.

Hilary Returns from Tenwek!

Hilary Langat volunteered with us for the second time from Tenwek Mission Hospital in Kenya. This allows us to give our Kenyan staff a break without reducing the service to the community. Hilary was blessed to see how much the outreach to Maloney has grown since his last visit a year ago. One lady from Maloney was transported back to our clinic with the ambulance due to severe malaria. Her condition was serious but after Hilary prayed with her, she asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior. After that her condition rapidly improved and she went home.

“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.” – Philippians 2:14-16

Prayer Requests!

• For more volunteers to bring the gospel to South Sudan.
• For God to spiritually grow the community of Maloney specifically.
• For 2nd CHE training this month to stir hearts for the Lord’s harvest.

News from the Field Staff!

Our vision is to integrate our Christian beliefs into our medical ministry. We do this by creating an atmosphere of compassion, peace and acceptance of every patient and showing the love of Christ through excellence in health care that leads to evangelism and ministry opportunities.

Samuel Ngugi is a Kenyan serving In Deed and Truth Ministries as our clinic chaplain in Southern Sudan. He is responsible for ensuring every patient is valued and given the chance to receive prayer and the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior. First thing in the morning he arranges a testimony message to the waiting patients. Most days that is over 100 people who sit patiently coming to see the doctor. Tracts are handed out in Dinka for those that can read. Many inquire what the tract is about and want to know more about Jesus.

As the patients are seen by the doctor or nurse each patient is asked about their spiritual well-being together with their physical complaints. If they are wearing charms from a witchdoctor they are encouraged to go for prayer and counsel with the chaplain, Sabet or Albino.

When a patient isn’t open to further counsel then we immediately ask if we can pray for them before they leave. This is a special time between the doctor or nurse and the patient. It may be the only time they hear about Jesus.

Sam speaks fondly about his role in the spiritual care of our patients. He says, “It is great to witness to the Sudanese, they are so receptive to the gospel. I’m excited to see mother’s declare they will never put their trust in witchdoctors again and remove the ‘protective’ charms from around the children’s necks. Many times this is done at risk of being beaten by their husbands who purchased the charms from the witchdoctors.”

In an average day we see over 100 patients and more than half of those will ask for prayer from the chaplain and nearly all of those will ask Jesus to be their Savior. That is 150-200 people each week. The pastors in our discipleship program will also help out with counsel and sharing when they can. Witchcraft plays a huge part in this communities foundational beliefs and the lack of churches is a challenge in the villages.

As most of our patients come from far outside Tonj they cannot attend our church due to the distance. We have planted one church in an outside village and now two of our pastors have planted a church in a second village. The chief of the village allocated them land to build a church and told the villagers it was for the church’s exclusive use and he has given it to the church “forever.” Their first Sunday more than 15 people attended. Pastor Joseph went to look for a drum so they can bang it loudly before church notifying the people that church has begun. Hallelujah!

“Therefore, if anyone [is] in Christ, [he is] a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Prayer Requests!

• Specifically for the patients and their spiritual and physical concerns and wisdom for us as we minister to them.
• For God to give us opportunities for evangelism in the surrounding villages.
• Continued spiritual growth and unity of our staff.
• For the organization of our upcoming prayer walk in September.
• For the planning and arrangements for the Pastor’s Graduation Ceremony scheduled for October 6th.
• For Sabet as he spends 2 more weeks in Juba with Agum working on adoption papers. The court wants to give us a letter and we need a certificate of adoption. Please pray that specific certificate would be granted to us. We are not sure it even exists in the system but we serve a God who is ABLE to do exceedingly abundantly more than we ask or think possible!