Ministry

Ambulance Arrival by Suzy Kuj

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The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and His ears are open to their prayers.             1 Peter 3:12

The much awaited ambulance arrived safely at Mombasa port in Kenya and Sabet plans to return to Sudan driving the ambulance!  This process needs covering in prayer in several ways:

  1. Timely clearance from the port and safe delivery to Nairobi.
  2. Agum to be able to travel back to Sudan with missionaries returning from R & R.
  3. Sabet to be able to make the journey alone, clearing two borders without objections. He must clear Kenya within a month so as not to lose the customs bond.
  4. For Sabet’s safety, North Uganda and parts of Sudan are notorious for rebel groups and bandits.
  5. Pray Sabet could be back before the Tenwek Hospital Eye team arrive to do cataract surgeries in September.

We appreciate your love and prayers for us.  We need them.

Kuj Family

Agum’s Papers by Suzy Kuj

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My dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable.  Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.  1 Corinthians 15:58

Our daughter Agum is the biological neice to Sabet and has lived with us for 2 1/2 years.  She is now seven (8 in October) and her mother died when she was just 1 1/2 years old. 

We always knew we would have Agum as our daughter one day, years before we ever met her and our family prayed for her diligently.  She is very much a part of our family and life.

After 3 years of field service our family is due for a 6 month home assignment in October for rest, reporting and fundraising.  We were very much looking forward to bringing Agum with us for this time.

South Sudan is a new nation, and is lacking many things including policies and procedures for such things as adoption.  Sabet chose to get a temporary custody order until systems are in place and we can travel to Juba and begin adoption proceedings, hopefully next year.

We were told that to take a child out of Africa we would need a court order stating we are the legal guardians.  EASY right??  Not so…Sabet drove to Wau, the second largest city in South Sudan, about 8 times to get the papers we needed and have them translated from Arabic to English with a court stamp verifying the accuracy.  He was told come back next week, tomorrow etc. and to no avail.  This is 70 miles on a dirt road one way, taking over 3 hours. 

After much endurance he finally got the paper and left with Agum for Nairobi to attend two appointments, one at the UK Consulate and the other at the US Embassy.  Both of these embassies do not issue visa’s prior to three months before travel is requested.  We felt confident we were to apply even though we had no idea what the outcome would be. 

We felt earlier this year we were to postpone our home assignment until May 2012 but after much discussions we decided to try and get the visa’s for Agum.  Sabet was granted his UK visa but Agum was denied.  Apparently child trafficking is a major issue between Kenya and Europe.  They asked Sabet to come with the death certificate for his sister and the birth certificate for Agum.  Aaahhh….very frustrating as neither exist.  Surely they know this is Africa, the bush areas don’t have such things?  Well we are dealing with a Kenyan embassy where ‘such things’ are readily available.  Should we try a different embassy?  Khartoum is part of North Sudan which we are no longer part of and South Sudan doesn’t have any embassies yet!! 

It’s not in vain, the paper we have will help us start adoption of Agum more easily.  Now we just need to get the grandfather from Khartoum and the grandmother here in Tonj together with Sabet, myself and Agum to Juba and wait for a judge to hear our case!!  We surely need a miracle and ask you all to be in prayer.

As a result of the British High Commission saying no, it made getting a US visa even harder and they also required more papers.  So we are now faced with postponing the home assignment until next year.  Please pray for us as we make these adjustments and continue to trust the Lord for our needs.

Uncategorized

South Sudan- The power of the anthem

Most of us take the national anthem for granted; the anthem represents the nationhood and the spirit of belonging and freedom of a nation. Some just learned how to sing the national anthem as a pre requisite in our primary level education. The anthem is a patriotic musical composition that stirs and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation’s government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.

In the newly inaugurated Republic of South Sudan, the national anthem sang for the first time on the day of independence aroused emotional feelings as the nation wept in happiness at their long fight for freedom from the North.

To celebrate the achievement and offer a new hope to the youth in the region. Indeed and Truth ministries in partnership with Kenya’s sports development firm Michezoafrika planned and hosted a major soccer tournament that engaged over 20 youth teams and 500 youths in Tonj region with a vision of setting up a long lasting youth league structure. 

During the finals and as the national anthem blared through the public address with the two finalist Wild dogs FC and SPLM FC waited for the kick off of the week long soccer tournament, one could not help but notice the huge significance of the national anthem to the lives of the 12-14 year olds.

With their hands firmly placed across their chests, the boys sang out with conviction some with tears rolling down their cheeks in happiness and jubilation. Indeed, a new country had been born and the best they could express their feelings was through soccer. What a sweet feeling it was for these young lads.

The nation before its independence had spent forty of the last fifty-five years entrenched in civil war with the northern government. The war was responsible for the deaths of two million people in the last two decades.

“There is no better way to engage the youth in celebrating their freedom than through sports and soccer. We want to usher in the new era through sports for the people of Tonj and Southern Sudan where peace and love will prevail.” Said Sabet, the organizer of the indeed and truth Ministries independence soccer tournament held in Tonj, 

Former Nairobi City Stars coach Frankline and qualified CAF instructor was also part of the team that conducted the coaches training alongside Walter Machio of Michezoafrika.

Shelimba after witnessing the spectacular final and especially the captivating national anthem feeling, He said “I have played football at the highest level in Kenya (Mathare United) but never have I seen a national anthem bring out so much passion and emotions as I have seen here with these young boys. Am convinced that these young men are eager to adorn their national jerseys not for themselves but for the pride of their new nation.” He said.

Michezoafrika facilitated the training of over 30 youth soccer coaches and leaders in Tonj South Sudan. Besides soccer, over 40 sports leaders were trained in life skills with a vision of transforming the region through soccer.

 It is indeed a true new era for the people of South Sudan.

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Medical Clinic, Ministry

Snakebite Survivor

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Four days ago a man called Magong was brought to us with a snake bite to his foot.  He was gardening and stepped on a puff adder, one of the deadliest venomous snakes in the region.  The family did not bring him immediately at 4 pm when it happened but several hours later when he showed signs of deterioration.  At this point there really was nothing to be done for him medically so we tried to make him as comfortable as possible and minister the gospel to him.  With this type of bite antivenom given in the first hour is essential.  The immediate effects of the venom is severe pain and swelling, hemorrhaging and nausea.  That first night he passed more than 3 liters of blood when he went to the bathroom.  Sabet was called and explained the severity of the situation.  He told him Jesus was with him and the man prayed and received Jesus into his heart.  The next morning he seemed to be much better.  We continued to pray and lay hands on him.  He is still with us and the loss of blood has reduced significantly.  He is in pain and the limb is swollen.  Please pray for him, for complete healing, that no gangrene will set in.  For his internal organs to be healthy.  For protection from witchcraft!

Last night Mario, one of our national medical staff, came running into the dining room, “come quickly, the witchdoctors are casting spells on the snakebite victim”.  Pastor Samuel and I ran over (praying on the way) and found 2 witchdoctors with a chicken and a spear performing some kind of ceremony and there were many people there watching (they had pretended to be visitors).  We stood in the middle and broke up the ‘party’.  Interestingly the witchdoctors tried to hide what they were doing and slip out, denying any witchcraft and acting very cowardly.  We escorted them outside and prayed for them.  We then went back to talk to the family, that the THIEF comes in the night to KILL, STEAL and DESTROY, but JESUS came to give LIFE and their precious son/husband was still alive.  They repented and we prayed for them and over the victim.  There is a real fear of being cursed so people are afraid to stand up against witchdoctors and often they will come without an invitation.  Please pray for this family and for Mongong complete healing.

Ministry

Abundant Life

The Lord spoke clearly to us about the need to pray for every patient, which is hard when we have so many and are so few in staff.  But after much prayer we shared the vision with our staff last weekend and asked them all to try a new program.  The gospel will be presented at least three times to each patient duing their visit, through an evangelical presentation during registration, they will get a track in Dinka and wait to be seen while watching the Jesus film.  Then the doctors/nurses will make a spiritual assessment alongside the physical check-up.  If the patient already knows the Lord or has no interest, we will offer to pray for them in the consultation room.  Those interested in more information will be given a chance for one on one counseling.
 
Today we experienced such a wonderful response to the program.  We registered 107 patients and each one was prayed for as planned.  Many were sent for counsel and 14 prayed to ask Jesus to be their Savior.  We have noted the villages they have traveled from, some are very far and have no church so we are praying for future church plants.  Our pastors return from their summer break on Monday and we are excited to involve them in the counsel and follow-up.
 
Mary came with her 2 children, both had pneumonia and charms hung from their necks.  She claimed the charms contained medicine from the witchdoctor to protect the children from being sick.  After counsel she willingly cut off the charms herself and received Jesus into her heart.  She said she will come to church on Sunday. 

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