Rancho Del Rey Church

Blog By Dennis Sherreitt

TGIF night in Tonj!

This is Dennis Sherreitt reporting live from Tonj for the RdR team!  Wow, what a trip so far.  If you know me, you know I got go to food right away.  Our first morning we had these incredible Kenyan donut (homemade) called Mandasis – just like Sopapillias in New Mexico! Last night we had Tonj Tacos for Matt’s Birthday, flour torts made by Thadd with a lentil, onion and corn filling with Tonj salsa….. to die for!  Tonight we had Sukuma Wiki, a classic poor man’s delight from Kenya…… wow, what flavor.  We are eating sooooooo good!  Oh, and don’t let me forget the delicious, warm chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting made by the one and only, Thadd Tague, from scratch….. outrageously yummy.

We had a birth in the compound today and all the girls got to witness it.  They were all stoked!  The sick part is they came out to me and said they had something for me to BBQ, it was the mother’s placenta…. that was so wrong!

Thadd, Cody and I have been working on making bricks for the new birthing center, what a job.  The work is hard.  The heat is intense and the sweat is pouring out of us.  Making bricks is a multi-step process.  We are working hand-in-hand with about 13 young Dinka boys, most of which are about 15 years old.  They teach us Dinka, we teach them English, I teach them “American Football” as the locals say.  These guys are a hoot and us guys are having some much fun working with them.

The girls are all working in the clinic and pharmacy with the staff here in the compound and each are learning stuff from one another.  The birth today was really an exciting event for the girls to be a part of.

Matt is totally energized about the interaction and learning that is taking place in the Pastor’s school.  He comes out of the long teaching sessions on fire about what going on and the issues that are being discussed.  I got to say though tonight he and the men went down in flames against the local Pros on the basketball court outreach in downtown Tonj.  The locals towered at 6’6″ and above with arms as long as their legs….. no wonder why.

Want to draw a crowd…. pull out a camera, that’s it.  Everyone wants their pictures taken, especially the kids, and they are all so cute.  And yes we all got tons a pictures.  Yesterday at the basketball clinic, we had 3 cameras and the batteries on all went dead from all the pictures we took of everyone, and they all want to see themselves on the screen.  So much fun.

What can I say about this trip so far……?  Wow!  There’s no place I would rather be right now than here.  I know the rest of the Team feels the same way.  We are all grateful God called us to come.  We are being blessed more than words can express for answering His call and coming.  My advice to all back home….. if you hear that small voice calling you to go, where ever and serve….. go, don’t miss out on what He has in store for you.  That’s my take from Tonj!  Please continue to pray for the ministry here, Suzy, Sabet and the staff here in the compound, and pray for us as we go out in to surrounding areas this weekend to witness and put on sports clinics.

Owabiok (goodbye in Dinka) and God Bless from the RdR Team,

Dennis

Rancho Del Rey Church

Blog from Pastor Matt

Our team from Rancho del Rey Chuch just finished their second day of work here in the village of Tonj with the Dinka people.  We are all doing very well.  I will give you the highlights: Getting here, our 28 hours of flying went relatively well, as well as can be expected from 28 hours of sitting on a plane.  Nobody got sick, so Praise the Lord for that! Dennis, Cody and Thadd are working their butts off making bricks for the new medical clinic.  Sweat is literally pouring off of them all morning long!  But they work with happy hearts and joyful spirits.  Cody led worship for us last night around a camp fire after dinner.  He did a great job. The girls, Christie, Skylar, Marli and Annabelle, helped with an outreach medical clinic to the village of Maloy today.  Among other things, the chief of a neighboring village asked Mike Yordt, who was with them, if he would let him have all three available girls (Christie is already married) for 1,000 cows.  Mike said no, but perhaps a little reluctantly, as 1,000 cows is an outrageous price in Sudan. I have been teaching the pastors, Sabet is translating for me and as ever, he is doing an incredible job.  It is a smaller group this time, but this allows us more time for questions.  They are definitely growing in their understanding of the Word.  On the first day, when they came into class, I asked them, instead of sitting at desks while I teach, to show me how respected men in their culture discuss important things.  They told me that they sit around in a circle on the floor. So, I had them remove the desks from the classroom and we sat on the floor together for a few minutes.  I told them that they are pastors just like me.  I have come to teach them, but they are servants of God too and that we will learn from each other.  As they were getting up to put the desks back, one of the pastors, named Moses, said in Dinka, “You know, Abuna Marial (Pastor Matt), he’s almost a Dinka.”  I think that is probably the best compliment I have ever received!! As ever, the work in the medical clinic goes on.  A woman brought in her baby girl two nights ago.  She also had a baby boy that they took to the witch doctor, but he only got worse and died that night.  Because of this, they finally decided to come to the clinic.  This kind of thing is a regular occurence in a culture that is steeped in animism, or the worship of spirits.  This is part of the reason that the work here is so important.  It is a battle of worldviews, where the gospel of Jesus must be shown to be the true path to spiritual life. This afternoon we went into the city of Tonj to do a basketball outreach.  We had the little kids do drills on the only basketball court for probably 200 miles.  It is a sorry looking court, but we made the best of it.  We even played against a team of young men from the village.  We lost because we are out of shape.  We told everyone to come back tomorrow and bring their friends because we want to do another camp with them, teaching them more and also tell them about the church in the compound and introduce them to Jesus. So, if you have some time today, please pray for our outreach tomorrow.  It will begin at 4:00 pm Sudan time, which will be about 5:00 am your time, Friday morning.  Thanks so much for your prayer. As always, it is a totally different world here.  Everybody on the team is doing extremely well and we have been able to be a blessing to the people from RdR who are now working here full time.  We feel your love and your prayers.  God is good and he is doing amazing things.  Thank you for your support and love.  We will be home soon, so keep praying for us. May God bless you richly today!  You will be hearing from other team members on this blog in the following days. -Pastor Matt

Medical Clinic

Wound Care by Rachael Callaghan

God really is Amazing, He brings people into our lives for reasons that we can’t understand, and we’ll always remember them. Yesterday I was standing outside the medical clinic talking to the staff when a boy tugged on the back of my shirt. I don’t know how he knew I was the one in charge of wound care, but he came up to me and started showing me his three large infected wounds on his legs. I didn’t understand a word he was saying, but I knew what he was trying to ask me (Can you help me?). He was small, probably only 10 years, and he was dirty, which meant that he was from the cattle camps a long walk away. Putting my hand on his shoulder I took him inside and started washing his wounds. I could tell he had had them for a long time and that they hurt. Not knowing if he’d come back when I asked him to, I cleaned them really well and put tape over the dressing to help them stay longer. After I was done I gave him my last lollipop and said “Nhialem be dodge” which is God bless you in Dinka, and told him to come back tomorrow. He looked at me and actually said thank you (which is rare).  Even though I didn’t do much, I know that God started something in that kids life, who knows what could happen. I was just blessed to be a small part of it. A picture of him is still in my head, I know God brought him to the clinic for the reason of know that God loves him.

Medical Clinic

Prayer Walk in Tonj by Amy Yordt

Last week’s prayer walk was a big success here in Tonj, Sudan! It was a huge blessing to walk the airstrip and pray for this ministry with the staff. We asked God to continue to grow our ministry and enlarge our territory for Him!  We asked for protection on everyone that works here, we asked for salvation for everyone that comes to the medical clinic and we asked God to give us strength and encouragement to “not grow weary while doing good”!

I love this picture, as it not only shows off the really cool t-shirts we have, but it shows off what we are about……showing the love of Christ in deed and in truth!

I pray today that you will “show off” too!

Medical Clinic

When God Births a Baby by Stephanie Williams

This afternoon, I woman came to the clinic in labor but she didn’t look it. She was too calm and seemed very tired. What was going on, I wondered.

Once I got a translator to help, her story started to make a bit more sense. Her labor started five days ago. The contractions got strong and then stopped this morning. She had very little to eat for five days and was near exhaustion. She walked five days to get to us. Five days. (She could have been in labor five days and walked two days… i’m not sure. But either way, not good.)

Her blood pressure was uncomfortably low (88/63) but she showed no other sign of shock. I rechecked it thinking my equipment was faulty. It came back 86/59. Low.

The fetal heart tones (FHTs) were also disturbing. They were consistently in the 60’s. (*note: FHTs should range from 120-160.) They were so low, I thought it might be the mother’s pulse I was hearing… but it wasn’t. I had a severely compromised baby on my hands.

I prayed while I put in an IV line and moved the mom around in various positions. My assistant got her some 50% dextrose ready and gave it intravenously.

I asked God for a miracle since He knows I never want to deliver a dead baby. We have this sweet agreement. He won’t give me more than I can handle. I can’t handle dead newborns. So I knew He was going to do something. But what He did surpassed my expectations.

Once the IV was in (I was watching the clock), exactly two minutes later I check all her vitals again. They were markedly improved. Her blood pressure went up to 130/70 and the FHTs jumped to 140!

I can tell you two minutes is not long enough for a significant change like this to occur but with God….

When I checked her dilation she was only 3 cm (70%, 0 station, but tight cervix) and her contractions were funky. I can’t tell if her uterus had given up or not. But she insisted that labor had been going on like this for 5 days and all her other babies came out after 2 or 3 hours. Something was wrong.

I decided to induce her with oxytocin in her IV fluids and barely let it flow when her first serious contraction started. And after 10 minutes, I shut off the drip and let her labor on her own. All vitals were normal so I left my assistant to watch her while I got lunch.

Not 20 minutes later he came running to tell me the water broke. Excellent. Progress. As I was going to check FHTs again, he runs back to me again saying the head is out!

What?

I get there to see the membranes bulging and a mama making grunting noises (good sign) but fortunately no head. I ask her to breathe through the contractions. Last thing I want is her trying to push too soon.

Ten minutes later a baby boy was born! When I checked the chart, she dilated from 3 cm to baby out is one hour and one minute. Remarkably fast.

So this is what happens when God is the midwife. Miracles!

They named him Yom Sabet until they can think of a better one. “Sabet” means Saturday the day he was born.

News From The Field