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
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.
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!
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.
One More Week by Josh Griffin
Only one week and two days until my teaching time with the pastors is up! It is crazy how soon this part of my work has gone by. I have already learned a whole lot about teaching and about God’s word. The pastors have been a blessing and they are always encouraging. When I got here, I started in Romans. Then, when I finished Romans, Sabet had to leave to the States and asked me to finish up 1 Corinthians. So then we finished 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Galatians. We are currently learning from Ephesians and the usual pace of two or three chapters a day has hit some mud. Today we spent about two and a half hours on Chapter four verses nine through thirty-two. There is just so much to learn from those verses that we couldn’t run through them. This is a New Testament survey, but there is great truth that has practical application and we found the need to talk about it more. We got cultural and lifestyle applications for all the teachings in these verses. It has been great and the pastors commented that it has probably been the best day yet. I agree, I guess God just has a lot to teach us.