Ministry, Mission Trips

Blog by Joshua Griffin

Today is my seventh day in Sudan.  I am so blessed to assimilate well into different surroundings and cultures because this is a far cry from New Mexico.  No doubt, all my previous travels were one way God was working to prepare me for this trip.  That is not to say living here is easy, it is just not as hard as it might have been otherwise.
The climate is entirely different from what I expect of the Sudan.  It is wet here.  Very wet.  It is actually so wet that the other day when Mike went to go pick up some charcoal he didn’t come back.  An hour long trip, starting at 10:00, turned into all day ordeal.  After they were unsuccessful at finding enough charcoal at the first place they continued on to another location but then Mike was instructed to cut across a flat covered in grass.  Bad idea.  Rain, flat sandy ground, tall grass blocking your view, a truck with bald tires and not 4WD; bad idea.  They got stuck.  Then Sabet and I went to go pull him out.  Then we got stuck.  Then we got both unstuck.  Then we got both stuck again.  Then finally we got the second truck unstuck.  And since I only took a half liter with my and Mike didn’t have any other water the whole day, we headed back home.  Sabet went back with some other guys to get the original truck unstuck again but never came back with it.  This is the second day since it got stuck and it just rained a lot in the past hour.  I don’t know when we will have an opportunity to get it unstuck but it is still sitting out there in the middle of an open plain with eight foot grass.  So, life here can be difficult.
I have also been studying Romans and preparing for when the pastors come back from break.  They will be back Monday and then we will have a full six week session!  I am so overcome at how God is stretching me.  I will teaching for three hours a day and five days a week.  That is a lot of preparation before hand in order to speak that much.  I really like asking questions because it gives me a chance to reorganize my thoughts, it engages the pastors, and it assures me that they are understanding the material.  I am definitely looking forward to next week when they get back but I am trying to get as far ahead as I can right now so I have a little bit of a buffer.
I, personally, am learning about grace still.  There is a balance between grace, works, and life that has taken me a lot of time to understand.  Anything I do as service to God should be an act of love, not an act of work.  That doesn’t mean it can’t be hard, but it shouldn’t be with the intention of paying God for anything.  Our works are an outward expression of an inward dwelling of the Spirit.  They aren’t a means to receive the inward change.  Anyway, I will post more on that later.
As for now, dinner is ready!  It is time to eat!
In Service,
Joshua
Medical Clinic

Doctors -1 Witch Doctors – 0 by Stephanie Williams

A woman walked up to the clinic holding a lethargic boy in her arms. She didn’t hurry. She didn’t scream. In fact, she barely even asked to be seen. Saturdays are reserved for emergencies, so I went to assess her. The translators standing by explained that the child had been sick and in town for the last three days.

One of them asked her as to why she was just now coming. I saw no hope in her eyes. That worried me.

He was feverish, lethargic and severely pale. I called for Dennis as I have no experience getting IV lines in 8 month olds, and started on a paracheck (test for malaria). I was pretty certain it was malaria. It was.

When the translator asked her how long he had been sick, she explained that she had come from a far village. She had been in Tonj three days but… was being treated by the witch doctor.

The witch doctor diagnosed him with heart problems and even withdrew ‘charcoal and goat hair’ from it. But it didn’t help.

So, as a last resort and even as a bit of an after thought, she brought him to us. When we got him the quinine he needed, he immediately started getting better. We kept him overnight… but he was able to go home the following day.

Doctors one! Witch doctor zero

Ministry, Pastor Training

Puppet Show

We have Beverly and Greg here with us for two weeks. They have been a huge blessing on the compound. Saturday night they showed “Jesus of Nazareth” to the pastors. We transformed their class room into a movie theater. We covered the windows with blankets and set up the projector. The pastors really enjoyed the movie. It’s six and a half hours long. They only got through four hours so they will finish the movie next Saturday. Beverly said they were really cute watching the movie. When certain things would happen (like Jesus’ birth) they cheered.

On Sunday, Greg preached at our church while Beverly taught Sunday School. They both are gifted in teaching and are passionate about the Word. Beverly taught about Joshua and the walls of Jericho. She set up a town and the kids walked around it seven times with the trumpets they made. We could hear their trumpets from the church. At the end of Sunday School, there was a puppet show. Beverly taught two of the students in the pastors school how to use the puppets. It was fun to see them perform the skit and see the kids’ reaction.

Ministry

Women’s Conference by Stacie Larsen

While Sabet is in Nairobi, Greg and Beverly have come here to teach the pastors. They really have heart for the people and ache for them to be instructed in the Word. Today and next Saturday, Beverly is leading a women’s workshop. We haven’t done one since I arrived and I wasn’t sure what to expect. We had it announced last Sunday at the local ECS church and also asked the pastors in the school to invite their wives. It was scheduled to start at 9:00. By 9:30 no women were there so we decided to go and get them. David, the translator for the school, led us to nearby huts where we invited any lady we saw. We also stopped by Elizabeth’s house and persuaded her to come with her newborn. We returned to the compound with a few ladies in tow and were happy to see others had already arrived. After 20 minutes or so, even more ladies came. At the end, we had 13 women there.

A few of them I knew and the others I was excited to meet. They led us in a few songs and then Beverly began her discussion. We started by asking if all the ladies knew Jesus. They all said they did and gave testimony of God’s presence in their lives. Their testimonies of God’s great work was very encouraging to hear. Beverly’s desire was for the women to know how much God loves them and understand that God has a plan for them. She read Jeremiah 29:11-13 as well as some other verses.
We held the workshop in our church devotion area. We limited it only to women thinking they wouldn’t be open if men were there. David was there to translate because we didn’t have a female translator. I don’t know if it was because David was there, the close proximity to their house, curiosity or just their desire to know more about the Word, but one by one some of the pastors came over. We eventually had five or six sitting behind the circle of women listening to the lesson. I wondered if I should ask them to leave, but decided not to since the women didn’t seem to be bothered by their presence.

The ladies love to talk and share. We didn’t need to be worried about them not talking! They seemed to be very encouraged by the words we shared and by the Scriptures we read. At the end, we asked for prayer requests and prayed for each lady. The requests varied, but some of the common themes were sick children, children that lived far away and illnesses affecting the ladies themselves. It was a powerful time of prayer and fellowship. I am excited for next week. They promised more ladies would come and I believe them!

Ministry

A Visit from Rebecca’s Mom by Stacie Larsen

Today I had a visit from Mary, Rebecca’s mom. She had been to the compound on Sunday and talked with Sabet for a while. I was sick so I missed seeing her. Fortunately, she came back today. She has been walking from the village to Tonj a few times a week to bring food to Rebecca in prison since the food there had been making her sick. Mary has a garden in the village where she has grown ground nuts. Once she harvests them next week, she’ll come back to Tonj to be closer to Rebecca.

Mary was very discouraged today. Life has been hard on her since Rebecca’s involvement in the scandal. Mary’s husband blames Rebecca and took away Mary’s bike so she has to walk two hours each way to come to Tonj. He is also refusing to help Mary find a home here. So right now, when Mary comes to Tonj, she doesn’t have a place to stay. People are still upset about the scandal and don’t want to help her. I see her as just a mom, trying to help her daughter out.

So Mary is worried about a home, worried about food for Rebecca, worried about so many things. She asked me to read her something from the Bible to encourage her. I said I would be glad to and as I walked to my room to get my Bible, I asked the Holy Spirit to give me the verses to share with her. I began with Philippians 4:6,7 which talks about worrying about nothing, praying about everything, thanking God for what he has done and experiencing his peace. Then we looked at Matthew 6:25-34 which tells us not to worry. Just as God provides for the birds and flowers, how much more does he love us? Of course he will provide for us too. Then out of my Bible fell out a small card telling the “Footprints in the Sand” story. I intended to give it to Rebecca on Wednesday, but forgot. God must have known Mary needed it more. So, I showed her my tattoo of footprints and told her the story. Although she doesn’t read English, I gave her the card and told her whenever she looks at that card to remember that God carries us through the storms. Then we prayed. She rested her hands on her legs and buried her head in her lap. After we finished praying, I saw that she was crying. Whenever I see someone from here cry, it breaks my heart. This culture is so strong and tough, that when someone cries, you know they are deeply hurting.

Margaret had joined us by then and we invited Mary to come next Wednesday when we see Rebecca again. She said she would. She also said she was leaving feeling more encouraged than when she came. When she was alone in the village, she would cry all the time and bad thoughts would fill her heart and her mind. Now she has good things to fill her heart and mind with. Thank you God for the peace that comes from your word.

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