Mission Trips, Rancho Del Rey Church, Teams, Uncategorized

Tiffany’s Blog

Welcome from the Pastors

A Welcome from the Pastors

We have now been here 3 days and to our great surprise, because we came on a weekend, we had some time to ease into our responsibilities.  Every time we talk about starting on some of the tasks that we will be working on, Suzy has given us a grin accompanied by “enjoy your rest while you can because tomorrow we are going to work you hard”.  All talk of work stops at that point.

We woke up to sounds of barn animals and far into the day the rooster kept crowing.  The group soon split in half between those who wanted a longer morning and those who wanted to go to the cattle action at 7:30.  The group that went came back with pictures of the cows that we were named after.  One of the great gifts here is our new cow names, for you can only get them here in Sudan.

Church followed breakfast and the white people sang rounds of Humble Thyself with the Dinka people.  We sounded pretty good!  Stacy commented that even though she came before they didn’t have a church service while here.  She was really happy to be part of this one and excited about the prospect of this being her church body for the next year.

We went to the market after lunch where there was no getting around how different we were.  The Dinkas are friendly and our hands were shaken by many strangers.  Tim and Alicia got traditional Sudanese outfits but the rest of us just stared clothing that would not be too out of place in America.  It is funny how there is so much polyester in a place this hot!  The hard thing was the many reminders of our foreign state in this far land for instance they butchered the cow in the meat market that morning and a mangy dog was still roaming for an unattended piece, a woman danced in front of us putting her arms out blocking our way until paid, and a unclothed child followed and hung on us and cried when we left.  There are situations in this world that you will come to that nothing can prepare you for but the Lord’s strength is sufficient to give grace in all situations.  We are finding these everyday.

The evening cooled down and we got yet another wonderful meal which I would compare to chili over white rice.  Some of the compound workers played volleyball and the medical clinic jobs got passed out.  We are 
all ready for the busy week to start.  I know that once it does it will soon be the weekend and that our time here will be almost up.  We just got here but I already feel 2 1/2 weeks are not enough time for us in Sudan.

Signing off- Tiffany McKeighen

Mission Trips, Rancho Del Rey Church, Teams

Alicia’s Blog

“Yom” here (that’s “Alicia” to the rest of you back home!).  I was 
told that my Dinka name means “cow with brown spots,” especially 
“spots around the face.” OK, so my Irish heritage is CLEARLY coming 
through here, folks!! Can’t get past those freckles!! So… How do I 
even begin to describe what we’ve experienced here so far? It’s just 
downright amazing. I now understand why so many of our Rancho del Rey friends were unable to fully describe what it was like here in Tonj. 
So… I guess I will make my attempt!! LOL! In a nutshell, the trip 
has already gone beyond my expectations. I could go home tomorrow and feel satisfied (but I’m so glad we have 9 more days)!

First, the welcome at the airport. Unbelievable! I was fighting away 
tears as so many ministry workers and community residents were 
standing at the airfield with expressions of pure joy and glee on 
their face at our arrival. I immediately felt loved and wanted here. 
That was huge!

Evidently it is much greener now than in February, because Sheena, 
Stacie, Mike and Amy were just in awe of the flowers, grass and 
bushes everywhere! I have to admit that it was much more beautiful 
that I’d imagined. Picture gorgeous purple flowers just popping up 
around the buildings; delicate butterflies buzzing through the 
bushes… all against the wide African sky and soft green grasses. 
Just picturesque.

God’s timing has been so evident already in our time here. First, 
because we arrived on a Friday afternoon, we had today (and will have tomorrow) to get acclimated to life here in Tonj and our daily responsibilities. For example, today Sheena, Stacie, Tiffany and I spent the morning shadowing John Paul (the clinic officer) in the clinic. We got our first tutorials in wound care and in treating malaria patients. I got to do my first injection (into an IV bag that was exciting enough for me right now!) and Sheena was awesome in giving a huge shot in the rear to this poor little boy suffering from 
malaria. We’ve also been promised to be woken up if a mom comes in during labor. I and the rest of the girls are also excited to be working with John Paul in doing prenatal care on the moms that come in. What an amazing privilege! Monday is supposed to be one of the busiest days in the clinic (and of course our first “official” day on the job!) so please especially pray for us that day! Tim and Mike also start their teaching in the pastors’ discipleship center that day too… so pray for them as well! Which brings me to the men… they spent the day working on the electricity in the training center, and in trying to fix the solar panels. Lots of guy labor stuff. 🙂

This afternoon was amazing. After taking us on a tour of the town, Sabet and Suzy took us over the bridge, past the cattle camp and outside the city to the area where they are going to start building their house! It was just a crazy place–TALL, tall, tall grasses everywhere on a flat plain. It looked very African! So once we drove off the side of the main road (which is Tonj really isn’t a main road!) we literally drove through 5 foot tall grass for like 15 minutes on this barely discernable path to where they would be building. All I could think as we’re driving along is “oh my gosh… I can’t believe how many snakes must be out there in that grass!!!” And then… they stopped the car and were like, “oh, let’s get out and look around!!!” AAAHHH!!! (Cameron, I was really counting on your daily “please don’t let mommy see any snakes in Africa” prayer at 
that moment!!!) At first I hesitated and sat in the truck like an idiot. But then everyone was walking around and I was seeing some really sweet picture opportunities… so I decided to “get out of the boat” so to speak and go for it. Well, the moral of the story is that none of us saw any snakes, and we had some totally cool moments out there, just standing in this unspoiled, picturesque area of Sudan. We got some great pictures of our team… some funny pics of Tim and Mike (you have to wait till we get home for those!) and just had this amazing time.

My motto for life lately has been, “When else am I going to be able to… (fill in the blank)”. And boy, I’ve been able to put that into practice here! So far I’ve used that line to justify getting kissed on the lips by a giraffe, sleeping with frogs, lizards and spiders in our room, and now walking out into tall African grass. I know that there is more (and there will be more!) coming this week… and that’s exciting to me! Life is meant to be lived!

Well, I better sign off for now (it’s my turn for the shower)! Oh one more thing. We got to experience our first African thunderstorm tonight! Probably 1 hour after returning from our trip around Tonj, it started raining! So while we were enjoying a fabulous dinner of lentil burritos, we watched the lighting flash in the distance and heard the rain on the tin roofs. Then, as dinner was dying down, so did the storm!! That was a cool God thing! Anyway… we so appreciate your prayers and your love. We can’t wait to get back home and share 
with you all that God is doing here in Sudan!

Medical Clinic, Uncategorized

A Day in the Clinic!

Every day starts with unpredictable number of patients more worrying the overwhelming emergencies. In a country where gender equality is still a concealed vocabulary under search and research, women bear the plight the faults of the war. At In deed and truth ministries we try to provide not just treatment but care. May be one might ask, what are the issues that face the women (and obviously children) that make southern Sudan unique? Here is an example.

 

On this Tuesday morning, as a routine we pray to God to bless our works of the day especially in the clinic for the unpredictable emergencies. At around 2 pm, after attending to over 80 patients, majority being children hardly accompanied by their fathers or male relatives, I stand from my seat with a breath of sigh ready to check what the table has for lunch. Immediately I hit the door, my attention is engulfed by a multitude of people carrying a sick  patient. As we support the patient to the bed, the history we are given is about drug poisoning due to a domestic quarrel with a co-wife and since women are seen inferior and obviously denied their freedom of expression, the sick woman aged about 20, decides to sought attention by taking her own prescription-the devils prescription-hair dye, which she drunk generously. What a pity for the lady as she groan and roll in agony. Thank God that her medical condition is manageable but what about her social problem? That’s the care I mentioned earlier- counseling and follow-up.

 

This being one of the many daily issues affecting women and obviously children in this region, it even speaks for itself clearly when the husband, a ‘big’ man in the army visits her at hospital about 2 hours later. Astonishment is what I try to hide from my face when am told he has over 30 wives most of which were the many caretakers who brought the lady to hospital. One of the translators appears in haste and reports to me that there’s a child at the waiting bay with bizarre behavior. Am immediately interrupted and order for the child to be brought in.

 

Another emergency! A 3 years old boy who went from home to unknown place to play and came back with drooling of saliva, anxiety behaviors and excessive sweating. The accompanying mother does not know where and whom the child was playing with. Neither does she have an idea of what the child might have swallowed. On examination I realize it is organophosphate poisoning (characterized by increased body secretions, progressive dehydration and shock). The child is in shock. Thank God who made our resuscitation and treatment successful for both the coincidental poisoning cases .

 

In Southern Sudan, women face a daunting task to provide for their children and husbands independently. Their frustrations to put a hot plate on the table everyday keeps them away from their children posing a danger to the young ones. Despite their hard work, they meet frosty treatment us limited freedom of expression. They therefore seek other options to get attention such as hysteria and worse of all suicidal attempts. It will take many years of indefatigable support for the lives of the two parties (children and women)  to improve.

Pastor Training

Pastor’s Training

We are so happy to report that we have had a fantastic first 2 weeks of the second 8 week term of the IDAT Discipleship Training Center.  The pastors who returned came back with a zeal in their hearts to learn the Word of God.  We started teaching Old Testament Survey this term and being they do not have the Old Testament in their Dinka language we thought that it might be a real challenge.  However, we are realizing that God is giving them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.   As we finished the study of Genesis on Friday, we looked into the Book of Galatians and related those scriptures to the Genesis ones we just studied so they would understand the “symbolic two covenants” (Galatians 3) and who the SEED was referring to in the Abrahamic Covenant  where God promised him that through his SEED all nations would be blessed (Galatians 4).   We literally saw the eyes of their understanding being enlightened.   By Joe and Nancy Losee

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