Mission Trips, Rancho Del Rey Church, Teams

Sheena’s Blog!

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Hello everyone!!!  This morning I woke up like every other morning here to the sounds of animals and the army/police marching.  We had Peanut Butter Toast for breakfast, then went to an amazing devotion led by Stacie.  She told her story of how she came to the decision to stay here for a year and how God confirmed this for her using Psalm 139 multiple times through many different people.  Then it was off to the clinic for the girls and more construction and teaching of the pastors for the men.  Wound care has been pretty tame since arriving here….praise God!!  We have the usual Tonj wounds which are usually septic.  Then over in the Mama/Baby room things are going great….they are loving the new stretchs they are getting….most exciting news today is that John-Paul thinks one of the moms that came in might be pregnant with twins!!!!  Things died down in the clinic pretty early today so after lunch us girls got to have some good quality time and fellowship with Suzy!!!  It was wonderful….she has so many interesting and wonderful things to share!!! Then us girlies headed to the storage to work on sorting through the medical supplies again.
Just as we were sitting down for dinner…Sabet comes in the dinning hall saying John-Paul needs help.  So, Myself and Alicia go check it out.  It turns out we got a young man maybe 20-25 who came in with a very high fever and has been sick for about a month….at first we thought it was malaria we even started giving him the meds for it….when John-Paul noticed his eyes and realized he has severe anemia.  His anemia is so bad he is in need of a blood transfusion because he is going into congestive heart failure.  Unfortunately we do not have the ability to give him a blood transfusion here so we have to get him to Wau.  We are working on transportation and it looks as though we will get him there tomorrow.  So please be praying for him and travel mercies.  Also a grandma came in with her grandchild.  The Grandma brought the child because the mom was out drinking and does so most nights and days.  The child was around 3 or 4.  She came in with a fever and the grandma also explained that the child has had unexplained convulsions since she was 2.  So they have been taking her to a witch doctor….you can see wounds on her head and back from the witch doctor and the grandma says nothing helps.  At this point in time we don’t know what is wrong with the little girl.  She is staying over night in our clinic for the night.
We had a prayer meeting tonight which was extremely powerful!!!  We gathered around a fire (in this heat it was kinda crazy, but nice) roasted marshmallows and just spent and hour or so just singing praise to God and praying……it was absolutly amazing!  Well I guess that is it for today.  Goodnight from Tonj! 
Mission Trips, Rancho Del Rey Church, Teams

Amy’s Blog!

Amy Handing Toys to Kids in Tonj

Cheebak from Tonj!  This is Ayan (Amy), and this is my story so far:

It has been amazing being back in Sudan for the second time in 8 months!  I never thought I would be here ONE time, let alone twice in a year, but here I am and I am enjoying seeing old friends (Sabet & Suzy) and newer, old friends from February!

I’ve been working in the pharmacy and I absolutely love it!  (Yes, Matt…I am a Sudanese drug runner!)  Peter, the pharmacist, has been such a great teacher, and he lets me fill all of the patient’s prescriptions (he checks them before they go to the patients, of course!).  I just might consider a career switch, and if I came to Sudan, I wouldn’t even have to go to pharmacy school…..how scary is that???  Either way, I am really enjoying the work and the people.

Today, a lady asked me to pray for her headache while Peter was explaining her medicine to her! God is showing me something very unique this time around about serving on a missions trip.  As a team, you may travel a long way to serve,  but the “work” doesn’t always look like you thought it might when you get there.  A lot of times we think of serving on a missions trip as “doing” some type of work all the time.  God is showing me that for the most part, ministry is just about being with the people that you are there to serve.  As a team, we have had a lot of opportunity to slow down and just fellowship with each other, with Sabet & Suzy and with all of the people that work in the compound and the clinic.  What a blessing it has been for me to get to know all of these people, spending time talking with them and finding out what God is doing in their lives!  This is ministry!  And while “working” in the pharmacy is ministry, it is actually the icing on the cake, as far as I am concerned!

Well, it is late at night (9:00 pm, I’m a working girl!), and the lizards and frogs in my room want me to turn the light out so we can get some sleep.  We pray all is well with everyone at home….we all miss you and can’t wait to share with you ALL that God is doing in and through us!

Bye for now….Amy

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Stacy’s Blog

Alicia and Sheena with Newborn They Helped Deliver

Hi everyone!

Today was a very busy day. It was our first day in the clinic. We started off our day with devotions with the staff. Alicia spoke about God being concerned about our inner beauty and challenged us to find out ways to develop that in our lives. It was really good and and it was just the message I needed to hear. Then we all went our different ways.

The guys went to teach in the pastors school in the morning and then worked on tearing off the grass roof on one of the store rooms. Eventually they will be putting a tin roof on it. Tiffany and Sheena went straight to work on wound care, Alicia went to work with the moms and babies, Amy went to work in the pharmacy and I had to do triage. I was so nervous. I don’t know one thing about triage. At first I couldn’t find anyone to show me the routine and I felt helpless. People were waiting to be assessed so they could receive treatment.

Finally, a translator came to help me. We went over to the patients who had already been given a number. Mondays are busy so we had a lot of people. There must have been over 75 people to treat. We first went through the line looking for emergencies (people laying on the ground, open wounds) and then sent those people to the front of the line. The we went around again and I took the temperature of all the kids. Anything above 38 degrees Celsius is considered a fever. I had around 7 kids who had a fever. One child had a temperature of 41, which is frighteningly high. He was also struggling to breathe. It turns out he had malaria and pneumonia.

After two hours, the triage was done. I was apprehensive at first. I wasn’t sure if people were going to be mad at me for pulling others to the front of the line. However, no one was. I think they are just grateful for the help. It was fun to get to interact with the people and make them laugh. Of course they all laughed at me when I tried to speak Dinka. Some of the kids were scared of me. I don’t know if that was because I am white or because I had a thermometer in my hand. Both probably. Most kids I could make smile.

Once I was done with triage, I helped Amy and Peter in the pharmacy. Around 1:00 we broke for lunch. During lunch, Sheena and Alicia helped deliver a baby. It was so exciting. Hopefully I’ll get to do that at some point during the year. After lunch, we continued to work until all the patients had been seen. Once we were finished, Tiffany, Sheena and I worked on organizing a store room full of medical supplies. We didn’t get a lot done, but we got a good start.

It was a very tiring, but productive day. It was neat to work in the clinic and see how  Sabet’s and Suzy ministry blesses the people here. Many lives are saved due to the work they do. John-Paul, the clinic doctor is amazing. He is so patient and kind to everyone. No matter how many patients he has to see, he loves each one and gives them all the time they need. He is my example of Jesus here in Sudan.

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!

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