Laura's news!

My blog

Feb 18, 2010

Hi!

It's been a while since I've contacted most of you about my mission in Sudan. There have been some sad situations here recently, but also God has really blessed me over the past month and a half.

Good news first: There is a team of eleven American students here who will be serving a four month term in South Sudan. It is wonderful to have them here and these students are one answer to a prayer a Dinka Baptist pastor had a few months ago. When I asked Pastor Abraham Maper what his number one prayer request was, he said, "Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers." So now we have 3 students living in Akot with my teammate Jermaine and investing in the churches there, 4 students living in Abinajok and investing in the church there, and 4 students living in Rumbek and helping Whitney and I with ministries here.

Even though schools are out of session now, every Monday I've been able to meet with a group of girls at their school for Bible study. I have been so blessed by this ministry and impressed by their hunger for God's word. I was skeptical that they wouldn't want to meet now that school is out of session, because we used to meet with them during their break time at school, but praise be to God that He is moving in their lives and giving them a hunger for His word. Many of them walk quite a distance to meet with us. Two of the American students will be able to carry this ministry on for a few months after I leave and we pray that the girls will continue to meet together after that and hopefully the churches they attend will teach truth.

I've been able to continue my ministry with the leper community, meeting with some of them on Thursdays and others on Saturdays. They are still displaced from their homes because of tribal conflicts and many of them have been facing abuse from soldiers. The soldiers have even prevented some of them from getting water from the well, so please pray for them.

More sad news, at the beginning of January there was a clash between soldiers and civilians in Akot. The results were 13 dead soldiers with 20 others wounded and 3 dead civilians with 4 others wounded. Almost all houses were looted and some homes were burned by soldiers. The storerooms with food were burned; all the food was just wasted. The people living in Akot town fled to other villages to wait for the fighting to end. Things have calmed down now and people have moved back to Akot, but please continue to pray for them as they pick up the pieces left of their homes and lives. Akot is the central location of Baptist Churches among the Dinka people. There is a Baptist Training facility in Akot where local pastors and missionaries conduct various trainings. I worked with a women's group there on Tuesdays. Last Tuesday was the first time we were able to meet since the fighting. Over the past month, we were able to do some food distribution there and are looking into the best ways we can help with the situation.

Also at the beginning of Feb., three of my teammates finished their term. Jennifer, Laura, and Andres have now gone back home and we praise God that they finished well. I will begin my journey back home March 27, leaving Sudan. I plan to spend a few days in Nairobi and a few days in Amsterdam and arrive home April 3rd, Lord willing.

Tomorrow, Whitney and I will travel to another city in Southern Sudan called Kapoeta. There is a family there also working with the International Mission Board, so we hope to give them some fellowship and encouragement and also help them get a similar program set up for HIV/AIDS awareness, which Jennifer and Whitney worked so diligently on here in Rumbek. I may not have much access to internet while I'm in Kapoeta, but I'll be coming back to Rumbek March 3rd to spend my last few weeks here.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. Love in Christ, Jamie

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Dear family and friends, I am writing to give you a short but overdue update and to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I am in Nairobi, Kenya right now where I will be spending the holidays with three members from my team and some other missionaries who work in Kenya. A lot has happened the past month in Sudan, but here are the highlights. Concerning the baptism service which I asked you to pray about in my last email, I was so blessed to witness 24 new believers baptized. Please continue praying for these new believers and their church. Already temptation has come hard for members of Abinajok Baptist church. One week after the baptism service, the pastor was arrested and held in prison.

The pastor’s name is Sunday. He was falsely accused of beating a man. Thankfully, by the grace of God, the man who was beaten sent word to the police that Sunday was not the one who had beaten him and Sunday was released from prison after spending only one week there. After spending a week there, and meeting some of the other prisoners, Sunday felt a burden to begin a prison ministry. So far, he and Jermaine have been able to go visit the prisoners on Sundays and share with them stories from God’s word. Praise God that what man intends for evil, He intends for good! Please pray for the prisoners and this ministry that God has put on Sunday and Jermaine’s hearts.

Thank you for your prayers! Love, Jamie

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Nov 13, 2009 update

Thanks for your prayers for God’s work here in Southern Sudan. I want to ask you to pray this weekend for missionaries and church leaders as we prepare for and carry out a baptism service on Sunday Nov. 15. Two congregations are coming together for the baptism, with a few people from each congregation coming to be baptized. Pray for the new believers and this bold step of symbolism they will be proclaiming to their communities, that they have died with Christ and are being raised to a new life with Him!

As for the volunteer team I mentioned in my last email, their time here was fruitful. Thanks for your prayers. Three guys from a church in TN spent one week here on a mission trip. They were able to spend time with the youth in Abinajok playing soccer, and sharing stories and teaching from the Bible centered around the topic of revenge. The necessity of revenge is something that is very ingrained in Dinka culture, but through God’s Spirit and His word, many of the young men are closer to an understanding of just how great an avenger Our Lord is.

May God bless you and keep you and make His face to shine on you.

More to come,

Jamie

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Oct 14, 2009 update

Hello friends,

I need your prayers that I would truly love Christ more than any other things and that I would hope in him more than anything else! This is our calling, though I sometimes lose sight of that. Though I am weak, God still continues to give me opportunities to testify about his greatness, so I rejoice in that and I pray that His Spirit will do the main work in the hearts of the hearers.

These past months, Laura and I have continued to meet with girls in schools around Rumbek. Please pray for us as we seek to really invest in the lives of some of these girls over the next few months. We have some volunteers coming Friday to spend the week ministering to the youth in Abinajok, a community near Rumbek. We'll be going to Abinajok every evening to play some sports with them and share some Bible stories.

Please pray for this team of volunteers as they minister to youth and get a vision of how their church in the US can be involved in future ministry here. Pray for God's Spirit to touch the hearts of the youth this week. Pray for the Sudanese church leaders, that they will be united through Christ and seek His kingdom first.

Thanks for your prayers,

Jamie

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Aug 15, 2009 update

Hi family and friends,

I just wanted to send a little update and some prayer requests. I am doing well in Rumbek, Sudan and my team is well also. Between the six of us journeymen, we have a lot going on. I know I wrote recently and asked you to pray for Jennifer, Whitney, and Andres as they were spending the week in a cattle camp. Cattle camps are one of the most unreached areas in Southern Sudan. While there, they were able to share with the people the dangers of HIV/AIDS and how it's spread. They were also able to share God's plan of redemption for our fallen world. The people at the cattle camp were impressed with our team's dedication to stay there with them for some days in the harsh conditions.

Pray that more people would become aware of the threat of HIV/AIDS, and that they would be willing to change dangerous habits and traditions.

Pray that through Jennifer and Whitney's work, more people will be able to hear the gospel and have a chance to respond.

Pray for the girls that Laura and I are ministering to in schools in Rumbek. As we teach them to make the sanitary cloths, pray that through our hygiene project the girls will be able to see the love of Christ.

Pray that we might be able to start some small group Bible studies with some of the girls.

Pray for the people of Kulu Kuac, many of which have leprosy. Soon after I left to go home for my sister’s wedding, another tribe attacked their village and they fled to a nearby town called Malou. They are still living away from their homes as refugees in Malou. Jennifer and I have still been visiting them every week, praying with them, sharing testimonies from God’s word, and helping them with physical needs as we feel led.

Pray that they will trust God alone to meet their needs and that they will see his power at work.

Pray for the women’s group in Akot. They come to Akot every other Tuesday from different villages to learn basic health lessons and Bible stories. It has been great to see the Holy Spirit revealing truth to them through God’s word. There is one lady, Elizabeth Adut, who writes songs. These songs help the ladies remember the Bible stories! It has been so neat to hear her come back to the meetings with a new song to teach the other ladies. Last week she had been working on a song having to do with the health lessons. Pray that these songs would catch on and spread so that more people can hear good news about our great God.

Thanks for your prayers. in Christ,

Jamie

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May 24, 2009 update

Hi prayer partners!

Thanks so much for your prayers for me and my team as we seek to glorify God in South Sudan. I just wanted to update you on some ministries I am a part of here and other happenings.

Laura and I have finished teaching the girls at one school near Rumbek how to sew feminine hygiene cloths, so that they can continue in their education. Friday we taught one group of girls at a second school and we plan to teach another group tomorrow. This has been an awesome opportunity for us to show love to the girls and share from God's word. As part of the workshop we've been able to share the Bible story from Luke 8:42b-48 and then parallel it to the gospel. Pray that God will work in their lives.

Jennifer and I have been going to a place called Kulu Kuac on Saturdays for a month now. Many people suffering from leprosy live in Kulu Kuac. We've been sharing testimonies from God's word and praying with the people there. The group that comes to meet with us is primarily older people. It's neat to meet with them and hear their stories and see how God has kept them alive through so much. One lady told us how she tried to hang herself more than once when she found out she had leprosy. She testified how she felt God had kept her alive for a reason.

I've still been traveling to Akot every other week to meet with the women there for a time of learning Bible stories and health lessons. This has been a good time also and it's encouraging to see many of them growing in their faith.

There has been some fighting nearby Akot, between the people of Akot and another Dinka tribe. One of the ladies in our group lost a relative in the fighting, so pray that pace will come.

The two men that were in prison have both been released. One was found not guilty and he has gone back to Kenya to be with his family. The charges were dropped on the other man and he has gone to Uganda for school, so we won't be seeing them much any more, but we thank God that they were both released.

Again, thanks for your prayers.

     in Christ, Jamie

Pictures are attached. I also added a picture of what it looked like here for a couple days after a big dust storm had come through further north of us.

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April 20, 2009 update

"The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life..." Matthew 7:14

Yes, Jesus said, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30), but He also said "the way is hard." March was hard. Looking back now, I can see that I was blind to some of Satan's schemes. He sought to exalt pride, divide our team and discourage our ministries. He seeks to take our eyes off Christ. And I am sure he is not finished at these attempts, but I am asking you to pray with us that we will overcome through Christ and view things rightly through His perspective. March was also the hottest month I have experienced here, too hot to sleep some nights. But April is here and the first rains have fallen; things have cooled off considerably and even in the midst of the trials there is still so much to praise God for. We definitely can not praise ourselves!

Laura and I finished our three month English course for ladies. We had seven students stick through the whole course and we awarded each one with a certificate and a Bible. We were able to share stories from God's word in almost every class and I was able to share testimony of how I came to know Christ personally! So we praise God for that and I ask that you pray for these ladies and their families. We made some pretty good relationships with some of our students and so I've been able to visit two of their homes and we've had four girls come and visit us at different times, so it's been good getting to know them more and sharing our lives with them.

Laura and I will be going to schools soon to give workshops for girls on how to sew some cloth undergarments which will enable them not to have to miss school one week every month, so this is another opportunity we'll have to share good news. Pray for us in this endeavor, that everything we do be for the glory of God.

Some pastors from TX came to South Sudan last month to do some pastor training sessions with the Sudanese pastors here, so we praise God for that good time and I ask that you continue to pray for the Sudanese pastors and leaders as they grow in their faith and set godly examples for their churches. We have two friends in prison here, so please pray for W and D. One is a Kenyan man charged with robbery. He's been in prison four weeks with no trial. There is a lot of racism against Kenyans here, so please pray for W. Also, D was one of the Sudanese men Andres and Jermaine were working very closely with at the Youth Center, so pray for him. We are allowed to visit on Sundays and all I can say is I hope I never end up in a Sudanese prison.

Whitney and Jennifer are still looking for volunteers to come out and work with them in spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS and the gospel to military groups and cattle camps (especially if you’re the kind of person who likes to rough it.)

They are beginning their work in schools now that schools are starting to resume session. If you are interested in coming out, email me! Check out their website: http://capsudan.wordpress.com/

Your sister in Christ, Jamie

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February 16, 2009 update

Hi folks,

I apologize for not being the best at keeping you updated. Here's what's going on in Southern Sudan and some ways you can continue to pray for us.

Laura and I are teaching a 3 month English course for women and girls at the Youth Center in Rumbek. We have 20 students and we meet three mornings a week. The ladies are eager to learn! Laura and I are both in Nairobi right now for a little break from Southern Sudan, but Whitney and Jennifer are substitute teaching in our absence. They are working with a translator this week so that they can incorporate some of their HIV/AIDS curriculum into the English lessons. Pray for Whitney and Jennifer and the students this week as this may be the first time some of our students will be hearing the gospel message.

Please pray for us as things are getting started at the Youth Center. We want it to be a place where youth can come to do productive activities and grow spiritually. Pray for the Dinka men and women God is raising up to be spiritual leaders at the Youth Center. Andres helped build a ping pong table a couple of weeks ago for the youth, so this is a big attraction. Jermaine arrived in January and he has been quickly learning some of the Dinka language and helping with various ministries. Pretty soon he'll be helping Laura and I lead a drama club at the Youth Center. Pray for us in this endeavor. We would like to have an Easter performance with some of the youth.

In November, some volunteers from the US came to Southern Sudan and began a women's ministry with women from the churches surrounding Akot, a village east of Rumbek. The women meet once a month to learn 4 new Bible stories and also 4 new health lessons, which they can then take back to their families and communities. I have the opportunity to meet with them every month to teach the Bible stories; we're working through a story set of 42 stories chronologically, so they can understand the history of how God related to people and also characteristics of God, setting the stage for Christ's coming. They each have a story cloth with 42 pictures representing each story to help them remember, since they can not read to recall details. Also the health lessons include basic disease prevention methods they can take to help their families and communities to be healthy.

Please pray for the Sudanese pastors and believers. They face many pressures from their families and society at large to disregard the commands of Christ. Society says that hatred toward other tribes, revenge, polygamy, and witchcraft, among other things, are good in the eyes of "god" and even necessary to appease "god." Pray that believers will be filled with the Spirit of the True God to withstand the pressure and lies of their peers and live godly lives as examples to their communities of a more excellent way.

Here's a link (view or download) to a video of some of the women in our women's ministries. Feel free to show it in your churches as a way to involve people in prayer for the Sudanese.

Also, Jennifer and Whitney are looking for volunteers to come help with their HIV/AIDS work, so if any of you are interested in bringing a volunteer team, check out their website or contact them via email.

Thanks for your prayers!

Your sister in Christ, Jamie

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December 30, 2008 update

Prayer partners,

As I looked back over some former prayer requests, I realized how faithful God has been in answering. Rose, our language tutor, has really helped me a lot! It has been difficult learning the Dinka language and I am still learning, but I am able to see my progress; I can understand much more and most people can understand me. Yesterday I told a Bible story in Dinka (when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead) and the man I was talking to understood everything except for one word! And I was using the correct word, I just had the wrong inflection, but finally he realized what I was trying to convey and corrected me. It was sweet!! There were a lot of hand motions involved to help convey everything.

Jermaine is scheduled to arrive in Sudan on Friday, so to have another guy to work alongside Andres is another huge prayer answered.

And, the most recent answer to prayer, on Dec. 25th fourteen youth from Abinajok Baptist Church performed a drama of the events surrounding Christ's birth in Freedom Square (the main "town square" in Rumbek) for a crowd of about 300 people. During the past month Laura, Andres, and I have been getting together with the youth from the church in Abinajok (an area on the outskirts of Rumbek "town") to study the accounts from Matthew 1:18-2:12 and Luke 2:1-20 and practice for the drama.

Christmas evening Andres and Mark set a couple speakers up on top of the vehicles in Freedom Square and we tried our best to mark off an area to separate the performers from the crowd. Thankfully a few strangers helped us with crowd control, otherwise there would have been little kids (and maybe adults too) sitting in the middle of the performers. With the help of the speakers and the microphone, everyone could hear the narrator although the people standing in the back couldn't see everything because we did not have a raised stage area.

The crowd was amazed at the angel wings we made out of wire and mosquito netting and the angels did a great job proclaiming God's plan to Mary and Joseph and singing praises to God after they told the shepherds of Christ's birth. The wisemen stole the show as they walked from a far distance through the crowd to get to the stage area, stumbling like old men with their wooden canes and beards made of steel wool. And King Herod looked very poised as he hid his secret intentions and asked the wisemen to come back after they found the child.

I know for a fact that the youth who performed the drama had a great time and learned a lot. And I know the drama sparked the interest of some people in town to learn more about this man named Jesus who the angel said would save the world and be called the Son of the Most High God. Pray for us as we follow up with opportunities to share more about Christ's living power.

Happy New Year! Jamie

P.S. some of the pictures are from a dress rehearsal and some are from the performance Christmas day.

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November 22, 2008 update 

UPFRONT HIGHLIGHTS (more details and stories below for those interested):

• Praise God another guy is coming in January to join our team!
• My teammate Laura is back from Nairobi! After hitting a cow with our vehicle, God saw us through the "trial" and we only had to pay a fine. Because of the cow incident, seeds were planted!
• Pray for us as we follow God's leadership in facilitating a Christmas drama explaining WHY Christ came to earth.
• Pray for the AIDS crisis. For a prayer guide visit Jennifer and Whitney's website:

Praise God! He has answered our prayers and made a way for another guy to come join us! Andres will no longer be the lonely male on our team. The new guy, Jermaine, will arrive here in January. Pray for him as he prepares to come.

My teammate Laura is back from Nairobi and her leg is almost completely healed! It hasn't hindered her at all from biking around Rumbek.

Laura and I have a desire to get some youth here involved in a Christmas drama to perform for the community explaining WHY Jesus came to earth. However, our first attempts at getting the drama rehearsals underway have "failed." Though nothing has worked out as we first planned, there have been some good things to come out of our attempts.

We wrote a script for the Christmas play (initially in English) beginning with two modern Dinka men discussing Christmas and ideas about God, then took it back to creation and the fall of man, setting up Christ's purpose for coming into the world. Filling in the gap of history between Creation and Christ's coming, we included some key chosen men and prophets showing that God did not utterly forsake mankind, but always had a plan to restore peace between Himself and mankind, and we ended the script with the birth of Christ.

Then we went to seek counsel from the pastors that live in another village called Akot. Our supervisor Mark first began his ministry in Southern Sudan in Akot. The pastors there have become strong in their faith and knowledge of the Bible. We wanted their wisdom in getting the message across to the Dinka people in Rumbek of WHY Christ came to earth. We had our potential script and wanted their advice and help translating the concepts.

So last Saturday (the 15th) Laura and I along with a Kenyan friend Wycliff, who is also a Christian, were driving to Akot. However, about and hour into the drive, a little over half way to Akot, we hit a cow with our vehicle. Laura was driving pretty slowly because there was a heard of cows passing on the other side of the road, the third heard we'd passed that morning (9:00 traffic). The last cow in the heard decided not to follow the other cows but rather veer towards our vehicle…two of its ribs were broken; you could tell because it was so skinny.

Immediately some military personnel and police officers who were camping out near the road arrived on the scene. It is a HUGE deal here if you hit a cow. We spent the whole morning in a "police station" which was a 4'x4'shack made of sticks with palm leaves and a green tarp over it. Praise God that Wycliff was with us and Laura and I were not there alone. When we got to the police shack, the commanding officer said he needed to be taken to the "scene of the crime", even though the cow was up and walking and the owner of the cow had arrived with the injured cow at the police shack.

I could tell Laura had had enough driving for the day, so I drove Wycliff and a few curious police officers to the "scene of the crime." Meanwhile, Laura waited in the police shack and took that opportunity to practice her Dinka, reciting the Lord's prayer she had memorized and John 3:16. She also pulled out her Dinka New Testament and one of the officers knew how to read, so he read the rest of John 3. After Wycliff and I arrived back at the police shack and the trial was underway, a friend of ours, Jon, from Akot saw our vehicle and stopped to see what was going on! Praise God he was in the area where we hit the cow and he helped us so much to get everything settled because he is Dinka himself.

After a long morning of discussion, apologies, and Laura being blamed for wearing sunglasses and sandals while driving, they agreed we could come back on Monday and pay $400 (yes, US $), but our friend Jon had to sign for us. They said if we didn't come on Monday they'd look for Jon. Personally, I was a little scared for Jon; we brought him back to Rumbek with us. We decided not to travel on to Akot that day. So Monday Laura, Wycliff, Jon and I went back to Adwel (the location of the cow incident) with another friend of ours who is a commanding officer in the SPLA; he wanted to go with us to make sure everything was finalized and there were no complications.

On our way we saw the owner of the cow we had injured walking towards the police shack, so we stopped and gave him a ride (accompanied by two screaming children in his care who had never been in a vehicle before and probably never seen white girls before). We made it to the police shack, paid the money, made sure the money got from the officers to the owner of the cow and finalized everything by receiving a receipt written in Arabic on a piece of notebook paper.

We went on to Akot and spent the day there with the pastors. They thought we were on the right track with the play and agreed to help us in translating to ensure all the concepts came across correctly. Unfortunately we only translated a fourth of the play before we needed to leave in order to get back in Rumbek before dark. Our friend Jon attends the secondary school in Rumbek and said he could help us with translating the rest. However, our first attempts to meet with youth for practice failed.

The first time we had planned to meet, we waited for a couple hours and no one came. When we were about to leave we saw Jon and found out he had been waiting on us in another location. We made plans to meet Jon after school the next day to do some more translating, but that didn't work out either (I'm still not sure why) and we weren't able to get in touch with him for another three days. But while we waited for Jon, I got into a conversation with a guy explaining the drama and he suggested we air it over the radio in four different languages (English, Arabic, Dinka, and Beli).

The guy works with the Ministry of Information and just might be able to help us get it on the air, so pray for God to open that door if possible. Christmas is only a month away, so it would take a miracle and we'd need a lot of people willing to help us.

In the meantime we did find out some other youth had also been waiting on us in a different location for the first drama rehearsal. So there was a lot of confusion about where and when we were planning to meet. This tends to happen no matter how clear we think we've been in confirming times and locations, but is understandable in a culture that for so long has gone without watches and recognizes locations based on sizes and types of trees rather than buildings or roads (there definitely aren't road names besides "the road to Wau" or "the road to Juba," but it works… usually).

I thought Rumbek was small, but if your mode of transportation is solely by foot, it seems bigger, as if there are many more places to get lost.

Later this week, we went to check with some of the other youth that we'd invited, to see if they were confused about the meeting location too, but they weren't... they just weren't able to come. When we invited them, they didn't mention that we had chosen a bad time to have practice; they didn't want to upset us. So I am asking that you pray for God to fill some youth here with the desire and commitment to take ownership in the drama.

Pray especially for the believing youth that are part of our church here; pray that they will step out in faith to proclaim God's salvation to their community. Pray for wisdom as we decided if we need to shorten or re-write some of the drama because Christmas is fast approaching and we also want to give the youth more ownership in it.

Also Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. My teammates Jennifer and Whitney have compiled a prayer guide for this week leading up to Dec. 1. You can find it at their website - under links on the left side of the page it is labeled "AIDS day prayer guide".

Thanks for your prayers and support! Happy Thanksgiving! Jamie

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October 25, 2008 update    

I am back in South Sudan now and feeling fine. After we finished our Dinka language course at the beginning of October, I headed to Nairobi, Kenya for two weeks for some rest and relaxation and some medical check-ups. I found out that the minor illness I was experiencing was Hepatitis E (sounds worse than it actually is). It is not chronic like other forms of Hepatitis and Praise God I had already started recovering from it before I even went to Nairobi and now I have some medication that should help eliminate it completely.

My time in Nairobi was very refreshing. I am thankful that I was able to go on safari and see some of God's amazing creation and spend some quality time with some veteran missionaries which was very encouraging.

Pray for Laura as she is still in Nairobi awaiting medical clearance to come back. Laura and I are planning to teach an English course at the Youth Union in Rumbek and lead a drama team in which we facilitate performances of Bible stories for the community. So please pray for us as we get things started and work out lots of details. Pray that we will be faithful in these two avenues to proclaim the excellencies of our Lord Jesus the Christ.

We are asking God to raise up 12 Dinka men to work with Whitney and Jennifer (two of my colleagues) as they travel to schools, cattle camps, and military groups throughout Southern Sudan to teach about HIV/AIDS and expose the disease as one of Satan's tools used to steal, kill and destroy.

Please join us in praying for these Sudanese partners; pray that God would put the desire in their hearts to proclaim His truth.

We are still praying for a teammate to come work alongside Andres, so continue to lift that up. Pray for his ministry mentoring young men that are leading a small group of believers in worship and Bible study.

grace and peace to you, Jamie

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September 8, 2008 update

Greetings from Southern Sudan!
We were prevented from going to language school today, so I thought I would take this opportunity to send out an update. Today the SPLA (Sudan Peoples Liberation Army) decided to have a surprise disarmament in Rumbek to remove any guns possessed by civilians. It was a surprise so that people would not have time to hide their weapons far out in the woods. So this morning as we were getting ready for language school, troops lined the roads and people were instructed to stay home so they could search for weapons. They didn't search our home; I guess they trust us not to have weapons. I've been told that the Southern Sudanese government brought in troops from a rival tribe (the Nuer) to remove arms from the people in Rumbek who are primarily of the Dinka tribe. Their logic in this was that there would be less of a chance that Nuer military personnel would allow any Dinka civilians to keep weapons (due to lack of family and friendship ties). However, this has caused tension, and some soldiers have taken more than a few unethical freedoms in their search for arms, so pray for the situation especially as nightfall draws closer. Pray that people here will come to know Christ, the Righteous Judge and the Author of peace.

As for me, I find comfort from Psalm 27: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?... Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident."

On a lighter note, one highlight from the month of August was that we were able to attend a menstruation celebration. Rites of passage into adulthood are very important in the culture here. The parents of the girl who was coming of marriageable age hosted the celebration for family and friends. There were speeches given by her father and uncles, a feast prepared by all the women, and lots of singing and dancing. Pray that many Dinka people will have cause to sing and dance in joy over God's great salvation provided in Christ.

Praise God we journeywomen have found a language tutor! We see her everyday on our way to language school and when she found out we were learning to speak Dinka, she was very eager to help us learn. She voluntarily practiced with us everyday on our way home and she speaks some English. She is very patient with us and is not afraid to correct us. Her name is Rose; she is an answer to our prayers and we are an answer to hers also. Rose has no husband, is lame in both her legs, and is trying to support her one living daughter by sending her to school. It is rare in Dinkaland for a parent to value their daughter's education so highly. Rose often depends on relatives and friends to help support her family, but she is grateful to have a job of her own for a while as our tutor. We are excited that after our language class ends in three weeks, we can continue to go deeper into the language with Rose a few days during the week and grow better equipped to understand what is on the hearts and minds of the people here.

Praise God we have been granted permission to use the Rumbek Youth Union; pray that it becomes a place where God's glory is made known and disciples grow in the love, fear and knowledge of our Lord. Continue to pray for Whitney and Jennifer as they are persistently developing an HIV/AIDS education program which incorporates God's redemptive plan. Pray for Sudanese helpers to come alongside them in this endeavor.

Three of the five journeymen have had worms or some sort of parasite, so pray for grace and strength for recovery. God has used these trials to give us more compassion for the people around us who face these diseases and worse, more frequently and with less medical treatments at their disposal.

There are some pictures and videos from the menstruation celebration, a church service, and other snapshots of life on the blogs. Pray for the local Sudanese Christian leaders and small groups of believers as they grow in their walks with Christ. Please continue to pray for a Godly male teammate to come work alongside Andres.

Thank you for your prayers!
Grace and peace to you.
Jamie

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Prayer Requests - August 5, 2008

DINKA OF SOUTHERN SUDAN
"Be careful not to say this phrase or it will lead to fighting." This is a common warning given to new missionaries in Southern Sudan by their Dinka language teacher. It has become a bit of a joke among them, because some phrases seem so innocent and even silly to their American ears. But there is an element of danger rooted in the stories and history that lie behind each phrase; stories that bring shame to one's tribe or clan. The Dinka people take great pride in their tribe and clan as well as in their reputation as individuals; they are always prepared to fight to defend their honor. Even at a young age of 13, after receiving tribal scars as a rite of passage into adulthood, the young men are expected to beat the younger boys. Pray for the Dinka people that they would understand that all honor and glory belongs to the one true God. Pray that God would soften and humble their hearts to see Christ's glory and receive His mercy.

DINKA OF SOUTHERN SUDAN
"Why do you talk like a man who has been cut in half by a hippo?" This is the literal translation in English of a Dinka expression used to convey that someone is talking nonsense. Among the Dinka people, it is believed that if you are cut in half by a hippo and your top half is in the water, you will still be able to talk for a while before you die (though you will not make much sense.) The Dinka culture is full of stories. For instance, did you know that the dog was the animal which brought fire to the ancestors of the Dinka people? Before they had fire, they cooked by sunlight. In such a story-driven culture, pray that God's Spirit will move in hearts to illuminate the truth found in the stories of the Bible. Pray that many Dinka people will experience God transforming power through hearing the "sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ." (2 Timothy 3:15, ESV)

DINKA OF SOUTHERN SUDAN
Timidity was the expression seen on the face of a young Dinka pastor as he began to address the new church. Pray for local pastors that they would be dependent on God's Spirit and have confidence in God's ability to use them to proclaim His good news to those living in hopelessness. "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant." (2 Corinthians 3:5-6, ESV). Pray that they would take comfort from the apostle Paul's experience: "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Corinthians 2:1-5, ESV). Pray that the gospel be clearly proclaimed among the Dinka people bringing many to faith by the power of God.

HIV/ AIDS
There was a time not long ago in Southern Sudan when cases of HIV/AIDS were rare. If someone tested positive, it was almost guaranteed that they or their spouse were either in the military or a traveling merchant. But now as prostitution is on the rise, many people are settling in Southern Sudan from neighboring countries, and the deceiver is convincing people that sexual immorality is acceptable, cases of HIV/AIDS are rapidly increasing. Pray for God's continued direction in the beginning stages of the HIV/AIDS education program in Southern Sudan as missionaries seek to teach Godly decision making and God's plan for redemption.

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"Take care lest you forget the Lord your God… who brought you water out of the flinty rock."

This might seem like a strange passage with which to begin an email, but as I was reading Deuteronomy 8 and God's command for us to REMEMBER what He has done, I was reminded how amazing it is that God provides and answers our prayers in ways that we don't expect of Him, like bringing water out of a flinty rock.

In the midst of studying the Dinka language and as we build relationships with many Dinka people on our walks to and from language school, my team and I have had many amazing opportunities to share personal testimonies, brag on God's goodness, share His gospel, answer spiritual questions, and genuinely take part in the lives of other people working here in South Sudan (with the UN and other non-governmental organizations) from all over the world: India, Pakistan, the Nederland, Australia, Germany, Italy, England, Kenya and the list goes on! So I praise God for these unexpected opportunities and your help through prayer.

One of my teammates, Josh, had some medical problems and decided to take another position in Kenya in order to be closer to medical facilities, so please pray for him and his new adjustment. Please join us in praying for a new ministry partner for my teammate Andres, so that he will not be the only guy here with the four of us girls.

I have included some pictures of the path we daily walk (and sometimes bike) to language school and also pictures of Dinka friends who we stop and try to converse with along the path. Some of the girls you'll see taught Jennifer and I a dance one day, and I don't think they or I had laughed that hard in a long time; we couldn't quite perform the way they do. It was definitely entertaining. Everyday is an adventure. The rainy season has begun. Laura and I have both fallen off our bikes into mud puddles on separate occasions, once because a cow decided to change direction and step in front of me, but thankfully I didn't hit the cow and we were able get up and smile, laugh, and be more grateful for our evening shower.

Pray for Whitney and Jennifer as they develop an HIV/AIDS education program incorporating God's redemptive plan. Pray for Laura, Andres and I as we talk to local leaders and seek permission to use an existing facility for youth called "The Rumbek Youth Union" which is currently not in use, but becoming overgrown by "the bush" as the locals would say.

2 Corinthians 1:11 "You must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many."

Recap Prayer points: A godly male teammate to join Andres. That God will enable the seeds that have been planted to take root globally. Our friends along the path. HIV/AIDS and Youth programs Good health and peace of mind so we can concern ourselves with the welfare of people here and the interests of Christ. (like Timothy in Philippians 2:20-22)

Please email me if there are things you would like me to pray about. Thank you to all who have sent cards and packages, and to all who keep those without email updated! Grace and peace to you all.

Jamie

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Andres's news!

 

Jennifer's news!

My blog

 

 

Whitney's news!

     My blog