"When you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do
not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of
slavery."
Deuteronomy 6:11b,12
We often experience our faith as followers of Jesus being
strengthened and growing through life's difficulties as we are reminded of our
powerlessness and need to depend on God in such circumstances. Recently though I have been further
challenged to recognize the importance of depending on the Holy Spirit when the
road ahead looks easy. It is often during
such times that I am unprepared for even the smallest difficulty and I then fail
to do what is required. These surprises
come in different ways. For example it
may be the problem of simply not being in the mood to do what I know I ought or
allowing the demands around me to divert my attention from doing what is best. Then when I fail to do what I believe the
Lord calls me to do at such times, the result is usually discouragement. In response to this I believe I need to
recognize my need for the power of the Holy Spirit to please God not only in
the big tasks that appear to be difficult, but for the simple ones that look
easy. I find that when things are easy I
am prone to forget my need to depend on God.
But I believe that when we remember God's faithfulness to us in the past
and we regularly acknowledge our need to depend on God regardless of what we
see ahead, that we are in a position that allows us to follow his leading in
our lives in every moment.
My Return to South Sudan
I had fun with family and friends during my final months of
home assignment in the US. Though I had
been looking forward to coming back to Africa, the longer I stayed in the US,
the more comfortable I got there. But at
the beginning of December I was on my way back to Africa. Now that I am there, my time in the US felt
like a dream.
After departing Omaha on December 2nd, I reached Nairobi on
schedule. From Nairobi though, I
experienced a number of upsets in my travel plans that had me scrambling to
find another way to get to South Sudan.
I ended up travelling through Juba because I would not be able to make
my connect flight from northern Kenya to Torit.
Thankfully though I am now in Torit.
A few days after arriving to Torit, I along with two other
AIM missionaries, and a group of youth with Africa Inland Church traveled to
the southern part of Laarim territory to build a new house for Jacinta, a
Kenyan missionary. Jacinta's house had
recently collapsed and she did not have the means to build a new place. While the AIM missionaries Jordan and Ray
contributed by providing transportation with their vehicles, most of the other
needs for the building of the house, including our feeding, were provided by
the church and contributions from individuals here in South Sudan. Everyone put in a lot of effort and we
enjoyed working and spending time together.
It was greatly encouraging to see each one play their part in helping
this missionary in need who has sacrificed much to serve faithfully for many
years in South Sudan.
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| Our team putting up the structure of Jacinta's house. |
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| Jacinta in front of her new house. The remaining work of mudding of the walls is now being completed by the local church members in their community. |
This year, I celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve in Torit with
the other missionaries. There was a
turkey brought up from Kenya and we had a feast with all the good stuff
followed by exchanging gifts and playing a game.
This past week, I spent six days at my home in Loryok to
reconnect with the community. Because of
the need to renew my visa in Torit, I was not able to stay longer. It was good to reconnect with the people
there and to see an interest among many of the children to continue learning
the word of God. I was saddened to see
an apparent decline in interest among some of the youth in meeting together. I am hopeful though that as we begin having
more activities that more will join us and hear the word of God and experience
his working in their lives.
The year ahead is looking very busy for me as I will have
some responsibilities related to a team coming to join me in the effort of
reaching the Laarim. My first team
member is planning to join me in July or August 2015 and a couple who will lead
the team is planning to join in early 2016.
Praise the Lord for this answer to prayer!
How you can pray
-Continue to pray for me as get back into using and
practicing the Laarim language. I still
have far to go with it.
-Pray for a growing hunger for the Lord in Loryok as we
continue to focus on reaching the community with the gospel.
-Pray the team that is forming for reaching the Laarim. Pray for the preparations that need to be
made.
-Please pray for peace in the land that will allow the
gospel to spread among the unreached in South Sudan.
