NORTHWEST TEAM IN SUDAN

We want to thank each one of you who prayed for us during our ministry in Sudan this last month. God moved in wonderful ways touching many lives!

GOT TO STAY FLEXIBLE

We had originally planned to go to the city of Yei to do a leadership conference and Mark Warkentin had put a lot of energy into getting it all set up. But we were getting opposition from some religious leaders there and finally Mark and I both began to feel that the Lord was leading us to go to Kejo Keji instead. We had heard that 1,000 refugees fleeing from the LRA had ended up near Kejo Keji looking for a safe haven. The word was that they had fled with nothing and were in desperate need of clothing so we took 400 pounds of cloths and gave them to the Kejo Keji community leaders to distribute to these people.

With very little advance notice we changed our plans and went to Kejo Keji where we held two nights of crusade meetings. The first night there was a crowd of about 1,000 people and the second night there was well over 2,000. About 100 people responded to the Gospel, so we decided that we had to do something with this group; we announced that we were planting a church on the coming Sunday. That Sunday morning 22 people showed up and the following Sunday there were 35 who attended. I am anxious to see how many are there for Easter Sunday. This is the second Foursquare church we have planted in Sudan.

KAREN GRUBBS

We sent Karen Grubbs, Children’s pastor at Safe Harbor, up to Liwolo a week before anyone else to give her more time to minister in the schools. God used her to lead 1,171 students to the Lord as well as 9 teachers. God moved powerfully, drawing these students to Himself. Karen did a great job. Last year we had 800 students respond to the Gospel and we were hoping that this year that we would see close to this many students respond. God moved beyond our expectations.

NEW TEAM MEMBERS

The team from Coupeville and Oak Harbor led another 300 students and 9 teachers to the Lord. This was the first time in Africa for this team and they did very well. I think they all fell in love with the people of Sudan. All together there were 1,483 students who made commitments along with 18 teachers.

CRUSADE

Each evening we did crusade meetings where we would start about 5 PM with worship and testimonies, a short sermon and altar call. About 7 PM, just as it was getting dark we would show a Gospel film and then make another altar call. People would respond at both altar calls. We had 257 people make commitments to Christ in the crusade meetings. All together there were 1824 people who made commitments of their lives to Christ. There were 50 to 100 other people who responded but we were not able to verify their commitment so we did not count them.

CONFERENCE

We also had a leaders’ conference at which 500 people registered and attended. Remember that this is out in the middle of the bush 3 hours drive from anything that resembles a town. For the first time we had a one day women’s conference which 500 women attended. These leaders are so appreciative of the teaching and the discipleship materials that we give them. We were able to give out about 14,000 pieces of evangelism and discipleship literature including the booklets I have written and the materials that Foursquare Missions Press gave us to distribute. John Arnott also gave us 250 copies of his booklet The Importance of Forgiveness which we gave to these leaders.

We had invited Foursquare pastors from all over Sudan to this conference. We had a special meeting with the Foursquare people one afternoon. As far as we can tell, at this point, there are 3 other churches besides the 2 we have planted. There are also a couple of Sudanese Foursquare churches in displaced persons camps inside Uganda. There is a man who has attended our conferences in Liwolo who is now living in Juba, waiting for an opportunity to start a Foursquare church there. Our Sudan NGO partner has been given 3 containers of sports equipment to give out in Juba. They are targeting 12,000 youth. We are arranging for the Foursquare leader there to make a gospel presentation and altar call to this group. Each one is being given our AIDS brochure with a gospel presentation on it. Hopefully this will be an opening to start a Foursquare church in Juba.
At this point Foursquare is not officially registered in Sudan because they have put a moratorium on all registrations. High ranking SPLAY members have advised Louise and me to continue operating unofficially for now.

MARK WARKENTIN

Mark is doing a great job. We had many people tell us about how much they appreciate him. This is his third year living in the bush with the people of south Sudan. They admire him for it. As far as I know he is the only missionary who is actually living in-country. Many of their own leaders have not yet moved back from safe havens in other countries. The fact that Mark is there says a great deal. Please continue praying for Mark, it is not easy for a westerner to live like he does. He has a big job ahead of him as he continues to evangelize and disciple people there. In May he is putting on a 2 week intensive for students on break and for Sudanese Foursquare pastors.

GOD AT WORK

There were many wonderful testimonies of salvation, healing and deliverance. The first day we were there I asked our driver if he was born again, he let us know that he was a Catholic. A statement to let us know that he didn’t need to be born again. But, he gave his heart to the Lord in one of our first crusade meetings and became a fully committed member of the team. Toward the end of our time there, some of our group visited a UN compound and while there our newly saved driver lead the UN gate guard to the Lord.

There were about 20 healings that we know about. One was an older man who came to one of the crusade meetings. He had lung problems, joint problems and was unable to sleep comfortably at night because of the pain. After receiving prayer, he came back the next day and testified that he had been healed and that he slept well for the first time in a long time.

One woman, who everyone thought was a believer, confessed one day that she didn’t really feel like she was a Christian because she had bitterness and unforgiveness in her heart. The story is that her three year old child fell very sick and they rushed her to the hospital but unfortunately the child died. It came out that a relative using witchcraft had poisoned the child. The woman could not find it in her heart to forgive. During the conference Louise and some of the other women ministered to her about forgiveness. The woman had a meeting with God, was able to find forgiveness and was set free from the bitterness and hate.

If you would like to know more, or are interested in being on a team contact me at sudanproject@verizon.net