LET THE CHILDREN COME TO ME

                                          I, Sunday school assistants and kids

                                      Kids having fun after classes

Luke 18:16, “But Jesus called them [unto him], and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God”.

As each Sunday the church gathers, part of our congregation is made up of kids. They join us at the beginning of our service at 10 am. Before they can be released to their classes we have songs that are relevant to them. It is happy to see them sing in both English and Dinka. We have one teacher very committed to the Sunday school and I had a chance to help her for two Sundays. I realized that the kids are very attentive and creative and can remember past lessons, which was a great blessing to me. We have been having one class but are implementing a second class such that we can be having two classes every Sunday. We believe and hope that this will help in reaching many kids and increase effectiveness. It is always happy to see the kids have fun outside after their classes. They do various forms of games.

      We believe that in reaching the children, we are reaching not only this generation but a generation to come. These kids are still fresh and their minds are quick to learn. The bible tells in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”.

  

                              I and kids at Malony

 I also travelled to Malony last week  with the medical team where after ministering the word to the adult patients, I called the children aside and it is kind we had another wonderful service. I shared the word from genesis about creation and fall of man. We then prayed together and had a couple of songs. The kids were very excited and kept telling me that I should do the same next time I visit.

 I also visited the headteacher to the local primary school, which has a population of 97 pupils. I shared with him our idea of showing the Jesus film to the pupils in school and requested Him for permission to do so  . He was okay with it and promised us that when they begin the feeding programme sometime later in April we are welcome to go and minister to the pupils as well as show the Jesus film. This we feel is a breakthrough worth praising God for.

    These are part of the effort we are making to make the gospel get to the children, and have them won for Christ. Statistics show that about 85% of Christians give their lives to Christ when they are still children.

   Prayer points

***Pray that we shall have breakthroughs in many other schools to air the Jesus film and share the gospel regularly

***Pray for our Sunday school that we shall have enough teachers and helpers.

***Pray that these kids shall make their personal choices to follow Christ

JESUS OUR SUFFICIENCY

                                    Peter and i at the ministry premises
True christian fruits are seen when mere men chose to put their faith in Christ and in His word despite their hardship, cultures and what the world teaches them. One of the greatest hindrances to the gospel here is a culture that is so much implanted in belief in witchcraft and sorcery. The community so much believes in them that they are mostly the first option in case there is a disaster. We know that this is idolatory, and God does not want His children to practice it. But today we see this change. One of the guy who have been very keen to discipleship is Peter. He is a student in Secondary school, and he is born again. He has been coming  to our  ministry premises at IDAT every week where we spend time in the word of God. He also comes to church every sunday for fellowship. We also pray together. His story is that of breaking away from tradition by not only embracing Christ but also His teachings. I see him a good example of what Paul said to the church in 1 Thesalonian 1:9b, "......, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living God".  Peter had his dad sick two weeks ago, his brothers were planning to have their dad taken to a witchdoctor (which is kind of the norm here) but Peter said No. He suggested they take Him to the Hospital at Juba since that is where He(dad) works. Peter feared that the brothers will not take his advice since they had also taken their Dad to a witch doctor for treatment last year. He came to me asking that we pray together and ask God that His dad not to be taken to a witch doctor. We prayed and after 3 days He came back with a testimony that his elder brothers had agreed to take their dad to hospital. On saturday17th March, Peter came with the good news that his father was now well and had been discharged from the hospital. This story is one among many others that we witness everyday here ay Tonj. The bible tells us that we are not to live as the unbelievers do, Ephesians 4:17-18This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that  walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart....  (24) But we are to put on the new nature which is created in the likeness of Christ. For Peter it took courage to say NO to what was ungodly, to walk away from what the culture advocates and to follow what the bible says.
Prayers points:
**Peter and other believers that they will continue to trust in Jesus in difficult situations and they will severe any ties with the witchdoctors and spirit masters.
**Pray for Peter's growth and continual commitment to discipleship.
**Pray for his Dad and brothers that they will fully trust in Jesus and that they will accept Him as their saviour.
**Pray for His exams that are forthcoming in April.
**Pray that the Lord will continually use him at school and home.

SOWING AMONG MINISTERS

                            I and my group perform a drama presentation in aid of Story telling

          Some participants pose for a photo. We have Peter(Right) the youngest participant

                                  Billy and his group present a dramatized story

                               This guy though is blind but determined to preach the gospel.

Paul told the church of Corinth 1 Cor:26, “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air” Considering this scripture in light of ministers of the gospel, i think that alot needs to be done to improve our effectiveness in soul winning and discipleship.And as i look and pray concerning South Sudan i tend to see that one of the greatest need for the church is to have the pastors and the teachers of the word equipped properly to have them carry on the work of Christ effectively. The In Deed and Truth (Go to @ www.indeedandtruth.org) ministry has been training pastors from Tonj and Rumbek. Last week we had Pastor Billy from Uganda come and teach the STS (Simply The Story), the art of story telling as a way of passing the Word of God. Since majority of the congregation cannot read or write story telling is one of the beautiful concept that the pastors can use to teach the word. As the seminar went on, it was just beautiful to fellowship with the pastors and church leaders and see how eager they were in learning. I was really encouraged to see one of the participants Peter who is 16 years old eager to learn the story telling concept. Our prayer is that as they go back to their homes they will continue to use this method to teach the word. The Lord Jesus said Luke 12:48,”For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more”.  We would urge you too who are partners with us in Christ calling to pray for them.

FREEDOM IN CHRIST

Even in the most desperate situation, we try to share the gospel. This is exactly true at the In Deed and Truth ministry clinic. Of course the patients come here with an aim of getting treatment. We seize the opportunity and share the gospel. Such happened yesterday Pst Judah (who happens to be my translator most of the time) and i did a demonstration of how sin has a grip on us as human beings - we were using the verse in Romans3:23,"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". We called one of the guys, used a string to tie his hands and feet and passed the string around his neck. I asked him to untie himself and he couldn't. I called one of the health workers(Joseph) to  untie him as i explained that such is what Jesus did for us when he died at the cross. We also quoted from Romans 6:23,"For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is everlasting life through Christ Jesus our Lord" We assured them that if the call upon the Name of the Lord they shall be saved even as the scripture tells us so.The patients were glad that we shared with them the gospel, and prayed with them. Besides sharing the gospel orally, we also ensure that the patients get a gospel tract written in Dinka. We know it is a challenge for some of them to read such material since they do not know how to. But we hope and pray that they will read this material or get someone to read for them and that the Lord will speak to them.
     One of the challenge though is how to reach the men since most of those who come at the clinic are women and children. Pray that the Lord will lead us on how to reach to the men, especially the former SPLA fighters who spend most of their time drinking.