Jesus Wrote The Book Of Faith

I have just realized that I have been back in Africa for ten weeks! Time just marches on and March has left us! This week we are somewhat back to normal here at the Children’s Village. Well, we were. Then Monday morning we had to take a nice little trip back to Morobo, the village where I camped a few weeks ago. Two of our boy’s father called and said he is dying and wanted to see his sons. And you are asking why are the boys here if they have a dad? Their mother was horribly abusing them and after meeting her, I think she isn’t all there upstairs, so….

It was a very emotional time for the boys. As soon as they got off the truck they started crying. Then my eyes were watering up. Then mama Eudita’s eyes were watering up. The father was really sick. I told him about the miracle that his son received during our Friday Night Furnace prayers. He was the one who was in extreme pain and then dancing ten minutes later, free from all pain. I also told the father that his sons knew how to pray and pray powerfully and that they were going to pray for their daddy to be healed.

We prayed and prayed and didn’t see any immediate results during our visit. The good news is we haven’t received any calls saying he died and so we continue to believe that God touched him and I did declared the Word, “You shall live and not die and you and your whole house will serve the Lord.”

I left there thinking about “faith”. The Book of Hebrews 2:10 and 12:2 says that Jesus is the “author” and perfecter of our faith and He is also the “author” of our salvation. So, the Bible also says that if we are saved then our names will appear in the Book of Life. So I was thinking that if there is a Book of Life, where Jesus is the Author, then there must be a Book of Faith, where Jesus is also the Author.

Jesus gives us perfect salvation. Jesus also gives us perfect faith. So anything that we set ourselves to do that will honor Him, well we have the entire Book of Faith behind us! Jesus wrote it and He made it perfect. We each have our own book of faith to draw from, to fill the pages of. Every time we take a step of faith, Jesus writes it in our book! We can have a pamphlet of faith or we can have a best seller, a novel packed with faith stories.

And so I like to throw off everything that hinders me from walking in faith and doing the stuff that takes great faith. When we do stuff in faith, Jesus adds it to our book. He is the Author. He writes it all down because He loves to read and reread the faith stuff that we do! He writes really great books too! We are the subject, He is the Author and He perfects us. We don’t have to stir up our faith or have perfect faith because He perfects us. Practice makes perfect. Let us practice our faith a little each day and see how He will make it perfect.

Tuesday morning we loaded all of the toddlers, 18 of them, into our tipper truck, which is like a low walled dump truck. We sat on a nice African mat, all of us mamas sitting around them, and one little five year old girl sang Jesus songs all the way to town as we headed off to get polio and measles vaccines. It was the cutest picture. Then they all stood in their perfect small line to wait their turn to get stuck with a needle. I am constantly shown through the actions of these small toddlers how Jesus wants us to come to Him. These little ones are so trusting and they just follow where we show them, even though they see that it might sting just a little. I stood with each one and calmed them and they trusted enough to come forward. I daily pursue this kind of trust in Jesus.

As we move closer to the July 9^th date of independence for South Sudan, tensions are rising a bit. There is a renegade SPLA General name George Athor who is leading a group of rebels that are calling themselves The South Sudan Democratic Movement. So far four of the ten states in South Sudan have groups that have joined him. He claims that the current government is controlled by the Dinka tribe and there is inequality in this. His rebel forces consist of warlords who have killed many in the Abyei oil field area to remove them from that land for the North. It is not looking good and some believe that there is a possibility of a civil war between the people of South Sudan. This group has also killed 200 innocent civilians in one of the towns where they are holing up. This is the North’s dream, their ambition all along for us here in the South, disunity.

And so we pray. If we don’t pray, then nothing will happen for the good of this nation and her children. We pray for a peaceful resolution to the disputes of her fathers for the sake of the children. We pray for wisdom and unity in Jesus in the hearts of those who seek to sit in government offices. We pray for the Hope of this nation, Jesus Christ, to be made manifest in the hearts of those who seek to cause disunity and corruption in South Sudan. As I gathered with the youth on Friday night for hour time of intercession, this was our prayer focus. They are powerful pray-ers, these youth of South Sudan.

Every night before I retire to my bed, I walk to the children’s houses and peek in, cuddling one or two here and there as they prepare for bed. In every house, the children are sitting on the floor, all huddled around a tiny kerosene flame, vying for the flickering light to see their school work. They are all working together to study and copy notes. The teens walk to and from school, about three miles each way, each day. Yesterday it rained in the afternoon and I thought about the children in the west and how cars would be lining up in front of the schools to take children home in order to keep them dry. And I thought about our children and wondered how they were keeping dry. Were they running into a friends hut or standing under a mango tree to wait out the rain? Most times, they just keep walking, soaking wet. They are amazing.

This is all they know here. There is no light switch and comfortable desk in each room by which to do their homework. No computers and textbooks. No school buses. Here, the children spend the day copying entire textbooks in order to learn because there is only one per class or school. Only a few can gather around the textbook at one time and so the others must copy notes from these few when they get home at night. The smaller children have small chalkboards on which to practice their skills, erasing it all to use again and again. And when the rains come, they make their way home however they can, hoping to arrive with dry books and notes and bodies. Also, since it is too far to walk home for lunch, the older children go all day without food until they arrive home in the evenings, usually around 6-7 pm. This is life in Sudan, at least our part of it.

Saturday, I attended the Police graduation ceremony in the town center along with a couple of thousand other people. We had planned just to stand along the sidelines with everyone else in the town. As soon as we arrived, two westerners and two of our older Sudanese sons, we were immediately escorted to the VIP seating area and we sat behind the top officers and the Central Equatoria Governor. There was enough brass and high officials to start a small war and here we were, two of three westerners in the midst of them and two of our older boys The boys said that just last week they would have been standing in the hot sun with everyone else and now look where they are sitting. Talk about God exalting the humble and placing us before governors and kings! Such an inspiration for these two young men to be exalted like this and humble enough to know it was God.

We were so proud of our police brothers, standing there in full ceremonial uniform. Then they did something simply astounding, never been done before. They had a small marching band in their midst and 450 police recruits marched up to the platform in a beautiful formation and stopped. The drum beat once, they dropped to one knee. The drum beat again and they snapped their heads to their left pocket over their hearts. The drum beat again and they snapped their right hands high in the air, still on bended knee, and there in their hands was a small Bible! They then repeated the police oath after the highest ranking police official in the land, swearing allegiance on the Bible. It was an amazing sight to see those Bibles lifted in the air and them on bended knee.

After the ceremony ended, I boldly walked up to this highest ranking police officer and shook his hand and told him how pleased we were with his men and that we loved them so much and spent every Sunday with them to minister spiritually. He was well pleased and thanked us. Next week I think we will meet the next set of new recruits and will begin discipling them soon. It is very exciting to be a part of the new police force in South Sudan. The speaker told the men that no longer should they look at each other as being from different tribes. They are now of the tribe of “Sulta” which means authority. A co-missionary and I looked at each other and said, “Yes, spiritual authority in Jesus over darkness”.

The continuing progress of two of our newest arrivals is as follows. Saida, the little girl who just began to trust me a few weeks ago now calls my name from across the compound when she sees me walk by. She laughs and smiles every time I pick her up now. She is playing with other children and beginning to interact more often. The transformation is amazing. The older girl who was tied to a tree is healed and happy. Her hands work, her scars on her arms are almost completely healed and she interacts with others on a regular basis and she helps in the kitchen all the time. Again, the transformation is amazing.

The children who come to us are healed only by the love of Jesus and the love of each other. There are no counselors here, no doctors. We only have Jesus and each other and it is more than enough. God’s grace is truly sufficient for ALL our needs. I would love to duplicate this model of love for all the hurting kids in the west who live in institutions. Another huge factor here is that there is no comparing with other children. African students all wear uniforms and so no one looks any better than anyone else. Our children do not watch TV, only family type DVD’s, and so they don’t feel like they are missing out on anything. Children in the village don’t even get to watch DVDs as much as our children do (once a week on Sunday nights).

Our children have a few sets of clothes, they are fed three meals a day, they have mamas who love them and more than anything, a Father who they KNOW loves them. He is a life transformer. These children are happy and basically don’t ask for anything. They are secure in God’s love for them. And this is just another way how I learned to be that secure also in His love for me. He really does provide for our every need.

Tomorrow I will journey to the city of Juba, which is about a 100 miles north. It will take about 7 hours to drive because of the roads. I will be taking public transportation for the first time. We go into Yei town to the “taxi park” and pick a car and hop in with others who are traveling the same way and trust that we get a good driver and a good car. I am going with one of our mamas, who doesn’t speak English. So, this will be a new adventure for me. I will be staying at a compound in the city that ministers to street children and widows. This ministry is the type I want in Aweil and so I will spend a week there learning from the lady who runs it. I will also possibly be bringing home a seven year old little girl who was found abused and begging on the streets.

Salted With Fire

Again, another busy week has passed into the eternity of time. We have been battling the enemy on all fronts, all week long. Monday morning I woke up with another boil in my nose, just like last October! I almost go out of my way to make sure I wash my hands and keep clean and still! I have talked to some of the other westerners and they have told me of similar stories where weird and strange skin afflictions have come upon them for no apparent reason. Africa just has some weird stuff! Today is Saturday and my nose is getting better and better. I just keep saying grace to this mountain and squeezing and bearing it!

Friday was our Revival Bible School graduation and mid week we ran into some major resistance in the spiritual realm. Our students were harboring offense in their hearts toward us and we were astounded because these are amazingly sweet and spirit filled students who are always so joyful and prayerful and sincerely loving. We learned that there was one student who was instigating the offense and planting seeds of offense in the minds of some of the others.

Thursday morning I was in charge of the sessions and we were spending the morning in worship and intercession for four hours. Right off, I noticed that my strongest prayer warriors among the students were just sitting there and not engaging. Then this literal wall of flies hung like a curtain on the south side of the church and were also flying around in the church. Our church has half walls and the rest is open with steel bars to keep intruders out. As I was praying, twice a fly flew right in my mouth and I spit it out! Then the head pastor and myself, we just looked at each other and both of us said that there was deep darkness hanging in the atmosphere. The enemy came like a flood, seriously. You could cut the air with a knife.

He is Sudanese and the men respect him and he got everyone standing in a line facing those flies and we went into warfare in Arabic. After a half hour of battle and worship we got still before the Lord and repented for holding others bound in our hearts. When you harbor offense toward another person, you are binding them in your heart. And so after this time of repentance, we worshipped again and every bit of darkness left that church and the flies left and we were all walking in love again, no one being offended. Sounds crazy but this stuff really happens here.

It is very obvious here in Africa when the enemy is lurking around. You can feel the atmosphere shift and the darkness descend like the night. I think in the west that it is more veiled or there are so many distractions that it isn’t easily discernable. Here, even nature starts acting out of sync, seriously.

For the graduation I bought three goats and we slaughtered them and grilled them up. Sadly, one of them was Abraham. One of the female goats that we bought was very big and healthy and our little boy goat, Isaac, is getting close to stud, so we had to sacrifice Abraham for the feast to make room for more babies. Kind of backward huh? So, in the kitchen lean to, there sat Abraham’s head and hooves in a bucket. I almost didn’t eat but I managed.

There are no “grills” here and so we went to town and bought some heavy gage window wire grate and bent it in half and put rocks under the corners and there you have it, instant grill. We feasted on grilled goat with my special seasonings of Rosemary and Oregano simmered in beef broth. Add this to fresh picked cabbage that is cooked in a yummy sauce and some rice. So good!!!

Iris Sudan is now reaching to all corners of South Sudan and even into the north. We sent pastors commissioned from the school to Chukudum to the east, Malakal to the northeast, Darfur to the northwest, Yambio to the west and all points in between. We have the map covered and are taking the gospel of love and the Father’s heart to many who are lost and destitute and need to know they are loved. The two guys from Darfur will be working with me up in Aweil when I get there later this year and I am so excited. They are amazing guys. This is going to be an amazing year for Sudan as the Holy Spirit moves across the land.

Earlier this week I was reading in Mark 9 where Jesus says that “everyone will be salted with fire”. I have long pondered this verse and have not understood the meaning or how one can be “salted” with fire. Yep, you guessed it, the Lord revealed it to me through nature again. So simple yet so profound.

I was talking to another missionary, who is here on an agricultural mission, about how we here at Iris don’t burn our fields because the director doesn’t like fire this close to our houses and kids. So, we have to hack away with machetes and such to clear fields. He told me something very interesting. When you burn a field, it leaves a rich deposit of salt from the burning!

So, we are the salt of the earth according to Jesus in Matthew 5:13. The only way we can become the salt of the earth is to be consumed by the fire of God. The salt is what remains. If we don’t let His fire burn off the dead things in us then we are “good for nothing and lose our saltiness and we become trampled by men” according to further reading Matthew 5:13. Jesus says that everyone will be salted with fire. He goes on to tell us that we need to have salt “within” ourselves and to be at peace with each other.

I believe that our hearts must go through the burning, the refiner’s fire, many times, just like a field for planting. We must allow the burnings of God in our hearts to be salted with His fire so that we can remain salty and be a good field for planting. God always wants to do new things in us and for us and with us. We need to allow the season of burning to come so that new things can come forth from our deep roots. We are rooted and grounded in His perfect love so we will not die when the fire comes. The root runs deep and true and He will bring us forth into a new thing, an even better thing. Spring is here! Let the fire come! Be salted by His holy fire! Let us be the salt that remains of the earth.

It is now Saturday night and I am sitting in my bughut so as to avoid the white termites that fly everywhere this time of year. The Sudanese love to catch thousands of them and pick their wings off, leaving only their fat juicy bodies. Then they roast them over a fire and eat them! Ugh! I had to kindly and sincerely refuse. I did try the goat intestines though! I am trying to fit in, really!

Tonight we also watched a movie on my computer, all 105 children gathered round and a handful of mamas. The entire movie did have some added actors (termites) on screen but we just learn to ignore them. No special Oscars there! I usually find myself getting up from the movie about every half hour, slowing picking my way through the dark with a small child dangling in my arms. They always seem to fall asleep when they reach my arms. I have a sleep anointing for kids and they are drawn to it J. Tonight there were two girls and a boy all within an hour.

It is now Sunday noon and we are just back from church. Well, we brought church to the Police Training Camp again. All of them were in their green uniforms and combat boots, sitting in formation, ready for the Word of God. They are graduating in two weeks and have asked for some discipleship training before they go to all parts of Sudan. We are happy to fill that request. The Christian man who was originally the leader of the Police Training Camp has returned. He is very much respected by the men. He loves the Lord and treats his men fairly.

We were told by some of the trainees that the Christians were being punished over the last week because they got baptized and were attending the church service. They were made to stand for long hours and given extra work. That leader is now gone and we don’t know why? Hmmmm, wonder if God had something to do with it? So we are happy to see the old leader returned. The doors are so wide open here in South Sudan for bringing the Good News. There is huge darkness but the Light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is invading that darkness as we carry His light.

It’s sort of like walking into a strange place at night and not knowing what you will see. But then you light a campfire or turn on a flashlight or a kerosene lantern and you begin to see what is there and what needs doing. We carry His light to reveal the need and then we make camp and get to work, not letting ourselves get too comfortable, always ready to move on to another place, another camp, as carriers of the light. We are salted with fire and we carry light. How can there be any darkness in us? It’s all about trusting God with all. Culu culu! Culu hagiga! All all! All truth!

So, today’s lunch treat, along with our regular fare, was roasted termites served up in a nice bowl. Well……. Yep, I actually crunched on one, got it stuck in my molars I did. I ate one. I just had to say I did it. It wasn’t bad or good. It just was. And that is the end of that story, never to be rewritten again I think for me!

After lunch we gathered all of the children and we walked around our huge plot of land and prayed and worshipped and declared and decreed things to keep this land and this ministry consecrated to God. These children are amazing and they are serious when it comes to this sort of thing. Normally when we go for walks there is fighting and crying and playing around and lollygagging and such. This time, they were all focused on what we were about. We didn’t lecture them, we didn’t tell them how to do anything, we just went and they touched every fencepost and went about their Father’s business. It was awesome.

Miracles In Morobo Payam

I am sitting here with my headlamp around my neck, sort of like a necklace, and my computer on my lap, listening to Peace, my favorite baby, crying in the distance. If I could seriously adopt a baby right this very minute, I would not hesitate to take Peace as my own. She is the cutest, funniest, happiest, sweetest baby I have ever known. A sheer bundle of pure joy. Her mother died in childbirth and her daddy just can’t care for her and so she has been here since her first week of life, eight months ago. Also we have just learned that her teenage sister died last week. Again, death is so much a part of life here.

Every single day we here news reports of fighting in some area of Sudan and it is beginning to get worse. Just this week there was a report of a rebel group who busted in on an orphanage and basically held 103 children hostage. None were hurt thank God. Really, thank You God. Here in Sudan there are wars and rumors of wars. With July 9^th looming closer, the talks between the two presidents, North and South, are strained at best. The Northern armies have also been positioning tanks and artillery in Abyei where the oil is, for an imminent strike it is believed. They are also building up the roads in that area. Right now, it doesn’t look so good. The church here is praying and we here at Iris are praying.

This week I have spent a lot of time at the clinics and hospital, trying to get care for one of our young boys. He fractured his ankle two weeks ago. I took him to a German clinic, which is the only place that I go to when I am sick. Of course I only see the German doctor who happens to be a friend. Our boy had to wait in line and see a Sudanese physician assistant, sort of….. Their schooling is extremely limited. Our nurses in the west know more than they do unfortunately. So, here we are in this hallway that is very narrow where knees almost touch as we sit across the aisle from each other on very small benches, everyone squished together, one big happy family. After more than an hour of sitting, I looked at all these people and said, “You know, we should just pray and ask Jesus to heal us all so we can just go home.” You guessed it, I began to pray for everyone. We all bowed heads and closed eyes and prayed. There were amens all around.

Hey, you gotta at least take that step of faith and just do it, hmmmm. So the PA called our name and he looked at the boy’s leg and squeezed it a little and that was it. Gave him some low dose antibiotics and told us to go to the Yei hospital for an xray.

The xray cost a whopping $3.00 which we had to pay for up front before any xray was taken, and then the power went out when we got there and so we had to wait untill it came back on. So I’m standing there and this drunk guy comes up to me, sits down on the floor at my feet and grabs my leg like he was going to hug it. I just backed up a step and stared at him. Then he started pursing his lips like he was kissing me. There are about 60 people watching this whole thing. I squatted down in front of him and quietly pointed in his face and started to cast out the demon that was in him and rebuked the spirit of drunkenness and he kept doing these lewd actions with his hands.

I told him that I wasn’t afraid of him and that the name of Jesus was a higher power than what was residing in him. I then told him in Arabic that God loves him. I looked him in the eyes even as he was lewd and said it two more times. I then stood up and he just turned around, stood up and walked off. I looked at the crowd and said, “Hey, if we don’t pray for him, who will?” Then our names were called for the xray.

So our boy got this cheesy little wrap around his ankle, not even an ace bandage and we were sent home. I went back today to insist on a cast. We finally found the cast room, which was this beat up little green wooden door in a dark foyer type room off of this dorm where the sick people were. We sat there for two hours just to learn that the cast guy, the only one in Yei, could not be located, not even by his family. So, you guessed it, we were sent home. The standard answer here, “Eh, you come back tomorrow” or “He is coming”. Unfortunately, the people so hate to disappoint you that they will tell you what you want to hear, even if it is wrong. Never ask for directions…… Meanwhile I am visiting a few of the patients that we prayed for last week and “making my rounds”. All these hospital visits were just more opportunity to stop for the one.

Earlier this week, as I was taking the toddlers for a walk, I had to smile at two of the smallest ones. They are always trailing in the rear and don’t walk very fast at all. They are only three years old. If I get more than two feet ahead, they start to whine. And so I slow way down, while yelling for the others up ahead to wait, “Wogi!”. Our roads are basically two tire tracks with grass growing in the middle. So, when we walk, we walk on one of the tire tracks. Sometimes I switch tracks because I want the two slowpokes to walk beside me. This particular walk, I noticed that every time I switched tracks, they would too.

They insisted on following my every footstep. There were places where there were rocks and small dips or rises and these two littlest ones would struggle to cross over the rocks and dips and rises just to stay with me. The rocks must have looked like boulders to them and the dips like valleys and the rises like hills. They never strayed from the steps I had walked before them. If the rocks were too much, they would struggle, and then I would go back to help them through it. They never once considered staying on the easier path.

It made me think about how it is when we exactly follow Jesus. There are these valleys and hills and rocks that we must travel over to stay with Him. If we follow Him, we can’t even consider the easier path. He is always looking back and helping us over the rough places. I could not possibly think about leaving these two to struggle alone, even though I had another infant tied to my back and it was a bit hot. I went slowly and I helped them, all the way to the finish line. I even lifted one little girl up so she could see over the tall grass that we were within sight of the compound and so don’t give up because we are there! So many times I have been tired and have wondered where the end of the line for that day was and then Jesus would lift me up so I could see over the tall grass to show me something and I would be encouraged yet again.

This week has been the week of fire, literally speaking. There is a well known prophet in America named Kim Clement who prophesied on his TV show about Sudan. A person who watched it transcribed it and sent it to our director here in Sudan and this is what he said word for word

The Sudanese were... I feel something about Sudan right now.

Where is Sudan? Sudan is... It's below Libya? ...ah it's on the east coast. Just above Uganda.

Here's the word of the Lord. And I want to prophecy this right now. And I say and I want you to listen to me. I feel something about Sudan. I feel like there is going to be South of Sudan, there is going to be a massive, massive move of the Spirit, where even Muslim people will travel from the North to the South and say, "What is happening there? What are the miracles that are happening in South Sudan." We were once one nation but now we are two but God said, "even though you are one that became two," God says "they shall become united, because there's been control, corrupt leadership, Muslim powers have tried to dominate with Sharia law and bring in great evil,

But, I have a plan for Sudan. I have a plan for them" says the Lord. "I have a plan to move and to shift and to come into South Sudan and to do something that will reach into the North and even bring Muslims in where they will shout out", "We want the Christ that you serve." "I placed The Nile through the middle of you" and God said, "so that you could cross over and be together. And this is my word to you." says the Lord, "I will bring about a move of my Spirit in Sudan which will reach and reach into the countries around them." Says the Spirit of God. "And they will look and they will say "This is a country that is the largest in Africa and yet this country" and I'm speaking from the Spirit right now, "this country has now become the largest in terms of the propigation of the word of God and the miraculous." God says "Sudan, I hear your prayers. Even those who have been persecuted and killed. I am going to come there and light a fire in the South of Sudan that will cause many to come into the kingdom and great news shall come from Africa. Great news shall come. They shall say, "there's a fire burning! there's a fire burning!" And God says "You will stand and you will say the Lord has done this great thing."

We here in South Sudan are greatly encouraged! We received this word on Tuesday morning, which was just after a fire came so close to our compound on Monday night, that it was within 10 yards of our fence. On Wednesday, the director of Iris Sudan and I were talking about this prophesy again and how encouraged we were. I left her house and saw a huge fire on our compound. I started running and grabbed the guard who had also seen it and we went running and came upon this wall of fire. There were five of our guys already fighting it and so we grabbed some tree branches and started beating the bush. The fire went all the way to the road in front of our church and stopped right there! Nothing was damaged and no one got hurt. I got a small burn on my arm but no problem. The fire burned our grass but they would have burned it anyway for planting.

As I have seen many fires here now, I have learned something amazing about fire. At the hottest part of the fire, in the air above, the birds ride on the current of wind that is created by the fire. The very atmosphere changes where there is fire. A current is created, a wind that rises. In the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit came as tongues of fire and there was the sound of a rushing wind. After the fire rested on those in the upper room, they were transformed and speaking in languages they did not know. Fire changes the atmosphere, it transforms the landscape. When fire comes, everything changes. There is a fire that comes from God that will change the very atmosphere of a place, a church, a city, a nation. The fire brings a wind of change and these places will be transformed.

The Lord gave me the name, “Friday Night Furnace”, for our prayer movement here at Iris Sudan. I believe that we will partner with God in bringing the fire of His Spirit into this region. Prayers are incense, they are smoke, going up to the very heavens. Change is coming. I am excited and encouraged!

I have also learned of an amazing tree that grows here in Sudan called the Moringa tree. It is very rich in vitamins and nutrients, as I told you in the last update. I have acquired some seedpods so we can plant many here on our compound. As I was sitting here thinking about drying these seeds, basically letting them die and get dry as an old bone before planting them, my mind started spinning again. It does that a lot J

I thought about how in America, every year at Easter, I would buy an orchid or iris plant and then when it started to wither, I would set it out on the back porch and never care for it. It would become nothing but dry dusty dirt in the hot summer sun and remain cold lifeless dirt in the winter. I didn’t shelter it or protect it. It just sat out there, through every season, in its plastic pot. And somehow, amazingly, right before Easter, it would come up from seemingly nowhere, and grow into a beautiful flower again. I thought about how I had to kill these Moringa seeds before I could plant them and then I would water them and make them grow into these amazingly rich trees, full of life and nutrients.

The kingdom of God is so upside down. The wise cannot comprehend it. It doesn’t make sense at all sometimes. A dead seed, a new tree, so full of nutrients bringing life to the desperately malnourished. Jesus, a Seed who had to die, bringing new life to the desperately malnourished and dying. God is simply amazing. I feel like I am doing somersaults sometimes because just when I think I am right side up, He turns me upside down again! He changes my thinking and opens my eyes to see things perfectly in the simplest of ways. Even a child……

Friday morning, I left for Morobo Payam to a village called Lukuja, which is about three miles from the Congo. Here in Sudan, counties are called payams. It took 3 hours to drive 37 miles. We stayed in the bush, way in the bush, where a new church was being planted. The church was a structure made of big tree limbs with tree branches as the roof and a grass floor and no walls. I was so honored to be the first preacher at this new church on Sunday morning. They were actually building the church while we were there. We stayed for three days and two nights, praying for the sick, discipling new converts and we also went on Saturday for street evangelism in the local market about 5 miles away. By the way the Congo is a lot cooler at night than where I live in Yei. I was actually cold because I didn’t think to bring a sweater or sleeping bag. In the mornings I would go and sit in what I call “the smoke house”, which is a mud hut that is used for cooking and storage and when the fire is going, the smoke lingers in the air and you basically get smoked, but it is very warm inside.

We prayed for three people on different occasions who had eyesight so poor that they could not see further than five feet in front of them. Their eyes were crossed also. Every one of them had their eyesight restored. We tested it before and after and had witnesses who knew them who agreed that God did a miracle this day! Before they could not see anything further than three steps away and now they can see the distant mango trees across the valley. They can describe what the man coming down the far end of the path is wearing. One of them could not read his Bible because he could not see very well up close. After we prayed we tested him and he was reading like there was no tomorrow! They were once legally blind and now they can see! Also a little girl who was crippled on her left side and had the same eye problem was brought to us. She was one of the three who could now see. And so we continued to pray for her leg to work and for her hand to straighten.

We prayed four times until we saw a change. Each time, we asked her to do something she couldn’t do before. She began stomping her left foot, which was weak and feeble earlier. She also began to straighten her crippled fingers, which remained curled before. God moved in power in her small body and brought hope. The mother was so very happy. And the little girl too J. She still has some weakness in her leg but she is much stronger today than she was yesterday. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead has raised her body up from the crippled place. It was a glorious weekend and we rejoiced as we drove home at all that God had done in that place and in the hearts of the people.

This is the last week of our Bible school and all will return to their villages on Saturday. I am excited to watch them being transformed right before our very eyes. God has really been speaking to me about transformation, but that will have to wait until next week! Again, thank you so much to all of you for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. Please, feel free to email me to say hello. I rarely hear from home because so many people tell me that they don’t want to encumber me with so many emails, and now I rarely receive any. I could never receive too many emails. Your lives are very interesting to me. Eighty percent of my life here is just everyday living, playing with children, sitting with the mamas. I like hearing about your daily lives too. Keep me in your loop because I miss being there too!

Still Following The Unpaved Road

Summer has arrived in full force here in Sudan. The days are made bearable here in Yei as we have many shade trees and a fairly steady breeze blowing across the fields, which mostly lie barren as they wait for the spring rains to come. The nights are in the 90’s and we lay as still as possible so as not to exert much energy which then causes us to sweat, which we do anyways, sweat that is. We have no electricity and no fans or AC or even cold water to bring relief. The mamas sit out on the porches and talk late into the night, even after midnight, before going inside to catch a few hours sleep before the sun rises again.

Well, with all the heat and no rain, the ants are working overtime in their desperation to find water and food. Earlier this week I found ants trying to eat their way through one of my bottles of water, millions of them living inside the card board box that houses my bottled water! I got rid of them and then found some ants trying to find a way in through the screw cap! Then I had a still hot sweet potato sitting in a bowl, covered with a metal pot lid. I went to take my shower (bucket cup bath) and returned to find them invading my potato. I shook them off and rinsed with water and commenced eating my potato. It’s a daily battle. If I don’t toss out the excess water in my teapot and turn it upside down on my table, I will have village of ants swimming their way to oblivion in my teapot! And so our days march along to a steady rhythm of chasing the shade by day and capturing the stillness of night to cool our tired bodies and minds and serving eviction notice to the ants who inhabit our very lives.

I never cease to be amazed by the servitude and fortitude of the women here. Everyone helps everyone. Some of our mamas are building huts for their extended families to stay in and one of our workers is building one close by so she can be closer to us here at Iris. And so the ladies spend long days in the fields cutting elephant grass to make the thatching for the roofs. These ladies work all day washing the children’s clothes, running after toddlers, doing needlework, cooking, tilling and planting entire fields, harvesting from fields and then they add the work of helping others. I am ever, ever humbled by their amazing hearts. They never seem to tire of doing good. They truly live the scripture in Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

We are in the last weeks now of our Revival Bible School. We have all grown so close and it will be sad to say goodbye two weeks from now as they return home to their villages across Sudan. Two of the men are from Darfur and I am so excited to be partnering with them when I eventually move up to that area later in the year. They are our door into Darfur and they are filled with the Holy Ghost and fire!

This week when we went to visit the hospital, we stayed longer than ever before and were able to really spend time ministering to individuals. I visited with Sunday, the girl who was stabbed in the back of the head. She was very alert, her eyes bright and shining, and fully able to converse with us. She seems to have no ill effect from the stab wound praise Jesus! She says her back hurts because the man punched her there really hard. Also her right arm is seized up where the muscles won’t relax and so her arm is always folded in half, her hand up by her shoulder. As we prayed for her, praying peace and the loosing of heaven upon her arm to loosen her muscles, slowly we were able to help her straighten her arm and her clenched fingers. We believe that she still carries a bit of the spirit of fear or terror and that is why her arm seized. We will continue to pray for her full recovery.

She has such an amazing believing spirit and is so resilient. All the children here are so resilient. You see big gaping wounds on their legs or feet, seriously, half their toe hanging by a sliver of skin, and they just go running along, never complaining. One of our boys sprained his ankle really bad and he never said anything until days later and was walking on it the entire time! It is huge swollen! I definitely don’t complain here. We just deal with stuff and move on. There is life to be lived and we don’t want to miss a beat!

Also, our girl who came last week who was found wandering in the jungle, well she isn’t the same girl anymore. She is being transformed before our very eyes. She smiles all the time, she holds our babies, she tried to help crack peanuts and bath and do as much as she can with her still weak hands. She is being healed inside and out and it is such a peaceful feeling knowing that Jesus is with her all the way. His touch is so amazing. The Presence of the Lord fills the dirt playground and the concrete huts and the mud hut kitchen here. His peace lives here and we are very much aware and in tune with Him. And I know that it is the children who usher in His Presence.

Every night they sing and worship in the dark before bed and every morning they awaken the dawn with their praises. No adult tells them to do this. They just do it because it is in their hearts to do it. I can never say enough about their servant hearts and I learn from them daily. Come to me as a little child and you will see the kingdom of heaven. Learn from them. I do daily. And when they throw rocks up into the mango trees, they still offer me the best mango. I am undone!

Here are some testimonies of the things we have been a witness to as we go on outreach. We have noticed a marked difference in the population of the hospital. When we first started the hospital outreach a month and a half ago, the hospital was full to overflowing. Now, there are many empty beds. The nurses and doctors have commented that they want us to continue coming and they even like for us to pray with them because they are seeing the power and the love of God as we minister. They are encouraged by what we are doing and what God is doing.

We went to visit some of our neighbors one afternoon and as we went to a hut, the man answered the door and said that he had a dream the night before that two men would come and bring healing for his family, which were all very sick. When he answered the door and saw two of our pastors there, he knew that his family would be healed. The pastors went in and prayed with them all and all were healed! Amazing!

Two other pastors went to a village bar and as they went in and sat down, they were asked if they wanted a beer. They responded that they didn’t want a beer but they did have some good news to share. They were given permission to share the good news and a lady came forth for salvation and when they saw her later in the week, she said she had been to church and not been back to the bar. The bar owner was happy for the message.

A lady was in the hospital with her baby who hadn’t eaten in a couple of days and was very weak and feverish. Our team prayed for her and the baby. They asked the woman if she went to church and knew the Lord. She said she left off going last year and they said she should go back to the Lord and healing was waiting for them both. The baby immediately suckled at his mother’s breast after prayer. He was eating again!

A man in prison says he was falsely accused of murder six years ago and has been there ever since. He had pain all over his body and his head always hurts. We talked to him about forgiveness and he forgave his accuser. Then we prayed for him and all the pain left his body, even his head. He received the peace of the Lord.

We came upon a lady in the hospital who had such back pain that she could not move. We prayed for her and asked if she could move. She tried but was still in extreme pain, not even able to lift her head. We talked with her about if there was someone in her family that she was fighting with as I felt this was the case. She said that yes her daughter beat her a few days ago in a drunken rage and that is why she was in hospital. We talked with her about forgiveness and to pray for her daughter’s deliverance from alcohol and not to give up as we all had testimonies of praying years for family members who had been set free. We then prayed over her again and for her daughter. When we finished, this lady sat up on the edge of her bed by herself, where minutes before she could not move! Jesus brought the peace of forgiveness.

So many testimonies in just one week. I now know why Jesus said that all the books of the earth could not fit all the testimonies of what He does for us! It is so true. He is always moving and working and interceding and loving and bringing freedom wherever His name is cried. This week I taught the Revival School students about the reality of the kingdom of heaven. The reality within is what our reality without will be. What we believe and say amen to in our hearts has to be what we live in our surroundings. If we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus according to Ephesians 2:6-7, then we carry heaven everywhere we go.

Think about it. We carry heaven! Heaven goes everywhere we go! All we have to do is release it. There is so much power and force and richness in heaven. Jesus is seated there. Ha! We carry heaven! We carry so much and yet we hold it all in so many times. We are the gate of heaven. Lift up your heads O ye gates and let the King of Glory come in!!! We are the gate of heaven and people want in. We have what the world is looking for. We carry eternal life. We carry the promise of heaven, Jesus Christ. We carry hope. We carry love. We carry Him……… Open the gate.

Last night, I had just settled into my bughut with a good book and my headlamp when I heard the crackling of burning bush grass, seemingly right outside my window. I got up to investigate and found that our neighbors were burning their fields this night. The fire was right there next to our back fence line. All of us westerners came out to watch it. There are four of us here now and three of us (not me seriously) were nervous and anxious about it jumping our fence line. They even called the guards to come and make sure it was under control. I figured, they’ve been doing this for years and so they sort of know what they are doing?

After all the excitement died down I tumbled back into my bed and fell asleep to crackling bush and soon a heavy rain. I am ever amazed at how these people seem to know it will rain! There was not a cloud in the sky, not a one when the fire was started. I notice that they just seem to know. Hmmmm, how is it we know the signs in the sky and the weather but we fail to see the signs of the times, sometimes…. You know me, always finding a scripture to link to my life stories J!

This week I have made two airport runs to drop off and pick people up. It is so strange how our minds shift from one realm to another. I wasn’t even leaving the country and yet as I pulled onto the dirt airstrip, I had visions of stepping onto the plane and how immediately my reality changes. It’s like stepping out of the third world of Sudan knowing that we are now in the realm of modern civilization, where there is electricity and running water and stores and malls and television. Even though I didn’t physically get on that plane, I felt the reality shift just by being in close proximity to that plane and seeing it and remembering what it can take me to.

That is how it is with kingdom living. We live in the reality of a world full of chaos and problems and trials. But we know what the kingdom of heaven carries because we have been there. We have seen the realm of miracles and encountering Jesus in a tangible way. We carry this reality and as we remember it, our minds can shift from one realm to the other. We can step into the better reality. Yep, it’s pretty deep stuff huh?

This week I will be on the hunt for two goats and two sheep. Well, not literally on the hunt. We will buy them in the market of course. We have a female sheep and its baby and now we need a daddy to make more babies. Then, we are graduating the Revival School next Friday and so we will feast on BBQ goat and sheep (not the new daddy sheep of course)! Here in Yei, not many people roast goat and so I am also going to buy some heavy gage wire screen to make a BBQ rack and we will put some bricks to lay it on and some coal underneath and, whala, BBQ! Everyone is so excited for the soon coming meat because it is a rarity for us.

Also, I will be traveling down the road to Morobo, close to the Congo border. Michele, the director of Iris Sudan, and I are tagging along with one of our pastors from the Church of God to do a weekend evangelism visit. We will be doing open air church preaching under mango trees where there is no church. Although the village is not an unreached village, they are in need of the Lord and a church, and so we go. Very exciting. We will be camping in a tent and no showers and eating village food and such. Life is never boring. It is what we decide to make of it yes? Although I often dream of AC and running water and real furniture and paved roads…… Ah, but the Lord is taking me down the unpaved road for now and so I follow Him.

Until next week, bless you!

Children of The Light; Rescued From The LRA

Another crazy busy wonderful week has gone by and slipped into eternity. The week began with the arrival of three absolutely beautiful teenagers from one family. They really are absolutely beautiful. One boy and two girls. They were brought by the UN because their parents were killed by the LRA. Yes, the LRA is still very, very active in these parts, just 10 miles down the road. In just one week these three are smiling and fitting right in with our children, becoming family. Three others had to leave to go back to their family. They hadn’t lived at home in three years and were so sad to go. There were tears and heartbreak because they love their family here so much.

Another girl managed to escape from the LRA and the UN found her wandering in the jungle, emaciated with slashing wounds all up and down her arms. Her hands do not work and she scoops her food with paralyzed hands. The night she arrived, we bathed her and she was so exhausted that she laid down on the mat and just stared the saddest stare. It pulled at my heart. Only one girl could speak her language, she herself being rescued last year from the horrible clutches of the LRA.

We gathered around her and we laid our hands all over her in a gentle and loving manner and we prayed and sang over her for the next hour. As we prayed her eyes began to close in peace, as if she had finally found rest. We found out that she had to watch her own brother as he was macheted to death and she remained tied to a tree like an animal, raped over and over again. Her eyes tell a thousand nightmares. But we here at Iris know the end from the beginning. We watch children being transformed daily by the love of the Father. There are no rape counselors here. God’s presence truly is in this place. This girl too will be transformed. She will know the love of the Father. Nothing can stop this kind of love.

The Lord continues to speak to me about His grace. He calls us to be carriers of His grace. If we are called to be a light in a dark place, only His grace can carry us there. We cannot go without this. It was by His grace that we were saved and shown new life. It was His wonderful grace that caused His light to then shine in us. We didn’t have to do a thing to receive this grace, this light. We just open ourselves up and He pours in.

It is like a flashlight. There is the bulb and the casing that houses that which belongs inside. A flashlight cannot work without the battery. Alone it is useless. Alone it is a weak shell with nothing but guts inside. God’s grace is the battery that powers us to go where He is calling us. His grace is what powers our light to shine. Jesus told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My POWER is made perfect in weakness.” His grace powers our little lights, our weak shells.

A flashlight does not strive to receive the battery. A flashlight does not work itself up to receive the battery. A flashlight is opened up, exposing the inside, and it just receives the battery. It is only then that it can work. It just receives and the light is clicked on with such little effort and the darkness is ablaze with light! Let the grace of the Lord be hidden in you and you in Him. Rest and open your weak casing and allow Him to power you. His grace abounds if we let Him! It is all sufficient!

This week a special friend came to visit us and stayed for a week. Papa Roland Baker, founder and director of Iris Ministries. He is such a fun man and so full of the Holy Spirit. He lives in the realm of joy. He wakes up happy and goes through his day happy. He knows that our God is a happy God. His two rules for being a missionary are to follow Jesus and have fun! That simple! Even when chaos abounds all round, have fun. Yes, have fun. Get excited when chaos and persecution comes. It is an opportunity to present God. If we aren’t happy Christians then who wants to be one? Even in terrible situations, even when we are sad for a person’s situation, we can still carry a small bit of love and joy to impart. A real smile changes so many things.

This girl who was terribly abused by the LRA, every time I go to her dorm I take her hand and greet her and I smile. I notice that she is starting to smile a little because she is surrounded by love and joy, true joy, which can only be found in knowing the love and peace of Jesus.

There are three babies here, all about 10 months old. I love and hold and play with them all. One of them is so attached to me that even if I just walk by she starts crying because she wants me. She spoke her first word this week. She said, “Kaulina”! She said my name! I never once taught her to say it. The mamas would say my name as I came by and she just picked it up and found a way to call out to me so that I would stop for her, the one. Now, every time she sees me, “Kaulina”. So cool!

Over the last two weeks, many villagers have been burning their fields and getting them ready for planting. I watch the fires and I think about how in the western world, people fear fire because it is not normal to see fields on fire. When fires are seen in the west, the fire department is called, people run to save their possessions, even their very lives. Here, we find fire comforting. We see it as the way to burn off the dead things in a field and with it, bringing new life.

I see how God uses fire to teach us that we must let the fire of His love burn off the dead things in our lives. Instead of trying to save our possessions and our lives, we need to let Him burn in us to kill that which does not bring new life. Last night as I walked the bush path back to our compound at midnight after prayer, I watched this perfect fire in a straight line going up this hill and I was in awe. I lead a Friday night prayer movement here called the Friday Night Furnace. For four hours this fire burned, the entire time of our prayer meeting. It was a controlled burn, boundaries were set, and only those things that were meant to be burned were burned. Everything else was intact and safe.

As I watched the perfect line of fire going up a hill and the top a burning furnace, I saw the fire by night and the cloud by day of God. I saw how He led the Israelites around in the desert, burning off the things of their hearts that were dead. It was a controlled burn. God wants to burn in us, to be a fire controlled by Him, if we would trust Him to consume those dead things and bring new life there. He wants to take us up the holy hill and step into the furnace with Him. Ask for the fire and see what he will do. Let Him set the boundaries and take us up the mountain and watch new life come into those places that we allow Him to burn.

On Thursday we all piled into the giant tipper truck and we went to the dam near our village. People gather there to wash clothes, wash cars, wash themselves, water cattle. We went at 5:00 pm and pulled right up, young boys running out of the water to see what this was. We decided to preach a message of salvation and love and grace and mercy from the deck of the truck and then baptize those who wanted new life. We baptized in a muddy, murky cove in the small spring fed lake. And after we were finished a couple of us dove in and splashed around with the boys and they were so thrilled that these kawajas would jump in the river and swim with them! Such fun! Follow Jesus and have fun! Haha!!

Yesterday I was riding the motorcycle back from town and as I passed a lady on the path, she waved her big machete at me and greeted me with a smile. I laugh at how normal it is to walk along carrying a “panga” here and that there is no fear in me. I walk many places by myself now and am at ease here. Last night I walked by myself in the dark about 1/4th of a mile with no flashlight down the path that goes along the outside of our compound to our church and I was totally peaceful. What freedom.

Last night was the third Friday Night Furnace and the children are asking me early in the day now if we are having it. These children love to pray and worship and they love the Presence of God. The first two nights I felt like I was pushing a dump truck uphill trying to get the people to pray for the things that God put on my spirit. It was hard ground to plow. Well, the third night was breakthrough! I couldn’t get the people to stop praying. I would wait to find a place to shift into the next thing and they just kept crying out, never running out of things to say about our great God. I have noticed a huge change in me. I go for three to four hours, even unto almost losing my voice, never running out of prayer, and probably 98% of it not being in tongues.

God says to open our mouth and He will fill it. In my quiet times with God, I listen more than I talk. He has much to tell me. But when I go to the “Furnace” on Friday nights, there is such a shift, like a real fire burning in me to intercede. Last night there was a shift in us all. It was electrifying. At the end of the night we prayed Isaiah 58, where the true fast that God calls us to is to break the yokes and chains of injustice. I saw a picture of Paul and Silas worshipping God at midnight and the prison doors blowing open. We began to beat the drums, the ancient drums of Africa, and we began to dance and sing with such abandon that we felt the chains falling off of those who have been bound.

We called out the names of all those whom we know to be diagnosed by doctors as critically sick, names from every tribe represented, names from my people in the US, names from the UK and we danced and beat the drums and sang until the captives were set free. One of our boys was in such extreme pain that he was sobbing and doubled over. He never cries and is one of our strongest and happiest boys. This was so not like him. We put him in the middle of the church and laid hands on him and sang over him and within 5 minutes he was set free and walking and dancing!!!! God threw open the doors and set the captives free. All weekend he has been running and playing and working pain free, where the few days before the prayer he was hurting.

The small children, eight nine ten years old, they too pray and dance and sing and believe. They beg me to let them come and join in on Fridays. I cannot say no. The children know the power of God. They believe and they move in His grace. They know that they can lay hands on the sick and that they will recover. They see it all the time. The Lord has been speaking to me so much lately about the term, “children’s equipping center”. We need to empower our children and equip them by encouraging them join us in all that we do in the kingdom of God. We can’t sugar coat it and keep it “sweet” for them. Encourage them to do the real work of the kingdom. They have authority to trample scorpions and cast out demons too, Amen? They are never too young to learn about all things kingdom.

Last night, Saturday night, myself and another missionary from UK, a man, we met with the teenagers and talked about marriage and how to love and respect each other. The culture here says that a woman must submit to a man, even if she is sick and dying, she must still cook and clean and carry water. That’s the culture. We talked about Jesus washing the feet of His bride and how Him being God of the universe did not stop Him from serving His bride. At first the boys said, “This can never happen in our society, we would be mocked.” We then told them that if they didn’t love their wives as God loves the church, then they would not be honoring Him at all. And so the boys are open now at least to changing the way they think about women. Still a lot of work to be done but we have opened the door for progress. At least the children here love each other and serve each other and so they are really a giant step ahead of most in this culture.

Today is Sunday and we went to the Police Training Camp and conducted Sunday morning service with them. Then a man came forward and asked us to pray for him because he felt that he had been marked by Satan to be killed. The man showed us the sole of his foot and there was a number three marked there. It was the strangest thing. We then prayed and got him delivered from demons and we looked at his foot and the marking was completely gone! It was totally amazing! We kept our eyes open and so he didn’t reach down and wipe it away. We learned later that this is not a new thing here in Sudan, the markings. Others say they have seen it before on people.

So, after this miracle of being set free we all walked down to the “baptism” lake and we baptized those who wanted to be baptized, about 16 men I think. Also, two of our very own girls made the decision to be baptized and so it was a special day for us. Then some of us dove in and swan around for a few minutes. Felt so good! Of course about 20 naked little boys jumped in with us and proceeded to have a splash each other party. They loved it! I love the freedom here, simply love it.

There is a small girl at our children’s center whom we rescued from being literally almost dead. She was living in filth and trash and her own feces while her mother was constantly so inebriated that she couldn’t remember to feed her little two year old or bathe her. This little girl has been through some abuse I think because she doesn’t let people hold her and she doesn’t make any eye contact. She is very withdrawn and plays alone much of the time and never really smiles. She is a very sad looking little girl. She arrived just days before I did at the end of January.

Well, she is starting to play with a select few and she adores three of our older boys. She is still reluctant to interact with females. Yesterday she was lying on the ground crying and I had a cookie in my hand for her. She has started taking things from me but still not letting me touch her. She took the cookie from me yesterday and then I just reached down gently and scooped her up and held her close to my body. She didn’t resist and actually leaned into me! We sat this way for a very long time. She was taken away for a quick bathe and came right back to my lap.

Later in the day I saw her playing with two little ones and I went over to where she was and just sat and watched them play. I then played cat and mouse type peek a boo and she actually smiled for the first time ever at me! Then this morning I went right up to her and bent down and picked her up and carried her around and she never resisted and even snuggled comfortably there in my arms. Now, when she cries I can pick her up and she clings to me and stops crying immediately. This is kingdom of heaven love and reality here in this place. His love is softening the rough edges of her childhood, brief as it has been. I love seeing these little ones transformed before our very eyes by the love of God.

My day ended with a one hour walk to a one hour Bible Study fellowship with other NGO’s and then a one hour walk home again. Never thought I would walk so far just to go to a home group meeting J! Oh, and yes I am still battling giant 1 ½ foot lizards in the latrine, chasing mice out of the latrine, battling cockroaches in the latrine and always the big fat juicy flies! And then there are the two frogs and two lizards who live in my outdoor shower. And of course the giant ants that I have to tap dance around every night as I brush my teeth and wash my hands and face.

I did learn about a tree that is growing right outside my front door that I can eat the leaves from. It is called a meringa tree and is loaded with amazing stuff for my immune system and digestive and such. I just go up to it and pull off a bunch of leaves and shove them in my mouth and chew and they taste like salad. I feel like a giraffe though……. Sometimes I can’t even believe the things that I do here…..

Thanksgiving, Grace, Weddings and Sugar Cane

On Monday I woke up and I felt so amazingly good. All of the sickness of the last four days was completely gone and I was able to eat this day. I was so full of thanksgiving to God. I put on my headphones and iPod and went out into a field and I literally danced for at least a half hour unto the Lord. I sang and I danced in the early morning dawn and had a view of the surrounding hillsides where the land is still green and dotted with small huts and early morning cookfires, whisps of smoke climbing into the early morning sky. I was filled with such joy to be alive and to be in a place of perfect peace and wonder. Oh the freedom of dancing unashamed before the Lord in an open field, surrounded by maize corn and potatoes and teak trees and palm trees and the rich earthy smell which we were created from before the very breath of God awakened our souls to life abundantly.

Later, as I walked back from town, there were three boys up ahead of me, just walking along and talking. I watched them as they walked, their clothes ragged and dirty, feet bare as the sun shone down in its intensity. These boys were happy and had not a care in the world. They were carrying sticks and their handmade cars, made of castoff tin and old rubber flip flops shaped into wheels. They were laughing and so engrossed in the joy of boyhood in a place where they are free to run the trails of the bush and climb mango trees and dive into small ponds and lie in the afternoon shade and watch the clouds drift lazily by in the hot Sudan sky. They are not poor. They are rich in life, knowing the pleasures of the innocence of boyhood and all that God has created for them. Makes me smile.

The spirit of thanksgiving has come upon me this week. I am so thankful for my 4” foam mattress and my bughut to sleep in at night where I lay my head in peace every single night; clothes on my body and a few extra; not living in a tent but having a real room; a computer and internet access (50 yrs ago missionaries had none); the grace given to me by God that should all things fail here I can always go home; perfect health; teaching me Your ways God; the sun on my face; simple food each day to nourish me; clean water (in a bottle); water period; my bamboo and grass outdoor shower and cool evening showers there; batteries for my flashlight; flashlights; Starbucks instant coffee; hugs from kids; the smile in my heart; a plastic chair to sit on; clothes line for my clothes; malaria pills; seeing the Southern Cross in the predawn sky each morning to remind me of His love for all mankind; CocaCola; the boys who carry my water up the hill for me; the support and love of my family and friends, both here in Sudan and in America and other parts of the world! Wow, I have so much to be thankful for!

My weeks have settled into a pattern now. On Monday and Tuesday afternoons I am teaching the Bible School. On Wednesday afternoon we prep for outreach with prayer and worship as a team. Then on Thursday afternoons we go to the hospital. This is where I lead the teams. We have two other teams who go to the police training camp, when they allow us, and another goes to the prison on Saturday mornings. My teams at the hospital are so zealous that they have asked to stay longer each week and so we do. I love their zeal for the sick and dying, to see them come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ and to see them rise up and walk, delivered from the hands of disease and pestilence. Each week brings new miracles, the biggest one being new lives in the kingdom of God.

God has been whispering into my ear about His grace. It is so wonderful. We witness to many Muslims here and they are coming to the knowledge that their religion is all about trying to please their God, about the law of doing the rituals of making themselves clean physically to be allowed to go before their God five times a day. Before they are allowed into their mosques they have to wash their feet and hands, snort water up their noise and expel it, clean their ears and swish water in their mouths so many times. All this to make themselves clean enough to go into a building to bow to a God whom they can’t even feel or hear from. It’s all about doing everything right and in the correct quantity.

We tell them that Jesus says come the way you are. Come with your dirty feet and hands and hearts. Come and I will make you clean. Let me do this for you. It’s called grace. Even in ministry, we sometimes feel that we have to be doing certain things or we have to be doing something in order to please God or “get us” in right standing with Him.

I have worked with some extreme Martha’s and some extreme Mary’s here on the mission field. God says to be a little of both. But in all that we do, we have to always realize that it is His grace that helps us to stay in His rest. Even when we are praying and interceding, if we have to “work ourselves up” then it isn’t about grace anymore. If we have to strive to enter in, then it isn’t about grace anymore. Everything God does is about grace.

When I pray for people, I just enter in to the rest FIRST, then I flow from His grace. I don’t worry about if that person will manifest their healing. I don’t worry that a person might reject Christ. I don’t worry about matching testimony stories when we return. I don’t even worry about having any to tell. I just know that I went where God said to go and He is happy with me. There is sometimes a sense of competition on any mission field. Who will have the biggest miracle, the craziest story, the most amazing deliverance. I used to go out into the mission field and work until I was exhausted, giving all that I had, so that I could feel like I gave my best to bring God glory.

Here in the place where I have matured to, I walk in the providence of God’s amazing grace. It was His grace that saved a wretch like me long ago. I didn’t do anything to earn it. He just gave….. I can’t earn healings or miracles or testimonies. I go and He gives. Oh the amazing grace of God is the biggest and best gift He ever gave. He gave Jesus, full of grace and glory, for us to be hidden in. If we just hide IN Christ, His grace overflows into all that we are. I love His grace. It is all sufficient for me. I need no more, just His grace. I would rather do nothing but adore Him than to strive to implore Him.

And so I encourage all that have been weary in this dry and thirsty land, partake of His wonderful warm grace. Drink from His cup of grace and be at peace. Walk down the gentle road of His grace and find comfort. Lie by the stream of His grace and find rest. Just let His grace rest on you and you will be filled again with His everlasting peace.

Friday night I led the Friday Night Furnace Prayer as usual. We start at 8:00 p.m. and pray all the way until midnight. The Lord gives me the scripture to focus on during the week and then we pray for our families, our nations, our churches, ourselves. I always end with John 17 where Jesus prays that we would be one, as He and the Father are one, so that the world will know that He was sent by His Father. If we aren’t in unity as the church, who will believe that Jesus came? Who will want to be His follower if the representation of the church shows a house divided? And so we earnestly pray for unity all across the world, one in Christ Jesus.

The youth always come to this event each Friday night. This time the smaller children, middle school age, came and worshipped with the banners and sang and prayed and there was such a spirit of joy and celebration in that place. We have no electricity and so we hang kerosene lanterns in the rafters and we can barely see each other. It is the coolest place to ask for the fire of God to come. We end with celebration and singing and then we blow out the lanterns, roll up the grass mats, close the doors and start our journey home. We always look forward to the next week as we are walking along the trail in the moonlight, heading back to our compound after midnight, the stars exploding in all their brilliance. No one can sleep because we are so excited.

Saturday I took our 14 older girls, teenagers, and we walked the hour to town, to partake of a perfect lunch. I took them to our “nicest” hotel and we sat inside at cute round tables with tablecloths. We ordered mango juice and then had fried chicken and French fries and coleslaw with cold CocaCola. Then we finished it off with a cold bottle of water. Anything cold here is a cause for celebration. There was a TV on and so they were just engrossed in that too. They did not want to leave because the atmosphere was so wonderful and relaxing. Can you imagine having lunch for the first time with no screaming and fighting children around? Being served and not having to serve? Having mango juice and CocaCola, at the same meal? Small things like this are such an amazing treat here. It cost me plenty but it was so worth it to see the joy on their faces.

On our return trip we stopped and bought ten stalks of sugar cane for the other children. Kids came running as we entered camp. They didn’t expect any today as the day was already growing late and then here we come, a vision out of the sun scorched dust, 15 beautiful young women (yep I was one of them hehe) coming up out of the desert carrying sweet sugar cane! These small things that warm our hearts. Be Thou my vision precious Savior. Be Thou, Thy love, my vision. Your precious love, my vision……

This morning I awoke from a dream where I was preparing for “my” wedding feast. I was calling the caterers and wine merchants and making reservations for the banquet hall. I never saw a husband in my dream or felt like I was engaged to one but I knew it was my wedding. I only had two days to make ready and I wasn’t even the least bit stressed. I knew it would all come together. Even on the phone, the caterer was telling me that it was such short notice. I told him I knew and that it was okay. We would make it in time, no worry. By the way, I did order BBQ for the food. I thought that was funny because I never would have in real life! Then I awoke from the dream and it was 5:00 a.m., my normal wake up time. And so, as I was walking to the latrine, thinking on these things, I saw a shooting star go across the northern sky, from left to right.

I then felt like I heard the Lord say to me, “Prepare yourselves, prepare the banquet table, your Groom is coming soon. In the heavens you will see the signs. Look up and see that My coming is soon. Make ready!” I was so excited and full of hope and expectation in that moment. I just knew that our Groom is coming soon. Prepare the feast, order the wine, make ready! He is coming! He really, really is! My pastor always says this and I really believe it. Then later, another missionary said that she had almost the same dream a month ago. I wonder how many others have had this type of dream? Hmmmmm……