Sudan

At one time the man who built and ran the camp where we stayed in Sudan had a pet hyena. He sported two pet chimpanzees, a snake venom business in Kenya, and had a pet goat that not only roamed the camp (keeping the grass down?), but needed to eat a cigarette every morning and evening to feed his nicotine addiction. When he was younger, a mentor told him to pick a skill. His choice: underwater welding.
Cattle and goats had the right of way on the few roads (uh, both of them) the UN had recently graded. This was a place where people are jailed not for punishment, but typically for protection—usually to let the one who wants vengeance cool his heels. We ate dinner with UN peacekeepers, treehuggers, literacy advocates, de-miners, and wacked out bush pilots. Us few goofy missionaries with our Sudanese national, David Kaya--who as sure as I’m typing this I’m not making this up--is from the Coo-Coo tribe, fit right in.

Welcome to Southern Sudan. It’s like a place the world forgot, or perhaps just never really got around to bothering with since there are so few resources. The one big resource the south does have, oil, is piped away with as little infrastructure or money sent back as possible.

I loved every second of being there. So did one of my closest friends since college, Bob Funk. It was incredibly cool to have Bob there with me. The Dinka tribe, the dominant tribe in the south, are a naturally tall people. Bob is 6'5". He became "The White Dinka." It was a great ice breaker.
This photo was taken in Kenya. Bob (left) and I were allowed in the cage with three cheetahs for this photo. What a rush!

On our fourth morning we were there, David Kaya and I co-taught 32 leaders and pastors our First Steps (church planting and EvangeCube) curriculum. Bob and Dana Crawford, another e3 staffer, took that time to visit the hospital in Rumbek. Rumbek was the town we stayed in, and it's become a significant hub of activity for UN workers and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). We were told that doctors performed major surgeries in this hospital. This piqued the interest of Dana who was specifically researching medical trip possibilities.

Teaching the Leadership Development Conference.

Without spending a lot of time describing Bob to you, I'll summarize by saying he's a well-travelled, wordly guy who doesn't get rattled easily. Going to that hospital bothered him. Seeing the way the people lived--in mud and thatch huts called Tukels--, seeing hungry people, not seeing any opportunities for even the beginning of an economy, and on and on was building up inside of him.

On our last full day in country we drove to another village, Akot. There we toured an existing clinic. I was particularly impacted by the maternity ward. When I showed Ali the photo, her immediate response was, "We wouldn't have any children." Alexa came by emergency C-section and Weston spent three weeks in the NICU. I had the exact same thought when I walked into it. The inside of the maternity ward in Akot, Sudan.
The sick around in inside the clinic in Akot.

That evening Bob and I stayed up and talked late as was our habit. He began to talk about the potential of the muslims from the north coming south building schools and hospitals to sway folks to Islam. The more he talked the more agitated he became. Finally, he looked at me, still agitated and said, "Your model's not going to work here." His agitation was rubbing off. I wanted to shoot back, "Well what are you going to do about it!" But I didn't and we kept working through what God had shown him that week. God had moved in his heart.

By this point seeing the volume of sheer need had hit its crescendo within him, really within all of us. His point about out model was valid: We had to address the physical need in the context of church planting. We talked about James 2:15-16, "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?"

And so we spent the rest of the night stratagizing ways to meet the needs we saw, AND plant churches. It capped a great week of foundational work for the ministry to come work for years ahead.

Other Notes
A calling confirmed. I went asking God to confirm for me if He wanted me to work in Sudan. One morning I woke and read this from Romans 15:20-21, "And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation; but as it is written, 'They who had no news of Him shall see, And they who have not heard shall understand." Shortly after I read this, we were asked to pray about adopting two unreached people groups: The Toposa and the Didinga peoples. Two tribes "who [have] no news of Him."

We made a strong connection with the only IMB (S. Baptist) missionary in all of Southern Sudan. He's lived there 8 years and was a wealth of information, and a blessing in too many respects to mention here. Here's his website: www.dinka.org

Unreached People Groups - We're now planning ways to target two tribes in Southern Sudan who are unreached.

You can be involved as well. Next year, here's my list of trips to Sudan:

May 3-13
Sep. 20-30
Dec. 27-Jan 6


A few faces from Sudan below.
A church under a tree. We literally drove through the bush (grass taller than our Landcruiser) to find this church.
Leading worship.
Bob, leaving the church.The church we worshipped at on Sunday.

Me and Bob in front of a Tukel in the Baptist Compound in Akot.


Tents on the Baptist Compound.

On the right is Mark, the IMB Missionary. We walked through this building to clear "customs."
The water on the right was a main place folks bathed. Mark baptized his daughter here.
A pagan place where locals sacrificed animals.


The carvings.A people mover at the clinic.

Making tea for our leadership conference.

She wanted no part of me.
A wireless mini bulldozer for de-mining work.


A young man called to be a pastor. He was just learning how from Mark's disciples.
Catch of the day.
Roasted nuts. In the background is a new clinic Mustard Seed International is building.
Our chariot.


Baggage Claim.
Mark's house.

Ethiopia Pics

Tony and Lisa Svendsen, prepping for the week. Now they're starting the process to come on staff with e3. Here's a link to their blog. Great stuff there too.
Yogi Logsdon. Yogi had one of the most fruitful areas and the enemy knew it because he broke his fibula and was really sick for 1.5 days.
An alter to the angel Michael the Orthodox put up in the area where I worked. Men bring the rocks placed at the bottom and pray to the Archangel.
Scott Russell from Tennessee.
My disciple maker, Hymie sharing the gospel. The home is in the background.
My good friend and Sunday School teacher Scott Marks.
The animals (as you can see) share this water for drinking with the folks who live near here.
Lucy Chang and a sweet little girl near the main church we worked in.
These girls are about 11 years old. That's a bag of rocks/manure on her back. In this village, she may be married off in the next year or so.
The woman on the right received Christ two years ago. Previously, she was deep into witchcraft. She burned all her witchcraft materials and follows Christ now. The people in the village have stolen all her livestock and she suffers humilation for Christ. Despite this, she offered up this home for a new church!
Clint Blalock from Park Cities Baptist here in Dallas. He led worship for us and was an amazing blessing all week.
Natalie Sebastian adopted the culture incredibly fast. She even could lead a song in their language, Amharic.
Tadele Worku who is Ethiopian but lives in Dallas had us all come to his mother's home in Addis Ababa where they cooked this feast for us. This is his sister who arranged the great meal.
The team.
These boys were resting in the shade when we ate lunch. We called them over and shared the gospel with them. The one in the middle was a believer. The other four were from Orthodox families. All four prayed to receive Christ and the one on the far right broke down weeping as he prayed. Their families will be extremely opposed to their following Christ.
Me and Hymie.
Taxi service in my area.
Tad and his mother. While much of his family are believers, his mother is not. She is Orthodox.
Demese (Dim-eh-say) and his wife. Demese was our national leader and the man who organized everything on the ground for us.
Injira!
Bekele (Bek-ehl-lee) and his wife. Bekele partnered with Demese to plan and execute our trip. Bekele is an e3 staffer in Ethiopia.
Dinner at Tad's.