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.