Water Crossings in Sudan

Tis the rainy season. Here is David's email and a few shots he took driving from Kapoeta to Kajo Keji.

Men of God,

Thank you so much for praying with us during the difficult time of our return from Kapoeta. We almost lost the LandCruiser by overhead flood from the Mountains of Imatong. Look at the picture and then give thanks to God for his Protection.

Am very happy for all the works of the Holy Spirit in the ministry, Thank you for your prayers and I want to repeat thank you!!!

Kaya David

Deviate from Sudan

For, who else? Bono

Bono: That's between me and God. But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity.

Assayas: The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.

Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled… . It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.

Assayas: That's a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it's close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that farfetched?

Bono: No, it's not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate." And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You're a bit eccentric. We've had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don't mention the "M" word! Because, you know, we're gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you're expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he's gonna keep saying this. So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we've been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had "King of the Jews" on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I'm not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched . . .

Potential Partnership

Applied Technology and Water Wells

Saturday my friend John Lay set up meeting and a demonstration of an applied technology approach to water wells. Weston and I went to the home to Ray and Lauralee Lindholm. Ray and Lauralee served in Ethiopia for years and have a ministry called Heart for Ethiopia they've set up to support the work.
Ray and Weston.

The whole set up. The pipe that digs the well is supported by a pulley and ropes. You lift and drop this device while water pours down into the hole.

The bolt allows this tip to move up and down. Water come down through this pipe. The up and down motion of the pipe adds pressure to speed up the digging. The tip breaks up the dirt or rock.


The top of the pipe.
Pulley.
Once the hole is dug and casing is set up, this is your pump. The brown looking washers are leather and used for the pump itself.

Here's a quote from their website.

Drilling of wells to
Provide safe water supplies using conventional technology is
cost prohibitive for most rural families or communities. Heart
for Ethiopia has recently discovered a manual well-drilling
process that can be performed by local volunteer labor with
somewhat primitive locally made tools . The drilling process had already been successfully applied in several other countries. Now wells have been completed in Ethiopia by the manual drilling process and are supplying adequate quantities of clean safe water in remote rural villages. We have found that by using this manual process, a well can be drilled and fitted with a manual pump for a cost of only $200 (cost of materials only). [emphasis mine]

My hope is we can replicate this, or something very similar, in Sudan.

Adjumani II

When David relayed the Adjumani story to me, he also told me he was tired. He was going to take an extra day of rest before heading to the other side of the country to meet the U.S. team. Yesterday, he sent me this email.

When I work out of my house I remembered the speakers which we will be using at Kormachi, so I connected them and started playing Music. Then I saw one man of a middle age coming towards me while crying, he stood beside me and said I have not slept for 10 days, I don't know what has gone wrong with me. I have fear at the night and some thing told me to come to you and get saved, so I am here to accept the Lord as my personal Savior today. When I heard the Phone singing I couldn't tolerate what the Spirit was telling me to do.

I for sure prayed for him and he went back home rejoicing .

Remember Mike, I told you that I was tried of work and I decided to postpone my trip to Kapoeta to the next day, I came to realize that it was God who was planing for the new soul to come to his kingdom. I rejoice in My spirit so greatly for what the Lord is doing through the ministry. Blessed be the Lord.

Adjumani

Adjumani? Wasn’t that a movie? No, I’m thinking of Jumanji, the movie with Robin Williams. Adjumani is the town (village?) where David Kaya has been on an all-Sudanese church planting campaign. I spoke with David this morning and here is what he told me the Lord did.

It’s as if, once again, we walk into the book of Acts. First, allow me to reset the story for you. A man in Adjumani was possessed by a demon, and he caused terrible problems for the villagers by destroying things. The villagers turned to the few believers in the village for help who, in turn, sent a messenger to David’s home church. The church sent a pastor to Adjumani who, through the power of Jesus, delivered the man of his demon(s). Guess what? Just like in the book of Acts, the villagers wanted to follow this Jesus. Hence, these past three days.

When David and his men entered the village and began to go tukel (hut) to tukel, many people made professions of faith in Christ. When they gathered the people together that afternoon many more followed Jesus. Recall, that a family blessed David with a Landcruiser. David learned that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was in the area, and that vehicle draws attention. The LRA is a rebel military group in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. He withdrew from the village that night and slept elsewhere. In the village that same night, the new followers of Jesus worshiped Him and fellowshipped African-style, David’s description. That night the Lord encouraged David to go back to the village the next day.

Go back they did and began to baptize the new believers in the Nile. As darkness fell, they finished baptizing 105 people and were ready to finish the day. Then a wave of villagers came to the river and asked to follow Jesus and be baptized.

[I realize that this sounds so storybook as to be unbelievable, but I’m telling you, this really happened.]

When they finished baptizing them, a second wave appeared asking to follow Jesus and be baptized. Then a third group appeared and were baptized as well.

David was so excited when he shared this story. My favorite thing he said was, “Those demons helped us to open the door.”

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

Thanks for praying and being a part of God’s amazing work. There is a campaign with U.S. workers leaving tomorrow for another town in Sudan, and David tells me to pray about the rain. It’s rained so much that a dorm at our bible school collapsed and the latrine filled up. Obviously the roads will be terrible.