Thanks for your heartfelt comments to our latest blog. Being present at both the church and burial touched me beyond words.
I met the mother, Martha (We’ve named her Naomi/Ruth), and her two daughters the next day. They are from the Murle Tribe and completely by themselves.
Pray as they are transported to Tika Camp, the camp for new arrivals. It is a rough camp that has been the scene of recent tribal-based violence.
Hope Baptist Church and Pastor James are waiting for them at Tika. It is a congregation of over 200 with the sweetest spirit. Pray that they will reach out to Martha and daughters Sunday and Rhoda. This family will need help erecting a shelter/hut and mostly Christian love in their mourning for two-year-old son, Sabat. (He was born on Saturday, therefore the name).
Yesterday, Tyson Shapley and I spent the day among the Kakwa of northern Uganda. We drove on a road that split the boundary of DRC Congo and Uganda. We drove to the South Sudanese border and saw the realities of war. The new highway ends in a narrow dirt road. The SS border town has been stripped clean of all iron sheets (tin roofs) and is vacant, save daily Ugandan Army patrols. Even the Army slips across the Ugandan border for safety at night.
I’m convinced of two things: 1. Peace in South Sudan will come only through the grace and power of the Lord Jesus and the stirring of the Holy Spirit.
- Peace and restoration will come to South Sudan. The land where I stand: West Nile District/Uganda was also desolate, war-torn, and hopeless, but now is a growing, green region of healing and economic growth. This can happen in SS.
Yesterday’s highlights was visiting the Kakwa refugee camps where so many (Ugandan nationals, Dry Creek Baptist Church, Bob and Nancy Calvert, David and Renee Crane, plus Dee and I) labored faithfully for three years.
We saw much fruit. I will only mention Lukujo Refugee Camp. Many of the Kakwa refugees have returned to the current peaceful situation in Congo. They took the Gospel home with them.
The remaining Lukujo Camp believers have remained faithful and grown due to discipleship by the pastors from Koboko Town, esp. James, Moses, Daniel, and Mark.
It especially touched me when they brought out their Bibles. We’d given them Kakwa Bibles in 2013. Those same Bibles are now tattered and dog-eared. I thought of the Proverb:
“Show me a man whose Bible is falling apart, and I’ll show you a man who isn’t.”
These Lokujo believers have spent years in the Word and their growth is the result of it.
I was reunited with Moses whom I saw baptized in 2014. (There is a chapter on him in our book, Trampled Grass.). He is now pastoring a church at Media, on the outskirts of Koboko Town.
I also visited boreholes (water wells) dug through Baptist Global Response and our team in 2014. They are pumping cold, clear water and saving miles of walking for hard-working women. I took a drink from each well. I believe it was the sweetest water I’ve ever tasted.
Those of you who “held the rope” for us during our Ugandan sojourn are part of the victories we saw. Thank you. Thank you. And thank God.
Faithfully,
Curt