I find myself making friends easily in Kenya. I hope that as we learn the language and culture of Sudan, the friendships will flow just as easily.

Yesterday I was downtown to help a fellow missionary purchase a digital dictaphone to record her language helper. She had left for a moment to run an errand and I was sitting on the sidewalk. Up walks a Kenyan gentleman offering to taking me on safari. This happens pretty much every time I’m walking around downtown. I explained that I lived here and that I was not on vacation as most Munzungus (white man) are. He ask where I lived and I continued to explain that I actually lived in Sudan and I was a missionary and only came out to Kenya occasionally. He encouraged me to continue preaching and sharing the good news, of which he himself needed. I asked ‘you don’t know the good news?’ He explained that he had been saved some years back but had fallen into sin and his friends had informed him that he was no longer saved. I explained to him that he was still my brother in Christ and that no amount of sin could ever measure up to Christ’s blood on the cross. He was still saved and in the Kingdom of Heaven. I went on to explain that God loved him and looked forward to hearing his prayer of repentance and that doing this would also heal the pain in his heart from his past sins that he felt separated himself from God. My fellow missionary walked up about this time and suggested he read 1 John 1:1-9 and then to continue reading. I asked if he had a Bible and he said he did not. He informed me that he would borrow his neighbor’s Bible and invited me to come to his home and see his family when I saw him the next time. As we parted ways I told him I would be praying for him.

Will you join me?

I pray that he would read that Bible passage and be moved to repent and come closer to Christ. I would pray that God would put someone in his path to disciple him and invite him to Church.

AMEN?!?!

SIM maintains a secondary school in South Sudan that serves over 1 Million people. Up until recently it was the only one, but in the last year some muslim secondary schools have opened in the area.

Historically the students have been uncompromising in various demands they have. Many if not all of these demands are directed at the head master of the school (an American missionary) and made personal, even though they have nothing to do with her. For example, they have long complained about having to pay tuition (a token amount that doesn’t come close to the actual cost).

This came to a head last week when the students posted their grievances on the wall of the school one morning. SIM chose to close the school temporarily until the local church board (who has been given ultimate authority over the school) can meet and make some decisions about the current events. The local piam (the leadership of the area villages) is resisting SIM’s move to shut the school (however temporary) and saying that SIM would no longer be needed should they shut the school.

The church leadership was to have met yesterday. Please be in prayer with us as our missionaries on the ground there as well as our leadership in Nairobi meet to discuss how we should move forward.

One important difference in the handling of situations in Africa is not so much WHAT should be done, but HOW it should be done. Relationships mean more than anything else in these contexts. Please pray that the missionaries can build relationships through these hardships and become closer with the community there as they work to seek an amicable outcome.