While posting all about our family time I realized we have not shared an update about Taylor’s work trip! He had a pretty successful time looking at many options of locations for the film. Thankfully AIM is working under a Kenyan media house who had its owner represent them in beginning negotiations to secure locations. A huge praise is that the writing was completed by a Western missionary and is under review by a Kenyan to make more culturally appropriate.

Please continue to pray for the project. Prayer needs include clear wisdom and direction in guiding of those in charge of the script and directing. Pray that this will be an effective tool the Kenyan church can use to help promote missions from within. Please also pray for funding to come in and all the details of directing, acting, set and costume design…etc.

Thanks as always for your continued prayers!

Here is a preview of what the reasoning and hopes are for the feature film Taylor gets to take part in with the On Field Media team.

Some images from the Yabus Bridge Opening.

Bridge from the air.

Ganza girl. Likely the best meal she’s had all year.

Everyone is invited to cross the bridge.

Morning Light

Steven (SIM missionary from Nigeria) leading the Yabus Choir.

Event MC & student of SIM’s Secondary School.

Lori sharing the joy of the celebration in Sudanese picnic style.

SIM Nigerian missionary family.

Bridging the gap!

Water under the bridge.

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.

I saw an article today on BBC’s web site discussing how Nile Tilapia fight malaria mosquitoes. Apparently they eat the main larva in the water most likely to carry malaria.

On our trip to Sudan, we ate a lot of fish. It’s fresh as fish can get and the way they cook it is just awesome. Curious to know more? Take a look at the bbc.com article. You can also read up more on malaria at WHO.int, Wikipedia, and the CDC.gov.

I (Taylor) wanted to share with you about some recent developments within SIM USA in regards to media in Sudan. There has been a recent push by a department that specifically reaches out to large donors. They are taking a trip themselves to Sudan in a week to film many of the projects going on and interview both people doing the projects and those being impacted by the projects. Most of the projects in Sudan directly serve the physical needs of some very war hardened Sudanese. The goal is to empower them so that they can be self sustaining. Through doing these various projects, we hope to impact the people personally and gain their trust so that Christ’s love will be evident and opens the door for salvation and all that comes with becoming a Christ follower.

All of that to say, there is a large push to create a lot of media for Sudan to share with donors. As many of you know, Sudan is in the world’s spotlight right now, not just by the US. We hope that these new methods of communication cannot only be used in and by the US office, but other SIM offices around the world to highlight the needs in Sudan and get more people involved around the world in the work Christ body is beginning. The encouragement comes in that many more people are getting involved in Sudan through the use of media and even before I’m officially “active” with SIM, I am being invited to take part in work already being done there. There is a chance that even before I go active, I will be helping post production (editing) on a lot of the video which will be acquired this summer.

Please pray for much of the ground work being done right now for the projects SIM has envisioned. It is only through your prayers, your financial donations and God’s favor that makes these thing happen.

Read more about Rebuilding Southern Sudan: Church & Nation.

A typical school in Southern Sudan.

• Share this:
• Facebook