Sometimes it is difficult to be away from my family in southern Sudan because when something serious happens, I need to be there, but I also need to be here.

My family is ready for me to return and the Nimule Bible School students are also ready for me to return and teach them more stories. They are sharing the stories they have already learned in their churches and with the people there but they are ready for more.  They also hope that I can bring more medicine and short term team members to help with the many people who are sick in our area.

I thank God for the opportunity to learn new stories so that I can take them back to my people in southern Sudan.

It is very good to be back in Houston for training.  My family is there in Nebraska and the weather is very cold with snow everywhere, so it is very different weather here in Houston.

We have been learning more stories from the Bible and it is very exciting.  Recently we learned a story from the letter to the Hebrews about Jesus is Above All. We learned that Jesus is greater than the angels and greater than Moses and he is sitting on a throne that will last even when the world that he created comes to an end. His throne will still be there.

I thank God I can learn these stories and teach them to my people back in Nasir.

I am now with my family in Nebraska and we are all doing very well, but the weather is very cold. We have over one foot of snow on the ground and the temperature has been below zero for several days. We mainly stay home and get out of the house only to take the kids to school.  They are all very happy for me to be here with them since this is our first Christmas together in two years.  I have been serving in Sudan the last two Christmases but now I am with them and we are all very happy.  Some friends in Texas sent our family some offerings to help us have a really nice Christmas. I thank all our friends and brothers in Christ  for supporting me and my family financially. Our Father in Heaven will give them eternal gifts. 

Now that I'm back in the US, I continue to talk to my friends and family back in Nimule, Sudan and they are always talking about how much we helped them this year.  The students in the Bible School are preaching and teaching using the stories I taught them. They tell me that now they have them in their hearts and they know how the stories fit together in the Bible. The people are happy and the Word of God is spreading!

Many are also still rejoicing over the medical work we did in July.  Many who had suffered from cyphilis and could not bear children for many years are now pregnant and they are all so happy! Others had serious bacterial infections from bathing in the river which was also keeping them from getting pregnant, but we gave them the medicine they needed and now they're having more children.  The people thank God and thank us and they hope we can do more work like this next year in other communities.

Here in Nasir, we are fine. Everyone is preparing to receive our friends from the United States next week when they come to visit and work with us. We are very happy that David Humphrey is coming back again. He has not been here since the Bible School began last November and now he's returning to visit with some of our other friends who were here last year, and some new friends. The students are all ready for the exams. They have all learned 36 stories from Acts and some of Paul's letters and we will show the team that we learned them well.

For our exams we will also share stories in the community from hut to hut. We will also take some of the nurses that are coming with the team and help the people's physical needs. We will pray for them, share stories with them, and give them medicine if they need it.

We are so happy to see our friends again and we thank God for bringing them back.

Please pray for us to do well on our exams.

Please pray also pray for me as I return to the US to see my family in November.

Life here in Nimule is going along well.  My family is doing well, but my father will be recovering from his surgery for a long time. They put a piece of steel in his hip and he is still healing. He is an old man, so it may be a long time until he can walk again.

We are all very excited that Andrew and the Ugandan missionaries are coming next week to visit us here. The students at the Bible School have worked very hard to learn 46 stories and Andrew will lead us in the examinations. The students will be told the name of a story and asked to tell that story. Then they will receive a grade depending on how well they know the story. For the students who know all of the stories that Andrew asks of them, they will graduate from the first phase of the Bible School. We will have a big celebration and we are all very excited about this time we will have together.

Please pray that we can get the tall grass cut away from the airstrip so that the plane can land next week.

Please also pray for the students as they are taking their examinations to remember the Word of God well.

The Bible school is going along very well and the students love it. We are now learning the stories of Moses and how God used him to rescue his people. I am so glad to be a part of the Moses Project so I can serve my people here in Sudan.

My father needs your prayers. When he was traveling with our cattle he had a fall and has had difficulty walking since then. He is not a young man, but he was very strong, and this is very difficult for all of us. My brother Makol took my father on a long bus ride to Kampala, Uganda so a doctor could see him. He had to go through surgery to repair his dislocated hip this week but he made it well and is resting there in Uganda. Please pray for him to be healed and for my brother to bring him safely back to us.

The Bible School is continuing to go well here in Nasir, even though it's very difficult for the students to always make it to class each day. It's the time of the year when they work hard cultivating to provide food for their families, but they remain faithful to learn new stories each day.

I recently taught them the story of when Paul told the believers in Derbe that they would face many difficulties following Christ. It is difficult to serve the Lord here in these conditions, but its no problem.  Two weeks ago, I put my foot into my gum boot and I felt a terrible sting on my toes. When I took out my foot, I had been stung by a scorpion.  I was sick for two days because of this.  During this time of the year we have lots of rain and the scorpions are always looking for dry places to hide so many of us are facing this same problem.

Thank you for praying for us as we serve the Lord here in Sudan.

The Nimule Bible School is going very well and we have already learned 12 stories together. Almost every day we gather under the mango tree to learn about Noah and Abraham and many other good histories.

I am very concerned for my Dad because he needs an operation. When he went to take our cattle back to our home area, he fell. He was a very strong man but now he can barely walk and he just sits around or stays in the bed. My brother took him to Gulu, Uganda several hours away and he got an xray. They told him he had dislocated his hip and he needs surgery but it is very expensive. We are trying to gather the money so he can go to Kampala, Uganda for surgery. Please pray for God to heal him. Thank you so much.

School is back in session at the Nasir Bible School. It's a difficult time of the year for everyone because it's the rainy season. We are having lots of rain so there's mud everywhere. The Bible School students are very happy to come and learn more stories now that I have returned. They are learning stories from the book of Acts now and they really love them. They were also glad to receive some reading glasses sent by one of our supporters from Texas. Everyone is very glad to see what Aid Sudan is doing in our area and when I see people on the streets in town they tell me to "Keep it up!"

I am doing very well here in Nimule with my family. My parents, my grandmother, my brothers, my sister and many grandchildren and other family members have huts within our family compound so we are together every day.

The people here were very happy to receive the medical treatment with Dr. Matt's medical team who came a few weeks ago. We treated so many people and gave them medicine. I am still able to see some of them and to follow up with their medical needs with the little medicines that we have here.  

Then David Humphrey and his friend Javier Merchan came to help establish the Nimule Bible School and it was very nice. They stayed at my house and Rebekah cooked Sudanese food for us every day. We met with the church leaders and finally started the Bible School with 42 students. They were all so happy to receive this training because many of them have had very little schooling.

Please pray for us as we learn these stories together and share them with others in the community.

Thank you so much.

After a nice break with my family in Nebraska, I have returned to southern Sudan to serve my people. On the way, I had a change of flight plans and was able to spend three days in Nimule with Maker and David. We had a good reunion there and Nimule is a really good place! I was able to attend the first day of the new Nimule Bible School that Maker is leading and it was a very nice time. They said they would pray for the students at the Nasir Bible School and we will pray for them also. While I was there, we jumped on the back of some motorcycles and rode out to find the nearby elephants. We saw them across the Nile River and it was really great!

Please pray for us as I begin teaching 36 new stories to the Bible School students. Pray that the rain will not keep us from meeting together.

Thank you for your prayers.

Today I left to return to Nimule, Sudan to be with my family and to serve with Aid Sudan.  I am very happy to see my wife and daughter again along with the rest of my family.  After a few days, we will be receiving a medical team from Aid Sudan to work in Nimule and help the people. I am very glad that Dr Matt Wilson, who has helped me so much here in Houston, will be coming there with the team and staying with my family.  We will be able to work together in Sudan finally to help people who are sick and to give them the Word of God. I thank God for this opportunity to serve Him among my own Dinka people.

I have just returned from another trip to Sudan with some of our Aid Sudan friends from Houston.  We had a great week in Nasir sharing Bible stories from hut to hut with many of the Bible School students. Everyone liked this very much. We also watched and prayed as the Aid Sudan radio tower was raised that will soon broadcast the Word of God in Nuer to people across the area.  The team also visited my home village of Torpuot where the people are enjoying the new water well and watching as progress is made on the building of a school and a medical clinic there through the Village to Village project.

I am now in Nebraska with my wife and children for a break before I return to continue my work in Nasir in August. We are praising God together for all that he is doing!

Greetings from Nebraska!  Now that we are on a small break after training, I am now with my family again in Nebraska. My kids are always asking me, " When are you coming? When are you coming?"   I always tell them very soon. I miss them very much. 

It is difficult to be away from them, but it is God's will and I have to serve my people. I always remember that they are God's children and not my children. If I serve Him and do his will, He will take care of them, even though I miss them very much.

Next week I will travel to Sudan with a group from Houston, TX to see the work there and to encourage the pastors in their work.  God is doing many great things in Nasir. Thanks be to God!

We're now on break from our training and we have learned a total of 82 histories from the Word of God.  I am now preparing myself to go to Sudan in less than one month to lead a medical team to Nimule, Sudan and then start the Nimule Bible School where I'll be training men and women in 46 of these stories from God's Word.

I am very ready to go there and see my wife and my daughter Akur again. She's now learning a little English in the preschool in Uganda and she loves it.  I will be there in Sudan until November with my family serving the people there by teaching the Word of God.

I am very concerned right now because all of the Dinka families in Nimule have been asked to take their cattle back to our native area.  This is a big problem because my family has been in Nimule on the border with Uganda for many years since they resettled during the war.  Now it will be difficult for them to take all of the cattle back to the Bor area where we came from almost twenty years ago, because walking with the cattle will take several days, but taking them there in trucks is very expensive. Our cattle are very important and we do not know what we will do so please pray for my family to come up with a good decision.

My time in Houston for training has been very busy. David has been teaching us new stories from the book of Acts and it has been very good. We learn one new story every day and then we record them in our native languages to use for the radio station in the future. In order to learn the stories, he tells us the stories a couple of times and then he asks us questions to help us tell it back to him. Then Maker and I try to tell it back to David.  Once we know it, we talk about what we can learn about God from the story and how it applies to our lives. This is a very nice way to learn the stories.  When we started learning the stories at the beginning, it would take us more than one day to learn each story, but now we are able to learn one new story each day and record them in Dinka and Nuer. We have already learned 18 new stories from the book of Acts and we will learn 18 more. Then we will pass these on to the Christian leaders in Nasir and Nimule when we return to southern Sudan.  Thank you for supporting me as I learn.

I was very happy to find out that a friend of Aid Sudan from Missionary Aviation Fellowship wrote an article about me for their online youth newsletter.  We call them MAF and we could not get into southern Sudan to share the Word of God without them.  They have great pilots who are so helpful to us when we fly into Sudan with them.  There are very few organizations who do this kind of work and we thank God for them.  Please pray for MAF that God will keep them safe as they travel around the world taking missionaries to remote people to share the love of God.

Here is the link to the article:  http://www.aboveandbeyonduk.org/ls.htm

Greetings Friends!  I am now back in the USA spending some time with my family and I am doing very well.  My journey home from Sudan was very long and I've been away from home since November so I am happy to be with my wife and my children.  My last days in Nasir, Sudan were very busy with Peter Swann's team and the team from Faith Bible Church in the Woodlands.  They helped us to give the final exam for the Nasir Bible School and all of the students passed with no problem!!! They really learned the 46 Bible stories very well and when the team asked them to tell one of the stories, they would tell it with no problem, even though they didn't know which stories would be their test.

The graduation was a great time of celebration as all 18 students received their certificates and their Nasir Bible School t-shirts. Everyone was very happy.  When I saw some students who had dropped off on their commitment, they were very jealous and wished they would have stayed with the Bible school. We will share more about the graduation soon, but Praise God with me that the students learned God's Word and were so very happy. 

Please pray for me while I am with my family because there are many things to do. Please also pray for us as we begin soon to learn more Bible Stories that I will teach the students at the Bible School starting in July.

I am glad to be back in Houston now after a really great trip to Tennessee and Mississippi with David Humphrey.   We traveled to Memphis, Jackson, Nashville and Tupelo, MS meeting new friends in every place.  It was really great to share my story with so many people and to see old friends again.  We spoke at Union University in Jackson, TN and the students there were very excited about my story and the work of Aid Sudan.  They asked many questions. Then we went to Nashville and saw many friends from Brentwood Baptist Church who worked with me in Sudan in November on the medical team. 

We met so many new people and God was with us all the way.  We were even in the newspaper in Tupelo, MS.  We also spoke to some friends at Getwell Road United Methodist Church in Southaven, MS and they laid their hands on us and prayed for us.
I thank God for all of these people and I hope to see them again.

Please pray for my brother back home in Sudan who just got married. His name is Makol.
Please also pray for my wife Rebecca and my daughter Akur, who is now in the preschool with Ugandan children learning some English. Please pray for me as I record many Bible Stories in my native language to share with my people back home when the radio station begins there.

Now that I'm back in Houston, I have not been feeling very well. When I went to the clinic they told me that I am anemic and now that I'm taking iron, I'm feeling much better. Thank God for this answer to our prayers.

Today is my daughter Akur's 3rd birthday. She is now going to a preschool with Ugandan children. She doesn't speak English like the other kids, so she just stands there looking at them. But she likes it very much and she always wants to go back. My wife Rebekah told her that she will learn English, too.

This weekend I will go on a trip to Tennessee and Mississippi with David Humphrey to raise support for the Moses Project. I am very excited for this trip and I pray that God will open many doors for us to share about what we are doing.  Please pray for us while we are traveling and sharing about this ministry.

Here in Nasir everyone is doing really well.  The Bible School students are on their break as they await the arrival of the team from the Woodlands who will administer their examinations.  They've worked hard as we've learned 46 stories together beginning with the fall of Satan and ending with the ascension of Jesus Christ.  I think they will be ready and do really well.

I am also excited that we will host Peter Swann and his team of three others in a few days. Everyone will be glad to see Peter again and to welcome these other new friends.

We pray that God will open the door so we can finalize some development projects in the area while they are here.

In Nasir everything is going very well.  We are enjoying lots of fish and the weather is nice.  Other than fish, the food is very hard to find right now for many of the people.  God always provides us fish from the river, but the other foods are difficult.  We still are enjoying the simple meal of rice and beans at the Bible School each day and we give thanks to God for this. The students at the Bible School are almost finished with all 46 stories as they prepare for the exams.  When they finish these stories, they will have a short break before the team arrives in March with Andrew.  When the team arrives, they will administer the final exam for the students to make sure they have truly learned the stories from God's Word. Then we will have a great celebration for the graduation from the first phase of the Bible School. We are very excited to welcome this team and we pray for them even now.

After a very long journey, I finally made it back to Houston today.  My journey began with a ten hour bus ride down the bumpy road from Nimule, Sudan to Kampala, Uganda with my wife, Rebecca.  I wasn't feeling very well, but we made it.  Once we arrived in Kampala, we headed for the airport but we didn't realize that my plane didn't leave until the evening.  We calledKerry Henderson and he came to pick us up and took us out to lunch with his family.  We had a very nice lunch and enjoyed talking together.  We then went back to his house and his friend took us to the bus station to get Rebecca a bus ticket from Kampala back to Arua, where she'll stay with our daughter Akur and with her mom.  Finally Kerry took me to the airport and I waved goodbye before flying out for Amsterdam.  There I had a layover of 5 hours before boarding the plane for Houston. That flight was 10 hours and it took a long time.

When I arrived I was greeted by Andrew Brown and David Humphrey at the airport. When they took me to my car, I wasn't sure I'd remember how to drive it because I had not been driving since I left for Sudan. I am glad to be back in Houston, but I have a lot to do to get my apartment and my car back in order. Thank you so much for your prayers for me while I was in Sudan.  Please continue to pray for my wife, Rebecca and my daughter Akur, both in Uganda. Pray also for me during this time when I am getting accustomed to Houston again.  Thank you very much.

Here in Nasir everyone is doing well. The weather is nice and the Bible school students have returned to learn more stories from the Word of God. When we learned the stories of the Tabernacle and others like it, it took us a long time because these stories are kind of long and difficult.  Now we are learning the stories from the New Testament and they love it.  Everyone is so happy to learn the stories from the Bible.  Today we learned the story of the birth of Jesus and his presentation in the Temple.  The students are very excited that an Aid Sudan team is coming in March to work with them and to give them examinations on the stories. Then they will graduate from the first phase of the training and it will be a big celebration.

The teachers will soon be coming back again to our compound to watch the training DVDs that Barbara Crossman left with us.  When they come, we watch them together and I help explain things to them if they don't understand. Learning in this way is new for them, but I tell them that it's easy if they pay close attention.  They really love to learn.

The people here are really in need. I focus on the need of the people and I have to devote my time to them. If I was doing nothing here, I should be back with my family or getting more education myself, but I have to devote my time to the needs of my people. The little time that I have, I have to use it.

Please continue to pray for the Bible School students to learn the stories well as they prepare for the exams in March.
Please pray for the teachers to return to continue their training here soon and that they would learn a lot.
Please pray also for my wife and children to stay well back in Nebraska.

I thank God for the time I've had here in Nimule with my family.  My daughter Akur is now back in Arua, Uganda staying with her grandmother, and they are doing well.  Near my family's compound there is one water well that serves thousands of people. Many have come from the refugee camps to Nimule and there are not enough wells to support the people. My wife, Rebekah has been going to fetch water at 3 in the morning so that she does not have to wait in line for many hours.  This has been a great challenge for my family and for so many people in our area. Now, there is a greater problem because that well is broken and no one has come to fix it for several days.  This well is the only source of water for thousands of people and now it is broken. These are difficult times for my family and many other people.

Please pray for this well to be repaired very soon so that these thousands of people can have access to clean water.

Please pray for me as I say goodbye to my family next week to return to the United States.  I will be back with them in July when I return with a medical team and other short term workers.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

My Christmas and New Years was very nice here in Nimule, Sudan. I spent time with my family and we prayed with many people at the church. I was asked to share the Word of God with almost 2000 people when they gathered together for Christmas worship. I have also had the opportunity to train several groups of pastors in the Chronological Bible stories. Here in Nimule, many of them have good jobs and so the weekends have been the best time to train them.This past weekend, I trained 50 pastors on Saturday and Sunday in the Main 8 stories and they liked it very much. The gathering was so large that I broke them into two smaller groups and it went very well.

My family is all doing very well and my daughter Akur is staying with her grandmother for a while in Uganda.  I am returning to the U.S. in one month so my time is growing short but I look forward to returning in July.

Please pray that I can train many more people in the Bible stories during January.
Please also pray for my health to stay strong as I serve the Lord here in Nimule, Sudan.

Happy New Year!  Here in Nasir we had a very nice time celebrating Christmas and the New Year. After practicing for many weeks leading up to Christmas, many different churches marched around the town for hours on Christmas singing our traditional songs.  Each church wears special colors and waves flags as we march. This is a special tradition that we enjoy every year.   We also do a drama of the Christmas story and it is very nice. Then on New Years, we also spend time marching around and singing praises to God. Many of the students at the Bible School and others who live in Nasir returned to their villages to spend Christmas with their families there. They are now returning and we began the Bible School again today. We are reviewing all of the stories we learned last year and will soon begin learning new stories together.

I talked to my family in Nebraska before Christmas and they were very happy to receive some gifts from friends in Houston! This small group supports me through Aid Sudan and wanted to give my family a special Christmas. They really liked the gifts that were brought all the way from Houston by a friend of Aid Sudan, Ashley Marble, who delivered the gifts face to face.

Please pray for my family to stay very healthy during the cold winter time in Nebraska.
Please also pray for the Bible School students to remember the stories very well.

Everyone here in Nasir is doing OK. It's a busy season with everyone getting ready to celebrate Christmas.  Here people practice their Christmas songs as they march around the town together because on Christmas that is what everyone will do. We will join together and march around for hours singing our traditional Christmas songs. People are also preparing themselves to do Drama for Christmas where they will act out the Christmas story.  It is a very exciting time.

We have dismissed the Bible School for a Christmas break and will start back again in 3 weeks.

I really hope to get to Ethiopia for Christmas to see relatives I haven't seen in many years, but it will be difficult. SInce this is the dry time of year, I can get there by boat, but when it's time to come back it will be too dry. It is also difficult to get there on land by car.

Please pray with me that God will make a way for me to get to Ethiopia to see them this Christmas.

Please pray also for my wife and 5 children in Nebraska as we will be apart this Christmas.

Jengmer

We are doing well here in Nimule, Sudan. I am very happy to be here with my wife Rebekah and my daughter Akur living on the family compound with my father and mother, my brothers and their wives and children. We will be very happy to receive Kerry Henderson and his son, Drayton on Thursday for a short visit. We will meet together with some of the pastors in the area so that we can start the Nimule Bible School. I have met many pastors and told them about the school where we will teach Chronological Bible storying.

Please pray for Kerry and Drayton to have safe travels into Nimule on Thursday.

Please pray that our meeting with the pastors will go well and that we will be able to found the Nimule Bible School, so that I can begin teaching the Word of God.

Thank you very much for your support.

I am doing well here in Nasir, but I am tired because I am very busy. The Bible School is going well. The attendance is very good and the students love to learn the stories from God's Word.  We are still learning stories from the Old Testament and the students learn them very quickly. On the days that we do not have Bible School, some of the teachers that were trained by the Aid Sudan team that was here are coming to our compound for continued training. Barbara Crossman, Aid Sudan's Education Director, created teacher training DVDs and left them here with a small DVD player that they are watching. It is powered by a portable solar panel that works great. We thank God that this work is continuing.

Please pray for my family in Nebraska while I am away from them. My 3 year old son, Yat has been sick, but he is getting better. The other 4 children and my wife, Nyabang, are doing fine.

Please pray for me to have strength for the work I am doing here.

Please pray that I can work out arrangements to travel to Ethiopia during Christmastime to see some of my relatives there whom I have not seen in many years.

I am alive and well in Nasir and the Bible School students are all continuing to learn the stories from God's Word. We've now learned 17 stories by heart and these church leaders are hungry for more. We began with the story of when the Spirit world was created and Lucifer fell from heaven. Then we went through the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Sarah and now we're beginning to learn about Moses. We're enjoying our time together and thankful for the beans and rice we enjoy each day. 

My family is also doing well in Nebraska as the weather there is getting much colder. Please pray for them to stay well as the harsh winter arrives in Nebraska. Please also pray for the students in the Nasir Bible School to continue to learn God's stories well and share them with others.

Things here in Nasir continue to go great!!  I have continued to train the pastors and church leaders in the Bible school and things went great this past week.  We have learned one more story and have been reviewing the other stories allowing each person a chance to retell the story from memory.  We have been averaging about 30 people each day and we look forward to continuing our work this week.  Please continue to pray for the work here with the bible school.  Praise God that these church leaders are really picking up the stories.  Please pray that they would learn all these stories and be able to retell them to not only their own congregations but to anyone they come in contact with.  Please also pray for my family back in the states.  Pray for my son who has been sick that he would get to feeling better.

It is so good to finally be in Nimule!  I have been sick for about a week and could not travel to Nimule but praise God I am feeling better now.  I was also able to pack up my wife and daughter and all our belongings and make the trip from Arua to Nimule.  These past few days I have been busy traveling around town meeting with pastors and church leaders telling them about the bible school that we are wanting to open here to be able to train them in Chronological Bible storying.  I am excited that Kerry Henderson our Sudan Country Director is coming to stay with me for a few days and help me get the school up and running, we are looking forward to what God is going to do here in Nimule!

This past week I was privileged to go to southern Sudan and attend the Cush Consultation meeting in Yei. It was an awesome four days where representatives from around 60 different mission organizations and churches were in attendance. It was a great time for us to hear what everyone is doing in southern Sudan and to see where we might be able to work together.  There were many Sudanese pastors there as well who challenged us to come to their areas and help them in the harvest that God has called them to.

We were very well taken care of and stayed at the ECS compound there in Yei and then met at one of the churches just down the road.  Each day we worshipped together, prayed and were challenged to work together in the harvest in southern Sudan.  We also had time to break off in focus groups where we could concentrate our talks and networking in a particular area. The time flew by and before long it was time for all of us to leave.  We left better than we came because we now have new friends who are working alongside us in southern Sudan.  Please continue to pray for all the mission organizations and pastors working all across southern Sudan.

- Kerry

As I get myself ready to go home, I'm thinking all the time about seeing my family. I miss my wife and my little daughter Akur. It's been a long time. Since Akur was born, I've been here in the US and I miss her.

It's difficult because I'm here and I support them but I'm ready to sit together and eat together at one table. Akur will be happy because it will be her first time to see her Dad.

I need to teach her how to behave and she may learn something from me as I'm her Dad.  It will be a privilege for me to see her and to stay together and to learn what she likes and what she doesn't like.

Well it has been raining but has stopped for now.  We are continuing to be busy around the compound.  As I told you last week with all the rain the grass is really growing and we are staying busy trying to keep it cut away to prevent mosquitoes on the compound.  The compound is really nice and we don’t have many things to be completed on it!  We are praying that we can have it done before the group in November arrives be we will have to see.  Most of the people now are very busy working in their fields and so time is moving along.  Please keep praying for the people here and for the work on the compound.

Well the rains have stopped for now and people are busy busy busy!  We have almost completed all the work that we can do for now on the compound but have been busy working to remove all the grass that has grown up since the rains.  We want to get rid of this grass because it will help in controlling the mosquitoes! 
 
I am continuing to train and tell Bible stories to some of the friends I have made here in the village.  They love the stories and are learning a great deal!  Because of the rains I haven’t been able to begin to train pastors again and now that the rains have stopped most of the pastors are very busy because we have had a new Moderator to come with the church.  Many of the pastors are getting things organized and having meetings with this new leader of the church.
 
My time here now is growing short and it will be time for me to leave and return to the states to see my family and continue my training with Aid Sudan.  Please continue to pray for me as I am here away from my family, for health and safety for them and me.  Also continue to pray for the compound, that it would soon be completed and also for all the people that I am training.  Pray they would tell these stories to others and if they do not have a personal relationship with Christ that they would come to know him today!

First of all I thank Aid Sudan for the great job they did to support me with their prayers. I waited almost 7 months for my US citizenship and my passport, but God listened to your prayers and I have them.

The June team went to see my wife and my daughter and they took videos and pictures.

When they were there, my wife feels like I was there, too.  David and Kerry and the team and Agook and Jengmer were talking to them and my daughter still remembers them. She told me she got the bag I sent her.

Now when Peter went in July, he met my wife, too and she took some video for me. I was very happy about it,too. She was happy too, but Akur wasn't there bc she was not feeling good from the cold weather.

Here we use heat when it's cold but there they have no heat and it affects the children.

Last week Akur was still having a cough and my wife Rebecca also has a cold.

Your prayers are important and they'll be OK.

Now I have my passport and I hope in November I will be there. Nothing will prevent me to be there again. I hope November will be like one month away for them. I look forward to see Akur and hold her by my hand because I have never held her since she was born.

We are having a lot of rain right now, but I have been able to do lots of work on the Aid Sudan compound.  With the help of others we have built the fence around the compound, three huts and a kitchen. We are working now to build an open air meeting space with a thatched roof (a veranda.)  I will be starting pastor training again this week so this should be a good time.

Please pray that we are able to get the work done in spite of the rain.

Please pray that God will allow the airstrip to dry up so that Kerry can come for a visit and bring the rest of the money needed to complete the compound.

Please pray for the pastors I train to learn the stories well and to share them with many people.

Please pray for my wife and children back in Nebraska while I'm away.

I was very disappointed when Kerry and Peter were not able to visit me because of the terrible rains, but I am fine here. On the new land that was given to us, I have begun building Aid Sudan's compound and have completed the fence and two mud huts to be used when teams come to work here in Nasir.

Please pray that God will open the way for Kerry to come for a visit so that he can see the work that has been done and we can spend some time together for my family back home in Nebraska to be healthy and well.

The day has finally come! I am a citizen of the United States. I am very proud of finally becoming an American. I had waited for a long time and prayed many, many prayers. God answered my prayers and your prayers too. Thank you for your prayers. I am very happy to get my citizenship because I can now see my family soon.

I have applied for my passport and should be receiving it in the mail this week. Once I get my passport, it is the last thing I need before I can go to visit my family.

I am doing very well!  I have been busy looking for supplies for the compound.  Most of the things are not available and if they are available they are very expensive because it is rainy season.  I am still waiting for the commissioner to return so that I can meet with him and get another place for the compound.  He said he is coming but hasn’t arrived yet.

I have also been busy telling Bible stories with some groups!  They really like the stories and many other people have said they would like to hear them too.  So hopefully I can tell them the stories as well.

The pastor training went great, I was able to teach them the first eight Chronological Bible stories and they were so excited and said no one else has ever come and taught us like this before.  We talked about when we would get together again so I can continue to train them but we haven’t decided on a date yet.

Pray for the people in Nasir and for the building of the new compound.

The weather in Nasir is wet, rainy and muddy.  But things are going very well.  I was able to complete a two day training workshop for about 43 pastors. They were taught the Word of God through stories!  Many of the pastors came from a very long distance in order to receive this training. I’m teaching and training the pastors and also sharing these stories with the people of the community who really love the stories and are so happy to hear them. 

The work on the compound is still proceeding. I talked with the commissioner and we are deciding whether to keep the present location or to find another place as the rain destroyed work done on the last location. If I move to another place, I will take up the fence that is left along with all the other materials and move them to the new site.

Things are moving along nicely!  Please pray for the compound but most of all for the people and pastors that are hearing the stories - that God would work in their lives in amazing ways!!

I was waiting for my final interview so I could get my citizenship and go to Sudan. I received a call that they wanted me to attend the interview June 24th. I am studying American stories and am ready to do it. I’m ready to see friends. If I’m lucky and the right people are there, I can get my passport quickly. Or, I’ll have to wait two weeks or so for the right people to be there.

I’m very excited. I was praying for so many months and appreciate the support of many. God sometimes requires patience but He listens to my prayers. It is a possibility if the right people are in my interview that I can go to Sudan with the team in July. It will be a good time to see my family soon!

Please pray that the right people are in my interview so that I can get my passport soon.

Before I left for Nebraska, it was a very wonderful day when the Aid Sudan team was together for the team retreat because it was the first time for all of us to meet together, very exciting. My favorite time there was our time of praying together and discussing the future of our organization. We had a good time together playing, talking, walking together and it was really a very exciting time.  Now we know one another, after talking. It was very, very good, because I never met Christi or Leigh Ann before. It was good.

My family is doing fine, but it's tough because Nyabang lost her job.  When I came home last week, I find everybody well and we're having a good time. It's difficult to leave them when I am in Houston or in Sudan because I will be away, but God is the only one who keeps everybody. Recently I took my kids to the park and they played over there. We mowed the back yard together. It's a little hard time because my lawn mower was messed up because they put the gas in the oil place but I took it apart and drained all of the oil out. Now I put it all back together and it's running really well.

When I am back in Sudan this summer I would like to see a well dug in the area of my home village, Torpuot.  They have no clean water and get their water from the river.  I hope people will be happy when they see me coming with the new things. They will be even more glad than before. It will be happiness for them.  Everybody will be happy, because they're going to love it. 

I do have a couple of prayer requests right now.  Please pray for Nyabang and our financial situation and for the health of my family.

I give thanks to the people who showed up for the gala. It was a great night for all of us Sudanese and American friends. I think it was a wonderful night because I saw so many faces and friends. I went up on stage with Agook and shared the Dinka songs and they loved it. I shared my life story with the people and it was a great lesson to the people. When I went first onstage I was kind of feeling I was not going to say anything, but God filled me with his word and I talked. It was the power of God.

When the gala finished I went from table to table to greet my friends and a lot of people said “you’re a good speaker and singer”, but it was God not me. Some of the people did not know Dinka music but they loved it. It was a good experience for me for people to love the Dinka songs and clap their hands. When I shared my story, I talked about the war in Sudan for so many years and how my village was attacked and we lost 2 million people in Sudan. That means we have so many orphan children there without school, clinics and no good water. They’re facing so many difficulties and we’re going to save their lives.

When Peter went on stage to share the same things, the people were crying because they were feeling that God touched their hearts to go and do something in southern Sudan. I think if we make it every year it will be good to see friends’ faces again and to talk with them and share our lives together.

As the people return from the refugee camps to southern Sudan for the census, they will suffer a lot because there will be no water, no shelter and no food as they return.

I’m worried because these people have left the country since 1983 and they went to Ethiopia, then to Kenya now back to Sudan. When I returned there were lots of changes. When they were in the refugee camps, they were settled there with clinics, hospitals, medicine and schools for their children.

If they go back now to Sudan, they will not have any of this. They will not have water, or grinding machines, or medicine or schools. There will be a lot of challenges for them. Most of those who are now helping in southern Sudan gained their education in the refugee camps. Life in the refugee camps was a challenge but people learn many things like technical schools and when they go back those schools will not be there.

They are going now during rainy season and there will be so many mosquitoes. When I went back in 2005, I returned back to the US with malaria and was admitted to the hospital. They will be there without mosquito nets and it will be a lot of challenges for them.

What we should do is pray for them.  God says in Matthew, “Ask and it will be given…, knock and the door will be open.” We will pray and maybe God will open the door for them and God will knock on people’s hearts and they will go and help.

Going back for them will be good for the country for the government to start. They will suffer for awhile but then there will be development for them if they return.  This will be good for them.

Ecclesiastes says there’s a time for crying and for war and a time for peace. This is the time for peace and we need to pray that it will happen.

The UN is moving the scattered people of southern Sudan back to Sudan over the next 3 years.  Right now the people are returning for the census in southern Sudan, so that they will count how many people are in each area. They will really need our help because as they travel, they don’t have shelter, and it is the rainy season. There will be no water and no food and the villages can’t support the people.  

Some people are fearing whether they will have good security and education for their children.  They’re being forced to leave what little settlement they have for the purpose of the census.  There is no food, no medicine, no water. Not only are they closing the refugee camp in Kenya, but also the camps in Uganda and three camps in Ethiopia.  The famous refugee camp of Kakuma where so many southern Sudanese lived before coming to the US is closing down at the end of this year. 

This looks like when the children of Israel were outside and God returned them and delivered them back to where they were before. We have to pray for their health, and for their shelters, and the food they’re going to eat. They don’t have what they need and it will be too dangerous for them. We have to pray for them on the way and as they get there.

We can pray for God to open a door for them to have peace and be happy and enjoy the Word of God in freedom. 

It says in Isaiah 18:3, “All you people of the world you who live on the earth, when the banner is raised on the mountains you will see it and when the trumpet sounds, you will hear it.”

In December I started building Aid Sudan's first compound in southern Sudan.  It is in my home area of Nasir, Sudan. 

The land for the compound was given by the commissioner.  I talked to the commissioner and he provided it for us.  To start the construction I bought wood and tall grass for the fence.  I also bought some rope.

I had many volunteers.  Chuol Ruot, John, Yien, and another Chuol who helped me go to the market and buy all of the supplies for the building materials.  We brought them back on a donkey to the compound.  We had to dig with long metal poles for the poles for the fence.  Then we added the grass to the fence with the rope.  We would sometimes go and buy fish and bake it and share it together.  Sometimes we would go and eat at a local restaurant when there was no fish coming.

We are still working to build one hut, a toilet, and in the future we'll build more.  We hope to finish in June or July.

The other day we recorded Christian songs from Sudan.  Some of the songs I had made up.  Songs are important in our culture.  When David was called by God, he was given many songs as a way to communicate with God.  They are a way that make us feel close to God.

God gave me some songs when the war was going on and I was in Sudan.  One song was about when the war broke out because everywhere the people were in Ethiopia and Uganda all scattered out.  It talks about God giving us peace so that we will come together as one nation.  So many people like this song.

It was great to record songs.  Since I was raised in church, I never used a machine to record songs.  It was great to use the microphone and I had never used one to record all these things.  We hope this will help the people back home a lot as one day they may hear these songs across the radio. 

To listen to some of the songs please click below:

Yuku Nhialic Leec (Let's Praise God)

Kake Piny Nhom Aa Ye Rot Waar Ku Kritho Aci Rot Ye Waar (Worldly Things Change but Christ Never Changes)

Yin Nhialic Duone Gam Cok Niop (God, Let Our Faith Not be Weak)

I was not able to go to southern Sudan in December, although I was willing to go there and serve my people. The only issue was the documents and I didn’t have the possibility to do it.  My family and my wife was looking forward to see me but it did not work because it was a slow down on INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) and I didn’t get my document at the right time.  I’ve been waiting almost now 3 months but I have done my fingerprints on Saturday. This is the beginning of everything. I have a little bit of hope now that I‘ll go back with the team in June. I thank the team for the support of my wife and my daughter through the prayers.

I talked with my brother back in Sudan and they thought I didn’t go because I don’t have money. I told them it was not because of money. They said to come there and they’d give me something. I told them there is a system in America so that you travel you must have a document.

I have interest to see my daughter Akur, because since she was born I have not seen her. I have only talked to her on the phone. Sometimes she doesn’t want to talk, but sometimes she wants and I just try to talk to her.  It is not simple for a wife to bring up a child without me there. The only thing is the problem of documents.  My parents are there and my wife. My daughter will be 2 years on March 2.  I now prepare something to send for them to go and celebrate.

My wife doesn’t understand why I can’t go to Africa, even though I tell her the only thing is the document and here in America you need to wait on the document. I even have to pass the phone to Agook and he helps explain it to them.  I sometimes spend $40 a month for the phone bills to her. I told them “I love you” and I take care of them by sending money for them until I can come to visit them.

I really appreciate the prayers and all of my family appreciates it.  God listens to our prayers and now it’s a little bit of the process is moving. Please pray for God to allow my citizenship to come through soon, so that I can go to Sudan in June to reach my people with the Word of God and see my family, especially my wife and my daughter, Akur.  Thank you very much.

When the people gathered for the celebration of my homecoming, we started early in the morning at 5:30. Then the people were coming from many different villages to my home village of Torpuot.  First of all people came and prayed for my coming there and my being there. The people were glad that I was back after a long time.  They killed the bull at that time. Then the people were dancing, dancing, dancing, dancing all day. They were shouting with joy and singing.  We ate the bull later after they had prepared the bull everybody ate it.  I felt really good and the people felt good because I meet with them: my family, brothers, friends, relatives and others.  I feel great and they felt great, too. They received me well and I met them well. That was wonderful.