Just for One Boy

I have less time to write today (internet usually fails at 6pm Sudan time) because I just had a wonderful conversation with my mother and sister, despite a very choppy skype connection.  I am beginning to have more perspective on some things God is teaching me here, so I will hopefully write soon regarding them.

Today the clinic had less patients, as expected on a Tuesday.  Wound care was half as busy as yesterday.  Since wound-cleaning is typically an every-other-day procedure, I see most patients MWF, not TR.  However, we had many more emergencies today.  With the recent rains, there is an increase of mosquitoes and an increase of malaria.  Many young children are suffering now, particularly of a strain of malaria that also causes pneumonia.  One young girl died yesterday morning, and today we had another six or so in the clinic.  Some of them will likely be staying overnight.  Please pray towards this.

One neat factoid, is that since the clinic first opened (I think 2005), In Deed and Truth has registered over 16000 patients from Tonj and the surrounding area.

I should spend some time to share about Sebit and Suzy.  I have learned their stories piece-wise while here, and I enjoyed a wonderfully long conversation with Sebit after lunch on Sunday.  He became a Christian in the late 1980s during a revival in Khartoum.  Many southern Sudanese people were coming to know the Lord, and he recounted many miracle-testimonies of men he knew who were transformed by Jesus.  Even many Muslim people came to believe Jesus.  One Muslim was hired by the government to spy on the Christians and discover how they were thriving in the slums and city areas.  In a week his life was transformed, believed Jesus, and was thrown into prison by the ones who hired him!  His nephew also came to believe through his conversion.  During this time, Sebit went door-to-door with his brother and others to share the gospel with the Dinka and other southern Sudanese peoples.  Sometime later he had opportunity to escape the war and go to Australia for safety.  However, he needed a little more money to go.  He found a job as a translator in Tonj with Safe Harbor.  When he saw the poverty and famine of his people there, and how white people were leaving their homes to come and help them (and how he and his kinsmen sought only to flee to safety), he was cut to the heart and felt a deep sense of shame.  From that time on he has been committed to the people of south Sudan and particularly Tonj.

Sebit and Suzy have shared a couple of unbelievable stories of how the Lord has been faithful here.  One story, which brought tears to my eyes, happened about 5 years ago.  Sebit and Suzy just returned to Tonj from Kenya after a short retreat.  Upon arrival, they found themselves in the middle of a meningitis outbreak.  None of them were vaccinated--it had never been a problem in the region.  Their newborn son Jedidiah was too young for the vaccine, and neither was Hannah immunized.  All their friends in the States and around the world were telling Sebit, "Get your family out of there!"  He told Suzy he would respect whatever she decided for the kids, and whether they would leave.  But, as Suzy tells the story, she looked at their faces--the Sudanese--and she told Sebit "If we leave now, I could never come back and look these people in the eye; I cannot abandon them."  So they stayed.  None of them got sick.  They had patients strung up with IVs hanging from trees, and God preserved their lives.

There is a little line from John Piper that I always remember...I know not where it comes from or the context.  All he said was "...and if I perish, I perish!"  How important it is to pick up our crosses daily, and to follow Him, at whatever the cost.  He is faithful, even in death.

Today, while leaving the clinic for lunch, I met a boy named Paul who speaks English.  He must have been about 9.  I told him, "that is a good name!  Do you know the story of the man you are named after?"  He told me, shyly but with a grin, what he knew about Paul of Tarsus from the Bible.  And I shared his conversion story with him.  I loved him so much, and asked to pray for him.  I prayed many things--powerful, humble things--for this boy and his life; that God might grow him up to be a man who loves Him.  A man like Paul, who suffered for the gospel, for the love and glory of Jesus Christ.  The whole day was worth it, just for this one boy.