Safe in Sudan

I’ve made it to the South Sudan. Nimule is the town that FRM is based out of and has been working in since 1999. The compound is much nicer than I expected. It covers about 2 acres of land. There is no grass just dirt but I’m thankful that there are many trees here. It’s very dusty and about 90 degrees. The compound is home to the FRM staff, the Chaplains and everything that is needed to perform the ministry. The compound houses the chaplains’ living quarters, Bible college room, the church, ministry offices, food hall, Sunday school rooms, recording studio and our living quarters. Around the grounds you’ll find many chaplains, security guards, locals fetching water from the well, cooks, and our dog Sally.

For those of you that don’t know, Far Reaching Ministries’ (FRM) primary focus is the Chaplain’s Corp here in the Sudan. Wes Bentley trains up men to be Chaplains in the Southern Sudanese Army know as the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). The men go through a year long program of Bible School, literacy training, and boot camp to prepare them go out to the front lines to minister alongside the SPLA soldiers. Vicky Bentley is the CFO of FRM and runs all the ministries here in Africa. Along with that she runs the Sudan portion of women’s ministry. Monday-Saturday is women’s ministry from 9am-2pm. The women have a literacy school and a tailoring school where they make purses, shawls, jewelry and many more crafts that are then sold in the US at women’s conferences. These next two months we are working alongside Vicky to help her with administration tasks, teaching the women’s Bible studies and learning the ins and outs of missionary life and running a successful ministry. 

I’ve been through so much this past week since I’ve arrived in Uganda, not so much physically but emotionally. I’ve heard horror story after horror story, driven through areas where the LRA slaughtered entire villages, driven through former IDP camps, seen babies sitting in the dirt naked, seen naked handicapped children laying on dirty concrete floors and became friends with a 22 yr old former LRA child soldier. Martin the chaplain that traveled with us shared his life story with me as we sat next to each other on the drive up. His story is no different from all the other stories, fled to an IDP camp to avoid the LRA, lost his mom, disowned by his father when he was a teenager, lived on the streets with his siblings, survived on food thrown out in the trash, no hope, and then he found FRM and became a Chaplain. My mind and my heart our overwhelmed right now. I’m not sure what to think or how to start processing everything. My heart is being broken to the things that break the heart of God. But in light of all the sadness we stayed with 2 different ministries that FRM is partnered with that are doing amazing amazing work in Uganda. There is a little light of hope that is rising through these 2 ministries.

There’s so much I want to share with you about my journey through Uganda but I’ll have to post a little at a time because we only have electricity for 3 hrs a day and I have to ration the charge on my computer; plus we have to walk down the road and stand outside the UN compound to use their internet. I’ll be adding posts about my week as time allows.

Prayer Requests:

Pray that we would process everything we experienced this past week and that God would show us why He took us through those experiences.

Pray that we would get acclimated to life here in Sudan (the busy work schedule, the ministry team, and ministry projects)

Pray that God would start preparing our hearts for the women here in Sudan

Pray the God would equip for the large load of Bible teachings I’ll be doing.