The peace agreement was signed when Simon was just 14 years old. Soon after the fighting stopped people began looking for pleasure, and dance bars began springing up in almost every village of any size. Simon and his friends began drinking and going to bars when he was in his mid teens. There were no regulations to keep teenagers out of such places. They also started stealing and robbing in order to buy beer. At one point, earlier in his life, he had been sponsored for a couple years in a primary school in Kinyiba through the African Children’s Choir. But that seemed so long ago by the time he reached his late teens. Simon was out of control and headed toward the life of a criminal.

About 3 AM one morning, after a night of fighting and drinking, he staggered to his older brother’s home and fell asleep on the bed without even taking his shoes off. His brother who had become a Christian allowed him to stay in his home sometimes. Even though his brother was living for God, Simon had never once gone to church in his whole life. But shortly after falling asleep that morning he began to dream; in the dream something hard slammed into him and he was startled to attention. He heard a voice that began telling him that if he continued to live this way that he was going to die! It seemed so real that he became frightened. The dream suddenly changed and a man was preaching to him from John chapter 3 telling him that he needed to be born again. Then another voice told him to wake up and go read John chapter there. Because he was at his brother’s house he was able to find a Bible and as he began reading he realized that it was the same passage that the man in the dream had been preaching from.
It was Sunday morning, and for the first time in his life Simon got up early and went out to find a church. Safe Harbor had recently planted a church in his village of Limi that was meeting in a primary school. So he came there and Asili, our leader in that area was visiting that church and he choose Simon to interpret for him. As he was interpreting Simon was getting more and more convicted about his life and knew that as soon as he had the opportunity he needed to surrender control to Christ.

Somehow he did not get saved that morning but the next evening our team was having a crusade in the nearby village of Nyaco, still determined to act on the dream, he came there and gave his life to Christ. Since that time he has been living wholeheartedly for God and has felt a call to take the Gospel to others. Simon is now a member of our crusade team and an intern in our Leadership training program. Last Friday evening Simon gave his testimony at a crusade to over 800 people-quiet a change for the once angry, lonely young man whose life was on a collision course with disaster. You could see other young men in the crowd listening with rapt attention as Simon confidently shared. You can help us reach other young men like LeJu
Our goal by the grace and enabling of God, is to plant 1,000 churches and see 500,000 people make decisions for Christ by 2020.

Give now by scrolling to the top of this page, click on give, and then follow the directions.  You can use a visa or master-card credit or debit card. You can also send a check to Hope For The Future, PO Box 755, Anacortes WA 98221 

Our Core Ministries: 1. Church Planting 2. Jesus Film Outreaches  3. School Assemblies 
4. Leadership Development 5. Children’s Ministry  6. Meeting Basic Human Needs
7. HIV/AIDS Awareness 8. Women’s Justice Issues  9. Short Term Teams 10. Clean Water

If you would like a Hope for the Future representative to come to your church, small group or event, or if you would like to explore being on a short term team, contact Louise Short at 360-333-0371.    www.facebook.com/glshort, gsPrayForSudan@gmail.com, www.PrayForSudan.org

Just like family here, Jonathan wasn’t sure that his uncle would listen to him so he encouraged Patrick to be bold if he got the opportunity to talk to anyone in his family about receiving Christ. The first opportunity Patrick had he gave his testimony to the uncle. He shared about how difficult his life was before he was saved, and about the turmoil his heart was in but how when he surrendered his life to Christ, although life was still difficult, he had a new peace and knew that God had a purpose for him. He then asked the uncle if he was saved, he replied, “Yes I am saved”. But Patrick knew that the uncle did not know God so he went through the gospel with him anyway. That first time he talked to the uncle he did not receive Christ. The family had two daughters one 18, and the younger was 14. A few days after Patrick had talked to their father, the girls made dinner for Patrick and he told them he wanted to talk to them later.

After all the dinner activities were over he sat the girls down and presented the Gospel to them and they both received Christ. The following morning he decided to go talk to the father of the girls again (Jonathan’s Uncle) and as he was leaving his house he felt like he should take the bookmark by Karen Grubbs on how to lead a child to Christ, so he stuck it in his pocket and took off.

When he got to the uncle he challenged him, “Are you really born again”? The uncle confessed that he was not, and when Patrick asked him are you ready now he said yes, so they prayed together and the uncle surrendered his life to Christ. Then the lord urged Patrick to ask the man if his wife was saved, he replied that she was not. Then the Lord led him to leave the bookmark and instruct the man to read it with his wife. Later he called for Patrick saying, “We have read the paper you left me, please come now my wife is ready to pray with you. They went and prayed with her to receive Christ, now the whole family is walking with God.

Jonathan and Patrick rented a house near some Moslems and Jonathan noticed that the man was often drunk so he said to himself I am going to have to go talk with him. A few days later he saw the man outside his house so he went over and asked him if he had been born again, his reply was, “I pray to Allah.” Jonathan responded, “Do you know who Jesus is?” The man said he did not, so they asked if they could tell him something about Jesus, and he said, “Yes”.

They gave him the Gospel and told him that Jesus loved him. He demanded, “How can I know that Jesus loves me.” They came back, “If you give your life to him you will know.” He responded, “If I did that it will create big problems problems with m y family.” Jonathan admitted, “That may be true,” then added “You will be judged for what you know and do; your father will be judged for his life. Then he bravely asked, “Can we pray for you that Jesus will forgive you and cleanse you from all your past?” The man was ready and said, “Yes”. Patrick added, “After the salvation prayer we asked are you willing to give all your addictions to Christ?” He said, “Yes”, and God delivered him from alcohol and tobacco addictions.

They gave him some tracts that FMP had provided for us: “Which Way” “Four Steps to Heaven” and “Bridging the Gap, and he read them but came back to Patrick and said, I need a Bible so Patrick gave him his personal Bible.. Patrick asked him to come to church with them and he came, and started discipleship classes, and is continuing to grow.

After doing a School Assembly they were walking down the road and as they passed by a clinic the owner was setting outside and Jonathan felt the Lord prompt him to speak to the woman. He called out to her may I share a few words with you and she said yes. So they went into the clinic and began sharing the gospel with her but she interrupted them and said that she was already born again and as a matter of fact she was a Sunday school teacher.

In his heart Jonathan knew that something was not quite right, he felt that the woman was hiding a big issue that she thought God would never forgive her for. He said to her you may have murdered someone, you may have lied or stolen or you may be an adulterer but you need to know that God loves you and is ready to forgive you for anything. To their surprise she wept and told them, “But, I have done all these things.” They reassured her that God had sent them to her to let her know that He was ready to forgive her. They asked her if she would like to pray to repent and receive Christ and she said she would.

But, just as they began to pray a customer came into the clinic. Immediately God gave Jonathan three Scripture verses to share with the woman. Then they took her through the “Bridging The Gap” tract that FMP had provided and asked her if she was ready to receive Christ she said yes and they led both women in a prayer to surrender to God. The customer was living a distance for where their church meets and did not come, but the shop owner is now a part of the new church plant.

They went to a school and asked to speak with the head master, they were told, “he is not here”. Then they were introduced to a teacher who said he would welcome them but, he didn’t think they could have a school assembly in that particular school because the head master would never allow it. He said he was happy to see them taking the gospel to the people there. Then he asked Patrick if he had accepted Jesus. He went on to inform them that the area was a mix of Christians and Moslems and that there were even some Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists and Anglicans starting churches here. Then he excused himself and sent them away.

Jonathan felt in his hart that the Devil was trying to keep us out of that school. Went back four days later and headmaster accepted them to present the gospel in his school. They came back early the next Monday morning to do the school assembly Patrick presented the gospel and made call for salvation 12 students and one teacher raised their hands and prayed. They also prayed for the sick and 8 people were healed. Patrick said God is going to touch the teacher they first met. They kept going back the teacher is a member of a cult and was trying do discourage them from presenting the gospel in his school.

Relief or Church planting/evangelism, which is most important? Meeting human need and giving people hope and faith for their future and the future of their children may be among the top priorities of missions in undeveloped countries.  If you have a strong emphasis on evangelistic activity you may at first thought take exception to that statement; if you are strongly motivated by humanitarian aid you probably will also especially when I add that I believe that the most effective way to fulfill that goal is through church planting.  Let me tell you 4 short stories that will, I hope, convince both factions.  In undeveloped countries relief and evangelism are you right and left foot, you won’t get far without both.

Bringing healing and stability into the life of a rape victim. One of our churches planted a church in a hapless little village of which the most outstanding feature was that all the men seemed to be drunk, literally, all the time.  This appears to have changed somehow in the last year since the church rose up; the gospel seems to have an effect that goes far beyond even the life transformation of individual believers.  There was a 16 year old mother living in this village, who was isolated, scorned by the people around her, in desperation about the future prospects of her and her baby.  When our church was planted there, she began attending and soon surrendered here life to the Lord.  Her mother had died a few years earlier, her father; a military man had sent her to live with an uncle while he was away serving.  The uncle raped her regularly for months, until she became pregnant, then he kicked her out.  There she was, all alone and desperate, in the village where we happened to plant a church.  The church became her life line of support.

Through her new relationship with the Lord and her new friends in the church this young girl came out of her isolation and began to have hope again.  Soon, through the prayers of her and her church-mates, God did the impossible and provided a way for her to return to school.  Now she is a bright young woman who is looking forward to her future.  There are no social services in the bush; without a compassionate church these stories would not happen.

Confronting the alcoholism scourge. In another village, we have a thriving church, which one of our teams planted.  There, through a partnership with an American church and a Christian NGO we were able to get a borehole (water well) drilled, which instantly lightened the burden of hundreds of women.  Let me tell you just one man’s story that would never have happened if the church had not been planted there.  He was an alcoholic, got drunk every day; his marriage was on the verge of ending. This particular morning, he had been up drinking all night and was on his way home to sleep it off so he could do it all over again the next night.  Because of the church that had been planted there, a ministry team was in that village that morning doing a school assembly.  This man herd music, went to investigate, got saved, started attending the church and was freed from alcohol.  There is no 12 step program in the bush; without a church that demonstrates the power of God; this man would still be a drunk. His wife is happy now!  By the way, he is has become a bold lion for Jesus that, now pastors two churches.

Solving the delinquency problem among young men. There is the young man who by age 24 had already become known as a “town drunk”, one of those fellows who hangs out on the street, begins drinking early in the day, whose only real goal is to drink and party.  He attended a crusade but did not respond to any of the opportunities to surrender his life to Christ.  However a week or two later he could not shake out of his mind how he had felt at the crusade, so he decided to check out the church that we planted during the crusade.  He came to church and that same urge to surrender his life to God that he had felt at the crusade gripped him again during church.  He surrendered his life to Christ right there, was delivered from his alcohol bondage and became a key part of the new church plant.  Later, because he was sober and an upstanding citizen he got the opportunity to go to a teachers college in Uganda and finish his education to be a secondary school teacher.  He just graduated in July and has returned home to teach in a local school and pastor one of our churches.  His life was transformed and he became a productive member of the community because we planted a church.  In the bush there are no social programs reaching out to wayward young men, only a vibrant church can offer them an alternative to their idle lives.

Answering mental health issues. I just wrote about the witchdoctor whose life and family were recently transformed.  (Go to our blog on the webpage to read more).   Here was a man hearing demonic voices urging him to kill his wife.  He was on the verge of a psychotic criminal act, but instead he was set free and his life was transformed.  This happened because our people planted a church in his village.  When he became desperate he went to our church for help.  There are no mental health clinics in the bush.  Church planting is the key to individual, community and country transformation.

Church planting is not just about a place for people to go on Sunday morning it is about life transformations.  It is about community renewal, it is about building nations that have a moral, generous and God fearing culture and foundation.  Biblical church planting is about bringing the Gospel and Kingdom of Jesus Christ to men women and children in a way that gives them new and transformed lives.  The greatest human need in my view is to hear and then respond to the Gospel.    When the gospel comes to a community, which includes redemptive preaching and church planting, it sets in motion a whole range of other effects, such as those in the stories I’ve just told.  The church is God’s means to bring this about; when the biblical church comes into a village it brings with it a wealth of future hope. We would love to hear your thoughts on church planting.

God has challenged us to plant 25 more churches in 18 months.  Frankly this is an impossible goal, but we believe that God had given it to us.  In the last few years we have been privileged to see 23 churches planted and almost 70,000 people make decisions for Christ.   We have teams waiting right now to go into new areas to begin planting churches.   We are looking for partners to help us accomplish this goal.  If you would like to dialog with us about how you can partner with us to win people to Christ and plant churches click on this link and tell us how you can be involved.

A few weeks ago I was preaching in a newly planted church in Southern Sudan, as an illustration of the human condition I picked up a little baby from its mothers arms and began explaining that as cute and innocent as that baby seemed, it was born with a sinful nature. As I was about to hand the baby back to its mother I felt prompted by the Lord to dedicate the baby to Him. It seemed a little strange but I did it, and then moved on with my message. However, later that day I was informed that the baby I had picked for my illustration was the daughter of the recently saved witchdoctor and that at birth the baby had been dedicated to demons. After church, I was introduced to the man and learned that even though he had committed his life to the Lord a few weeks earlier, he was still being troubled by demons. I know that’s disturbing to some peoples theology—I’ll leave it up to you to work that out.

In the prayer line after the service I was about to launch into an attempt to deliver the man. God intervened by using a new believer to say to me, “This is going to take a long time, you might want to do it later.” I took that as a word of wisdom from God and went on to pray for others. Then, as we were leaving the church I invited the man to come to our compound in two days prepared for an extended stay.

He showed up as he had promised, demonstrating to me that he really wanted to get free. There I was having lunch with a witchdoctor (no he didn’t have a bone in his nose). The next night, we sat around in our Payote (large dining hut)with a group of young leaders, in a time of extended worship. With us was this witchdoctor, a man who only weeks ago had been fully steeped in the depths of demon worship. He was still fragile in his new faith, needing lots of love and mentoring and teaching. At this point I was seeing some issues in his life that I have never had to deal with in Anacortes, he has two wives; both of whom have surrendered their hearts to the Lord, he is still struggling with demonic voices and the demons seem to manifest when they are exposed to worship. As I was sitting there, I fully realized my complete dependence on God to make any kind of impact on this situation.

His salvation made such a stir in the community that the village elders visited the church to see if they could determine what our people were teaching that was powerful enough to change this man they all knew. Our leaders assured them that it was the Word of God which was more powerful than a two edged sword, even more powerful than the AK 47s they keep stashed away.

His demons had been asking him to sacrifice animals as acts of worship and loyalty, but after some time they began asking him to take it a step further, they wanted him to sacrifice one of his wives. This frightened him so much that he came to our newly planted church looking for help. There they led him to surrender his life to the Lord. It has taken weeks of teaching, sometimes many hours a day, much worship, a great deal of one on one care and a couple of dramatic deliverance sessions; but he is now walking in freedom. What a great testimony of the love and power of God this man is becoming. It was interesting that even though I have had very little experience in dealing with the demonic on this level, I felt no fear as the Lord led me step by step in taking authority over the demons. There was a whole group of us involved in the process and God was clearly in control. In Sudan the demonic is out in the open. Even the unbelievers are very much aware that there are demonic forces all around that want to do them harm. This kind of demonstration of the power of God over the forces of darkness is a great key to defeating fear and superstition and opening hearts to the gospel message.

God is bringing many people in Sudan into His kingdom!

Our Core Ministries: 1. Church Planting 2. Jesus Film Outreaches 3. School Assemblies 4. Leadership Development 5. Children’s Ministry 6. Meeting Basic Human Needs 7. HIV/AIDS Awareness
8. Women’s Justice Issues 9. Short Term Teams
If you would like a Hope for the Future representative to come to your church, small group or event, contact Louise Short at 360-333-0371.
© 2009 Hope For The Future International. All rights reserved. www.PrayforSudan.org

The other day I telephoned Magnum in Sudan; he was waiting for my call at the Wudu phone booth, an ant hill just outside our compound entrance, where you can get cell reception. During our conversation he shared a great testimony.  He was driving through the village where he recently helped plant a church. Suddenly some people ran out to the road waving him down shouting we want you to come tell us how to be born again. He pulled the land cruiser off the road and went inside the compound where a group of fifteen people quickly gathered.  Momo Manasseh who was traveling with Magnum gave his testimony and Moses, a young man from that village who had just gotten saved the week before, gave his testimony.  Then Magnum gave them the Gospel.  All 15 people surrendered their lives to Christ.  They rejoiced with them for a bit then traveled on to their destination.

Moslem Soldier’s Testimony

Safe Harbor Churches has a man, raised a Moslem, who is about to go plant churches in the western side of Southern Sudan. He has a wonderful testimony of how far God can reach to save. When he was young he joined the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army), and one day was marching down the center of Wudu and heard a street preacher proclaim, “God wants to give you eternal life.” Get this straight; he wasn’t at the crusade he was marching by in a platoon of soldiers. But, these few words that he heard as he was striding by stuck in his mind and he was no longer satisfied being a Moslem.  Years went by and he had become a high ranking officer, but his life was missing something. One night he had a dream that there was a large tree in front of his house, the tree was full of fruit, but all the fruit was falling off onto the ground being wasted. In the dream he knew that the tree represented his life, it had become fruitless, and he knew that he was squandering his life. God then spoke to him in the dream and asked, “Are you  a Moslem or a Christian?” He had this same dream on two different occasions. It was very disturbing to him.

Then, one day he found himself back in the same village. And as only God can arrange events, the same preacher was there preaching the same message, “God wants to give you eternal life.” He wanted to respond but being an important officer he was embarrassed to admit his spiritual want. But like Nicodemus, that night he sought the preacher out and told him that he indeed wanted this eternal life. About 2:00 AM after the lowly preacher had taught the important soldier the Gospel, he surrendered his life to Christ. At that hour they invited a group of believers over to celebrate this Moslem soldiers entrance into the kingdom of God; they worshiped till daybreak.

This man is now preparing to become a Hope For The Future church planter. Praise our amazing God!

God bless
Gary
www.PrayForSudan.org
gsPrayForSudan@gmail.com

Our Core Ministries: 1. Church Planting 2. Jesus Film Outreaches 3. School Assemblies
4. Leadership Development 5. Children’s Ministry 6. Meeting Basic Human Needs
7. HIV/AIDS Awareness 8. Women’s Justice Issues 9. Short Term Teams

How you can give: on the webpage you can give by visa or mastercard credit card or debit card or you can send a check to PO Box 452 Anacortes WA 98221

© 2009 Safe Harbor Churches. All rights reserved. www.PrayforSudan.org

Our young Sudanese leaders there are doing very well. I spent quite a bit of time with them planning the next three major pushes for the crusade/church planting teams into Eastern Equatoria state to encourage five churches we planted last year and begin several more, and another church planting team going to Mundri and Maridi in Western Equatoria state and a third team to Juba, Terekaka and Bor in Central Equatoria State. Ronald our missionary from Uganda is a big asset.

The Hope for the Future School of Ministry expanded to advanced ministry development classes for our leaders. Now, the first Sudanese leaders that we trained are teaching the basic discipleship courses to the newer disciples. The maturity of the leaders was shown in their ability to teach the material themselves. In the evening meetings we saw the Lord move in wonderful ways, dancing and worshipping into the night as village people and new converts were touched by the Holy Spirit in life-changing ways.

God healed many people; Oliver a potential leader from our newest church plant had his shoulder healed one evening as I laid hands on him at the Intensive. Another young man got saved and went home to find his children sick with fevers, so following what he had seen at the meetings he laid hands on them and prayed and they were healed. One lady deaf in one ear was healed. About 50 people experienced healing at a one evening crusade in a village. The presence of the Lord to heal was there.

We did a Jesus film crusade in the marketplace of the town of one of our churches, in Jalimo. There were perhaps 1000 people there and possibly 500 came to the Lord that night. The celebration was so joyous over these people and what God had done. I t was a joy to see my son right in there with the other young Sudanese leaders dancing in praise to the Savoir.

We saw the three boreholes (wells) provided by Radiant Church, each near schools in growing communities. These will dramatically relieve the labor of many women and children who otherwise might have to travel miles to obtain water. They are so thankful! We also fed many extra village people at our events that were experiencing hunger because of the drought. Amazingly it rained the first day I arrived and then later the first day the rest of the team arrived. All the people in the area were rejoicing!

Amanda the nurse on her second team with us and Denise the trauma counselor visited the Kajo Keji hospital each day helping and praying for the sick with a number healed. They held clinics also in a number of villages helping hundreds of patients. Two orphanages also received some loving care by the team.

A special thank you; to all on my prayer team and to those that gave to this ministry trip. The Lord certainly showed up!

Louise
www.PrayForSudan.org
360-333-0371

Our Core Ministries:

1. Church Planting
2. Jesus Film Outreaches
3. School Assemblies
4. Leadership Development
5. Children’s Ministry
6. Meeting Basic Human Needs
7. HIV/AIDS Awareness
8. Women’s Justice Issues
9. Short Term Teams

Mark Warkentin, who has spent ten months each year in Southern Sudan and Uganda since 2004, is back home for a much deserved extended break. Mark has been very busy training leaders and planting churches for the past five years. God has used him powerfully. Please pray for Mark while he is at home that God will refresh and strengthen him.

Right now Louise Short is in Southern Sudan working with the Hope For The Future Leaders. As of May 1, 2009 Louise has left her twenty-one year job with the African Children’s Choir to devote herself fulltime to the work of Hope For The Future. Pray for Louise as she makes this bold step of faith.

Karen Grubbs, who has been ministering to children and trained children’s workers in Southern Sudan for several years now, is going to be spending most of her summer in Southern Sudan. In addition to her children’s ministry she will be working on justice issues for the women of Southern Sudan. Pray that God will meet all of Karen’s needs in this undertaking.

If you would like to participate in the Hope For The Future ministry you can be on a team; just go to the webpage link above and click on ‘Contact Us’ then click on ‘International Teams’.

If you would like to make a financial gift to Hope For The Future, scroll to the top of the page and click on ‘Give’ to make a credit card donation; or you can mail a check to PO Box 452 Anacortes WA 98221. www.PrayForSudan.org

Our Core Ministries:

1. Church Planting.
2. Jesus Film Outreaches.
3. School Assemblies.
4. Leadership Development.
5. Children’s Ministry.
6. Meeting Basic Human Needs.
7. HIV/AIDS Awareness.
8. Women’s Justice Issues.
9. Short Term Teams.

Thanks to a group of school children in Alaska and a nurse in Washington State, plus several of you, we have been able to serve thousands of meals, give out reading glasses, medicines and clothing to children and their mothers in desperate need. Because these Alaskan kids got a vision to help, we were able to do more than we otherwise could have, but this is only scratching the surface of the need among the children of Southern Sudan. By the way we are hoping to partner with two other NGO’s in 2009 to help distribute 300,000 meals.

We are also thankful that we have been able to plant churches that impact the community. Not only do these churches become a center for the Gospel in a dark place, they teach on women’s equality, HIV/AIDS prevention, and preventing water borne diseases, plus they also become gathering points for the community in times of special need. God willing in January we will be planting at least five churches in a new area that is just beginning to have refugees return.

Back in 2006, on a Sunday morning, as Mark Warkentin was preaching in our church in the village of Liwolo, a young man interrupted him and said I would like to get saved after the service. Mark responded “Let’s not wait, why don’t you receive Jesus now?”. He led the young man to the Lord then and there! That was Mansuk, at the time, a student at Bright Star Academy, a Secondary School built and supported by The African Children’s Choir. Mansuk quickly became a deeply committed follower of Jesus Christ. He began attending our intensives and children’s ministry workshops and has become a very strong believer. He has attended all 6 of the intensives that we offer as well as 5 children’s ministry workshops.

Last year a team of Doctors and Nurses came to our area for a few weeks and we asked Mansuk if he would be willing to interpret for the team. One of the Doctors showed his appreciation to Mansuk by sponsoring him in a leadership development course at a Ugandan business college.

This year Mansuk had an almost four month long school break that started in the middle of April. His assignment while on break was to do volunteer field work for an NGO in his chosen area of social work. He started the break by attending a Leadership Intensive and then a Children’s ministry workshop, both, events that we put on in Wudu. When he discovered that we were registered with the Southern Sudanese government as an NGO as well as a Church he became very excited because he realized that he could spend his break volunteering for us. He has spent the last four months ministering to children.

Mansuk and James, his partner in children’s work, have ministered to the children in many ways during this time including doing a Bible club at an orphanage, doing school assemblies at primary schools, conducting a children’s weekday Bible class near our compound, doing Sunday school, and a children’s crusade. In all over 2,000 children prayed to receive Christ between the middle of April and the end of August through the efforts of two young men—All I can say is great work Manzuk and James, and great work Mark and Karen for training these young men to see the value of Children as well as how to reach out to them. Not only did all these children pray to receive Christ but many of them also were discipled and strengthened by the Holy Spirit in other ways. Many also received medical treatment, clothing and food.

Earlier his year a team of school teachers visited our ministry in Southern Sudan. One of them Robyn Loucks, who attends The Fathers House Foursquare Church in Granite Falls Washington met Mansuk and wrote this about him. “Mansuk (Man-zook), 21, is currently the children’s pastor for the surrounding churches planted by Mark and his team. Mansuk’s love, tenderness, and compassion toward children was so immediately obvious it seemed a “given” that God would use him to reach little ones! And the children left no doubt that they loved Mansuk in return. We couldn’t walk anywhere in Wudu without hearing little voices yelling “Mansuk! Mansuk! Mansuk!” as we passed by. I know God is using and will continue to use Mansuk mightily.” We have several young men and women in our leadership mentoring program, who like Mansuk, are eager to impact Southern Sudan with the Gospel of Jesus.

We want to invite you to join with us in training young men and women to reach the people of Southern Sudan. You can go to the top of this page and click to give your tax-deductible gifts by Visa or MasterCard or you can send your offering to Safe Harbor PO Box 452, Anacortes WA 98221. If you are interested in going on a short term ministry team to Southern Sudan please call Louise Short at 360-333-0371. To be on our prayer support team click on the link to sign up. Thank you for your gifts for Sudan!

Other news from 2008

Mark Warkentin is going to be returning to Southern Sudan next month after a much deserved 5 month break. Mark has been living in Sudan for 5 years now. He still managed to help plant 6 churches and teach a few intensives in 2008 and is anxious to get back to plant another 5 in February.

Louise Short took a team of powerful women leaders form the US and Uganda and put on a Women’s Conference with some huge breakthroughs in many women. The need to develop women in every way is so great. She also held a retreat with our major leaders concentrating on local church development and ministering to individual pastors.

Karen Grubbs did two children’s ministry workshops the second was a milestone for us because two of the young men we have been training took over a portion of the teaching. She also developed major children’s worker resource handout.

Ronald Kasenge from Kampala Uganda has joined our missionary staff in Wudu. He mentors young men, teaches, leads worship and trains musicians. He has been a great addition to our team. Ronald is one of those people that, once they are on the team, you wander how you got along without them.

The ministry to the military has been blessed; in 2008 we had around 5,000 soldiers make decisions for Christ as well as passing out thousands of pieces of HIV prevention literature to soldiers.

Magnum Swiggart just returned from two months in Sudan where he helped with a couple of conferences and taught in a leadership development intensive. Magnum is planning to return there in early march to develop our football (soccer) ministry there and put on a couple football camps. We believe we will reach many young men with this ministry.

This year I was able to expand our pastors’ training to a new location where we have one church but need about 4 more, we were fishing for church planters. Working with our staff out there and coaching and training these young leaders to run with a vision is exciting and it is marvelous to see what the Lord is doing in their ministries.

Our core of leaders had greatly matured over this past year. Most of our pastors and leaders are relatively new Christians but have made big commitments to follow Christ and have grown rapidly. It is encouraging to watch as they grow into mature leaders, with a solid foundation in the Word.

It’s still children, children, children. In 2008 more than any previous year, everything we have done whether it’s a pastor’s conference, a women’s event, an intensive or anything else the children come and keep coming till they outnumber those for whom the event was designed. The great thing is they are responding to the Gospel.

THANK YOU We want to thank all our donors and NGO partners who have helped us minister to the people of Southern Sudan in 2008!

Doing The Things That Work; our main ministry activities are:

Church Planting—We have two approaches to church planting—using the Jesus Film and sending out church planters who use a completely non technological approach though finding key people in the village who will be the foundation of the plant.

Leadership Development—Intensives, conferences, workshops, ministry institutes and mentoring. Over 600 young adults have participated in our training in the last few years.

Jesus Film Outreaches—These have proven to be an extremely effective means of bringing people to Christ.

School Assemblies—We have reached thousands of secondary and primary students through assemblies.

Short Term Teams—Medical; educational, building, there is almost no medical, vision or dental services available in Southern Sudan nor any kind of training—EMT, educational techniques, building skills, music, and any kind of practical skill will be extremely helpful.

HIV/AIDS Awareness—The AIDS problem is growing rapidly due to returning refugees. We have distributed over 20,000 aids awareness brochures, do community AIDS awareness workshops, and teach secondary students and the military about AIDS prevention.

Meeting Basic Needs—Food; clothing; medicine are in short supply to many in this country. We give away eye glasses, clothes and medicine and do wellness clinics.

Children’s Ministry Development—50% of all Southern Sudanese are under twenty five and those who are children now are the ones who are going determine what kind of nation Southern Sudan will become. We train children’s workers, give them Children’s Ministry Bibles from CEF, and work with kids.

Recently I was musing about some of the things that would never have happened with individuals who have gone on our teams if I would have taken that advice.

There was the time when one of our teams found a displaced persons camp with about 15,000 thousand Dinka people in crisis because their USAID food deliveries had been held up for three months. The elderly and the babies were in danger of dying of starvation. Our team pooled the money we were saving to spend in London on our way home and bought a truck of load of food that held the camp over until relief shipments resumed. Our team possibly saved hundreds of lives.

Pam, my favorite nurse, who works in a hospital in Bellingham WA, has been on several of our teams. On one occasion she saved the life of an infant baby boy who would never have survived the week if she had not come along. On another team she saved a man by driving him 40 kilometers in the night to the hospital. On the way she stood over him in the bouncing land cruiser administering an IV that rehydrated him and saved his life. Tell those families that short term teams are of no value.

Karen our children’s pastor insists on going on every team that we take to Sudan. She has won thousands of Sudanese children to the Lord. Some of those she led to the lord when they were in primary school are now young leaders in our ministry.

Ryan a youth pastor that went on one of our recent teams was praying for the sick in a crusade meeting. A blind man approached the prayer team and asked them to pray. When they looked at him his eye was turned so far that you could only see a little corner of his pupil and his whole eye was clouded over. As they prayed, they watched the eye turn back to the center and the cloudy film left, the eye began tracking with the good eye and the man could see perfectly.

Stephen a senior pastor who had never been on a mission’s trip and couldn’t imagine what he would do on such an excursion; finally relented to my persuasion to come to Sudan with us. The same great prophetic gifts that he displayed at home came out in Sudan and he powerfully impacted many Sudanese. Sense that trip Steve has been to Africa several times and is now also doing crusades in India as well. His church has dramatically increased its commitment to world missions as a result of that first short term trip.

Then there is Mark the owner of a custom home building business who decided to go on a team to Sudan. Mark had been on a team to Peru years earlier when he was in his late teens but had never done anything more on any mission field. Once Mark returned from Sudan he just could not settle back into the routine. When he had been in Sudan he kept getting the strange sensation that this was really his home. Now back at home, home wasn’t home any more—a year later he had sold everything and was back in Sudan living full time as a missionary. He is now going on his fifth year in Southern Sudan.In the last two years God has broken out there with 35,000 people making decisions for Christ in village crusades and school assemblies, 12 churches have been planted, and hundreds of young men and women are emerging as kingdom leaders.

What do you think? Was it worthwhile for these people to have gone on teams? I think so. We live in a global age when people go around the world for vacations. What a great opportunity waits for the person who is willing to take on the adventure. They can see firsthand the kind great things happen through short term international mission’s teams that were once reserved only for those who could commit years to being on the mission field.

Gary Short
www.PrayForSudan.org