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.

In the first two months of the team in Mundri, 108 people have given their hearts to the Lord, 48 have been healed and 32 have been freed from demonic oppression. The people are hungry for God-they need Bibles in English and Mori. They also need us to come with all the necessary resources (including the Jesus film crusade team) to impact the area for God. This area is known internationally as a place of heavy witchcraft; people from other places come there to learn. It is also an area destroyed by alcoholism. We have an open door to bring them something they have never known, the love and power of God that transforms and brings joy!

The man was a very heavy drinker. One day he was walking by and they noticed that he was vomiting blood so they witnessed to him and told him he needed to surrender his life to Christ. Usually he was very drunk but that day he was sober because he was too sick to drink, which made him more open to listen.

When they ministered to him he surrendered to Christ right there and then. Started coming to church and coming to receive teaching.

His uncles were very involved with demonic practices and they raised him the same way, dedicating him to serve the demons, which is a common practice out here. Although he had heard them preach in the school he did not give his heart to the Lord.

One day he was walking down the road and fell into some kind of demonic trance. He woke up lying in the buses not knowing how he got there. This had never happened before and it frightened him. He decided to go to the hospital but they told him that there was nothing could do. Then he remembered hearing Jonathan preach the Gospel at his school so he came to them for help.

Jonathan shared that the answer to defeat the demonic forces at work in his life was to surrender his life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He led him in a prayer of repentance and surrender. Then Jonathan and Patrick prayed for him to be free from the demonic. They told them he needed to live his life in obedience to the Word of God if he wanted to stay free and asked him if he was willing to start coming for training. From that time he has been a dedicated disciple.

William one of the students was very sick with malaria, so he came forward. After Patrick had prayed for William he asked him if he felt better and he said, “Yes,” then he paused and said, he felt completely better. Patrick then asked him if he had raised his hand when he made the call for those who wanted to get saved, William lowered his head and sheepishly said no; then Patrick asked him “are you ready to give your life to Jesus now” and he replied, “Yes”. He prayed to surrender his life to Christ there in front of all the other students.

They invited him to Sunday service, he came and asked for prayer for sister who had severe pain maybe appendicitis prayed and she was healed also.

His sister a Spirit Filled believer was very concerned about him and asked Jonathan and Patrick if they could minister to him. They went to his house and found him drunk, they talked to him about receiving Christ but he said he wasn’t ready and asked them to come back the next day.

When they arrived at his house that next day he insisted that he was already born again and therefore couldn’t give his life to God again. They responded by opening their Bibles and showing him what it said about salvation and being born again. When he saw the Word of God for himself, the Holy Spirit started speaking to him and he began to realize he was not really saved. But he still had some confusion in his mind about baptism because he was baptized as an infant. So they taught him about the real purpose of water baptism.

Finally he was ready, he prayed and asked Jesus to forgive him and grant him salvation. A flood of joy began to roll over him. He instinctively knew in his heart that there was more, and he knew he wanted it. He asked them to please come back next day. They returned and brought him a Bible.

From that day he began studying very seriously because he was educated. The word began working on his life so powerfully he was delivered from his alcoholism. Within a few Sundays he brought his niece to church and she got saved.

Now he meets with Patrick or Jonathan almost every day for training.

After the signing of the peace he decided return and finish his schooling, so at 25 he is in P8. Jonathan and Patrick went to his school to do an assembly. Patrick preached, but Noah was not interested in Christianity because he grew up in church, the son of an Anglican pastor who was consulting witchdoctors, at the same time he was pastoring. He observed his father’s false life and knew he didn’t want to be Christian.

As Patrick continued preaching the Holy Spirit began seriously working on him and he fell under heavy conviction. He realized that he was not hearing the real Word of God when he was growing up in Church. He knew that he had to do something, and when Patrick gave people the opportunity to respond to the Gospel he was relieved and immediately came forward to pray to receive Christ as his Lord and Savior. That week he started taking our new believers course “Getting Started With Jesus”. Later he testified that he had been confused about the need to be born again because he had been water baptism as a baby; but the study showed him what the Bible really said about these things.

Now Noah is very hungry for the Word, he is the first person to show up on Sunday. He confesses “I want to know everything I can from Bible; I feel like I am behind and need to catch up.”

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.

Stephen Thompson, senior pastor for the Victory Foursquare Gospel Church in Marysville, Washington, wasn’t sure what to expect when he agreed to join a small delegation from his church to go into Southern Sudan. Now, when he reflects back he says, “I could never have imagined the outcome.”

Thompson, 53 at the time, had never before been on a mission’s trip and didn’t feel he had much to offer the church leaders and members struggling to survive in a country devastated by war and famine. But after some convincing, he decided to make the journey.

“I ultimately decided to go as a learning experience to see what was there,” Thompson admits. “I was surprised when I discovered that I had something to give to these people.

The three-week trip, coordinated by Louise Short, Who works with the African Children’s Choir, was put together in an effort to educate pastors about the situation in Southern Sudan. At the same time, the goal was to offer support and ministry to the church leaders who have struggled to keep their congregations together amid unimaginable personal suffering and loss.

“We wanted to get pastors to go out and encourage the persecuted church,” explains Louise Short. “They’ve gone through so much and we wanted to strengthen their faith and hope by sharing the Father’s love.”

Pastor Stephen later related to his congregation his uncertainty about being in Africa. “As I was laying on my bed the day we arrived at the guest house in Kampala wondering “now that I have come half way around the world what am I going to say to these people, I felt the lord say, ‘give them what I have given you.’ Later when I went down stairs to join the other team members I announced, “I believe the Lord is telling me that we simply need to give out the Father’s love every where we go.” To my amazement they unanimously and enthusiastically confirmed that they were hearing the same thing.”

He later confided, “You can see why I was so surprised when the lord said, ‘give them what I have given you.’ I wasn’t sure I still had it! But every where we went as we preached the Fathers Love and soaked the people in prayer God soverignly touched lives. It was a testimony to us of both His great love and His mercy.”

The Sudan was a big challenge, we didn’t know what we would find when we arrived in this war and famine stricken land. As we drove in over roads that would scarcely be considered trails here, we saw the evidence of over twenty years of war. Abandoned and rubble strewn buildings, the twisted remains of motor vehicles destroyed by land mines and the haunting absence of the teeming life that is normally seen along African road sides. Not only did we find a scared landscape, the people shown on their faces the agony of war.

For more than twenty years the Khartoum government had waged a deliberate reign of terror and persecution against the non-Muslim inhabitants of the south. Numerous accounts have been documented of entire congregations being burned alive inside their churches, of crucifixions of pastors, of entire villages being destroyed, with the residents being dispersed or murdered because they refused to be Muslimized.

Could the message of the Father’s love penetrate such pain, could it heal these broken bones? We told our stories of restoration and healing. Team members preached on the Father’s love—that it was real, that it could restore peace and joy no matter what the circumstances.

We called those who wanted prayer forward not knowing what to expect! Standing before us were soldiers whose minds were scared with the visions of war, parents who had lost three and four children to war and famine, community leaders burdened down with their responsibilities and pastors who hadn’t had a rest for over twenty years.

The only thing we knew to do was begin to pray, “Father pour your love out on these people and heal these great wounds.” As we soaked people in prayer, a wonderful thing began to happen. God poured Himself into these lives and began healing wounded hearts and restoring hope and joy into their lives.

Reports came back from the Sudan after our visit there that God is continuing to move in a fresh way among the people there. It seems that in the midst of this most difficult of situations people are being renewed in the joy of the Lord, that the inconsolable hurts are beginning to heal.

During their stay, the team from Victory Foursquare Gospel Church visited with the church leaders and congregations and got to know them and learn about the intense suffering they have experienced. Besides teaching, the visiting pastors spent their time ministering to the church leaders through prayer and sharing testimonies of Gods love.

On the international day of prayer for the persecuted, the team ministered to a group of Christian leaders in a displaced persons’ camp for the Dinka tribe. The war had driven these people out of their homes, and over 20,000 lived in the camp. That same afternoon, “As we explained to them that this was the international day of prayer for the persecuted, and that this year churches around the world were focusing their prayers on the church in Southern Sudan, they began to weep tears of joy, realizing for the first time that they were not alone in their struggle,” said short.

Because of the isolation of these war-torn people, they were not aware that the rest of the world knew of their plight. The simple knowledge that others were aware and cared, and were praying for them, brought great relief. They explained to the team that this was the first joint meeting of the church since 1985, and that although there have been international aide workers in the area, that this was the first time any foreigners had been in the area for over twenty years, with the express purpose of ministering to the churches.

Pastor Stephen says, “Going to Sudan has made me and our church renew our appreciation for the Father’s river of love. We are committed to soak people in His presence every time we gather. His love will never fail, whether in Africa or Marysville Washington.

“When I think about the experience, I think about an 18-year-old soldier who was standing in line just wanting to be touched by the Father’s love,” says Thompson. “Just last night I found myself praying for Felix, the 19-year-old soldier who was assigned to be a guard for us. I gave him my Gospel of Mark.”

“I had to go to Southern Sudan to understand these people’s needs and understand that I could give something to them,” says Thompson. “Sometimes, seeing is everything. These people were dry and exhausted and we gave them hope. What we learned is that, more than teaching, these people needed to be loved. We didn’t know the language, the culture or the customs, but love was something we could still give away.

The anxious imploring eyes of a young Sudanese mother look at me and we both look down at the listless four-week-old infant in her arms. Since I don’t speak the tribal language, the mother tells me through an interpreter, that her son hasn’t nursed from her for about 24 hrs and he is becoming weaker. When I examine him he has a fever, cough and when I listen to his lungs it sounds like pneumonia.

We took the baby over to the Dr (an American Dr on the team) he agreed, and instructed us to give the child some oral antibiotics, (we had no IV’s for babies) however, some of our medications hadn’t come on the plane with us and they wouldn’t be there until late the next day. Of course it was our liquid antibiotics for infants and children, all we had was adult antibiotic in pill form.

Dr said to improvise from what we had, it was the only chance the child had, he was very ill. So we figured out about how much the baby weighed and how many mgs he was to get. Then with my pocketknife I “shaved off” what I hoped was the appropriate amount of mgs from the 500mg pill, & mixed it with 10cc of water. A syringe would have been ideal to feed it to the baby but they were on the plane! So we cut off a finger of a rubber glove and poked a very small hole in it. We poured the medicine in that way, a little at a time and the baby kind of licked at it but finally got it down!

Boy was I praying all the time. We had the mother bring the baby back in the afternoon and we did it again. She was to come back the next day as well. When she came back in the morning she said the baby had nursed a little and she thought he was a little better. So we did it again, by the afternoon the fever had broken, and the babe was nursing better. Praise God!! Even after our antibx elixir came Dr said to keep on doing what we were doing since it was working, so we made up our own “elixir”.

By the end of the week he was nursing great again. We were able to pray with this young woman every day. This is just one example of the many lives young and old that are touched by the medicines and supplies we bring over there.

The people were so very friendly, loving and so grateful!! I was so blessed time and again by love and the humble spirits of these people. I worked with the bare necessities, you just pray a lot and ask God for guidance, wisdom and healing. It would be so wonderful for these people to have a clinic with a lab and a hospital. The need is so great there.

When I came back the second year some people had left but a lot of people had stayed, and there were plants being planted, trade schools (carpentry, masonry, tailoring) college for teacher’s…people were making a home. They were planning on staying and they need a medical facility that can aid them in there survival.

We are not talking a clinic or hospital by US standards. This is basic health care with preventive medicine being taught by their own people. As it is now, the nearest hospital is 2-3 hrs away if you have a vehicle, (which they only have 2 available to the village, if they are running) and days if you walk. And it can be a very dangerous trek.

Malaria is as common as a cold here in the States. There is typhoid, river blindness, and sleeping sickness, just to name a few. (Those are common names instead of long hard to pronounce names). Sleeping sickness is so prevalent there that a hospital is dedicated to it. But again that is hours away by vehicle.

This last year when I was there, I was in the clinic with the medical assistant (which is like a nurse/physicians assistant in the US) and we were asked to come to a toucle (hut) where a young man who had sleeping sickness was very sick and unable to come to us and needed medical attention. This 24 yr old man had been discharged from the hospital a week or so before and he had been having diarrhea and unable to keep any food down since.

When I went into the toucle his eyes were glassy, he was mumbling, extremely weak and severely dehydrated. I got a 60/palp blood pressure (very bad BP). We had to get him to the clinic and get some IV fluids in him fast. They carried him to the clinic by putting him in this wooden chair and putting that on a bicycle!! After several tries we got an IV in him and were able to start giving him some IV fluids, his BP was coming up but we needed to get him back to the sleeping sickness hospital. We had to wait for the vehicle to come back in the afternoon and then we were able to transport this man and his wife, baby, and mother to the hospital (family always comes with to take care of him at the hospital). As I sat on the floor in the back with this semi conscious man watching the IV fluids drip, trying not to bounce onto the man and to keep his head from bouncing on the metal wheel well and floor, I thanked God for allowing me to take care of one of his children.

About 1 hr into the ride the man needed to go to the bathroom (more diarrhea) as they were helping him and putting him back in the vehicle he had a seizure, I didn’t think he was going to make it, but he did. On our way out of Sudan a few days later I found out he was much better and able to eat, Praise God!!

Had we not brought the IV fluids he might not have made it. The supplies that we bring over are so very important and much needed. There are many diseases that can be diagnosed and treated before they get out of hand, if there is a clinic, lab and a hospital there. Also, there is a lot of preventive medicine/education that can take place.

Working with the Sudanese people in and around the HASS compound was a blessing and a gift from God. To be able to come up along side these people and to learn from them and help them the little that I can is a privilege and an honor. My heart is there and I hope to go there, God willing, every year.

Pam Coberly RN