SUDAN

Tomorrow we fly out of Entebbe, Uganda with MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) to Nimule, Sudan. We will be in Southern Sudan until Sept. 27th traveling around with two Kenyan men, David and Kennedy, who have been living and working in Nimule for the past few years. We are planning to visit 9 different villages within a fairly large area (about 60miles North of Nimule). At each place we are going to be teaching a course offered by MTI (Messiah Theological Institute) called “Foundational Teachings of Faith”. The course is a basic Biblical overview of things like God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Salvation, Church, Christian Living, etc. and will be taught over two days in each place. Also, while visiting we will be helping to collect information about each church (history, leaders, location, needs, etc.) and about other things like travel, culture, accessible roads, expenses, location of establishments (schools, hospitals, petrol stations, etc.), and other useful information for anyone (future missionaries?) going into the area.

I am very excited about our time! I think it will be tough – we will be traveling so much among a people and culture that we are so unfamiliar with (the war has left the south with very little, if not any, infrastructure, and the war-effected, poverty-stricken, regularly-displaced people are a part of a world we from the west have never experienced), as well as, language barriers, primitive living, and other things that will require patience and endurance. But the adventurous side of it excites me! We are going into an area that is very different, we are going to people who live in very different world, it will be hard, but I am so excited to be a part of the Kingdom movement! I pray, and ask you to pray with us, that God will work powerfully through our visits, that we will be able to encourage and edify all that we meet, and that we will see God revealing himself among the people of Sudan!

Please specifically pray for Josh and I – for endurance, compassion, wisdom, mental focus as we teach, patience in dealing with cultural/language barriers, health, safe travel, and that the love of Christ will be present in all that we do, in the unity of us wazungu (white guys), within the unity of the larger group of missionaries (Kenyans and us), and the fellowship we will share with the people of Sudan.

Contact through internet will probably not be available, so thanks for the prayers, I love you all, see ya in a month!

(Josh Shelburne, Chad Wheeler, Joshua Pruitt, Shawn Tyler – Josh has been working on the construction of a clinic, as well as other structures in Nimule. Shawn, along with other missionaries in Uganda, has been overseeing recent work in Nimule.)

In Sudan, in America, in all the earth, we join together and continue with Jesus in his mission as stated in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, because he has anointed us to bring the good news to the poor. He has sent us to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”