Under the African Rain: June 2011

29 June 2011

Baptisms in South Sudan

Let me direct your attention to an article about the recent baptism of G. believers in our village in Sudan. There's a little slideshow of pictures there as well. God is building His church!

14 June 2011

One of the most rewarding and enjoyable things we do while at home in the USA is to travel and report about the Lord's work in Sudan. We have that joy in the upcoming weekend at Faith Bible Church. In preparation for our presentation there, we're going to add parts of our testimony below.
Nate:
I was born and raised in western NY as part of a Christian family. I knew about the Lord at an early age as a result of good Sunday School teachers and godly parents. When I was 5 years old, I decided to follow Jesus with the limited understanding I had of what that meant. As I grew older, I also grew in the knowledge of my salvation. My first exposure to missions work was in our church youth group under the leadership of a great youth pastor. We went to Mexico to build houses for poor families and I felt the first tug at my heart toward international ministry.

I got my first job when I was around 12 years old as the batboy for the Expos baseball club, a minor league affiliate of the old Montreal Expos. There were also odd jobs as a landscaper and house painter through which I was able to save enough money to pay for college. After graduating high school with the desire to be a pastor, I went to M.B.I. for 4 years. It was during that time that I worked in a Sudanese refugee camp in Ethiopia and felt a final and indelible call to missions.
In 2003, I joined SIM USA as a single missionary and raised support to serve in Sudan. Three years later, I arrived in Africa and my life would be forever changed.
Amy:
I was born in Western Canada, in a small town with a big Bible College. My dad was on staff there and then became a student at the Bible College, as my parents sensed God calling them into cross-cultural mission work. When I was 3 years old, they joined a Canadian mission organization that ministers to First Nations and Inuit people across northern Canada. At age 7, my parents moved our family to a small Inuit village in the Arctic and by age 10 I was speaking 3 languages pretty well--English at home, French at primary school, and Inuktitut with all my friends. I learned how to enjoy playing outside at -40 C and how to throat sing with elderly Inuit ladies. Through my 9 years in this village and during my travels throughout the North with my parents, the Lord gave me a love for cross-cultural ministry.

When I was 12 years old, I began to learn about Africa and was completely intrigued by all things African. During my teen years, I became very interested in health care and wanted to become a nurse. I'll fast forward a bit now to age 20. I applied for a children's nursing program in London, England and was accepted in the fall of 2000. During my nursing studies, I went on 2 short-term mission trips to Sierra Leone, West Africa to work with orphans. It was there that my love for Africa and African people was cemented and the Lord imprinted war-torn areas on my heart.

By 2006, I was finished all the extra training I wanted to do in London and had 2 and a half years of experience under my belt as a registered children's nurse in an emergency department. I couldn't wait to get back to Africa! I returned to Canada for a while and applied to go to Sudan with SIM Canada as a long-term missionary nurse. The Lord provided my financial support through many wonderful people and I arrived in Africa on July 1st 2007, almost 4 years ago now. The Lord has made many surprising changes in my life since then!