Saturday, April 30, 2011

First and Second day in Sudan

Hi everyone, We made it to Sudan two day ago and hit the ground running! Our first we went to a village called Lakamadi. It was at lest 30kilometer away. This village was a herding village with many cows, goats and chickens. We got to the village and spent the day there ministering God's love in many ways. We started off by deworming the cows along with ticks sprays and anitbiotic injections to regain the health of the cattle. So many of these animals have deseases that are easily treatable in the states. Here they cannot treat them and so the animals gets sick and sometimes sickness is transferred from the animals to the people. We take so much for granted back home. We saw 30 cows total! We taught cattle education and training to teach about the diseases and how to prevent them. They were taught symptoms and care. We spent a lot of time getting to know these people and we were so loved for coming to their village. We shared Christ with them and about 15 or more people gave their hearts to Christ! Even though we came to bless them, they in turn, have blessed us. They are so wonderfully kind and loving.

On the way there and back, we saw the rocks along the side of the road that were painted red and white. When we asked the driver about the rocks, he explained that they were to notify people walking in the bussh that there were landmines by the rocks.

The people here have been through so much and their live after the war is still suffering. While we were healing the cattle, we investigated a big gathering further down. It was a building that held several UN humanitarian relief bags. When we spoke to the chief officer there, they told us that this was not food, but only seeds. These people are starving and have no food! The only thing they have was hope. Hope in Christ and hope that the rain will come soon. See, the seeds will produce food, but with no rain there is no food. If that wasn't heartbreaking enough, they only had enough seeds for 400 people and there were thousands there that needed the hope of food as well. A sacrifice of a cup of coffee could mean food, health and life for a family in Southern Sudan. Could not a meal be sacrificed for our brothers and sisters in Southern Sudan? How far could that go, very far.

Day 2
We got up early and went to the village of Lozoh. We saw at least 35 cows at this first stop. We could have done more, but we didn't have enough people to help at this stop. Because there were not enough people to help, Paul had to step in as our full time cowboy. He wrestled cows all day so we could administer the medicines so desperately needed. From this point, we left the comfort of the really bumpy road to a really, really, bumpy road that was not even a road. It was a footpath! We were driving on that footpath for at least an hour! So we packed up and went to Boma, a local cattle camp, and we worked on 20 cows. The camps was surrounded by a corral made of branches and stuff which didn't help when the cows got tired of us. They would either go through the branch-pile fence or the smaller cows would go under the more open sided fence!

Then when we were done we went to another village in the Lozah area where we did education on cattle care. We used illustrations and explainations to education the people on better care of their cattle as well as the diseases that can come from things like ticks. Doris, a veterinary officer and the administrater of Lozoh were on hand during the training. Afterwards Larry spoke to the people about why were were here, to share the love of Jesus. It was a great day in the Lord!

Keep praying for us, lives are changing, cattle are being healed, lives are being given to Christ and we are only in day 2!

7 comments:

Carol said...

Very happy to hear you made it to Sudan. Praying all goes well and enjoy your time.

Unknown said...

Praying for you!

Lynne Fix said...

So happy for all who are involved in this gift from God. Praying for God's mercies upon you!

harold said...

Jason have been in my prayers, keep the faith, tell Dr. Val I said hello, should see the babies they are growing.

Donna French said...

Yay! So excited for you Paul and the rest of the team! We are still praying for you!

Lauren said...

Ok - now that I know you guys do cattle rustling I'm totally on board for a trip!!

Rachel C said...

I'm imagining Paul wrangle cattle...and how sore he will be when he returns home. God Bless you guys for this ministry.