There are so very many stories to tell, its hard to begin.
This is a country of color and of vibrant life rising out of conflict and war. This is a country of promise and of hope.
The first time we were asked to go to South Sudan, I didn’t want to go, simply because I knew that I would get a heart for the people and I knew that I would see too much pain and need for me to handle, it would cause my own heart pain, and I would simply be overwhelmed by what I cannot fix. Luckily there is someone who is greater, stronger and carries all the really heavy burdens that we were never meant to carry. It is a privilege to love, and I am to be able to sow into this country.
There is this boy named S, he adopted me as his friend when we had our rickety stage campaign in the middle of Juba. He and the other kids that live on the street were protective over me when there was a mentally unstable man that got too close to me. S also made me first believe that he understood everything I said, but in the end I don´t think he understood very much English. He understood body language, and he understood that I liked him very much. He is also one of the many kids that were hiding their plastic bottles with glue from the policeman. I didn’t understand the seriousness of this at first.
S and some of his friends tried hard to teach us to dance while the campaign choir sang, and he came forward to receive Jesus when the invitation was given. He also helped me pray for the sick afterwards.
After we came back to Norway we were able to get S into a good private school and home. The headmaster had grown up as a street boy, and is a good friend of one of our trusted contacts. Things were looking really good for my friend, and I was so happy to at least help one boy . He had a place to sleep, new clothes and what he needed for school.
Because of his addiction to sniffing glue, the same glue that was in the plastic bottles that the police had been trying to take away, S ran away from his new home. He wasn´t allowed to sniff glue when he lived in his new home, because the glue just destroys brain cells and is extremely addictive. Most kids that start can´t stop, and end up dying very young due to the glue destroying their brain, or the epileptic seizures that it causes.
We believe that that there is 100% freedom in Jesus Christ, and whatever happens to my friend, I still have hope for him.
For all the kids that have been orphaned, that don´t know better, that have been so traumatised that all they are looking for is something to dull the pain, we have something so much better than cheap glue. We have the living God, who is near, who has never ever left.
I cannot stand complacent when I have seen that this is happening on my watch. If these kids need the power of the gospel and some of my pocket change to go to school, thats not even a sacrifice for me.
This February, my husband and I are going with a few friends to Juba again, and are hoping to chart a small plane to fly out to an area that is quite hard to get to, hike in for a few days to share the gospel and give some medical help to some of the tribes that haven’t had any medical help for a long time. If you would like to sow into that project, you are very welcome to do that.
Most photos from Juba, South Sudan, with a few from our hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. (last three) Ministry done through Nations Calling via 10/40 Ministries.