RockTheDesert

Leaving Sudan

I'm looking forward to seeing Dan and hearing all the details of the trip - I did receive a text message from him - 259 1st time professions of faith in Christ. He said it was the most difficult trip he's been on to date! Thank you to all who have been praying faithfully for him and the team!

This is another forwarded email - this time from Patricia - we met Patricia on our Rwanda trip - she is a CPC with e3partners.

_______________________

Flying home towards Nairobi in our 12 passenger plane. No weight problem on this leg. We have left all of our ministry materials in Sudan. We are all well and have seen the infathomable love of God at work in Sudan.

Yesterday God have me the desire of my heart. When I visited Kormachi in July I met a woman named Maria. She was in the compound of the chief and had more beads on than any of the other women. She had the look of being the Queen Bee. She had the appearance of being in another world very far away and unreachable. It was the face of Maria that motivated me to research, pray and prepare to take the gospel to the most primitive area I had ever traveled to. The Toposa. In Nairobi on our way to Sudan we spent the day with missionaries who had lived 6 years with a similar tribe. They opened their hearts to us and shared all the materials their 6 years of work produced. God supplied all we needed to begin to work with the Toposa of southern Sudan. Did you read about our 5 hours stuck in the mud on the way to Kormachi? Our 1st day we had to turn around. Courageous man of Faith David Kaya was willing to try yet again the following day. The road was such that I had to close my eyes and pray. If you are big on off road driving and mud slides. Sudan will be your cup of tea! Kormachi at last!

After picking up a translator at the school we went immediately to the hut of the chief (his compound of huts). The chief was not there but several women and children, Maria and her close friend were there smoking pipes. Such a hardness on her face. That same expression I had seen before that made me wonder if we would ever be able to bridge the gap. Not all the faces had this hard look. Mostly we found warm welcoming faces.

The afternoon and following trip allowed us the opportunity to visit other compounds but the door did not open again for üs to visit the chief's compound until our final day in Kormachi. We had the awesome opportunity to spend an ünrushed 1 hour with Maria and 5 other women, 2 men and a gaggle of kids. I had an EXCELLENT Toposa translator (huge answered prayer) and was able to tell the stories of God's creation that had been taught to me by the missionaries. FAR from perfect but I soooooo believe God used it for His Glory. I hope you too can take great Joy in this divine opportunity. Most of the adults in that circle prayed a prayer to receive Christ as their Savior. I trust in the Lord with all my heart that He heard those prayers and will continue to draw the people of Kormachi and Kapoeta to Himself with cords of human kindness (Hosea 11:4).

Thank you so much for your prayers. God's Grace has been abundant and overflowing!

God bless you

patricia

Another Sudan Update

Sounds like they wil be leaving for Sudan for Kenya in just a few hours. Received the following update just about an hour ago (4pm Phoenix).

Since it was raining in Sudan, the team had trouble getting through to my phone, but thankfully they were able to reach my friend, Cindy Sherman, when there was a break in the rain.  Thanks to Cindy for the report below. 

Michael Norris reported the following....

Prayer Requests for today:

Major Prayer Request - David Kaya (their leader in Sudan) is now leaving to go home to his family.  His wife, mother-in-law, and 2 of his 4 kids have pneumonia.  He is driving to Kanpala, Uganda and will be traveling with 7 other men (he will be dropping them off in Kajokeij).  The rainy season starts tonight and he will have to cross 58 water crossings to get home.  They expect the journey to take a couple days 

Answered prayers -
They have had no rain until tonight.
They had 6 translators today in Kormachi, which was the exact number they needed!

Prayer request - Moses and Meshach are the new leaders for Kormachi.  Pray for God to lead and direct them as to what their role will be.

The team will begin traveling home tomorrow, but will call from Kenya.

FYI:  Their devotional reading for today is from Acts 20:17-38.

Thanks for keeping these prayer requests and the team in your prayers!

Sudan Update

This is an email that was forwarded to me today.

Status:

They arrived in Kenya Friday morning. with little trouble – and praise God, all the luggage arrived.  They were very excited.

Once in Narobi, they were picked up by Gabriel from ACTS who gave them a ride to a Presbyterian mission where you met up with the rest of their team including Ruth James (HPBC), Patricia Caroon (e3), Ky Azlein  (Oregon), Dan Berryman (e3) and Todd Szalkowski (e3). Their biggest concern was the weight limit, due to the charter flight from Narobi into Sudan, They felt they were way over the weight limit and began resuffling things to get their weight down. They grouped it into necessary luggage and optional luggage.  After arriving at the airport, the airline, African Inland Missions, had five extra passengers for the flight, so they had to take a 32 person plane versus 12 person plane. Unfortunately, they only flew into Loki and then had to transfer to a 12 passenger plane.  They had to wait 2 hours for the other plane, and felt that they would have to leave their optional luggage. But God was faithful, and because the plane had used up enough fuel flying to Loki, the plane’s weight was reduced, and they were able to take all their luggage.  Praise God.

When they flew into Kapoeta Sudan they were supposed to be met by David Kaya, their pastor there.  They arrived in Kapoeta, Sudan late Friday afternoon, but David was no where to be found.  He had to travel quite a distance over very rough roads so there was concern for his safety. In addition, he was supposed to pick them up and take them to their camp.  God again delivered by giving Jonas, the camp manager at Camp Mango, where they were staying a message.  He saw their plane coming in, and felt told by God that he should go pick up the team.  Praise Jesus for his timing!  At 9:30 pm Friday, David and his translators showed up.  They were delayed 4-5 days due to the rough roads. They also had two simultaneous flat tires along the way.  Satan does not what this team to succeed, but God is delivering them through these challenges.

They are all in good health and doing well.  Their translators are amazing.  At one point they had to translate from English to Arabic to Toposa to Dinka in order to communicate with some people.

Here are some praises they shared.

·        They have shared the with 96 people and 39 made professions of faith.

·        They are going to be able to show the Jesus film at the African Inland Church in Kapoeta tonight.

Prayer Requests:

1)      They really need at least 6 more strong Christian translators.

2)      God will continue to lead them to the people that are ready to hear the Gospel.

3)      Specifically pray for Maria in Kormachi, to prepare her heart, because she seems like a key person in Kormachi that can be critical to spreading the Gospel.

4)      Each person on the team is listening to voice of God and obeying.

5)      Pray that the chief in Kormachi will be receptive to them and give them permission to share the Gospel in his village.  They leave tomorrow morning at 7:30am to begin that phase of their mission.

6)      Pray for safe travel on bad roads.

7)      Pray for health and safety for all involved that that Satan will be bound while they do the Lord’s work.

Thanks to everyone involved in praying, sending, and supporting those who hear the call to go to the ends of the earth to share the Lord's message and reach the lost for Christ.

New Believers In Sudan

I received this email yesterday from e3 staff in Sudan. Many new believers are being added daily to the kingdom of God. The team referred to at the end of the email is the team that Dan will be a part of from Sept 19-29. Please keep him and the team in your prayers. Thanks!

[begin email]

Adjumani? Wasn’t that a movie? No, I’m thinking of Jumanji, the movie with Robin Williams. Adjumani is the town (village?) where David Kaya has been on an all-Sudanese church planting campaign. I spoke with David this morning and here is what he told me the Lord did.

It’s as if, once again, we walk into the book of Acts. First, allow me to reset the story for you. A man in Adjumani was possessed by a demon, and he caused terrible problems for the villagers by destroying things. The villagers turned to the few believers in the village for help who, in turn, sent a messenger to David’s home church. The church sent a pastor to Adjumani who, through the power of Jesus, delivered the man of his demon(s). Guess what? Just like in the book of Acts, the villagers wanted to follow this Jesus. Hence, these past three days.

When David and his men entered the village and began to go tukel (hut) to tukel, many people made professions of faith in Christ. When they gathered the people together that afternoon many more followed Jesus. Recall, that a family blessed David with a Landcruiser. David learned that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was in the area, and that vehicle draws attention. The LRA is a rebel military group in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. He withdrew from the village that night and slept elsewhere. In the village that same night, the new followers of Jesus worshiped Him and fellowshipped African-style, David’s description. That night the Lord encouraged David to go back to the village the next day.

Go back they did and began to baptize the new believers in the Nile. As darkness fell, they finished baptizing 105 people and were ready to finish the day. Then a wave of villagers came to the river and asked to follow Jesus and be baptized.

[I realize that this sounds so storybook as to be unbelievable, but I’m telling you, this really happened.]

When they finished baptizing them, a second wave appeared asking to follow Jesus and be baptized. Then a third group appeared and were baptized as well.

David was so excited when he shared this story. My favorite thing he said was, “Those demons helped us to open the door.”

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

Thanks for praying and being a part of God’s amazing work.  There is a campaign with U.S. workers leaving tomorrow for another town in Sudan, and David tells me to pray about the rain. It’s rained so much that a dorm at our bible school collapsed and the latrine filled up. Obviously the roads will be terrible.

Back To Normal

Today is a normal day. Both boys went to school. I made breakfast and packed lunches. I'll be doing laundry the rest of the day. I'm thinking of dusting the living room and sorting through the mail. I'll be planning out worship songs for the coming weekend. Grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and Sprouts. Sorting through the mail. Replying to email and phone messages.

Thought I'd share 1 story from Rwanda...although I don't have very many pictures to show yet...Dan forgot his memory card for his camera. So before I left, I gave him the card from my camera so he could take lots of Sudan pics.

I was a Team Lead - Michael was on my team. We each had a ministry partner/translator. We also had a Bishop from Burundi on our team named Independence. He didn't need a translator. We had a group of 9 nationals from the Mother Church in Kibuye join us for daily door-to-door evangelism. On the first day, after training on how to use the Evangecube, we split up into 5 teams and headed out to share the Gospel. Emmanuel was my ministry partner. Jane was Michael's ministry partner. We all went in different directions. I headed down the road, led by two nationals. From the road there was a stunning view of Lake Kivu. I was looking straight ahead, trying to spot some houses to stop at. Suddenly our nationals made a sharp right turn and disappeared off the side of the mountain. Or so I thought. I inched cautiously over to the edge and looked straight down. Realized that there were houses built into the side of the cliffs and all along the path down to the lake. There were narrow, muddy trails weaving back and forth all the way down. Great. Just great. Emmanuel went ahead of me, carrying my water bottle, my backpack, his backpack, and holding my hand the whole way. He was very kind and didn't mind when I stopped to re-group every 10 steps. We reached a house. Went inside. It was a small room. Small table. 1 bench. Very clean. Concrete floor. 2 chairs. There was an older gentleman inside. Probably in his early 70's. Very welcoming. Three more adults showed up and entered the room. They probably saw us (strangers) heading down the trail and were curious about what was going on. Two young boys entered the room. I was able to share the Gospel with the whole group. All of them prayed to receive Christ. I did a short discipleship lesson. Gave them tracts to read and urged them to read the tracts to their families and to pass along the message of Christ to others. One of the young boys turned out to be an orphan. He was 6 years old. This was his grandpa's home. He had come to live here when his parents died. His name was Claude. He followed us around the rest of the week and whenever asked could recite the story of salvation and knew the meaning of all the pictures on the Evangecube. As soon as Dan arrives home (Sept 29), I'll post a picture of Claude. He wore a lime green shirt every day. In the villages, people tend to have only 1 set of clothes. It's pretty easy to remember people day to day because you recognize their clothes. 

 

Encounter

OK, something totally cool happened to us on Saturday. We took Michael to work at Chickfila. Decided to swing into Sports Chalet to look for last minute travel items. When we went to start up the car to head toward home, we had a sluggish, "the battery is dying" start. Since my knight-in-shining-armor was with me, disaster was avoided and we were able to head straight over to WalMart to get a new battery. The wait was about an hour. We decided to do some more last minute travel shopping. Travel alarm clocks. Batteries. Vitamins. Etc.

Now, in the past, we had noticed that WalMart had hired some African refugees. We even had spoken to one of them before and he said he was from Sudan. So, today we decided that we should look for someone from Sudan and, if possible, strike up a conversation. We chose Checkstand #15. I just had a feeling that the cashier was from Sudan. There was only one couple ahead of us. They were chatting with the cashier and telling him that they were from South Africa. He mumbled something about Sudan. I was ecstatic. I knew he was from Sudan! When it was our turn, Dan started asking him if he was from Sudan. Dan mentioned that we were traveling to Africa and that he would be in Sudan soon. Well, the cashier not only was from Sudan, he was from the very region, in fact, the very village that Dan will be working in, Kapoeta. We decided that we absolutely had to be-friend him. He has agreed to have dinner with us before we leave so that he can tell us all about Sudan and Kapoeta. We are very excited about this "chance" encounter and I'm sure I'll have much more to post after we have dinner. Pray that we would have a chance to share the Gospel with him and that we would establish a friendship with him and possibly others who've been recently relocated to Phoenix from Africa.

2 Calendars and a Video

Download prayer_calendar_rw07c.pdf

Click on the link above to download and print our Rwanda prayer calendar.
We would love to have you partner with us in prayer during our upcoming trip to Rwanda. Dan, Mike, Steve & I will travel to Rwanda on September 5 for an e3 partners church planting campaign.

Dan will then continue on to Sudan for another e3 partners church planting campaign which also happens to be his first training trip. I know that Dan and the entire team would really appreciate your prayers as well. Click on the link below to download and print the Sudan prayer calendar. It's actually a combined calendar - our Rwanda trip back to back with the Sudan trip - since there are 3 people on our Rwanda campaign who will continue on to the Sudan campaign.

Download prayercalendarPatriciaSeptember.doc

And finally, check out this video. It was recorded recently in the area where Dan will be in Sudan.

Deluxe Accommodations

Team Berryman leaves for Rwanda on Sept. 5. We return, minus Dan on Sept. 16. Dan will part ways with us at the end of our trip and head to Sudan for 10 days. The Sudan trip is his first training trip. He has been working with a seasoned e3 church planter for the past month or so, figuring out the forms, logistics, finances, communications, and so much more. He is also working with a church planting coordinator who is in charge of travel and accommodations (among many other things). Now, keep in mind that Sudan has been involved in a Civil War for many years. The area where they will be evangelizing has been mostly bombed out and destroyed. Lots of reminders of death and destruction are everywhere. There are no stores. No hotels. Limited transportation. No roads. But there are people in this area who have never heard the Gospel. Ever. E3 is specifically targeting these groups for evangelism.

This is a picture of the place they will be staying in Sudan. The tent was abandoned by the UN when they pulled out of there. Some of the 12 person team will sleep in the tent. A few of them will sleep in one of the two bldgs. Dan always dreamed of being on "Survivor." Now it looks like his dream is coming true!

More from Sudan

First of all, check out this blog: http://lettersfrompaphos.blogspot.com

Sounds like much prayer is needed in this region. Also evident that God is at work, preparing leaders, raising up His followers to make an impact in Southern Sudan. I am really glad that they are working hand in hand with strategically selected relief organizations to share the Gospel thru acts of compassion/service. Kapoeta is where Dan will be joining an e3 campaign (1st training trip) in September. Anyone interested in being a part of this?????

The following is an excerpt from this blog.

Kapoeta – 238 heard the gospel, 65 made professions of faith 4/4/07

4/17/04

Built for speed reading

Here’s a quarterly report, essentially, on what the Lord has done and is doing with e3 and

Sudan

. First is a list of His work. Second, we have a medical team going to David Kaya’s (Kie-yugh) hometown next week for a clinic/church-planting trip. I’ve attached their prayer calendar as well.

· We have assessed and opened for ministry three main towns in

Eastern Equatoria

: Kapoeta, Chukudum, and Torit. These towns are centers for the Toposa, Didinga, and Latuka tribes. All of which are classified as unreached. Kaya trained over 130 leaders in these towns in church planting and the EvangeCube, and close to 200 people made professions of faith just last month at those trainings.

· We secured a partnership with the International Mission Board’s missionaries in Rumbek, where e3 trained 35 leaders, and led a campaign that resulted in three (possibly 4) new churches.

· We’ve secured a partnership with ALARM ministries in Lietnom to train pastors in church planting and the EvangeCube.

· Started the bible/leadership training school in Kajo Keji with the first 12 students; they are doing great!

· Lead four LDCs near the Sudan/Congo border that resulted in

o 73 leaders trained

o 157 gospel presentations

o 45 professions of faith

· Lead four LDCs in

Juba

(the capital of the south) that resulted in:

o 168 leaders trained

o 157 gospel presentations

o 45 professions of faith

· Lead one LDC in Yei that resulted in:

o 27 leaders trained

o 98 gospel presentations

o 41 professions of faith

The above comes to a total of 433 trained in church-planting and the EvangeCube, and 571 professions of faith in Christ this year.

Upcoming Items that we’d covet your prayer over:

· April 26 – Medical church-planting team leaves for

Sudan

.

· April/May – Working with three donors to purchase a Landcruiser for Kaya

· May 7-8 – Meet with a non-profit partner to nail down details on humanitarian aid projects.

· May 18^th – Meet with another large non-profit that focuses on community development. ($1M+ projects)

· April/May – Meet with a ministry who dug 500 wells around the world in 2006 – hoping to partner with them in

Sudan

.

· May 28-30 – e3 is sponsoring first ever Baptist Conference/Convention in Rumbek.

· May 31 –

US

team departs for church-planting campaign in Torit.

· June 1 – We begin a new session in our bible school in Kajo Keji.

· June/July – Kaya will travel west into a few new towns to assess them for future ministry.

· July – A medical team from

Birmingham

,

AL

will strengthen and encourage the church in Kapoeta.

· Ongoing –

Kapoeta, Sudan

Dan will be going to Kapoeta, Sudan on his first E3 "training" trip. He needs to complete 2 training trips in order to be considered a fully trained E3 staff member. Oh, yeah, he also needs to raise 100% of his financial support. Then it's all official. Right now it looks like he'll be in Sudan from September 19-29. This trip will focus on evangelism, discipleship and church planting in Southern Sudan. Two unreached people groups will be targeted: the Toposa people and the Dadinga people. Northern Sudan is almost totally made of Muslim and they are working to bring Isalm to Southern Sudan.

Dan is very excited about this trip. He'll get a chance to help plan and execute the trip from start to finish. He'll lead a team while he's there and have on-the-job training as a church planter while he's there.

We recently received this letter from an E3 Church Planting Coordinator named Nadine who has just returned from a trip to Sudan. This will help to explain the need for a trip to Sudan, as well as the urgent need to cover this trip and its participants in prayer.

"It was a good trip, but I am left with how do I describe/process Sudan? A country of contrasts. Beauty in the midst of total devastation. Friendly people immersed in severe poverty.  Remnants of war; abandoned tanks dotting the landscape with beautiful mountains as the backdrop,  empty bullet cases laying on the ground, bombed out buildings, and unbelievable worship in a church with a bullet riddled roof.  Naked children next to grass huts happily playing. Children running to us with their little bowls to get rice, only to find out that the packages we brought weren’t rice, they were mosquito nets to save their lives from Malaria. Children joyfully collecting termites to eat, and a 3 day old baby lying on a mat on the dirt ground contentedly with his brother.  Bringing children with measles who would die if we didn’t bring them to a hospital that didn’t have any medicine. (we bought the medicine) Talking about a girl in the village who was just “cut with a knife” to let the poison out because she was sick, only to find out that EVERY one of the nationals from the local church that we were working with had been through the same thing as a child.  Intimidating soldiers giving their life to the Lord and thanking us for coming saying “no one has ever come to talk with them about God before.”  How do I describe a place where the only other vehicles belong to the UN  and yet we felt safe. Or about witnessing to the people about Gods’ love in a village where 28 people were massacred by the LRA last December. I wish you could see the strength and dignity of the Sudanese women or the interest that men had in talking about the things of God.. I think what I want to remember the most is the people of Sudan. So warm and welcoming with beautiful smiles and handshakes for everyone. I want to remember watching the pain in their faces turn to joy as they realized that God hadn’t forgotten about them when they gave their lives to our all powerful Savior. Sure there were “hard things’ about the trip, but all of those things seem insignificant to the privilege of working side by side with the local pastor, (who is appropriately named Victor), knowing that he would be riding his new bicycle, (that we bought him) 3 hours one way to do the follow up for this village. Seeing his dedication that as “soon as the grass grows” he will be building his tukul there and moving his family because “a shepherd has to be with his sheep.”  Sharing the work with the Sudanese Christians is an honor that fades away earthly “conveniences” and brings a realization of shame for ever having thought of them as important. Yes in Sudan there is beauty amongst devastation, but there is also His kingdom shattering the darkness!  Kor Ingles Sudan is a tiny drop on the map of the world, but God’s kingdom broke in there and there are now 256 people in Sudan who turned to the Lord in the midst of their suffering and now have the Hope that only He can give."