Work & Play

Today (June 29) Billy, John & Erica just got home from our first visit to Torit, Southern Sudan. Our main purpose was to meet Emmanuel, one of the 5 men in Sudan who have been receiving pastoral training. Up until now, we had only known about Emmanuel through our main contact, John Onek (who comes to Arua for training & then goes back to Sudan to train these other 4 men~ John Onek & Emmanuel are pictured right).

In our time with him, we learned that Emmanuel accepted Christ just 6 months ago... So we talked with God, each other & John Onek and really felt like he needs one on one discipleship & basic Biblical teaching before he can be trained as a pastor. At first, this seemed like an overwhelming task to us as Emmanuel lives SO far from us... But God is SO much bigger than us!... Our two missionary friends, Matt & Kyle, who were kind enough to open their home up to us in Torit also volunteered to disciple Emmanuel for the next few months! And then in January, Emmanuel will be moving to ARUA to go to school, so Billy will be able to continue discipling him! God really is amazing!

We also got time to meet with 2 of the other pastors in Sudan, Samuel & Joseph and do some training with them. Please pray with us as we discern God’s plan for WGM pastoral training in Sudan. We are discovering that Sudan is a whole different ballgame, and we have a lot to learn! Southern Sudan is SO different from Uganda. To paint you a picture~ our friends Matt & Kyle are the only 2 missionaries in the town of Torit right now... there are no paved streets, very few permanent buildings (& the ones that are there are burned from the 20 years of war), only 1 bank, 1 gas station, huge trucks with very loud soilders constantly driving by, extremely poor sanitary conditions, trash everywhere, UN aid everywhere, and very much unrest. There is even one tribe that still to this day requires their men to actually kill another person in order to be considered a man. Needless to say, this is a place in great need, especially of Jesus.

On a brighter note... Torit is approximately 250 miles from Arua, which would be about a 15 hour drive!!!! So obviously, they aren’t the easiest roads to drive on… or the safest. The UN has blocked off parts of the road due to LRA (the Lord’s Resistance Army) activity recently. So… we got to travel with AIM AIR, an aviation ministry for missionaries, and we took a 6 seater Cessna 206… a very small plane… to Torit! It was an experience we’ll never forget! As we landed in Torit, the pilot had to dodge a cow, a man on a bike, and a small child playing on the dirt runway (pictured below)!

And… the pilot let all 3 of us fly the plane!!!! Don’t worry~ he’s a certified flight instructor! We are so thankful for these memorable experiences God gives us in the midst of ministry! Some people say their life is "all work & no play." But we have found that when you work with Jesus, he always throws some fun experiences in too!