An Amazing Week in Akot
“If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” Psalm 139:9
It is interesting how much we notice God when we are desperate for His presence. As I reflect on our time in Akot a week ago, I am amazed at all that God accomplished, and how we witnessed His blessings. Arun Vedhanayagam, Joseph Noel, Mike Hathorne, Ruth Reilly, Abraham Deng, Ann Rao, Raymond Lyrene, Bob West, and Rick Funderburk (not in photo) made up the “A Team”.
After a lot of Spiritual Warfare, even requiring our postponing our trip for 2 months, we finally arrived in Akot on a single engine plane. The circular rainbow around the plane’s shadow seemed to give a sign of a promising mission.
There were several situations that some may call miracles. The goal for this trip was equipping the leaders for evangelism. I was so worried we would not be able to get our Jesus Film video equipment through the customs inspection in Juba. Every other time there has proven to a chaotic ugly mess, that tests one’s testimony. I prayed, “Lord, don’t let them even see the equipment”. Would you believe that we arrived to a deserted airport? Not one soul was inside the building. Incredible! That has never happened. We were able to show the film in two villages, training the pastors to use the equipment. Hallelujah!
Our team arrived on the dirt airstrip to a large reception of people singing and dancing. The village chief was there to greet us, as well as some church choirs and several priests. We are regular rock stars in Akot!
It is hard to believe all that we were able to do while there. We introduced the concept of a public library, and train a young lady to be the librarian. Also we set up a computer lab at Abundant Life Primary, and trained a young woman to teach computer science. We even taught the teachers to present the gospel using rag dolls with their primary students. A Bible Memory Verse program was established on the first day of the new school year, while we were there.
Home visits are always wonderful times, as we get to encourage and take food to very needy families. As you can see in the photo, not everyone is thrilled to see our white faces?.
A two day pastor’s conference was taught by Abraham and Joseph, two South Sudanese evangelists. The emphasis was training pastors to do effective evangelism. They were so well received.
A Women’s Leadership conference focused on preparing the leaders to host a very large outreach event on International Women’s Day. The leaders were trained to share the gospel by drawing symbols in the dirt. They also learned to tell the story of Ruth. They will take turns telling parts of the story and then holding small discussion groups after each session. They are so excited about this first event for ladies.
To God be all the glory!!
