The major Highlights of ONMI's May 2018 Mission trip to South Sudan

Shalom, and thanks be to God Almighty in Yeshua for giving us a successful mission trip to the South Sudan, and for bringing us back to our respective family. Abijah, Nechemyah, and I were so thankful to be reunited with my wife Hannah, and the rest of our children, along with my mother-in-law who came to pick us up from the airport in Boston. Praise the Lord! Thank you for your prayers.

As they said their final Good bye to us, my children (Abijah and Nechemyah), the staff of Operation Nehemiah and the Elders prayed over us by the laying of hands and then they sent us off to the USA. "Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus has remained in Corinth, and Trophimus I left ill at Miletus. 21 Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers.22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you." 2, Timothy 4: 19-22

We arrived in South Sudan on Sunday, May 6. We were received by our country director Mr. Timothy Ajjugo Levi, and assistant country director Tombe Isaac. The Following day, we met with the seven students who were undergoing pastoral training.

Ordination: Sunday, May 13, 2018, was a blessed day at the Nile Beth Israel Messianic Congregation, Bibia. Six Pastors were ordained into the pastoral calling to shepherd the Flock of God both in South Sudan and northern Uganda. Over 1500 people including pastors from other churches were in attendance, Government officials both in the South Sudan and Uganda came together.

The blessing of our Children:

Hannah and I are so grateful to God for our two older children who went to South Sudan with me, and the those who stayed back home with her in the US. Abijah and Nechemyah have truly been blessing to me on this mission trip. They are finding their own callings in the ministry. While Abijah helped Katherine Saunders with housework, receiving guests and visitors who come to Gordon Mt. on daily bases, and editing mission reports, Nechemyah was fully involved in helping me set up the examination papers for our pastoral students and marking the student's test papers. He has started teaching basic computer science to one of the radio operators on Gordon Mt.

Our Host: Isaac and Katherine Tombe. We truly want to thank God for Isaac and Katherine for hosting us in their home at the Yerushalayim Center on Mountain Gordon. The last time we were there was back in November 2017, to attend their wedding. As we returned 5 months later, their marriage has grown beautifully strong. They traveled with us when we went to the Beth Israel farmland, families and villages delivering medicine to the communities around.

Medical & Evangelistic Outreach: We announced the outreach via our radio station, and it drew about 400 people! We brought medicine for treating tropical diseases, and small fix tune radios, which we bought from a friend in the States. The local pastors and I preached the gospel, while a nurse who came with us from the States administered the aid.. While he was doing medical outreach with the people, joined by indigenous pastors, we brought the Gospel message to the patients, prayed for them for God’s divine healing and intervention, using Nehemiah Field Clinic Mobile Ambulance, we took him to three villages to do medical outreach in the villages of Opari, Pageri and the Beth Israel Farmland. In three separate medical outreaches, he had seen at least a total of more than 60 patients who were suffering from various tropical diseases.

Evangelistic Outreach: Faith comes by hearing, Hearing the word of God. We want to praise the Lord for the provision of solar audio Bible /FM Receivers program in various South Sudanese languages for the sole purpose of spreading the Good news. People are receiving this device in remote villages across South Sudan. Some receiving the Gospel or the first time in their own language. We conducted a evangelistic outreach upon our arrival. We taught the word of God to the people using the life of Lazarus, the rich man and Abraham, warning them not to resist the word of God and harden their hearts against the Biblical teaching of truth and salvation. There were four churches actively involved in spreading Gospel in Opari village.

People were receptive to the Gospel, but alcoholism is one of the biggest threats destroying the family and the lifestyle of the people there. They love God and their country. They are farm workers by profession. Many people are returning to the village from exile on the bases of self-repatriation. This is a good sign to see the community yearning for stability in this beautiful country. We met more people this time in Opari than when we were there in November 2017! We distributed Solar audio Bible/FM receivers to the churches in the area so that they can hear the Gospel message from Genesis to Revelation in their own languages. The Bible audio/FM radio receivers have been given freely to South Sudanese in remote villages where people can hear the Good News in their own languages. As the Bible says how can they hear unless the Gospel is preached to them. "Faith comes by hearing, hearing the Good News. We are so grateful to the Lord for all the things he is doing in this land… There is finally peace in here in Pageri county, and everyone seems ready to let out their held breath just a little bit. The population in Nimule and Opari has increased a bit, which is very encouraging.

Food Security: In the Beth Israel farmland, the Lord has blessed the land abundantly. We have not seen mangoes fruits these big until now. The farming season has begun. Work in the farm is in full gear. Please pray for the workers. The biggest problem we are facing here in the farm is the difficulties the tractors are facing in plowing the ground. Equipment damage is so frequent. We need financial support even as we speak to help with the work here. We are praying for a bulldozer or a tractor with front loader and backhoe to help us in removing tree stumps.

From what we planted last year, there are fields of cassava which will be ready in the next two to three months for harvest. There were a lot of mangos, oranges and banana on the trees. We had never seen the kind of mangos produced in the farm this season in any other period in the history of Beth Israel’s food production. The oranges and banana trees are producing fruits perpetually all year around. There is no time we visited the farm where there was not fruits on the trees for two years in a row.

I believe this is due to fact that since we have people who are maintaining the farm work and there is financial support coming in periodically to help us push on with the work. The land has been expanded by at least 25 acres this year alone. The chainsaw operators have done a lot in cutting down the obstructing trees to give ways for the tractors to begin plowing. Tractor operators are doing their work. When we were visiting the farm, they started plowing the areas from last year which were occupied by sorghum, millet, sweet potatoes and beans.

These areas will be planted with cassava, fruit trees, kidney beans, legumes, etc. in 2018. The sorghum will be moved to the new expanded fields. Two tractors have been moved to the villages of Opari and Pageri to help those villagers cultivate their own land and produce their own food. All this effort is exerted in our desire to see hunger is purged from Pageri county, families can feed their children again and live free.

Road and bridge repair, tractors at work, Operation Nehemiah Mission is Pushing ahead with work to create infrastructure and food security and medical out reach for the people of South Sudan.

The Nehemiah Gospel radio continue to be a voice of blessing and Hope for the people of South Sudan. While on the ground, we spent time sharing the work of God on the station with various listeners tuning into the program from within South Sudan and Uganda. We had fellow believers led by pastor from Juba, they spent two days with us sharing the word of God on the station. I had interviewed the Governor of the state on the station to find out what is going on within the county the state and the country and how best we can pray for the country. One of the key points the Governor shared with us on the radio was his initiative to see to it that all the cows which are roaming about without their owners taking care of them as these herds of cattle go on destroying people’s farms is not acceptable.

He thanks donors in America for supporting the work of Operation Nehemiah Missions in South Sudan and he asks that Christians in America need to pray for South Sudan as peace negotiation to end the war in the county is stalling and staggering back and forth in Ethiopia. Upon my arrival into the USA in two interviews on a Christian radio station in Wisconsin, by the grace of God, we just raised $40,000 to build the broadcasting studio for Nehemiah Trumpet Call 97.3 FM at the Yerushalayim mission center on Mountain Gordon. The project is about to kick off beginning June. Please keep this initiative in your prayers.

The challenges and where to focus our prayers for wisdom and support in the coming weeks and months:

In the Beth Israel farm: The four tractors continue to experience breakdown during this critical season as tractor operators navigate through tree stumps. Parts replacements cost money and are imported from Uganda. Toyota Hilux, pickup which was purchased last year has been experiencing a lot of mechanical problems. This is impeding Isaac’s ability to drive to the farm and transport food products from the farm. The road to the farm is a dirt road – during the rainy season, it is hard to drive through. The bridge on River Eyibi connecting road to the Beth farmland land had erosion due to over flooding of the river bank. We finally fixed it last week.
Nehemiah Gospel radio continues to have problem with lightning strikes- as we have a high point on a high elevation of 300ft tower on a 2800ft mountain causing damage to the equipment due to poor earthing and lighting arrest-or. Plan to resolve the problem has been daunting over the years. A concrete plan and solution to this problem will be critical to help us save money and protect equipment and render a continuous Gospel message to the community.
Block production machine from Gordon Mountain to be moved to Borongole to start producing part of the blocks we need to build the Broadcasting studio at the Yerushalayim center on Mountain Gordon. Borongole mission headquarters has the water, the kind of the soil and the ramp stand needed to make the blocks. We are praying for dedicated workers to do the work.
New pastors who are ordained. Pray for them and their families as they are preparing to reach out to minister to the flock of God.
Initiative for the ground leadership team to generate income (using the radio Broadcasting station in a limited application) from within the country to sustain and support their families as opposed to waiting for all the fund coming from the USA.
That God will give us success this year to see stability comes to South Sudan and that ONMI’ initiatives succeed.
Pray for my family as God places us in this work together for his purposes.