Worshipping in Sudan

Welcome to Jalimo, Southern Sudan

Jalimo was the village that Kelly, Joanne, Ruby and I were assigned to. The church there, Grace Baptist Church, was established about a month prior to our visit. Our mission on this trip is to help strengthen that church by doing follow-up lessons and do more evangelism. We were welcomed on the first day of ministry with a few songs by their choir. Our medical team visited the village on the fourth day of ministry. The people were blessed with eye glasses, medical attention by two doctors on our team, and with prayer and bible study by our Jalimo team. We were partnered with translators, some of whom were pastors themselves, and we also had help from pastors from Uganda and other nearby churches.

Fruit of our labor in Sudan

God is doing great things in southern Sudan. Some people are very hungry for the Word of God and want to live for Him. Some are being trained for the ministry to reach villages far away from their homes. God is blessing their steps of faith and increasing the number of churches being planted and the number of believers being grounded in their faith, and increasing the number of leaders being developed. What a blessing to work side by side with converts from two years ago and evangelize their neighboring villages as they finish their bible training to become pastors and missionaries. That was my privilege this year, and I am truly humbled and in great awe of God's mighty power.

Mission Trip to Sudan Feb 19 - 27, 2009

I am inserting a prayer letter of a team member below with his permission. We worked in the same village in 2007. What in the world is God doing in this part of the world? He is still building His kingdom...He is transforming lives of those who pray, who give, who go, and He is especially transforming the lives of those who have received Jesus as their savior and invite Him to be their Lord.

Here is Jim’s letter:

Thanks very much for praying for our trip with e3 Partners to minister in South Sudan! This was Suzy's second trip and my third trip in the past two years. It has been a huge blessing to see the growth in the churches and the people we saw come to Christ during our visits! Praise God!

Three of the men who accepted Christ the first year I was there entered Bible school and will graduate in a few months!

Moi Moses (pictured in the red shirt above) is leading the church we planted in 2008 in Kiri and it has grown to over 75 people on a regular basis! The church we helped plant in Pamoju in 2007 is also strongand Pastor Asiki is leading that. He was married to Patricia about 6 months ago and she is expecting their first child. God answered your prayers and I witnessed His hand in so many areas. You have over 360 new brothers and sisters in Christ in the South Sudan today. Four new churches were planted and should begin with an excellent base of new believers. 15 people in the village of Sunju were so excited aboutaccepting Christ they were baptized! It was not easy to find a pool of water either!

The nationals that we worked with completed follow up forms on each person so that they can get them into a discipleship program. Part of the forms for each person in the village I was assigned to be a leader in - Kiggwo - were given to me to bring home. If you would like me to mail you a few so you can pray for them specifically, please let me know. Please reply and give me your mailing address and I'll send them to you. Pray that their profession of faith was real, that they join the church, are discipled and grow.

Suzy and I were assigned the village/area called Kiggwo. It is only ten miles from the compound where we stayed but took a good two hours (one way - each day) to get there in a four wheel drive Land Cruiser - that barely made it!

We were paired up with Eric and Jen Himler, two young Christians from Huntington Beach, CA. One of the most exciting things we saw was the way they got into sharing the Gospel, teaching and ministering to these wonderful people. It was really a "God moment" to see each of them share the Gospel for the first time and then to see the miracle God did in changing the heart of the person they shared with as they accepted Christ as their Savior!

I have attached two pictures and will send more in two more emails. The first is Suzy with Moses Taban. (Pictured: Jim, Moses and Suzi) Moses has been our interpreter for all three years. He is a wonderful man of God and is getting married on March 14. He is planting a church about 8 hours north of where we were staying in an area called Mangala. It is a VERY tough area. Please pray for him.

The next is me holding a large Evangicube as Stephen Huber shares the Gospel with several people.

Stephen went with us in 2008 and now lives there (2 year commitment) and is drilling water wells. It costs about $3500 to drill a well and is the second greatest gift these people can get - the first being the Gospel! The people in Kiggwo must walk (it is the ladies) several miles each morning for 5 gallons of water which they carry back.

Numbers mean very little as God knows our hearts and he is the only one who knows the true results. The results of the campaign we are aware of:

Number of people the Gospel was presented to = 1149

Number of people that made professions of faith = 365

Number of people that received discipleship/follow up = 224
Cell group meeting attendance = 200

Number of nationals that worked with us = 40

Medical patients = 734

Eye glasses patients who received eyeglasses = 35 in Kiggwo (Suzy and Jen did these)

New churches started = 4
Churches strengthened = 1

I know many of you have asked me specific questions and hopefully these will answer some things all of you would like to know.

1) e3Partners is going back in February 2010 and I would encourage you to join us. It will be a trip you will never forget!

2) The weather in February was beautiful - cool mornings, warm days and NO mosquitoes!

3) We slept at a compound in the Sudan this year. It was comfortable and the food was good.

4) The roads are rough. Many of these people had just moved back to their homes in the past 1-3 years. The Muslims chased them out to Uganda in the war that lasted ten years.

5) The people are very nice and gracious. They are wonderful.

e3 took care of everything from training the nationals before we arrived, to training the team and putting all the logistical details together. As a result, we were able to hit the ground running to maximize our time.The really cool thing is the team was used as a tool in the hands of national brothers and sisters to start a church planting movement. Our team was like kerosene on the nationals' fire to reach Sudan for Christ.It was like walking through the Book of Acts......Thank you again for praying. It was so apparent to me that I was covered in prayer. I can't even put that into words - but I knew you were praying!

Please let me know if you would like me to mail you some of the people's names so you can pray specifically for them! That would be a blessing to them. Make sure to give me your mailing address! Also, if you would like to see some more pictures, let me know.

In Christ,

Jim West

Executive Director/Managing Partner

The Pocket Testament League/The Barnabas Group