Putting It into Practice!

“You are people of God…come and pray for my child” the woman near the Al Sabaa Hospital for Children said to four of my students as they were departing.  The group immediately stopped and went over to her and Isaac began conversing with the woman in the Dinka language.  The group quickly learned that the woman’s child is partially paralyzed.  They also learned that this woman and her husband are baptized believers but are no longer part of a worshiping community.  With quiet confidence, Isaac and the others prayed for the woman’s child to be healed as a tangible sign of God’s love and care.  Before leaving them, Kerbino, the group leader, suggested that the woman take Isaac’s phone number and call him with an update of the child’s health in a couple of days.  Lo and behold, two days later the woman called Isaac and exclaimed that her child was able to push his cart forward and use parts of his body formerly paralyzed, a miraculous intervention demonstrating, indeed, God’s mercy and grace.   Our whole class praised God when we heard this awesome story during practicum presentations the following Wednesday.  We recognized also, through this testimony and others, the power and value of diversity in each of the groups sent out.     

For the last fourteen weeks students in my Evangelism class and I have been discussing questions such as – What is the Gospel?  What is the Kingdom of God?  What is conversion?  Who did Jesus minister to and spend most of his time with and why?  Who were the “sinners” during the days of Jesus?  Who are the “sinners” today here in Juba?  What “bleeding points” or points of need is God calling us out towards?  We have had wonderful discussions with an eye towards understanding the Kingdom of God and whom Jesus was most concerned about.  Thus, our course culminated with a risk.  I wanted my students to go out and to minister in the way of Jesus, to select a marginalized group and go spend the day listening to that group and then sharing the hope and love of Jesus with them.  Thus, their final examination was a practicum, practicing the very things we have been discussing together since the first week of August.  They would be evaluated on several factors:  the role of prayer in their work, going to a marginalized group, doing evangelism in a holistic way that is concerned with the whole person (body, mind, spirit), evangelism marked by servant and inclusive love, and sharing verbally the Good News of Jesus Christ through testimony and a short message.  

Three groups went to hospitals and prayed for the sick.  One group collected money out of their own meager means and gave out soap to all of the patients to whom they ministered and also to several nurses who are forced to work with dead bodies.  Another group brought devotional booklets in Arabic and English to the mothers of children in the hospital.  Four groups spent time with street people, both young children and young adults.  One of those groups spent the morning at the rubbish pile with these kids, slowly gaining their trust and confidence.  Another group was warmly welcomed by street children who found space where they could meet and promptly began cleaning it to host their guests.  My students asked each of these homeless groups how it came to be that they were on the streets, receiving a range of different answers, all heart-breaking.  They then offered them messages and testimonies of hope, feeding their starving hearts and starving bellies.   

Ogud holds a child and tells the gathering of children and caregivers
at CCC how Jesus welcomed the little children unto him

I was blessed to go with a group to an orphanage where I know the director.  Mama Helen, who runs Confident Children out of Conflict (CCC), first sat with us for half an hour in her office, sharing the history and vision of the program.  She helped us understand the “underside” of her community and gave us the example of some people living on the margins near the stadium who had their shacks bulldozed by the government to get rid of the “eyesore” as they hosted dignitaries from across the continent for the peace celebration.  Mama Helen asked us, “Who is now going to advocate for these families who have lost their homes and have nowhere to go?”  After being served lunch and eating with members of her staff, my students and I led a worship service with around seventy of the children.  We laid hands on the sick and prayed and offered a message and words of encouragement.  After the worship service, one young woman from the Nuba Mountains came forward and shared her heart with one of my students.  Another young girl went to the same student, Stephen Lam Dar, and inquisitively asked, “Are you Nuer?”  Stephen smiled and sat and listened to the story of this young child who comes from the same tribe. 

Stephen ministers to the young women from the
Nuba Mountains (Sudan)

Precious children, mostly orphans or those who have
been separated from their families due to war live at CCC

After Jesus sent out the seventy followers to bless those who would welcome them, to cure the sick and to proclaim the Kingdom of God, the seventy returned to him with the joyful testimony of how even the demons submitted to them!  Jesus rejoiced, in turn, filled with God’s Spirit, thanking His Father for revealing these things to the hidden and humble persons of the world (Luke 10: 1 – 24).  In similar measure, my students returned with joy, a joy which we all shared together.  I am still elated as I think about the wonderful deeds my students did in the strong name of Jesus for their practicum.  I recognize that one day of service is, indeed, only one day of service, but I am tickled pink to see my students effectively put into practice the very concepts we have been discussing together over the last three and a half months.  May God be praised!