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| Adhanom Hidug (behind) |
In the spirit of thanksgiving as well in anticipation of Advent, we wanted to share some encouragement God has provided us in the last month. We heard from our colleague and friend, Adhanom who lives in South Sudan working with WGM's Mango Ministries.
Adhanom wrote recently and shared in an email how God has been "growing the circle" of people influenced by His Word. As I (Billy) have been buried in academic theory, Adhanom's email was refreshment for my soul. Not only is God still at work, even while we are in Scotland studying, but He is doing more than we could ask or imagine.
I have attached a portion of the email below because you all have been a part of carrying the burden for families in South Sudan to encounter Jesus through His Word. We cannot thank you enough for continuing to carry our family but also Adhanom (and his wife Helen) as well as the strategic Sudanese leaders like Pastor Peter and Canon Joseph. Hallelujah! Praise God Forever!
Some terms and context might be helpful: STS = Simply the Story (our Biblical storytelling method) and ERC = East Rumbek County which is where Adhanom lives in South Sudan. Akot Diocese is the diocese within the Episcopal Church of South Sudan with whom we have been partnering. Adhanom refers to a time when a team of Sudanese pastors came to our house in Arua for training and one of the girls made a comment about a circle of us sitting together.
Adhanom writes:
Canon Joseph once told me that one of your daughters saw you, Scott & CT, the team from South Sudan and others from Arua sitting in a circle for STS and she said to you that that was the biggest circle she has ever seen. It should be either Elsie or Lucy. In ERC the circles are growing bigger and multiplying in number. Besides, the pastors in Tonj are also working on running one-day trainings...
Peter and Joseph are doing great job. They have become faithful in conducting the monthly one-day bible storying trainings. Every month we have at least 20 pastors and other church people attending the one-day trainings. Several of the pastors are doing great... In the near future we will train seven pastors who had demonstrated better understanding and commitment... Peter and Canon will do the training. I will just be there for coaching role.
Apart from the opportunities in the Diocese of Akot I have now invitations from two different dioceses to train their pastors in STS. They got exposed to it through the pastors who had been attending the one-day trainings. I will train the pastors from one of these dioceses in December and the ones from the other hopefully in late January. The circle is growing and multiplying! I am sharing these to let you know that the seed you have planted is growing and multiplying. Praise God!
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| Picture taken while Adhanom and I were training together last year. |
Photos are courtesy of Joy Phillip's blog: journeywithjoy.blogspot.co.uk, a great resource for knowing how to pray for South Sudan.
5 comments:
That was very encouraging. Thank you guys for the seeds that were sown. They are maturing and producing their own seeds now. What a blessing to Jesus!
Thank you for your obedience to Jesus with the new place, the new seeds that are being sown. The plant may look different there, but the Kingdom is advancing!
We love you guys and hope to get to see you there.
Love you Janie! Thanks!!!
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing it. How incredibly exciting and encouraging. It's like reading a modern day update from Paul.
Dr Maurice Bucaille stayed up all this night gazing at Pharaoh’s body, thinking deeply of what his fellow researcher told him about the Muslims’ Qur’an
explicitly establishing that this body was recovered after drowning, while the Christians’ Gospel (Matthew and Luca) narrated only the story of Pharaoh
when he was chasing Prophet Musa (peace be upon him) without mentioning the fate of his body at all.
“Is it believable that Muhammad (peace be upon him) knew about this over 1,000 years ago while I have only just known it?” he thought.
Maurice spent a sleepless night, and asked for a version of the Torah. But it only furthered Bucaille’s astonishment; since even Torah did not narrate that
the body was recovered and remained intact due to the processing and restoration, which it did undergo.
France sent back the mummy to Egypt in a splendid glass coffin. But, since he knew about the story circulated by Muslims on the intactness of this body,
he decided to pack his baggage and travel to Saudi Arabia where a medical conference happened to be held with a galaxy of Muslim anatomists
attending.
There, told them about his discovery, i.e. that Pharaoh’s body was kept intact even after he drowned. One of the conferees opened the Qur’an and read
out the Ayah in which Allah Almighty said, “So today We will (safely) deliver you with your body that you may be a sign to the ones succeeding you; and
surely many among mankind are indeed heedless of Our signs.” (Yunus: 92)
In his excitement, he stood before the attendants and loudly said, “I have converted to Islam and believed in this Qur’an.”
Back to France, Maurice Bucaille spent 10 years conducting a study as to how far the recently scientific facts match that mentioned in the Holy Qur’an,
trying to reassure himself that the Qur’an has never contradicted with any single scientific fact, so that he eventually came up with the conclusion that
Allah Almighty said of the Qur’an, “Untruth does not come up to it before (Literally: between its two hands) it nor from behind it; a successive sending
down from (One) Ever-Wise, Ever-Praiseworthy.”
He came up with a earth shaking book on the Holy Qur’an which jolted the entire Western states, with the title of the book reading, “The Bible, The
Qur’an and Science, The Holy Scriptures Examined In The Light Of Modern Knowledge.”
Fragrant breeze,
How did you come to find our blog? You are welcome in this dialogue. Can you help me understand the connections between you story you shared and the original post?
Steph....I love you much precious mama.
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