I wish we could get some pictures on the blog right now and show you how rock-paper-scissors is played with over 60 Sudanese children's leaders! What a hoot that was. These calm, warm people turn into competitive maniacs when it comes to games. It was a lot of fun. Other games and the calming of the storm skit brought a lot more laughter to the day. Tomorrow should be something else as we bring out the puppets. Hearing Jingle Bells as a ringtone on a cell phone also brought a big smile!

At one point during the worship, one wishes that you knew what they were singing. It was so glorious. You have to make-up your own words to express your worship, but you want to be in unity with the others. It brings tears once again realizing the consequences of sin and how wonderful Heaven will be.

Vergil has done a great job and really engaged the people with his Bible teaching. He has such a heart to proclaim God's Word and so God has blessed him tremendously considering he is only 24. Micheal continued his teaching on marriage. It is generating many questions which we will get to tomorrow. We know some of it is because there are still pre-arranged marriages here. The question for all of us is how much of our thoughts are based on what the Bible says and how much is the American application of the scriptures.

So pray for our Q&A time that we might have discernment and Godly wisdom in answering these questions. Once again, pray for sleep for all of us. Sleeping pills are not even helping for those that brought them. Tomorrow we get more practical with the participants which will help as I think we have stuffed their brains with enough information. They are so anxious to learn. Pray that we are sensitive to the Spirit as to what they need at this moment and push our agenda aside if we have to.

MICHEAL:
Morning Thoughts:
Before getting up was thinking of why tears are so close at any time here in Sudan. God's heart is broken for these people and if you have God's heart, it is broken as well. When I think of these gentle, loving and joyful people and how 2 million of their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, family and friends have been killed the past 20 years -- and yet to see them remain gentle, loving and joyful -- what an amazing witness that should humble us all. I hope you as a church continue to get a feel of being here this week and I hope you continue to have a sense of pride (the good kind of pride) for the investment you are making for the Kingdom here in Sudan. On a lighter note, at church on Sunday, here we are out in the desert with mud brick buildings and a church with not walls, metal benches and dirt floor, and before service starts, Pastor Joseph asks all people with cell phones to please turn them off. There were a number of beeps and music as phones were indeed being turned off. Some things are universal.


Evening Thoughts:
After yesterday's intensely emotional day, today was rather Calm. Rather calm is a relative term here in Khartoum. Pastor Joseph was sick today, and being the only interpreter, one of the students took his place for some of the sessions. She was very good but things slowed down considerably and you were never quite sure if she understood what you were saying and thus what was being communicated. Makes us appreciate Joseph. Things were going along smoothly when I decided it would be a good idea to play a game. They had been sitting too long so an activity was in order. The Sudanese are very courteous and will sit for long periods, but they are an active folk and do much better when they are engaged in physical ways with the teaching. I thought that Rock - Paper - Scissors would be a fun game for them to learn. Remember that rather calm is relative and remember competiveness. After going through the rules and what defeats what, I told them they were to get a partner and whoever lost had to sit and another partner found until only two remained and we would declare a winner. Soon the whole room was a scene of pandamonium. It seems some were getting an edge by waiting until their partner had committed to the rock, paper or scissors and then doing whatever defeated them. It took some time to restore order and insure them this infraction would not be tolerated. What was intended to be a simple exercise to get them out of their seats resulted in near mass hysteria and then I gave them over to Vergil for his session. By the way, a young woman did finally win. Vergil asked them what they thought of the Church in America, and if they thought it was better than the Sudanese church. Some of their responses: the American Church has many things, the American Church prays and is giving, they send missionaries and they take care of their pastors (this last point was interesting because it came from Pastor Apollo's wife). When he first asked if the church in America was better, there was a near equal split of opinion. But they did not believe we were loved more by God because of all we have. Vergil did a good job of focusing them on the true treasures that are evident in the Sudanese Church. So we has some fun skits, some good teaching, some great worship and powerful prayer. Rather calm but a good day.

Blessings from Khartoum,
Micheal

VERGIL:
Today was a full day of teaching. The more we learn about the people and their culture, the better we can engage them. When people know that you love them, they are much more inclined to take to heart the words that you speak. So once again the key to effective ministry is relationship. Micheal has been giving short English lessons which the people enjoy very much. Today I greeted them with the Arabic "good morning" they just thought that was the coolest thing in the world. They are shocked when we show interest in their culture. I think they believe that to be a good Christian they have to stop being Sudanese. I asked this question today, "Is the church in America better than the church in Sudan?" Most people responded with yes. That became a great teaching moment.

Micheal has been teaching on marriage. Marriage in Sudan is interesting. It is not uncommon for a Christian man to have more than one wife. Marriages are arranged and women are very subservient. Please pray that the Lord will give Micheal wisdom as to how to teach on this subject. There is so much about the culture that we do not understand and we are only here for 8 days. We need the Holy Spirit.

Gary continued to teach people how to reach children with the gospel message. He is a very creative teacher. We are blessed to have him along with us on this trip. He has been a real encouragement to me about the church plant. He has a wealth of ministry experience which, I plan to draw from during the remainder of the trip.

We have two more days of the conference then we go into the desert camps. No one knows for certain the number of people that live in these camps, but it is well over 100,000. Our students, that we have been training all week, will get a chance to put into practice what they have learned. On Saturday, we will have a graduation ceremony and leave that night to go back to Nairobi. And the journey begins back to Portland.

Prayer Request:
1.) That the church in Sudan will be encouraged
2.) That the students will become more effective teachers
3.) Peace; the violence here is so discouraging to the people. The government (Arabs) want to control all of the wealth in this country. The wealth is in the oil. Different tribes have controlled the oil fields of Sudan (depending on their location). So the Sudanese government, wanting more money, will stir up a conflict between the tribes and then equip one tribe with superior weapons so that they will emasculate the other tribe (the one whose territory encompasses an oil field). There was a similar incident in Southern Sudan last night 100 people died.
4.) Pastor Joseph is doing all of the interpreting; pray that the Lord will give him strength.

May the Lord bless you, may the Lord keep you, may His face shine on you. And may He be gracious to you, and lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.

Vergil