I write this with Christmas music playing in the background. It is fast approaching. Weird to think they would do play this in a Muslim dominated country. Everywhere you look in the skylines you see the peaks of mosques.

It has been great to have all of us write something each night - it gives different perspectives to the day and you can pick and choose what to read.

GARY:
What an amazing day it was today. God has definitely answered my prayer that it would be His agenda and not ours. If you prayed for the situation about Micheal addressing the marriage issues from yesterday, know that it was answered. God spoke to him during the night. Not compromising on what the scriptures say, but humbly apologizing to his lack of sensitivity to its application, God moved in a big way. We took communion and started on more worship. Rosemary mentioned to Pastor Joseph (who was back to his spunky self - answer to all of our prayers - thanks!) that he should invite people forward who needed special prayers. Again, it was like Acts 2 with the disciples being in the room when the Holy Spirit came down. Lots of ministry happened. This all took about an hour. Many, many lives were changed. I have been to services like this before, but never as one who was asked to pray for those coming forward. Definitely needed to trust the Spirit to know what to pray because of the language differences. My prayer has been that we would follow God's leading because He knows what these young people need. Obviously at this point, it was not more of our teaching! I sure wish we could bring some of these young leaders over to encourage our young adults. Their heart and passion for Christ amazes me more and more each day. Rosemary made an interesting comment on the way back to the hotel this afternoon. She said she would not want to move to the US because with all her visits, she sees people being too fake - almost decieving - in their relationships. Ouch! Hopefully God can change that in the relationships we share.

Amidst the tears being shed this morning, there were some great times of laughter. I know Micheal is writing about one in his note. One other thing that happened had to do with the young boy, Rafael, that I mentioned on Monday. He came at the end of class and told me the man in the front row was his dad. I even took my picture with both of them. They both spoke English so why not. You know where I am going with this - don't you! Yesterday, I spoke to the man (I have still not been able to understand what his name is.) about when Rafael would be coming and he said after the afternoon break. Sure enough, Rafael came just on time. Today, I was talking to the man about what a fine son he had. He then proceeded to tell me that he was not married - his finace was in the class with us. He did not even know Rafael before Monday! Oh we laughed hard about that!

At devotions this morning, we talked with Rosemary about the situation with the women in thsi country and throughout Africa. She said most marriages are arranged - you ahve no say as to who you will marry. Most of them are arranged when they are young and dowries are paid throughout the children's lifetime - so there is no getting out of them. So you might end up getting married to an unbeliever and/or an abuser. The women cannot get out of the marriages because no one will take them in and they cannot get jobs. They are stuck! She also mentioned that if you have HIV, you will get killed by your family as brings disgrace. So even if you know about it, you won't tell anyone because you know you will be killed. Then you get married and spread it to your spouse and to your children and any other partners you may have. She has a friend in Kenya who comes up with all kinds of excuses to not getting married because he does not want to infect the women he has been arranged to. How devastating! No wonder the problem continues to escalate.

The rest of the day went great. More worship, Vergil's teachings and the unveiling of the puppets made for an amazing day with the Lord and with these students. Tomorrow is our last day of classes and then Friday we are off to the desert camps to minister to the children. Graduation party is then on Saturday before we fly out.

Prayer:
- We keep our agenda open to God doing His work
- Preparation for our final classes
- The future for these students. They are working hard and want to be used mightily by God for His Kingdom purposes

MICHEAL:

What a wonderful day it was. Half the day was on our schedule, half was not -- and both were very good. Vergil opened this morning and talked about the I Am's of Jesus. When he got to 'I Am the Life', he asked the group what gave them life. A young man in the back raised his hand and stood -- they always stand to answer questions -- and said, 'What gives me life is the smile of a woman'. Very funny. Before my session I asked for all the ladies to smile (what beautiful young women with these gorgeous smiles), I thanked them saying I just needed some life.

I made a very stupid American mistake yesterday and felt a heavy burden after the conference. During the last session I was talking about marriage and how Jesus makes both the man and woman whole so that they can become one. One lady was very sad and wanted to ask questions but time was ended. It seems I didn't think through the implications of arranged marriage and that some are arranged with non-believers. Women can only get out of this if they can come up with the payment given for them. This is almost never the case. So here I was telling the young single ladies that as their father I wanted the best for them and to make sure they married a Christian. I woke up at 2:00 this morning with a direction from the Lord that did not allow me back to sleep. I told them that the Bible was true in every culture but when the Truth is shared without wisdom and sensitivity it was a sin. I had done this and asked for their forgiveness. I continued with the fact we have no choice as to the culture we are born into, and that every culture from Adam and Eve has been twisted by sin. I told them about my culture of materialism. Even what I have that I consider essential (home, car, education, etc.) would be more than
excess is Sudan, and could be viewed as sin in the light of scripture when so many are poor. Arranged marriage is one of those twisted cultural things. I told them there was one marriage where they did have as a choice and that was to Christ. Being a good bride of Christ can make us a good wife and mother in any circumstance. This is just a part of what I shared but you get the idea. Then the four of us (including Rosemary) served them communion offering the cup as a marriage proposal from Jesus -- by drinking they were saying yes to becoming His bride. It was very powerful, but the really powerful came after this. For over an hour, Pastor Jospeh led a Spirit filled ministry time that was wonderful -- there is so much hurt and pain. The woman who was sad the day before was truly touched by the Lord. I had prom! ised a question and answer time regarding marriage after that session on Tuesday and when we had one this afternoon, she said she had no questions about marriage. Yes! I was dreading those questions. Vergil next did a teaching on Lazarus. He has been quite smitten by the Sudanese. I had told him before we went that he would enjoy teaching these people more than any other group in his experience, and this he has found to be true. He is truly in his element and does such a wonderful job. He read his favorite verse, I John 4:19, in Arabic today and was a great hit. Joseph said it sounded like he had an accent from the Juba Mountains in Southern Sudan. Sudan has come to occupy a special place in Vergil's heart and will forever influence his ministry. I know, I'm his dad, but I am very proud of him. He asked them how old they thought he was today and one guy said 40. After Vergil's session, Gary and I brought out the puppets for the first time with a lesson on Lazarus. They were an instant highlight of the conference. Afterwards, we handed out the puppets (40 of them) for a session on how to use them and they were so fun to watch. We practiced with the words of an English song Gary had taught them that we sing at closing every day. It was fantastic. These puppets were such a great investment and if anyone from Rolling Hills is reading this, thank you so very much. You have started a puppet ministry in Sudan. Also, you should be very proud of Gary as he is doing a tremedous job. The last 45 minutes were spent in groups planning for our outreach to the Desert Camps on Friday. The students are doing it all. Some groups are doing parables, some stories, some puppets and we will have worship, food, drink and small groups where we have
wordless bracelets for all the children (thank you again Rolling Hills). Thank you very much Cornerstone Church for making this outreach possible. It was rewarding to see so many of the students from last year in groups excited to plan their parables. I didn't mention the worship times today including two conga lines going in opposite direction around the room. Those people are so much fun but they wear me out -- they seem to run on unlimited energy. Sorry for the length of this, but my heart is full. It is wonderful to see the growth in the students from last year and to see really strong leaders emerge, leaders that may soon be able to do their own training in Khartoum. I can see this happening and that is exciting.

Pray for sleep for us and pray for the outreach on Friday. I am looking forward with great joy to seeing the students minister to these little ones. Vergil has been taking about 10 minutes of video each day which will convey so much more than pictures or our words. It was a very good day.

Blessings from Khartoum
Micheal

VERGIL:
To follow later tonight when he gets to write it.