February Update

Many of you know that only a few
weeks after the team’s arrival in
Makiria, we felt the attitude of the
community change and the deterioration
of our security situation
was such that we needed to withdraw
to Loki. There is no law in this
area—no government, no functioning
tribal authority and plenty of
automatic weapons. Our only security
is the good will of the community.
In a sense, they did not view
us as being humans, but much as
a foreign tribe is viewed: possessors
of goods from whom it is an
honor to steal. Our withdrawal was
a “tactical move” intended to
change the attitude of the community
toward us so we could live and
effectively minister here. It worked.
Lino was one of our team leaders’
former worker and friend who later
stole from them. He had regularly
attended the Sunday worship that
had been started before the
team’s arrival. After the theft, he
became a ringleader to young men
whose pleasure was to cause us
trouble. We had only been back
from Loki a few days when we
heard that Lino was not his usual,
cheerful self. David (our team
leader) went to visit him.
Without any prompting from David,
Lino poured out his heart. He said
that, after we withdrew to Loki, the
community began pointing at him
saying that he was one of the ones
responsible for our leaving. His
father threatened to disown him.
Lino began to think about his ways
and found that he had no peace.
When he went to bed at night, he
saw our faces and felt guilty. He
was miserable. He asked for
David’s forgiveness and said that
he wanted to climb the hill and ask
Deborah and Danny to forgive him
as well. David talked about God’s
forgiveness and salvation. Lino already
had head knowledge of these
things, but we believe that now he
has reached out to God for
forgiveness in a new way.

A F R I C A N O U T I N G
I have been in Kenya for several
weeks now for AIM’s Orientation. It
is held at Scott’s Theological College
in Machakos. Although I miss my
Didinga friends and neighbors, it
has been refreshing to be around
new missionaries entering the field
and other Africans who are a little
more civilized.
My favorite part of the orientation
has been the topic of Islam in Northern
Africa. Their is such a need for
people to be sent to these creative
access countries and my heart is
burdened for them. Many people
believe that in 2010 war will break
out again in Sudan, as this is when
the peace treaty ends. We need to
be praying for these parts of the
world where the gospel is going
and has yet to be reached. It is the
only thing that can really change
hearts.
As part of the Islam section we
went and visited a mosque and
we were able to ask them questions
about their faith. One of
the questions we had was how
they know if they are going to
heaven. Their response to this is
that they can never really know
if Allah will accept them. Those
who put their faith in Christ have
full assurance of their salvation.
We need to make sure our lives
reflect this hope that we have.