November 2010 Mission Update

We appreciate, and are still inspired by our hearing UK pastor, Glenn Barker(far left) & our
senior deaf Ugandan pastor, David Bulime, left, who were both called back Home this month.
Glenn and David have pioneered much & blessed many of us.

Signs and Wonders in Labone, S. Sudan -with the mixed hearing / deaf DTS team
• Living in Labone’s community .
• Learning from/working with Labone’s deaf/youth
• At the Refinery: Learning about ourselves.

Next steps
• Outline Programme up until April 2011.
• Kidz News: Universities, Guitar lessons, & Rabbits.
• Sudan and Congo DTS teams completing their outreaches in Gulu, N. Uganda and Eastern Congo.

This Month’s Focus:
• Enjoying a break in Kenya
• DTS student/staff debrief, graduation ceremony
• Co-planning an educational tour for two local Teachers of the Deaf

Living in Labone’s community.

Our mixed hearing/deaf team of 11 students and 5 of their dependents was here for five weeks.
YWAM Arua has local contacts here.

Malaria forced me to travel to Laboni a week later than the rest of the team, by public transport. The journey took 36 hours instead of 12 in a 4WD.

One part of our route was the most dangerous in all Uganda, in the years of conflict. Many of the camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) are still there.

Our team began and ended each day with time together to get to know God more and ask for God’s specific guidance for the day’s needs/opportunities and challenges. No drainage and a wet season made me very grateful to the person who advised me to bring gum boots.

To make a phone-call I needed to walk ¾ mile to get even an intermittent signal (front page photo).Our shower room (right) is shown just after one of our deaf students gave it a make-over, adding a bamboo shelf and mat.

Learning from/working with Labone’s deaf.

The speed with which our deaf students (circled) found and persuaded local deaf and a hearing friend/relative to learn sign-language was breath-taking.

They were a magnet for local hearing kids and youth too, who loved the races to grab the object signed from a topic.

Learning from/working with Labone’s deaf.

The speed with which our deaf students (circled) found and persuaded local deaf and a hearing friend/relative to learn sign-language was breath-taking.

They were a magnet for local hearing kids and youth too, who loved the races to grab the object signed from a topic.

Signs and Wonders from the mixed hearing / deaf DTS team in Labone, S. Sudan

Learning from/working with Labone’s youth

This local youth, came to us to help treat his severe case of jiggers (tiny worms that breed under the toe and fingernails).

He later shared that although only about 1.4m tall, he was aged 20, a heavy drinker and rejected by his close family over ongoing disagreements. He was near starvation and his isolated, rundown hut(Page1) a haven for pests and disease).

A nurse on our team persuaded the local health centre to treat him. A couple from the team visited him most days to chat & bring food (not provided).

Local youth, Joseph, (left), told me how he has left home because of his parents’ dependence on alcohol. His younger deaf brother is unable to leave home and has to fend for himself. We taught them both sign-language. Here, Joe shows the sign-name our deaf students gave him.

On request, one of our mature Kenyan students, Boaz also spent two long mornings teaching nutrition and more productive ways of farming from the expertise he had in this area. We also shared biblical insights on enriching our relationships following requests for support from many youth, single, dating and married

At the Refinery - Learning about ourselves on outreach in Labone, S. Sudan (Adam):

It never ceases to amaze me how many different ways my Lord God speaks to me, often repeatedly on the same topic, until I act on the message. He used people’s comments, a vision, a voice in my mind, animals, problems and sicknesses. No method was too. Heavy language I know , but I am constantly reminded of His desire to teach me if I am receptive am expectant, responsive and faithful.

Three passages were really impressed upon me whilst in Sudan. The first was about continuing to ask from Luke 11. I realised even more, now, how God answers me through my ‘neighbour’, and how greater neighbour-liness may well have prevented the death of a mother and a two year old whist we were in Laboni.

Then, I was struck afresh how the steps and lessons our DTS teams were going through were very similar to the account about Jesus beginning his work in Galilee in Matthew chapters 4 & 5. I also understood, more starkly and precisely, the needs, vision , mission and goals Jesus’ saw. Like the team accounting (above left),he wants nothing wasted

Then the parables of the sower and the wise and foolish builders were miraculously acted out - twice each, by the local villagers, and then the local weather system on two of our tents! Laboni peoples’ minds, and ours are very much like the different types of soil in the story about the sower. Laboni peoples’ lives and ours are also not built on totally firm foundations, but over the years the Lord has strengthened mine. May He do so for you too.

One of the local delicacies, bush-rat, (left), was a real mind battle for me, because of their distant cousin’s lifestyle in the UK! But, it was so tasty!

Being a multi-cultural team meant accepting different attitudes to stray dogs who needed care, discipline & work, but who carried disease and wanted our food. Using scripture we slowly learnt to see the truth in other’s views, the flaws in our own,change & forgive! Do feedback. Lets israel - wrestle with God!. CU. Ad

Jerome’s News Nov 2010

The rabbit hutch is nearly completed, with Loz’s help and my garden is looking ship shape for the dry season.

Tomatoes are beginning to flower and the cabbages are growing well. I planted sugar cane, water melon, potatoes and cucumber. I have read the dry season is long this year so I’m fortunate the land I have has natural springs.

We have started a football team and are planning to make a league for January.
I have been learning the guitar and am really enjoying it.

Newz from the kidz: Laurence Nov 2010

I have just recovered from what was either a non-deadly form of malaria or a diarrhoea and vomiting virus.

The clinic said I had typhoid and malaria after a blood test. However, shortly after ,a uk doctor we met pointed out that a typhoid vaccination can produce a positive test result for Typhoid.

Fortunately we discovered this before I started taking 5 daily typhoid treatment injections.

Apart from that I've been playing a lot of footy, working on the rabbit house, and playing guitar. Next week were Can’t wait to go to Mombasa for a holiday.

Family news Nov 010: Maria

In mid October I made my 5 university choices, after some indecision.! The courses focus mainly on either Politics or International Development. I I have received 2 conditional offers

I now work at a local cake shop on Saturdays. Enjoyable but sadly no free cake!

Last week I had a great time visiting Dad's relatives. My youngest cousin is now starting to walk!
I’ve forgotten what our winter was like, as in Uganda the hrs of daylight hardly varied. I'm not sure which one I prefer now!