Elias and David
Part three in my four part series on Sudanese Missionaries. Also, got a cool video for you here.
If you’ve been a regular reader, you know I’ve tried to be careful and share stories where we’ve either bombed, made mistakes, or things haven’t worked out like we planned. There’s been a tremendous amount of wonderful things the Lord has done, but we’ve struggled as well. Welcome to Kagwada (Kag-Wah-duh), our third mission point.
Elias and his family
Elias (main missionary) was dropped off and it was rough right off the bat. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel militia that is pure evil, was reported to be in the area. The LRA routinely kills innocent men, women and children. They burn villages--everything you can imagine, and more.
The locals advised Elias to leave, but he’s got a great heart and said he’d ride out the wave of fear with them. After this wave passed, the LRA had abducted five children from the village. They’ll most likely brainwash them and turn them into child soldiers.
Elias found himself in a tough neighborhood. He said the people are highly unmotivated. They smoke a tremendous amount of opium. They complain of hunger, but don’t work at farming.
I taught the missionaries to do site surveys. After completing his, he identified only two literate people--in the entire village. There are school buildings, but they sit vacant with no teachers.
One of the two literate men, a young man, professed faith in Christ and Elias began to disciple him. This is about the time David, another highly educated man, came to Elias’s side and began working with him as a second missionary. They sent the young man to our Bible school for further training. If you had the opportunity to hear David Kaya speak when he was in the U.S. then you heard the story of this young man. When he returned home from the Bible School, he refused both a ritual washing and a ceremony of washing with the blood of a goat. He refused because of his belief in Christ. This enraged his father who hired a gunman to shoot his own son.
The first attempt at shooting the young man failed. The gunman kicked in the door to his tukel (hut). The door fell on the boy, hiding him. After escaping a third murder attempt, Elias and David advised him to go back to the Bible school where he’d be safe.
Elias and David are discipling 6 people, total. Tough ground. Pray for them. The good news is they’re back there. They’re not giving up, and we are praying about sending a contingent of Bible School students there for reinforcements to help re-invigorate Elias and David.
Story 4 coming.
Posted by on 02/12 at 08:42 AM