Joshua and Taban
Imagine you get dropped off in a village in Sudan. You’re dropped from a truck carrying a few of your friends. Earlier that day, you said goodbye to your wife and eight children. You’re alone. Some guy who’s never even done this himself (me) trained you. You speak a dialect the people understand, but this is not your tribe, not your people. You know no one.
That is the scenario our Sudanese indigenous missionaries lived out roughly a year ago. Today, and the exact story above, is the story of Joshua in Mangala. I debriefed him and the other seven missionaries after Christmas on my last trip there.
Joshua arrived late and had no idea where to sleep. The administrator of the area found him. Joshua’s quote was the he was “sent by God.” The Admin gave him a safe place to sleep. The next day, the Admin told him he needed approval from Juba--the capitol of the South--to stay there.
Joshua traveled to Juba, met the commissioner, and gained approval to live and work in Mangala with the goal of planting a church. Upon returning, he immediately met the elders and began to form relationships with them to gain favor in their eyes.
His training taught him to pray for a person of peace (Luke 10). Sure enough, God brought him a man of peace. This man took Joshua under his wing, showed him where to get clean water, helped him find food, and let him bathe in his compound. The man was a muslim--at that time.
He loved what Joshua was teaching. He loved it so much that he placed his two sons under Joshua’s teaching.
We (e3 Sudan) made a big mistake. We sent the first missionaries out alone. Bad idea. We’ve rectified that, and a family in the United States sponsored (you can do that you know) Moses Taban to come out and join Joshua. Moses is younger than Joshua and starting using soccer as an outreach platform to the kids in the community.
There are a ton of challenges in this area. Two tribes co-exist in the area, and they tend to fight. There’s hunger, lack of clean water, and occasionally a tribe from way out in the east sneaks into town to abduct children. They do that to improve their own bloodline. No, I don’t fully understand that.
The good news is that despite those challenges, Joshua and Moses have between 35 and 60 people coming to worship with them. This year, the government will give them a plot of land to move the church to. From there...? We’ll see.
Next week, another missionary story.
Posted by on 02/06 at 02:29 PM