"Greetings of blessing to all. It has been some time since my last correspondence. Yesterday we returned from visiting and ministering in the Rhino Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda. I could almost write a book about what God did there this week. Although the camp itself has been around since the 1980’s, it was the first refugee settlement during the Sudan war back when the southern Sudan people fought against Sharia law and for their freedom to worship Jesus Christ. It is still the largest camp in Uganda hosting over 155,000 refugees.
This year people are still coming, many being the Nuer Tribespeople who are tired of war. After all my years living and ministering in South Sudan I have never had the privilege of ministering to the Nuer people who are mostly on the northeastern part of South Sudan. When we ministered in this settlement in September the Lord put a cry in my heart to come back and reach the youth here. We spent two full days discipling and ministering to the youth. The theme of the conference was that they had purpose and that the Father is always for them.
I talked to them about the Father’s heart and how many of their hearts are like the stones on the ground, hard and resistant, because of their need to protect themselves from all of the hurt they have experienced because of this war. Fathers have died because of this war and many are still there fighting for their homes and livelihood, leaving these young people here without them. Many mothers are raising them alone, up to 15 children each. I then called our team of pastors to come and stand at the alter under the mango trees to pray for them as fathers. At first no one moved. I waited. Five minutes, nothing. I waited. Then one came tears falling. Then another. Only girls came at first. Then one of the young men from the church we were partnering with got on the microphone and started speaking truth to their hearts. Tears began to fall. Then a miracle happened. The boys began to come. This culture teaches boys to never be weak, don’t cry, and help yourself. Even the pastors and definitely myself, we all began to shed tears with them. The alter call just kept going, with young people now standing in line waiting to be loved as a father loves.
The next day an amazing testimony was told by one of our team youths. A father who saw us, having no idea what we were teaching about, asked one of my team to please talk to his daughter who had left home for no obvious reason and refused to talk to her father. At first the girl refused, then later that day she came, arms crossed, angry, and said, “Fine! I will listen to what you have to say”. She had been sitting in our conference and even heard the Father’s Heart message. My team member talked to her again about the Father’s heart for her and how her own father loved her. After a long talk she began to smile and open up and after prayer she went to retrieve her belongings and went back to her father asking for forgiveness. The father was so grateful. Reconciliation is fully about the heart and is the heart of our Father. His heart is the reason Jesus came, to reconcile us back to our Father. My heart is just undone because of His love for all of us.
Many of the young people testified that they realized for the first time that there is a purpose for their lives and that they are not here by accident and that all this suffering is not God’s punishment or judgment. One boy said that he finally understood the scripture in 2 Corinthians 10:5 about casting down dark thoughts and capturing them to make them obedient to Christ after the teaching on Truth and Lies. He said he felt free in his mind for the first time. Another boy came and testified that he had never experienced before today the unity of tribes that he experienced in our conference. He said that he was so tired of the division in the church, this tribe in this church only, this tribe in that church only, that he quit going to church. He said that conferences like ours can change the hearts of the people and bring unity back to South Sudan. The kids cheered and there was such a powerful presence of God that I drip tears as I type this. These kids are taught to be against this tribe or that tribe but their hearts cry for unity. One of my team led us all in a prayer of repentance, everyone on our knees in the dirt under the mango trees, for the damage done to the country of South Sudan and the hearts of the youth.
Our last day was spent ministering to their mamas. We talked about how women were important to God and how they are worth more than an empty water bottle kicked around in the dirt after it was no longer useful. The women said that they felt like this water bottle and feel useless as if their only purpose is to cook, clean, work in the fields and produce children. They never dreamed that their life had a higher purpose. After the pastor ministered to them about their importance to God, they were filled with hope and so encouraged. The alter had more women than the audience as they came up for prayer and ministry for hearts to be set free. They wanted the pastor to keep preaching because his words brought such hope to them, that God does have a purpose for them, a higher purpose in Him.
On one of the nights, we showed the Jesus film at the local football field. Only the youth were there, hundreds of them. There were some young boys who were very disrespectful and disturbing everyone with their loud talking and laughing and just walking back and forth on the edges of the crown, purposefully trying to distract and disturb. At one point we were about to shut everything down because it was so distracting. My pastor and I stopped the film and asked them if they were really there to watch the film. 90% of the crowd said a very definite YES! So we continued. This caused the fringe boys to quiet a bit. At the end of the film the Lord put it on my heart for one of our youth evangelists to speak to the youth assembled there. This kid just finished high school so he is young, but he is on fire. He preached like Jesus was coming tomorrow. He asked those who wanted to follow Jesus and really commit themselves to Him to raise their hands. Every hand shot up and the youth were serious during the prayer. We “estimate” there were about 300 there. We estimate that all raised their hands. We pray that they were serious and not just doing what everyone else was doing.
As we were leaving to come back to Luwero at the end of this week my heart burned yet again for the Nuer youth. I was told that there were places deeper in the camp where no one goes. In February we are going there, where no one goes, to go and get the King’s Nuer bride. My heart burns for the young people. They are so hungry and never want us to leave when we have to leave. They really pay attention and ask so many questions, always seeking truth. I know that these things are happening all over the earth and that young people will bring another Jesus Revolution just like the Jesus Movement of the 70’s. They are crying for discipleship. I pray that the Lord strengthens me and provides for these outreaches. The harvest really is ripe and the laborers are so few."