East Africa Praise & Prayer

From Jimmy & Roxanne Cox

WHY OUR AFRICAN & INDIAN MISSIONARIES RAISE THEIR OWN FINANCIAL SUPPORT
There are hundreds of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) working Kenya & Sudan. They pay salaries to their African employees & provide useful relief & development services in Africa. But SIM is not an NGO. We are a mission & therefore committed to partnering with the African church. All of our SIM-SUDAN team members are required to raise their own monthly financial support from their home churches, whether they be from India or Nigeria or Ethiopia. By this their churches show their commitment & responsibility to fulfilling The Great Commission.

HOW AFRICAN MISSIONARIES CAN IMPACT THE CHURCHES HERE IN A WAY THAT MISSIONARIES FROM THE WEST CANNOT - -
Here is just one of many examples of how important our African & Indian missionaries are:
We received a ministry newsletter from an Ethiopian friend who is a missionary in Pakistan. Speaking to a group of Pakistani church leaders, he challenged them, saying, "If my church (in Ethiopia) is able to send me here (to Pakistan) as a missionary, what is the reason for you not sending a single missionary at least within Pakistan?" He continues in his newsletter to say, "In front of westerners their excuse has been poverty... money. They could not say that in front of me. Indeed they were ashamed for not doing anything significant for decades but only relying on western missionaries."

The missionaries from our team who are serving in South Sudan have a credibility in some ways that western missionaries do not. Jimmy, by virtue of the fact that he is seen as a "rich westerner", cannot stand before Sudanese or Kenyan church leaders & challenge them in such a way as our Ethiopian friend could do. And yet western missionaries have credibility before Africans in other ways. HOW WONDERFUL THAT TOGETHER, AS A MULTI-CULTURAL TEAM, WE CAN REPRESENT THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IN A BROADER SENSE THAN WE WOULD AS A MONO-CULTURAL TEAM.


SIM-Sudan team members from different countries praying together

• Pray for Sam, the first Kenyan to join the Rebuilding Southern Sudan team. Pray for Sam as he tries to raise his monthly financial support from Kenyan churches.
• Praise God for the Nigerian, Indian & Ethiopian churches that are financially supporting missionaries from their own countries who are serving at our bases in Sudan.
  

Please Pray for Tanzania

From Ian & Meg in Tanzania:

As the developed world reels from the shockwaves of financial crisis, a crisis of a different kind is sweeping Tanzania, probably unreported by the international media. It is albino sacrifice.

Albino people, of which there a many in Tanzania, have a very hard life. They suffer with serious skin disorders, often leaving them permanently disfigured. They must always seek shelter from the intense African sun. Worst of all they are ostracised in a society with neither welfare system nor recognition of the dignity of people. Most albino people develop emotional problems through the stigma they bear; the albino suicide rate is high.

To add to their woes, there has recently been a surge in kidnapping and murder of albino people, whose skin and body parts are considered to have supernatural powers. Albino skins stretched over black bodies are believed to afford protection against evil spirits. Body parts from albino people are valued as good luck charms for miners and people in other businesses, where the parts are concealed under clothing, tied to the workers' bodies, or kept hidden in the mine or business premises. The scary aspect of all this is that people, influenced by witch doctors, frequently testify to the success of these practices in bringing protection and prosperity. So they proliferate.

The govenment is slow to take action on matters of a purely cultural nature (like its failure to seriously address the barbaric practice of female circumcision). Yes, there are the usual laws against kidnapping and murder, but in a society where law enforcement is corrupt and languid, there is little effective action. The major Christian churces, weakened by institutionalism and political bindings, tend not to speak out.

In civilised western societies modelled on Christian ethics, we find such practices repugnant. But in primitive cultures, where spiritism has been practised for generations, Satan takes the opportunity for direct spiritual attack. To this he adds the deception that such things are to be accepted as part of life. His aim is always to cause people to doubt God, through affliction, fear and confusion, which Satan tailors to suit the local culture. See how this is operating very differently in the financial crisis, where people might ask why does God allow this to bring hardship on so many, when it is more insightful to ask how did man allow a system of his own making get so out of control. Are not both the result of man leaving God out and going it alone, only to be trapped by his own obsessive spiritism on the one hand, or selfish consumerism on the other?

Please pray for the one, all-powerful, good, Holy Spirit of God to prevail against the power of evil spirits in Tanzania, as we see Jesus do in the gospels. May his name be proclaimed and release his people from the deception of demonic agents leading them astray. Pray for the safety and salvation of albino people, who being among the poor and oppressed, have a special place in God's eternal Kingdom of righteousness, through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

VILLAGE OF HOPE

Here is an update from Jimmy and RoxAnne Cox:

photo credit: Debbie Sardo

Since opening our clinic in Doro, South Sudan, this March, SIM has been able to assist 53 malnourished children! We've set up a "nutrition village" called Village of Hope which provides housing for mothers to stay with their malnourished children for several weeks while their children are treated. During that time, mothers receive teaching on nutrition, cooking & basic health care. The housing is necessary for parents who have to walk many hours (even several days walk) to the clinic.

PRAISE GOD with us for our terrific medical team at Doro & PRAY for the physical, emotional & spiritual stamina they need to continue their crucial ministries.