In a whirlwind of events these last few weeks from South Sudan to Kenya to Uganda we find ourselves in what was the largest refugee camp in the world. (Recently Coz Bizarre in Bangladesh has taken over that position) but this camp is still very very big, spread out over 250 km² ....... And this was a tough crowd, starting with the Pastors and elders of churches, there were pages and pages of demands, requests and even some threats that if they didn’t get what they wanted from us we would regret it, every point we conceded on just didn’t seem to be enough for them. We felt that one of the key struggles of coming and working amongst the refugees here was that they have so many aid organisations coming and offering so much free aid, that their expectations of what they were entitled to were so high, the idea of what aid is seemed to have gone out the window.
It took us a good three days to drive from Kenya, across Uganda then up towards the Congo, South Sudan boarder. One the highlights included crossing the nile and seeing a bull elephant only a few feet from the car and then later hippos and possibly a croc - though that could have just been a drifting log......
-Our travels to the camp-
Our heart for these people was to reach the broken hearted, share the good news and the hope of the Gospel and to try to re-introduce Jesus to those who may have a totally wrong picture of who God is. Despite all these struggles, the meetings got off to an amazing start with the kids programs, thousands came and with our passionate youth team we were able to act out bible stories, play with puppets and so much more. Seeing the seriousness nature of their response helped us to know God was at work. This continued the whole week with the football tournaments in the morning, youth events in the afternoon and the main event in the evenings, and many people coming to the Lord with for the first time or re committing their lives every single night.
-Praying, ministry and teaching-
In the evenings building up to the event, some of the team would go out into the different villages in the camp to show the Jesus film and share what God has done. You can really see how much GFI wants people to hear the good news as there isn't a minuet in the day where something isn't happening, even late into the night teams are out showing Jesus films, sharing testimonies of the goodness of our marvellous creator.
-Showing the Jesus film in the evenings-
-Kids program-
One of Jessies full time ministries is to Valour, I love having my wife and son with me where ever we go, and Jess does such an amazing job at taking care of Valour where ever we are. Here in Yo Yo we would jump in the car and the cars temperature would be over 65ºC ! Often this creates an open door for Jessie to hang out with other families, cooks, cleaners and minister to the people that often miss these events as they are busy as mums so often are.
-Kids program continued... 😉-
-The Rex's in Yo Yo-
Our long drive back to Kenya proved to be a huge challenge which involved many break downs - I have linked in a few short unedited video clips with some of the highlights from the breakdowns for your viewing entertainment.
Thank you for your ongoing prayer - support - and reading of these updates, it means so much to us.
-Bump start in the rain-
-Jump start with spanners - Who knew?-
-Cant always use spanners so. DIY jump cable-
-Battery is dead dead so DIY solution for power to the fuel injector -
-Main oil supply pipe broke-
-DIY air filter-
-"Somethings not right" AKA the engine blew up-
-600km tow home.....-