Newest addition to the team

The newest addition to the SIM Sudan team was not an individual coming from the US, Nigeria, North East India, Ethiopia, or Canada. They did not come on a plane but rather in a shipping container across the ocean! Moreover, it was put together carefully by the talented crew at AIM AIR (a branch of Africa Inland Mission). The newest member of our team is a new Cessna 206 plane!

We recently dedicated the plane to field service. It was a wonderful remind

er not only of the work but who we were going to serve. Ministry can be a very impersonal word at times. It is important to remember that each person is a soul. We are not just doing ministry but ferrying real people with names.

The flights allow us to be in areas that would otherwise be inaccessible by road. It allows missionaries to serve real people: those who are suffering from malaria; malnutrition; lack of education; lack of clean drinking water.

It also helps us to share the Word of God. In the past workdersused boats to reach far off places, today the airplane takes us further and further inland to some of the most amazing places in this world. There we meet with pastors and leaders of young churches and help in the rebuilding of Sudan as both church and nation!

Check out www.ngkilloren.com for a short video clip called “10 months in 3 minutes”!

What we do

For those of you who are curious as to what we do daily.

Claire:

• Process all paperwork for incoming team members and communicate with them before they get here, answering all their questions to the best of my ability
• On the Spiritual Life Conference committee and have a part in organizing the team conference in January
• Write manuals (bor-ing, yawn) but they have to be written to better help us all (we don’t have many so there are a few to do)
• Supervise the orientation process of new team members
• Process all ID cards for new team members
• Write new Personnel Request Forms when we realize we need more help in a certain ministry
• Sit on the Crisis Management Team
• Sit on SIM’s Area Council twice a year (I am the note taker)
• Do odd, personal logistics for people when they don’t know who to ask e.g.: “Claire, can you send me this book?”
• Book people into our Guesthouse and make sure everyone has a place to stay and a taxi to pick them up from the airport
• Write a monthly newsletter to the team introducing them to new team members who have arrived and also fill them in on helpful information
• Manage a Bible translation office project

Tohru:

• Work with project managers for the various Sudan projects (water, health, education, and other)
• Act as a board member for the SIC Secondary school
• Sit on the Crisis Management team
• SIM Sudan council member
• Act as liaison person for the Ethiopian, Nigerian who sends workers to Sudan
• Write new projects
• Donor relations/Publications

May this better shed light on how to pray for us! Thank you so much for your prayers!

By Prayer

What carries us through those tough weeks when things seem to just be going wrong? What we do at the beginning of the week may have something to do with it. What does an average week look like? The first thing we do at the beginning of the week is to pray.

I collect prayer requests that come from the field by phoning each base station using a satellite phone. We then announce the things that are going on and pray through each of them.

We also share a devotion from the Scriptures to encourage and challenge us. Though life on the mission field can be tough at times, we remind ourselves through the Word that the work that the Lord is doing through us is not in vain (2 Corinthians 15:58).

It’s important to remember that praying may be the most important thing we will do all week! Pray and watch the wonderful answers!

What's next

October 19-27 – We are going to Sudan! Even better, we are going to Kurmuk and then out to Chali. We have equipment to furnish the Uduk Old Testament Translation Office and Tohru and I are going in to help get it all set-up. On the same trip, we will accompany 2 Kenyan men from an organization called Faith Comes By Hearing. They will be doing an audio recording of the Uduk New Testament read by people from the Uduk church. It will then be put on solar powered ipods and distributed to the community. A very fun project. Please pray for travel safety.

November 1-20 – We are going to take some holidays. We have run out of gas and need some time to rejuvenate. Pray that we can successfully change the channel in our heads for a few weeks. I don’t know exactly what we will do but heading to the beach sure sounds good to me!

It's been 1 year already!

The familiar temperatures start to roll by again: has it already been a year since we got back!? Sure has!

It has been an eventful first year back in the field. It has been full of both ups and downs. Since we have been back, Claire has processed over 25 missionaries from around the world towards working in Sudan. We have seen the graduation of 4 classes of the Accelerated Learning Program. We have seen a greater move towards developing our water projects. There have been huge strides in the work at the clinic. We are also looking to expand church planting work in some uncharted areas. It has also been full of downs which have included the deaths of two AIM AIR missionaries both in their 30s in a plane accident. There were also difficulties in projects like the secondary school and tensions both due to insecurities as well as communities. Sudan continues to be a very difficult field for work.

A psychologist recently reframed it for me in its proper context. Most of us have had 20, 30, or 40 years of stability in our lives which enables us to cope with things when they are stressful. The Sudanese, however have been subject to fighting and insecurities since 1955. This means that the reserves of “normal” life is actually that of war. We may be working with friends who are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Our God is great, however, and I believe that the hope of the cross is the answer to the many difficulties of life.

“To the One who remembers us in our low estate His love endures for ever. And freed us from our enemies, His love endures for ever.” Psalm 136:23,24

Boat Trip! (by Claire)

April 20-24 was my first trip into Sudan since I came out to Kenya on January 2. It was to a place I had never been - even better! After a commercial flight to Loki, an overnight at our Loki guesthouse, and a 2.5 hour flight in a 208 Caravan we arrived in Atar. It is such a pretty place; a Dinka village right on the Atar River that flows into the Nile. The land was as flat as a table and dotted with trees. We were coming for the Basic Education Learning Center (BELC) graduation.

Among the highlights of those 4 days - a boat ride. I love and miss being on the water and I got a great chance. We needed a government stamp on all the certificates for the graduates. The government office was a 20 minute boat ride away. I eagerly volunteered to go with Ruth, our Education Coordinator. It was exhilarating! Ok, the 1.5 inch angle bar seating in this 25 foot metal skiff was a bit of a balancing act, but cruising along the Atar River and then the Nile was unforgettable. I was in a boat on the NILE!!! We saw some beautiful enormous birds and a sunbathing monitor lizard. The river was calm and I was introduced to a marine culture I hadn't thought about in the middle of Sudan. The Dinka people are swimming, fishing, river people and not jsut inland cattle herders. I learnt something new!

The way home was just as fun, the wind had picked up and I was lightly sprayed by the waves (and sand from the bottom of the boat). A bit of sunburn and bar-bum, I arrived back at the SIM base. It was the best experience in a long time! I can't wait to live on the Nile, Lord willing it will be soon!

Addis Ababa: the New Flower

My international travel routine is pretty well set. I travel between Sudan and Kenya every month or so and to Canada and the US from Nairobi every three years or thereabouts. So, when the opportunity arose for me to travel to a whole new country altogether, I jumped at it.

Addis Ababa was a wonderful break for Claire and I. It was a chance for me to see Claire's old stomping grounds. It was unlike any other country I have been in before. I must say that it is unique. Although our main purpose in going was to meet with church leaders who have been sending workers to where we are, we had a chance to be tourists for once.

We both love museums and so we were able to go to one located at the Addis Ababa university. We were also able to meet up with some of the missionaries who had spent the last three years in Sudan. One of them was Sisay who had spent his time serving as a teacher along one of our Nile based stations. During his time, he was able to reach out to community with the students on evangelistic campaigns. We became fast friends when I visited earlier this year. He's now encouraging the churches in Ethiopia in their work of global missions.

One of the final things one must do is drink coffee in Ethiopia. The bean is said to have been discovered by a shepherd boy by the name of Kaldi from where this particular chain derives its name! One day he had noticed that his goats were acting strange after eating red berries. After he did some investigation, he is later said to have discovered coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker but found that when in"Rome" it was nice to have the odd cup!