A Reflection on our trip to South Sudan
By the 2013 South Sudan team
The South Sudan Missions team returned last week after spending 10 days serving and spreading God's love to the orphans, pastors and medical staff at Harvesters Reaching the Nations. While it took us almost 48 hours to get to our destination of Yei, our exhaustion quickly dissipated as soon as we were welcomed by over 150 joyful young orphans who anticipated our arrival. This trip was a time of reflection, action, and most importantly, experiencing first-hand how we as children of God fit into His story. Here are a few reflections.
James 1:27
Harvesters, our partners in South Sudan, recently built a gate upon entering the compound. One of the orphans living there painted this verse from James 1:27:
"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this; to visit orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself by the word."
As we each reflected on this verse throughout the week, we were reminded that with every step we took, we were entering God's story; every moment we spent praying and serving the orphans and widows, we were living out God's words and into God's grand story of redemption for the world. The mission of renewal is God's, the miracle is we get to join in!
Jesus, the Good Physician
Within hours of arriving at Harvesters, we were invited to observe a C-Section procedure at the House of Hope hospital – a new hospital City Church helped build to care for mothers and children in the underserved areas of Yei. Before beginning the surgery, Dr. Graham Poole paused the surgical team for a heartfelt prayer: "Jesu,s you are the good physician... so now we pray that you would protect this mother and child, and care for them here." As we said "Amen," Dr. Graham and his team employed their medical skills to live into the very prayer that we had just prayed--following Jesus, the Good Physician, to heal and care for their patients. It is God who can heal, and He uses us as vehicles and tools to help heal the sick.
Make the lame to walk and shout for joy
When the town heard that one of our team members, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, was coming to Harvesters, word spread and many villagers travelled far to see Dr. Mike Kwon. One little girl walked 27 miles (9 hours) to simply be seen by a doctor! Dr. Mike operated on a young boy who had a deep infection in his leg bones and had not been able to walk properly for 8 years. Dr. Mike began the surgery with a prayer, remembering that Jesus had "healed and made the lame walk and shout for joy, so please do this and heal Jimmy in this surgery." Coming out of anesthesia, Jimmy did not cry out in pain – in fact, he was shouting for joy and glorifying God! We all laughed when Jimmy exclaimed (still in the grogginess of anesthesia): "You are my friends... God will make my leg goooood!" It was a wonderful moment to bask in Jimmy's rejoice and praise to God, and join God in another story of healing in South Sudan.
Love the orphans
The long-term missionaries at Harvesters have spent over 12 years feeding, clothing, teaching and loving the orphans. We come into His story as part of a long line of others' stories before us, living out His calling. Now that we're home, we're reflecting on living into God's story here in San Francisco and striving to incorporate what we experienced and learned in Yei. We don't have to cross an ocean to join Christ in renewing the world... we just have to walk outside our front door.
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