We awoke Tuesday morning to reports from people inside Juba, the capital city of South Sudan, that they were rejoicing over a general sense of calm and no sound of gunfire for many hours. The streets were still mostly deserted. Pastor James spoke to his sister on the phone in the early morning hours and she seemed to be at peace and was able to return to her home. At midday she ventured out into the community to try to find food for herself and her three children. To her shock, she witnessed soldiers burning down all of the shops and food stores. She said that the government was urging the people to remain calm while simultaneously imprisoning people in their homes and shooting at civilians as they tried to flee to the United Nations base for shelter. The United Nations has reported that over 36,000 civilians are trapped and in urgent need of assistance. Please continue to pray for these innocent civilians to find safety and food soon.
Meanwhile, James Nyika is at our school in South Sudan. At this time the town where our school is located is completely safe from the violence that is currently in the capital city 250 miles away. Our local tribes are heavily armed warriors and have positioned themselves along the road and throughout the city to maintain peace and security. Our greatest concern is the ability to get food to feed the 200 children in our care. We have enough food to last seven days. Pastor James will be traveling to Kenya tomorrow to try and secure more food for our missionaries and children. If he is unable to bring food into South Sudan we will be forced to evacuate our children by the end of the week. Originally we planned to take our children to Kakuma refugee camp with a population of 250,000 people living in a barren wasteland in northern Kenya. Yesterday the Lord miraculously connected us with a United Nations security officer that stated his concerns with our children’s safety in this massive refugee camp. God moved upon his heart to make special arrangements for our children to be able to live in a handful of abandoned homes in Lokichoggio, a peaceful and safe border town between South Sudan and Kenya. This is a total answer to your prayers! Please continue to pray for James and our leadership staff to be sensitive to the Lord’s leading during this crisis. Every decision at this stage is crucial.
Myself and our American team are safe in Kenya’s capital city with Pastor Dave Zavala of Calvary Chapel Nairobi. From here we are able to communicate with and facilitate James Nyika on a moment by moment basis. Please pray that we will be able to provide Pastor James and all of our national staff with the encouragement and resources they desperately need. Two of our American missionaries have been suffering from food poisoning for the past two days. Please pray that God will miraculously heal their bodies immediately.
Thank you for praying for our team… Teri Jackson Kelli Rose Pollin Becky Breznau – Rob Douglass
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