Weary Not In Doing Good

Written by Carolyn Figlioli

This morning I sat and pondered about the fate of South Sudan, which seems to continually spiral in every direction but pure and lasting peace. My heart is sometimes heavy with the burden of wanting so much to be there to minister. Our hearts cry out for the nation to come into its destiny in God and who He designed her to be, His pure and spotless bride. I just read this morning that the US National Security Advisor has officially announced the President’s decision to end all financial assistance to South Sudan. You can see ther reasoning for this online by googling it. I have also received a travel advisory telling US citizens to not enter into South Sudan. This is the first time they ever said do not enter. Things have become very serious.

I have talked to friends within the country and friends just miles outside the border and friends in the camps. All agree that things are not okay. There is still internal conflict in many areas and people are still running across to the safety of Uganda. Much of the conflict comes from bandits and various rebel groups who do not want to see peace because of their own personal agendas. This directly affects those who are innocent and want no part of all this strife. People are taking advantage of all of us refugees being gone from our homes and they are stealing everything and bringing it over the borders to neighboring countries to sell it. All of our buildings on our South Sudan base are now just shells, the metal doors and windows ripped out and sold for scrap metal. The iron sheet roofings, the same. Our borehole has also been destroyed.

Although we knew this day would come, it is very painful to know that the home we built and loved and lived in is no longer a home but an empty shell, abandoned to overgrown grass and an endless silence, no laughing voices of happy children, no goats and chickens and dogs running about, no delicious aromas coming from the kitchen, no prayers and singing arising from our church, just silence. Still, after two years, no one lives out in our village. Fields are left empty. No crops are being planted or harvested. People are facing a great famine because most attempts to get food to them are interrupted by various types of bandits and thieves, stealing it all to resell in local markets at extremely high prices to a people who have no money.

Although I praise God that He delivered us and cares for us still, our hearts cry for what He wanted to do and was doing there through our ministry. I still have two pastors on the ground, whom we still support financially, who are preaching the gospel with signs and wonders and with power. Churches are being planted in the farthest north, even over the border where it is not safe to do so. I praise God that His ministry goes on, through these bold men of God. I have many other pastor friends and missionaries, who are still doing the works on the ground there and they are seeing salvation and repentance among many. Hope is still alive in many there. We who believe in our God do not lose hope either. As long as hope is alive, God will do something there.

Here in Uganda, all of our children are home from boarding school so we are back to about 150 people living on a little over an acre of land. We are like a very active beehive – lol. We have hired eight teachers to come again this year for the summer break to tutor our children. Many still struggle with reading the English language and math. Our living room, the dormitory front porch and a bicycle shed have been turned into classrooms, chalkboards being mounted, tables and benches being moved into place each morning. They will have this tutoring for all of December and January, each day, four hours a day. The children ASK us for this. All of them are fully engaged and love learning. As I sit at my desk or walk around our small base, I hear their voices ringing out as they answer questions and repeat answers over and over until it is ingrained in them. I hear the teachers being excited about what they do and I see the relationships between children and teachers growing together in love and being strengthened.

Our High School students have been at a youth mentoring camp all week and our Middle School graduates have been at an Arts and Crafts workshop all week. Next month we pray that we will be able to send them to another youth camp. Living on a piece of land that provides no room for doing much of anything, it is so vital that we do these things to keep our children encouraged. They have lost so much, yet have also gained so much at the same time. They have life and liberty and so far, the ability to go to good schools. It is not an easy thing for us to do financially but we all agreed that our children need all of this. So, when I see all this, my heart sings and I am so thankful that the Lord makes a way for all of this to keep going.

Next week we are preparing for Christmas. The children are very excited. We were going to try and save money by not going to our usual place at the Diocese Guesthouse where there is a huge lawn for the children to play on and a beautiful church setting for our Christmas service, and wonderful food, and just an atmosphere of celebration, making it so special. But the children cried, “No, we have to go there!”. Our base is mostly hard packed dirt with no place to gather all for a Christmas feast to share together. Even trying to cram 150 people into our living room each Sunday for church is impossible. The small children sit on a mat in the hallway, some of the older kids sit outside the front double wide door on the front porch. And so, we are going to the Guesthouse again for Christmas! Our God is an extravagant God who lavishly loves us and we will celebrate HIM lavishly and greatly on HIS day, Christmas, Christ among us!

We continue to pray for South Sudan and for her destiny as a nation unto the Lord. We continue to pray for and support our pastors and their churches, that they would impact South Sudan with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for the leaders of South Sudan to look only unto God, to love mercy and to do justice for her people. We pray for our children to not be discouraged in all of this but to continue to walk in righteousness and to study hard so that they can be the leaders of the next generation in South Sudan, women and men who glorify God. That is our ministry here, to raise a generation of righteousness and boldness, for the glory of the Lord. As the year ends, thank you again for praying for us, for supporting us, and for remembering us as saints on the fields of Africa, still running the race, not growing weary in doing good. Let the joy of the Lord fill your hearts this week as you give thanks for all that He has done in all of our lives, both here and where you are!