His Voice For Sudan NEW BLOG!

We just went live with our new His Voice for Sudan blog! Come and join us. Vernon, Justin, Heath and I will be writing entries of all kinds. I think you will really enjoy it.

CLICK HERE to visit us!

August 1st Sudan's National Day of Prayer

This Info is via Samaritan's Purse:

AUGUST 1^st IS THE
NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR SUDAN

Join Sudanese Believers in Prayer for Their Nation
this Saturday

Christian leaders from more than 1,000 churches in north and south Sudan are urging believers worldwide to join them for their National Day of Prayer on August 1.

"Christians, wherever you are, just kneel down somewhere and pray," said Pastor James, a local church leader in Khartoum. "We feel that it is very important for the Church to fast and pray."

Sudan is moving into a critical time of transition. National elections are scheduled for January, 2010, followed by a historic referendum for independence for Southern Sudan in 2011.

Believers in Sudan have been fasting and praying for their nation during the week leading up to the National Day of Prayer on Saturday.

"We are praying for the nation of Sudan," Pastor James said. "It is not a political thing. We are praying for our President. We are praying for God's protection and that there will be no conflict between the north and the south."

PLEASE PRAY FOR:

• Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, President of Sudan
• Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of Southern Sudan
• A peaceful election in January
• The vote on independence for Southern Sudan in 2011
• Revival and prayer in local churches
• Lasting peace throughout Sudan

The people of Southern Sudan suffered through two decades of bloody civil war that claimed more than two million lives before the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2005. A sustained peace is critical over the next two years as sensitive negotiations and historic elections frame the future of the nation.

Please pray with believers around the world for Sudan on August 1.

You can also learn more about Sudan and find additional prayer requests on our Web site.

Meet Sweet Daniel

Daniel is an incredible kid! He is 6 years old and has been at the orphanage for almost two years. He and Soraya (Daniel's 4 year old sister) came to us from a tragic situation. One day Daniel's mom asked he and Soraya to go with her in order to gather fire wood so they could sell it in the market and have money for food, school fees, etc. Daniel's mom put Soraya on her back and they went out in the jungle. Sadly, Daniel and Soraya's mom stepped on a landmine. She was killed right there, Daniel had his leg blown off, and Soraya was miraculously unharmed. Daniel courageously untied his little sister as he was bleeding to death from his leg being taken and brought her to safety.

Daniel is a brilliant kid who has an incredibly gentle spirit. Please pray the Lord will use him as a mighty man for the kingdom. Pray God will comfort Daniel in his afflictions so he is able to comfort others (2 Cor. 1:3-5).

Love Truth

His Voice for Sudan on Twitter!

Hey Everyone!

We are on Twitter! Follow us @hisvoice4sudan (if you have a twitter account)

We will be posting short bios via twitter and twitpics that link you over to this blog where there will be longer bios of the children.

Enjoy!

Another Way to Help

Hey everyone! Some guys from our church put together a company to sale shirts to help with the operating costs of the orphanages. The shirts are so great! Visit there sight and pre-order one now!

www.wewerenaked.com

here is a peek at the design...

Two Dollars and Eighty-Eight Cents

What could $2.88 a day possibly do to impact the world besides giving us our daily caffeine fix at Starbucks (no guilt trip intended)? It can help to do the following:

• Feed, clothe, educate, disciple and pay for medical needs of one orphan for one day. It helps pays the daily salaries of 42 employees (28 of which are widows) who are caring for these orphans. It also helps to pay for one meal a day for 210 school children as well as subsidizing their school fees.

It has come to that time of year where His Voice For Sudan sets out to raise the next years operating cost. This year we figured up how much per day per child it takes to run both orphanages. We were both shocked and encouraged when we divided it out and came up with such a small number. $2.88 really does make a lot of difference! It helps His Voice for Sudan continue the task of empowering orphans, widows and church leaders in Southern Sudan to make disciples of all nations.

We are about to start traveling through the Midwest to raise funds and awareness. We will be speaking at churches and to small groups in homes. If you would be interested in having us come to your church, or hosting a small group night at your home, we would be thrilled to come. You can contact us at Vernon@hisvoiceforsudan.com or comment on this blog.

FBC IRVING in YEI and LURA

Hello All! The boys and I got to speak to Vernon and the Team via Skype Video Chat. It was so fun! Everyone seemed to be doing great and they were all joking and laughing with each other.
They shared some great stories they wanted me to relay to you.
On Sunday at the church in Yei, Pastor John got to preach. Eight people came to Christ! AMEN! After the service they went down to the Yei river and baptized them all! There was a lady who was into which craft and had been trying to put her trust in the practice of it. That Sunday she got baptized and they burned all her charms!!! This is so amazing!
They spent Monday at the orphanage in Lura. They spent the day serving the widows. The widows do so much work on a daily basis, so the team divided up some of the tasks, like getting the water from the well for the next couple days, cooking, shelling peanuts and caring for the children. They all seemed to enjoy being at the Orphanage and the Lord is blessing them with sweet relationships with the widows and orphans.
Pastor John has stayed in Yei town to speak at a leadership conference. Bishop decided to shut down all the EPC offices so everyone could go to the conference...this is a BIG DEAL! Bishop has greatly enjoyed getting to know John and EPC has been greatly encouraged and challenged by Pastor John.
Continue to pray for the leadership conference and for the team as they travel to Lura each day. They will be flying out of Sudan on Thursday morning.

FBCI in Sudan

The team landed safely in Yei right on schedule. They rested that evening and got to meet our sweet friends at EPC.  Yesterday they went to the Orphanage in Lura and they all had a great time.  The internet time has been SO I don't have the details yet.  Vernon said in the email that the time there in Lura was "amazing." Today they journeyed out to Morobo Orphanage and then they will stay in Yei for the Sunday.  As soon as I hear from them I will keep you updated! 

Thanks for praying.  Continue to pray the scripture from the previous post for the team!  Thanks!

The Team Arrives

Hello all! I am writing to let everyone know that the team from First Baptist Irving has arrived safely in Entebbe. I spoke with Vernon about an hour ago and everyone was heathly and headed to bed. They will leave for Sudan in the morning around 9am which is 1am our time. We will keep you posted as they communicate back, and if the internet is good there they will be writing on this blog as well.
This mission is an exploratory mission in which First Baptist Irving will seek the Lord for further direction on how they are to partner in Sudan. This team will be doing various ministries such as: discipleship of the widows, painting the primary school at Lura, leadership for church leaders and developing relationships with the orphans.
Here are some things to pray as this teams goes forth:

Prayer for Travel
➢ Father, spread your protection over this team, that those who loves Your name may rejoice in you. Psalm 5:11b
➢ Lord, stand at their sides and give them strength, so that through them the message might be fully proclaimed and all of Sudan might hear. 2 Timothy 4:17


Daily Prayers for the Team
➢ I pray that as one of your chosen people, holy and dearly loved, each team member would clothe himself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12
➢ In the morning Lord you hear their voices; In the morning may they lay their request before You and wait in expectation. Psalm 5:3
➢ I pray this team would consider their lives worth nothing to themselves, if only they may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to them—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. Acts 20:24
➢ I pray as a team, they would be brought together today in complete unity to let the world know that You sent them. John 17:23
➢ I pray they will use whatever gifts received to serve others, faithfully administering Your grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10

Secondary Schools

Each Orphanage has a primary school and now we have received the blue prints for the Secondary Schools! We are so excited! With these blue prints come a good amount of money that needs to be raised to finish them before the children are of Secondary age. If you, your church/organization, or anyone you know would be interested in giving to this project, please contact us at vernon@hisvoiceforsudan.com or visit the PARTNER page of our website for details on how to give. We need to send $20,000 asap to secure the materials.
Thanks to all!

Tyler Dodds Blend

Introducing the Tyler Dodds Blend!  All the proceeds of this coffee go to support His Voice for Sudan!  Specifically it will go to the College Fund that will allow all the Orphans to attend the continued education of their choice!  The Tyler Dodds Band and Christian Andre Coffee teamed up to make this special blend...so for all you coffee lovers out there, go and order some great coffee and support the orphans while you do it!  Here is the Link TYLER DODDS BLEND

just scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find the Tyler Dodds Blend (only this blend supports His Voice).

His Voice Inc.

Extremely Pleased

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for praying for Vernon as he has been gone. I thought I would write a brief update and you could hear the rest from him when he returns!
Here are some highlights:
* Sunday morning preaching went well, the congregation is always so excited to see Vernon. We are there so often that they have really taken to him!
* Vernon got to spend some great time with the 10 boys from the Morobo Orphanage. He said that the boys were so open and real with him. He asked them what they wanted to be when they got older and it ranged from a mechanic, to a pastor, to a doctor! A couple of the boys said they would like to run an orphanage! Isn't that great! Vernon told me that they discussed openly the struggles of life as a young teenage boy in Sudan and that they were really candid. They also just hung out by the river and played a lot of soccer.
* The visit to the Morobo Orphanage was wonderful as always. The children are growing and getting healthier and stronger. They were overjoyed by the Christmas gifts.
* The visit to the Lura Orphanage was a hard day emotionally. Vernon and Bishop took time to visit with the children about their pasts and how it came to be that they were orphaned. It was sobering to say the least. It is so good for the children to be able to talk openly about what they have gone through.
* Vernon and Bishop were able to have a lot of time to vision cast for the future.
* Vernon had some special time with some of the men from EPC that we have become great friends with over the years.

Vernon is now in Uganda. For all of you who were praying for Muhammad the Imam in Kampala, Vernon met with him again this morning and was so amazed and encouraged. Muhammad taught his congregation about the TRINITY! Can you believe that! AMEN! So Muhammad is beginning to understand Christianity and is teaching it to his congregation...unbelievable! Vernon will be posting more on this!
He and Victor fly out Saturday morning but wont make it here until Sunday afternoon.

The Schedule

Vernon emailed me the tentative schedule of events so that everyone could be praying. Keep in mind that we are about 8 hours behind him. (oh and i forgot to mention he made it safely to Sudan)

Sunday Morning- Preaching on the transfiguration account in Mark

Sunday Afternoon- Leading a workshop with some of the men who work for Bishop

Monday all day- (this is so cool!) Vernon will be spending time with 10 of the older boy orphans from the Morobo orphanage. He will be talking to them about biblical manhood and just getting to know them better. We are way pumped about this!

Tuesday- They (Vernon, the 10 boys and Bishop) will travel back to Morobo. These children are so precious to us. Every chance to go to the Morobo Orphanage is special. Vernon will be playing with the children all day and giving out some Christmas presents!

Wednesday-They will travel to Lura and visit the Lura Orphanage. This will be a great time for Vernon to see the facility up and running and all the children moved in! He will also be giving out presents!
That's all for now folks! thanks for praying!

A Word From Vernon

Hey everyone! I just got an email from Vernon. He had great things to say about his time with Imam Muhammad. Thanks to everyone who prayed...Please keep praying for his salvation. This could change the course of Islam in Uganda. Here is a little blip of the email Vernon sent me about his conversation with Imam Muhammad.


"the meeting with Muhammad went incredible! we talked for over 2 hours. i am suppossed to go to the mosque he is an imam at next friday. he told me that his biggest problem was saying that God has a Son. I explained the Trinity to him, and he understood more about what Christians mean.

I told him that I did not believe Islam had an answer for redemption. I explained that if something is not pure it takes something outside of itself in order to make it pure. Therefore, it would be impossible for "good works" to save someone and since we are all tainted the only thing that could happen would be for our "tainted good works" to add to the problem. What this means is, since it is impossible to even have 1,000,000 good works cancel out 1 bad work, then really what is happening is that what seems to be good (in helping someone to escape hell) is really only compounding the problem, and thus the condemnation is even more, not less, unless Perfection comes to purify.

I am not sure is all this makes sense since i am typing really quick, but it made sense to him. He said that he had not thought about this much. He also said that we should both pray in order to find out the correct way to God. He said that if Christianity is correct, he would become a Christian. Please have people pray for Muhammad. "

Please pray for Imam Muhammad, this is a big thing for him to realize.
Vernon will be heading on into Sudan for the remainder of his time starting tomorrow, pray for his save flight into the country.

Praise and Prayer

Praise- Praise God, Vernon made it safely to Uganda. He is with Victor and a lot of doors have already opened for him to meet with Imams in the area! (Imams, the best i can describe them, are the Islamic equivalent to a Priest, they are the head of the Mosque and oversee all the leaders and pretty much their say goes.) We are so excited about this. During his last trip he built some great relationships with a lot of head Islamic leaders in Uganda. They are also going to get to visit an orphanage in the afternoon.

Prayer-
For Vernon, Tomorrow, (so tonight around midnight) Vernon will be meeting with Muhammad, an Imam in Kampala. Pray for great conversations and Vernon would have many opportunities to present the Gospel and that Muhammad would understand.
Also, pray for Vernon's health. He was very tired when I talked to him earlier and his stomach was not doing the best. He was pretty sure it was just from lack of sleep and travel.


A little Story
Last night my cousin Caroline came to stay with Titus and me. We had a great time. This morning after Titus woke, Titus and I were laying in my bed. Caroline came downstairs and jumped in bed with us. Titus looked up at her and said, "you know where my daddy is?" and she said, "where?" Titus replied, "oh, he is in Sudan teaching people about Jesus, isnt that cool?!" To which we both smiled and replied, "yah! that is awesome!"

One Week From Yesterday

Vernon is heading for Sudan on December 10. We are so excited for his time there. He is going to love and encourage our friends in Sudan during this holiday season. People often travel to family and friends over the holidays, to hug their necks and greet them with holiday wishes, and Vernon will be doing just that. He will be going to the different orphanages greeting them in the name of our Lord Jesus and encouraging them as they continue on day after day serving the Lord. Various donors have given money to get the children at each orphanage great Christmas gifts. Vernon will be purchasing and distributing the gifts, if time and weather permits. If not, Anngrace and Bishop Taban will continue delivering them.

We are especially excited about the last thing Vernon will be doing while in Sudan/Uganda. Vernon will be meeting up with Victor, a great friend of ours and nephew of Bishop, to fly with him back to the States. Victor has received a full ride scholarship to The College at Southwestern Seminary. He will be living with us and attending school. This will be his first time out of Northern Africa. We are so excited for this opportunity!

Prayer Please!!!

Hi everyone---
Just a quick update! They got the roof back on at Morobo, hurray! Tomorrow (or today, Africa time I believe) our Sudanese friend Victor goes into the US Embassy for his visa interview. He has a college scholarship to a school here in Texas but everything hinges on this interview, it will make or break the deal. Victor is a great friend of ours (He's Bishop Taban and Ann Grace's nephew) with an amazing heart for ministry and the opportunity to come to the States would be a great stepping stone into his future. His heart is for Sudan which is awesome. So please please please take a moment and pray! Thank you!

Blessings!
Robin, Amber, and Vernon

Videos!!!!

Hi everybody!
I'm finally able to upload videos! What a happy happy day! :) Hope you enjoy this peak into the video world of our trip to Sudan! As usual I had one glitch with one of my movies... check back soon for a peak into what life was like at Kijabe hospital! Enjoy! More thoughts and whatnot soon! :)

God Bless!
Robin











Some photos of Isaac being welcomed back to Yei! WHAT A CELEBRATION!!!!!!! Can anyone FIND Isaac in the ONLY five photos taken?! It feels like playing "Where's Waldo?"... An awesome celebration none the less!

Storm In Morobo

Please pray for the children and workers at the Morobo Orphanage. Yesterday a big storm came through Morobo and did a lot of damage. None of the children or workers were hurt...Praise the Lord! But the orphanage building was greatly effected. The storm took off the roof of an entire wing of the orphanage. This is where many of the children sleep and keep their belongings. Please pray as the widows and other workers work to accommodate the children and maintain order during this time. Also pray that the roof can be repaired in a timely manner.
Thank you for your prayers!