October 2008, Dominic celebrates 2 year anniversary

A prayer meeting was held to give praise to God, for the 2 year anniversary of Dominic's major surgery to remove serious diseased kidney which was affecting his other good one. He had a kidney infection while attending NEGST and the medical doctor told him to ignore it. They lacked financial resources to get a second opinion. He was forced to receive good medical attention in late spring of 2006 when he was experiencing severe pain and later in October had the bad kidney removed.
At the same time, he was in hospital, Rejoice delivered by cesarean their 4 child, a girl named Donna, at another hospital in Nairobi. Rejoice was only in hospital one day after delivery to save costs and because she had to take care of Dominic's hospital costs. His hospital stay was longer than originally planned and the hospital was demanding the cost be paid up front before he would receive any medical care. UNBELIEVABLE! They were going to have him arrested for lack of payment! He received no food or medicines and was checked upon frequently to make sure he had not skipped out of hospital. So Rejoice, carrying a newborn baby, had to go around Nairobi asking for a loan to take care of the hospital cost. Later TBC reimbursed them for the cost. So they were celebrating God's goodness during this difficult time.
His recovery was slow because he kept having to return to Sudan to take care of ECSS business. Many prayers were said for healing. November of 2008, he had just returned from Sudan when he got serious sick again and was hospitalized for another 5 days or so. However, this time he received excellent medical care and it was discovered that his only kidney was not affected. But he had a bacterial infection and this time he received good medication to minimize any future kidney infection. He takes it seriously because it is the only kidney which keeps him alive. He returns to Nairobi every 3 months now for medical checkups. God is so good! He thanks TBC for the many prayers for his health.

TBC is providing scholarship to train one ECSS pastor in Kenya

Let us introduce Jordan Anguramoi, ECSS pastor in Loming village in South Sudan.
Jordan has sent to us his brief history and testimony:

Family Background I come from the family who does not know God. My father was a polygamous person with three wives; my mother is a first wife. She had seven children, four died and we remain three, a sister who is married and a brother who is our last born. My father died in the year 1996. I have recently gotten married to Joyce who is with me while attending PACU. I have my own family with two adopted (orphan) grown up children.

My Childhood
During my childhood, I spent most of my time herding my father's cattle and little attention was paid to my school because most schools were closed during the civil war. I struggled by myself until I finished my secondary school and later I attended an advanced diploma course of South Africa (Timothy Training Institute).

My Education Background
I started my education in early age (compared to Sudan situation) when we took refuge in Uganda. Thereafter I cam back as returnees. I struggled to join secondary school in Sudan run by the Roman Catholic Church. I joined school and studied up to third year(high school) and sat for Sudan school certificate.
I am determined to study at Pan African Christian University (PACU), so that I can be more effective in my ministry. I learned about PACU from the Rejoice, and thankful for scholarship support from Trinity Baptist Church and several other generous families. I hope I will grow more and more in Christian faith as I study at PACU.

My Salvation
In June 1999, I attended a preaching of ECSS leaders at a deferral ceremony in Torit town. I came to know Jesus Christ to be my personal savior when I was finishing my secondary school (senior). This was the time when I started to read the Bible regularly. Through reading the Bible, I discovered that there was a very big difference between being a pagan and a Christian and I continued to serve the Lord and His people. I believe that Jesus Christ is perfect and sinless who paid my ransom by dying on the cross for us. I received Jesus Christ in my life and continue to make him known through our ministry of Evangelical Church of South Sudan (ECSS).

My Present Ministry
My present ministry is the Evangelical Church of South Sudan, which is an indigenous, a Baptist church by practice and procedures. I am currently a youth and mission leader of ECSS and pastor of ECSS Church of Light (Loming congregation) "Lopa" County. My village is located on the top of a mountain, not far from the Ilieu village congregation. During rainy times, the road to my village remains impassable.

My Future Plan
Currently I am in a theological school enrolling my BA degree in theology at Pan Africa Christian University in Nairobi, Kenya; God willing, right away after graduation, I will be going back to Sudan to men and women of God in the ECSS.
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Jordan just finished his 2nd year of studies at Pan African Christian University in Nairobi, Kenya. He was married only one week before he was to leave to enroll at PACU in Nairobi and his wife, Joyce, joined him several months later. He has done very well in school even though he has not had much schooling before, as most Sudanese. But Dominic has been mentoring him and given him the responsibility of many arrangements for the pastoral training sessions in Sudan. During vacations from school, Jordan has returned to his village in Sudan, encouraging the congregations and being involved the Pastoral Training seminars and several outreach ventures. He promises to become an important pastor in ECSS because he and his wife has the sincere commitment to return to South Sudan to minister in their rural community.

ECSS needs trained pastors to lead and manage the congregations to accomplish their mission and purpose. If pastors get trained we expect that ECSS pastors will work more effectively, able to work in team ministry and manage conflict in congregational life. There is an urgent need to provide financial support for the pastors. Congregations are unable to support their pastors. Some are forced to get government jobs in order to support their families, leaving the congregation confused and easily turn back to the world or traditional religions. Only the committed pastors still lead the congregations at a big sacrifice.

ECSS Pastoral Training

ECSS held a pastoral training last April. Two pastors/trainers from Kenya joined us. The training went very well, thank you.

We think that training and equipping local Church leaders and evangelists prepares ECSS Churches for a long-term growth and provides a solid base of significant Church outreach in the future. We are planning to train evangelists, and Church leaders in evangelism, pastoral work, entrepreneurship and the methodology of Church planting. We also plan to hold various youth camps, conferences and seminars in different parts of Eastern Equatoria State, South Sudan. We need your prayer and participation in this crucial project!

ECSS is seeing a large number of people come to Christ but not enough are trained to teach or disciple the new believers. Christian believers can be led into false doctrines. They need to have a greater impact on society. The church wants to get the best from those whose call is to preserve the Word and those whose call is to get the Word out. Your support can help ECSS to train more pastors.

In reality ECSS lacks trained pastors who are grounded in the Holy Scriptures, rooted in the Word, and able to apply the Word of God to the lives of people for their salvation and for their own, to the glory of God. Pastors will be able to teach and preach the truth of the faith in Christ with clarity and precision. They will be able to prepare to lead in worship centered in Word. ECSS lacks trained pastors who communicate effectively, reaching the heart and mind with the Word. Therefore ECSS needs support for training its pastors who will be competent preachers and teachers of the Gospel. Those pastors who will be trained from theological colleges need to be ready academically and have Biblical knowledge and understanding through prayers and a broad educational preparation.

ECSS needs trained pastors who are competent leaders in pastoral ministry. They will be able to integrate strong theology and pastoral practice. With a deep faith in God, a compassionate heart for people, and a gentle and peace loving spirit they are to serve the flocks and the lost by applying the Word of God to people they lead.

ECSS seeks for trained men and women whose faith is centered in Jesus Christ and is nourished regularly by the Word in public worship and by a disciplined devotional life both in and out. ECSS looks forward to its pastors to know the Holy Scriptures well, to be confidently Church leaders, and to apply the Word of God to contemporary contexts and culture. If trained, ECSS pastors will understand the culture and where it is headed, engaging societal issues theologically. These pastors will be prepared to give a defence to the truths of the Christian faith against competing spiritual claims and movements of world religions and secular beliefs. They will be sensitive to their culture and able effectively to serve peoples with a vast diversity of origins, education, family customs, social structures, and political values.

New believers expect pastors to encourage them, counsel them, mentor them, and teach them to live meaningful lives of service. Those who went to school need to explore their faith theologically to reflect on their service to church. They are in the mission field daily, and they to relate their faith to their daily service in family, church, work, and world. But due to lack of trained pastors, these sometimes do not work.

ECSS needs trained pastors to lead and manage the congregations to accomplish their mission and purpose. If pastors get trained we expect that ECSS pastors will work more effectively, able to work in team ministry and manage conflict in congregational life. They will be able to prepare, manage themselves personally, spiritually, and emotionally and be ready for the daily routines of the pastoral ministry. Working hand in hand with members who have skills and gifted in various areas, so that the congregations can be able to carry out their primary mission of saving souls. ECSS as a Church needs pastors to serve communities who do not have regular pastors. There is a growing demand for different approaches to pastoral work that offer adaptability, portability, and accessibility within our congregations in Southern Sudan. Your support can help ECSS to fulfill its dream by training its pastors.

ECSS Elementary Schools Report

Starting the Southern Sudanese's education system after years of war is an emergency. The Evangelical Church of South Sudan (ECSS) thinks that supporting education is one of the best ways to address the issue of Islamization of the country, accumulated illiteracy, war orphans, inter and intra tribal conflicts, poverty, cattle raiding and AIDS.

As the social infrastructure of Southern Sudan continues to disintegrate it remains insufficient to meet the basic needs of communities. Evangelical Church of South Sudan (ECSS) works to strengthen the country's education system through its ECSS Rural and Urban Development Outreach (ERUDO) ministry.

Southern Sudan's education system has been shattered by years of harsh economic difficulties and the devastation caused by the 45 year old war. The condition of under trees learning system has deteriorated to such an extent that they do not provide a safe learning and teaching environment specially during rain period. In addition, there is a severe shortage of school supplies, classroom furniture and textbooks. To make it worse, volunteered teachers lack salaries and have inadequate training.

Basically, providing access to quality education for war-affected children and youth is a key focus area in ECSS's ERUDO ministry in Eastern Equatoria State, Southern Sudan. The ERUDO ministry focuses on strengthening and supporting the Southern Sudan's educational system by instilling Christian values to the children, parents/guardians and volunteered teachers.

ECSS believes that education is the basic right of every child and the key to a brighter future for all children and youth, especially the orphans who constitute 40% of the three elementary schools ECSS is running.

Dominic begins a prison ministry in Torit

A weekly Bible Study was started in Torit prison, the first of its kind. During the first visit, 10 prisoners gave their lives to Jesus Christ. Prisoners ask for some Bibles and the Juba Arabic hymnals, each cost about $2.50. The hymnals are available in Torit but the Juba Arabic Bibles are out of stock at that time. They have the Otuho New Testaments Bibles. Trinity Baptist sent some funds to purchase the hymnals for the Prison and Hospital ministries and some for the Sunday services.

Forty Arabic/English humnal books at $2.50 each, were bought. Twenty books were given for the prison ministry and 20 to the ECSS congregation in Torit. More hymnals books are need for the other congegations and also Bibles in Otuho, Arabic and English. The prisoners love to sing and praise God as they continue to meet for the weekly Bible Studies.

Past Trips

April 2008 - First Mission Team from TBC visits ECSS in South Sudan On April 1, 2008, Joel and Rebecca Martin with John and Donna Shekleton arrive in Nairobi, Kenya to do basic hygiene instruction with HIV/AIDS prevention in rural communities of Kenya and South Sudan. After serving a week at the Malooi AIC Church and Pastor Kioko Mwangangi's rural home, the team arrived in South Sudan. There they met with Dominic and Rejoice Olluru and Jordan Anguramoi, who is TBC's scholarship student at Pan African Christian College in Nairobi.

Since 1988, Dominic and Rejoice have started about 8 rural village churches and now he oversees the leadership as well as other projects, such as the ox plow project and the posho corn grinding mill. While in South Sudan for 10 days, the team conducted the hygiene and HIV/AIDS prevention instruction, simple VBS and painting the timbers of a church in 3 different rural congregations. They participated in the dedication of a new constructed church at Ilieu village, which is Dominic's childhood home. The church members were encouraged in the daily challenges of everyday living.

HAPPENINGS DURING JULY 2008

On July 26, 2008, Rejoice Olluru graduates from Pan Africa Christian College receiving a BS degree in Christian counseling. She first enrolled in 2005.

(insert Picture here) August 2008, Dominic's vehicle is repaired in Sudan, thanks to TBC "The car is on road, the car was repaired by a Kenya mechanic. I suggest that we will be making some minimum charges for our visitors who are going to use the car. This is because we do not have any budget/income allocated for maintaining the care. We need to buy engine oil, diesel, air filters etc on regular basis. We will be able to charge a minimum fee of $50 a day and future users will fuel the vehicle by themselves. When the vehicle travels outside of Torit, additional charges will be charged." Joyce, Jordan's wife, enrolls in a 3 year tailoring course at Ricardo's Tailoring and Embroider School. Since she does not speak English, she also enrolled in an English course. Joyce did not go to school (like many other Sudanese) so her teacher says that Joyce is good in practical skills but when it comes to measurements, number and other theories she is lost completely.

LATE AUGUST, FIRST KENYAN MISSION TEAM SERVES ECSS

Late in August 2008, TBC sponsored the Kenya Mission Team from the Malooi AIC church in rural Kenya, headed by Pastor Kioko Mwangangi, with 5 young fellows. They traveled to South Sudan to start a Tree Planting project in Torit by first building a nursery and then planting seeds. They had begun a successful Tree Planting project at their own church in Kenya which generated income to support some church ministries and local widows. Their purpose in Southern Sudan was to plant trees to improve the environment and nutrition. They planted 14 varieties of tropical fruit trees, as well as hardwood trees for timber. Some of these trees will be planted along the boundaries of Dominic's property. These fruit trees should mature in about 5 years, ready for consumption. The team gave instruction about the care of the seedlings and trees and the seedlings continue to grow in the following months. Several months later the trees were transplanted all over on Dominic's property. More seeds were planted and cared for.

A brief history of ECSS

In the late 1980's, young Sudanese men and women from the Southern Sudan, fleeing the constant fighting and persecution of the war in Sudan, began to arrive in Kenya. Some of these Sudanese settled in the Dadaf refugee camp, others in the outskirts of the town of Thika, and still others in Nairobi.
Some of these refugees became Christians. Instead of seeking resettlement overseasor in neighboring countries, these Christians determined to go back to war-ravaged South Sudan in order to share the Word of God with those who had remained behind.
The first Evangelical Church of South Sudan (ECSS) congregation was formed early in 1998 in Torit County, which is in Eastern Equatoria State. The membership decided that it would be preferable to be called ECSS which would more correctly reflect their desire to be a non-denominational church both in their nature as well as in their approach. This grew out of a desire to avoid what has happened to other churches in South Sudan, as well as in the rest of the world. That is, that the churches had become divided into denominational lines. It was felt that by dividing along denominational lines, Islam and African traditional religions would likewise continue to gain ground. The memborship felt strongly that South Sudan needed a united Church which could face the expansion of Islam from the northern part of the country to the south.

MAKEUP OF THE ECSS
ECSS is a non-denominational, indigenous, evangelical church committed to the Protestant Reformation. For the last 10 years of its existence, ECSS has held the privileged position of being the established church in its area. ECSS seeks to initiate, maintain, and strengthen its relationships with and engage in mission work alongside of other evangelical Christain churches, denominations, missions, and ecumenical agencies for the common mission of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At present, the ECSS has 6 congregations in Southern Sudan, all in the Eastern Equatoria State, which borders Kenya and Uganda. Currently, the church has over 3,500 registered full members with their ministers.

MISSION VISION
The ECSS has a mission vision of reaching the unreached in all parts of Southern Sudan as well as into the surrounding nations beyond the borders of Sudan. As we have only been in operation for some 10 years, our initial ministry focus or concentration has been among the Otuho people group in eastern Equatoria State. Nevertheless, we are also currently working with other ethnic groups including the Boys, Didinga, Lang'o, Lopit, Pari and Acholi people groups in Easter Equatoria State.