A group of ten people (five from California and five from Moldova) recently returned from a two-week trip to the Sudanese refugee camps. The head of the trip Igor Mordvinov from the Union of ECB, Moldova, shares about the things that were accomplished during this trip.
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Greetings from brothers of South Sudan's Kuku, Madi, Bari, Acua, Nuerro, and Dinko tribes.
Our team is an embodiment of mutual ministry of our unions. The goal of our trip was to show love to the tribes of South Sudan residing in refugee camps of Uganda. That is how we called our team, “Show Love”. Every team member received an identical T-shirt with “Show Love” printed on the front, and a logo of our unions and Africa on the back.
The team consisted of five people from Moldova and five from California. Praise God that the team had mutual understanding, peace, and a good spiritual attitude.
The team members were: Leon Streltsov who was the team leader, Timothy Sheyko, and Daniel Bondarenko from Bryte Church, Julia Siniy from Third Slavic Church, and Natalya Zherebnenko from Castro Valley Church. Everyone was well-trained, disciplined, and ready for all the difficulties. I am very grateful for David Slobodenko from Bryte Church who trained the team. He constantly assembled the team and led the training sessions. During the preparations, we created a group on Viber and constantly stayed in touch. It was very important to have initial fellowship and the discussion of even the most insignificant issues.
The team from Moldova consisted of myself, Igor Mordvinov, with my wife Svetlana, and three more brothers from different churches. Our trip had the following goals which we planned to achieve and for which we were preparing ourselves.
- Mass evangelism
- Showing of “Jesus” film in the native language
- Children’s camps
- Oven Projects
- Establishing elementary schools
- Building of warehouses for groceries and kitchens
- Building of churches
- Building of K-11 schools
I was very concerned about accomplishing all of this and whether we will have people as well as finances for it, and will the local brothers be able to pull it off. Praise God that everything was accomplished. God sent wonderful people into the team, and finances from unexpected sources, and provided local ministers who helped to accomplish everything.
1) Mass Evangelism
Our team had brother Ilya Karaseni from Moldova, who being a Gagauz also known Russian, Gagauz, Turkish, and English. Ilya was responsible for the preaching and evangelism. God showed a rare gift of evangelism in him. We were all amazed at how God touched the hearts of the locals through Ilya. Over 40 adults and over 15 teenagers repented. Praise God! That was well worth the effort of coming there! God is now working in the life of Ilya, and he must decide whether to leave his job as the Gagauz president’s advisor and fully dedicate himself to ministry. Please pray for Ilya, so he would be able to make the right decision, and we could find support for his ministry. That is what we are doing right now, this Wednesday, July 26th we are having fast and prayer about this need. Thank you.
2) Showing “Jesus” film in the native language
To show a film, there must be electricity which the refugee camps do not have. To overcome this problem, we found a special projector which had a built-in battery and worked for three hours at a time. The team from California brought a special sound speaker which also ran on battery and worked for five hours at a time. Brother Pavel Tentyuk from Moldova was responsible for the film showing and brought a special screen and a large amount of black cloth in order to dim the place where show would take place. You should have seen the locals’ reaction to the film! First, nobody ever saw a screen projection, not to mention the fact that the film was shown in their native language. They were very emotional, and so during the crucifixion scene, many shouted and cried, ran, and tore their clothes. Finally, when Jesus resurrected, they rejoiced in jumped around cheering, expressed joy, and cried out of joy. After the film, the local pastor presented the Gospel and called people to repentance. People responded. Praise God!!
3) Children’s camps
Today, there are 90 Baptist churches in the refugee camps with each church consisting about 80% of women and children. Nobody ever did children’s program or camps for them. The responsibility for the children camp fell on the team from Sacramento. In order for you to grasp the amount of children that the team had to work with, imagine coming to the first church in the refugee camp called Pagariny where 420 children and 200 adults were waiting for us. Of course I was concerned for the members of our team and the enormous work that they had to accomplish. But praise God that everything went very well. They led Bible lessons, group games, and worship both in English and in Russian. The children learned Russian very quickly. Everything was great. The children stayed close to our team. Working with the children long hours, the team members got very tired.
The churches have a special category of people-orphans. Their parents were killed in South Sudan, many others were separated from their parents while running away from war, and still could not get reconnected with them. There is no internet, no radio, and no television. Every church has a lot of them, about 50-80 children. Of course these are the most defenseless and vulnerable. They do act much older than their age. Right now I am praying and thinking how to help them.
Altogether, our team served over 4,000 children in these camps. However, the exact numbers are hard to specify, there may be more. At the end of every camp, we gave every child candy.
4) Ovens Project
During the last trip, I noticed that the people in the refugee camps are starving. The rations for one adult in the camp is 12 kg of corn per month. The bigger problem however is the fact that the rations are given only for adults, but each family has at least four children. I have no idea how they survive. It is certain that they starve, get sick, and die. Because of the lack of vitamins present in meat and fish, the children’s stomachs get swollen and they get severely sick. There is no medicine, no doctors, no money, and no one will offer any help. Right now their rations were cut from 12 kg to 8 kg of corn which is a catastrophe, and in some camps they receive only 6 kg. People just want to eat. They eat roots, termites, rats, and different kinds of cockroaches. It is difficult and painful to see all of that.
We found some very unique ovens which can bake bread, and they use bark coal for fuel. These ovens are made in Kenya. I was in contact with a company which makes these ovens, and after sending them a request, they made 5 ovens for us. In order to receive those ovens, we sent brother Oleg Savin from Moldova beforehand to Turkey, then he flew to Uganda where a local pastor joined him, and together they flew to Adis Abebu (Ethiopia), got on a different plane and flew to Nairobe (Kenya). I arranged for them to be picked up at the airport and taken to the hotel. The next day they picked up the ovens and loaded it into a long-haul bus which went to Kapmalu (Uganda). It is difficult to travel by bus with animals and chickens for 15 hours. It is very hard and even a little dangerous. Thanks to God’s provision, the ovens arrived to the destination, and awaited the main team’s arrival.
In the refugee camp we found Sister Jessica who knew how to work with the dough and bake bread. God orchestrated everything. The ovens were taken to churches which were built beforehand with a special warehouse and kitchen. Each of these churches had training sessions for women. The ovens turned out to be in high demand and sparked a great interest from the locals. With every stove that we brought, we also brought 600 packs of dry yeast, knives, table, pans, 500 kg of flour, sugar, butter, form mold for baking, and everything that’s needed. Praise God, everything is now working, and we were able to help with their starvation problem. The churches bake buns for sale, which according to the local standards are expensive, and buy corn and feed the whole church. That is a hook.
Right now I am bold enough to dream for 10 ovens for the next trip. One oven costs $360, customs and delivery - $200, building of a warehouse and kitchen - $800, equipment which makes wood coal - $65, customs and delivery - $30, all the equipment for baking, flour, flour delivery, and everything needed for the transportation, training. One oven overall will cost a little over $2000. Right now I am negotiating about the possibility of building these ovens in Uganda.
5) Establishing Elementary Schools
Initially we planned to establish 5 schools. We wanted to have them in the same churches that we built, the churches with a warehouse, kitchen, and oven. In order to establish them, we brought 12 shirts of the same color to every school, three chalk boards, three boxes of chalk, pens, pencils, notebooks and textbooks, rulers, and miscellaneous items for school, and paid three months of salary to the teachers.
Praise God that we were able to accomplish all of that. One brother from Kishinev financed the purchases of shirts which we bought in Istanbul, Turkey. The chalk boards, notebooks, and pens we bought locally. All the lessons take place in the church building, and only a few under the tree. We built a separate school building in one camp. Praise God that we can influence the future of these poor children.
6) Building Warehouses for Groceries and Kitchens
Before our arrival, we sent the finances and the blueprints for the building of the warehouse and kitchen to Edward Dima who was a bishop of the Baptist churches. Praise God, Edward arranged everything, and all the warehouses were built on time. Building a warehouse is a necessary for storing flour and securing ovens. Brother Alexey Serin from Sacramento made the blueprint and calculated everything needed for the construction of warehouses. Praise God!
7) Building Churches
During our last trip in December 2016, we built 4 church buildings. Before the current trip, we sent finances for the construction of three additional churches, and while being there, we build 4 more churches. Praise God for such an opportunity. The church building is not just a structure, it is a testimony that our God is able to save both the blacks and the whites who believe in Him. Building a church in a refugee camp is a testimony of the greatness of God and His love.
In addition to all the things that were accomplished, we also fed over 4000 people who were able to eat well for the first time in the last 5 months.
Praise God for everything that we were able to accomplish all that was planned. We tried to show the love of our Lord through our actions, words, and deeds. We were in places that needed us the most. We were in places where no one wants to go. We were weak and feeble, and God showed His power and love through us.
We were chased by elephants, bitten by mosquito with malaria, were attacked by young termites, had to run away from hippos, eat with our hands, were attacked by tropical bloodthirsty flies, we experienced heat, were tired, and even sick. But we were glad that we were able to serve these people. We were glad that we could show love. Praise God.
Mordvinov Igor
skype: mordvinovigor
+373 69108505
VIDEO CLIP
PHOTOS TAKEN DURING THE TRIP
Please click on the first slide to view photos in slide-show format
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