Hi guys. So for those who I haven't had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Lula Sars-Warris.
And for the past 12 months I have been serving with SIM in a country called South Sudan.
That was great. So one of the customs within Sudanese church and probably within a whole African culture,
particularly if someone is visiting or has been away for a farewell,
is to bring greetings to the whole congregation as encouraged.
The church I attended in South Sudan as well as a lot of my Sudanese friends
asked me to give you their greetings. So salam alaikum.
So South Sudan is a landlocked country in northeastern Africa.
Originally part of Sudan up until 2011, it gained its independence and is now the world's newest nation.
And unfortunately it's still one of the most fragile.
So it shares its borders with Sudan to the north, if you're going to the east, and Uganda in the south.
After completing my orientation in Kenya, I travelled to Egypt for a little bit over two months
to gain some foundational knowledge in Arabic.
From then I travelled to a Sudanese village called Doro.
And here I worked as a nurse in a rural application clinic.
So Doro is located in Muban County, up in the top in a state called Diyapanar.
And it's on the border of Sudan and Ethiopia.
And 60,000 Muban people lived there, as well as over 133,000 Sudanese refugees who are displaced from the north.
So unfortunately on Christmas, fighting broke out in the area.
And SIM has had to evacuate all of its personnel, and they're currently in Kenya.
So all of the compounds, including the clinic, have been extensively looted.
And unfortunately, many Sudanese have lost their homes, and most of them are still hiding in the bush today.
So while the SIM site is in place, and in fake blitz held currently since December,
the situation is far from being resolved.
SIM is prayerfully considering returning to Sassan in the coming year and what that can look like.
So the next photo is of all of the clinic staff that I worked with.
We have community health care workers, translators, pharmacy assistants, chaplains, and also some lovely cleaning ladies.
So the clinic was founded in the 1940s by missionaries to serve the Muban, local Muban population.
It has opened and closed a number of times throughout the last 50 years due to civil war and unrest.
But thankfully it was able to reopen in 2008, and... Cheers!
Open in 2008 and provides outpatient services including maternity care, emergency treatment,
and a nutrition village for civilian and adult kids.
So my role as a health clinician was to triage, diagnose, treat, and prescribe.
So basically a doctor.
I also worked closely with the Sudanese and provider assistants when needed.
So the clinic averaged around 70 to 100 patients per day, and this significantly increased in the rainy season,
and that was mainly due to malaria.
So some of the common presentations we saw were malaria, chest infections, malnutrition, gastrointestinal issues,
aches and pains, and also various skin conditions.
A lot of the patients that we saw, we also referred to our chaplain team,
who were able to encourage and pray with the patients, and we also gave out a number of portfolio storyteller bibles.
So one of the highlights for me was being able to witness 16 people from four different tribes be baptized.
And this included a whole family who were from a Muslim background.
They had recently become believers through the men presenting to our clinic after being bitten by a dog and needing a rabies vaccine.
So our clinic is the only clinic in the area that currently provides these vaccines,
and this has opened many doors to share the gospel with people from tribes who are otherwise closed off to the gospel message.
A passage of scripture that has been encouraged throughout my cross-coptic ministry journey is Psalm 139.
Psalm 139 4 and 5 says,
Before a word is on my tongue, you were not completely.
You hand me in behind you before, and you lay your hand upon me.
I was at a missions conference a couple of years ago, and someone who was sharing what's particular verse said,
If God really wants you to do something, he will hand you in.
Thinking that it was a cool analogy, I have jokingly prayed that if God wanted me to do ministry in the unreached nation, that he would have to hand me in.
Time and time again, God has shown me that he indeed does hand you in.
I went to Sassanin wanting to apply what I was learning through my biblical studies,
while also planning a clearer direction for further ministry plans.
My heart was to be able to share Jesus with those who were yet to hear.
Being trained as a nurse, the most logical choice was medical missions.
Here I would be able to be Jesus' hands and feet, providing help in a practical way,
while also sharing the gospel as opportunities arose.
As I established relationships with the people and gained more of an understanding of the culture,
the passion for evangelism and discipleship continued to grow.
One of my favourite times was spent by sitting under a tree with friends drinking tea and coffee while shelling peanuts,
or opening up the front gate of a friend's house to find a two little boy's faces light up because I'd come to visit.
These events can appear superficial, however inner culture with quality time is highly valued.
The simple gift of doing life with people can open many doors to conversations and potential of sharing the gospel.
This photo is of some of my friends who are refugees from an area in western north Sudan called Dahor.
It's actually on the border of Chad. Many refugees have been refugees for a number of years.
Two of the girls, Batna and Husna, used to live a little further north where they met a colleague of mine.
When fighting broke out they were forced to flee yet again and they travelled to Dori.
It's amazing how God has placed strategic people in strategic spots where we have been able to continue to build friendships
and connect not just with Batna and Husna's family but also with many of their friends.
All of our Dahor friends still do that with Muslims but have had many opportunities to hear about Christ
and a fair few of them are open to the gospel.
My friend Medina is in the light pink in the background.
Her husband, when sharing a meal with an S.I.M. colleague, one of his good friends, usually asks him to pray before they start.
Seeds are being planted and watered and my prayer is that if I do not see my friends here on earth then I will see them again in heaven.
So if we go to the next slide, the photo on the left is of my friend Bushra.
This guy loves to be held. Every week that he was at church he would waddle in and go up to someone who would pick him up and put him on their lap.
After a while he would go to find someone better to sit with, often going back and forth.
Once it was time to go, nine times eight ten he would burst into tears and throw the biggest tantrum, not wanting us to leave, even though we were likely to see him the next day.
God has shown me that even when we feel like we have nothing to give, he is still present and turns it into part of his plan.
One week I was getting frustrated at the lack of Arabic knowledge and asked God to give me a way of being able to improve it.
Thinking that this would simply be seeing a couple of different cases at the clinic, where I had the help of the translator, I was a little bit surprised when I was asked to leave the weekly women's Bible study.
I'm just an audio storyteller and what I wanted to say in Arabic fully but now, I set off.
Once there, what I thought would make sense made absolutely no sense at all.
And it didn't matter how many hand gestures I did and the pointing that I was trying to simplify it, I just couldn't get my point across.
Even with my lived-in skills, God was present and he was able to encourage the ladies through the words of the audio storyteller.
Thankfully, the following week I was able to go back with a different story and a few more words under the belt.
So the Sunday before I left Egypt for South Sudan, I remember feeling apprehensive and really quite overwhelmed.
It was daunting knowing that I was going to a place that I knew nothing about and a language that I had barely grasped on.
I had no idea what the rest of the year would hold and one of my friends pointed me to John 15.
It felt like God was speaking to me directly.
The start of the chapter talks about printing branches that do not bear fruit.
And then in verse 4 and 5 it says,
Remain in me as I also remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself, it also must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
If you remain in me and I am you, you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
So often we try and do things in our own strength and get frustrated when they don't go to play.
It's encouraging to know that even through storms of life and challenges, if we remain in Jesus, He will do amazing things.
So what's next for me?
I'm back in Melbourne this year completing my Barber College studies while also continuing with my application to SIN long term.
This is something that I'm really excited about and look forward to giving you all updated as planes progress.
So 2016 was the year where I learnt many many things.
God put me in a place where I had to fully rely on and trust in Him.
You don't have to go to South Sudan to learn these things.
You don't even have to leave the country.
The great thing is that God meets you when you're at and He takes you on this incredible journey.
All you have to do is trust Him and let Him.
If I could summarise all that this past year has taught me, I would pull it down to these three points.
God is present in every situation even when it doesn't look like it.
He has gone before you and prepared the way.
And finally keep following Him and He will show you where to go.
So I just want to say a really huge thank you to everyone who has supported me at prayers and financially
and simply just sent me emails. It's been really appreciated.
It would not have been possible to do this past year if I didn't have such an amazing support team back in Australia.
I'm so grateful that God has been able to bring you guys on this journey too.
That's all I had, so if you wanted to hear more about what God is doing in South Sudan after the service, please feel free to come and chat with me.
