Monday 10th September at 0715 I got a call from my friend, pastor Simon of Bushfire Church, Yei, South Sudaan - "David, how are you, where are you, long time no see." "I'm fine Simon thank you I'm in Yei, how are you?"
After more greetings (greetings are very important here, a bit like the weather in England!) Simon continued "Ah we need to talk I haven't seen you for so long". "OK Simon when shall we meet and shall I come to you?" "This evening would be good, yes you come to me". "OK what time shall we say this evening and shall I come to your home?" (Evening here usually means 4pm))
So Simon comes back and says "Straight after lunch will be fine at my home". :) "Fine Simon I will come" then he said "but ring me when you get to town, so I can meet you and take you"
Somehow lunch was early and Safari wanted to take Betty to see Abbuba (she retired from being grandma to our children end of August and she has gone to live about 3km away from us, but she has no family; Safari is to keep watch on her to see that she settles and is happy; if not we will build her a tuckle in our compound). Justin also needed to go to town, so I said to Safari drop me off in town and if I need a lift back I will give you a call otherwise I'll get a boda boda.
We get to town and I get out at the police roundabout and call Simon. Simon says "I'm coming" "Are you walking?" No I'm on a motorbyke, be there in 7 minutes" "OK" So I'm stood in the midday sun and three of the passers-by say "ah you shouldn't be stood in the sun". "Ah I'm OK my friend will be here in a minute. One older man stopped to greet me and was chatting, says he likes to greet anyone new. "How long you been in South Sudan?" "Ah about 20-months ......." He was some sort of chairman of chefs, I think.
Back to the main story. Pastor David arrives on his motorbyke and stops a boda boda and tells me to go on the boda, whom he pays before the journey, "Simon will be waiting". This is getting more like something out of Hollywood every minute! A couple of minutes and I'm walking into the Liberty FM radio compound and welcomed by a young woman, who tells me to go in the next room, where several pairs of shoes are at the door. So shoes off I enter the 'radio studio' and Simon gives me a hug and all is pretty quiet. Simon introduced the four other guys and gave me headphones.
Well I'm praying hard now 'Come on Holy Spirit what you doing to me, what's happening here? it's up to you not me!!! You got me in this situation. I'd no Bible in my bag, but then I remembered my iPhone with four translations. I use it a lot, but for a minute I thought agh no Bible.
So Martin, the programme presenter start and introduces the 'Man of God hour from 1pm till 2pm. And he introduces a great man of God, a really big build up to the programme and I'm almost crawling under the seat; fortunately it wasn't me he was introducing it was pastor Simon!
Simon takes over and the microphone is between him and I - he introduces himself and then says something and tells me to introduce myself, which I do. He then starts preaches on John 11 v 33 - 'Lazarus'. Simon preaches in English very loud and I'm trying to catch every word as I don't know where I fit in here. One of the other guys is translating into Juba Arabic , I think and doing the Bible reading as Simon directs - so listening was taking all my concentration. Well Simon preaches for most of the hour of the programme and then passes over to me for the last few minutes, I think I hear him say pray for the people and Holy Spirit seemed to be saying tell them to take off their grave clothes. So I reminded the listeners, (this is a live programme), that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, but he wasn't free, the grave clothes had to be removed. "Many of you are wearing grave clothes, you have come into agreement with the enemy that the pain , the sickness, the disease in your body belongs to you, you need to stop listening to the lies of the enemy and come into line with the word of God.
A note is put in front of me I think it says 1.1/2 minutes left. So I say "come on take off the grave clothes, put your hand on your body where the pain is and say after me: I receive my healing because of what Jesus did on the cross, by the stripes laid on his body I am healed. There is power in the cross, power in the blood, power in the name of Jesus" Well I think that's what I said.
Simon closes by signing off and we get ready to leave as the heavens open with much need rain. It has rained a lot in many parts of South Sudan, even in Yei town, but our compound had remained almost dry for a couple of weeks. We needed rain!
So we sat talking on the verandah (ha ha) for over an hour waiting for the torrents of rain to abate.