What the missionaries are saying

In our weekly round-up, Eternity looks at what some of our Australian missionaries are up to each week. 

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Jimmy in South Sudan

Jimmy is serving in South Sudan with SIM. His ministry there is primarily  youth work,  including at a School in Yabus, South Sudan working with the Ganza people. He helps with admin and English teaching. He’s also involved in sports ministry and coaching soccer. Earlier this month, Jimmy wrote about the work he has been doing and the way God is using him. Here’s an extract from his blog post:

“I have been thinking a lot of how God has really used me in ways that I would say impossible. I failed English in school and now here I am a teacher of English.  Before coming to South Sudan I had no experience in preaching, I never taught anything greater then Sunday school.  Whenever I use to speak publicly my mouth would dry up, I would sweat in the palms, heart beating 100 miles an hour and I would think to myself I can’t to this.

“Now every time I lead a bible study or preach to the unsaved I get so excited at the opportunity to share with others the good news of Jesus.  I think sometimes I talk too much but I just can’t stop telling people about Jesus.  We can’t keep the gospel under a basket we have to tell the world that without Jesus in their lives they will perish.  God’s desire is that non-should perish so while there are people perishing everyday we have to be a light and let people know the way, the truth and the life; people need to know who Jesus Christ is.” (Read Jimmy’s full post here to learn about the work he is doing).

Ryan Verghese in Niger

Ryan is serving as a short term missionary with SIM in Niger, doing accounting work with a hospital. He shares his exploits on his blog.

This week, he wrote about what he’s learning about hospitality:

“It is probably a side-effect of community living, but I have rediscovered the lost art of hospitality! That’s not to say I have never experienced hospitality before, because there are many instances where I have been invited to meals in Sydney, and my friends definitely took care of me in Auckland.

Not to mention, my parents are pretty pro at being hospitable (probably due to their Indian-ness), but it did not really rub off on me. There are probably a lot of factors that prevent as much hospitality in Sydney. Such as distance, busyness, but I think maybe it ultimately comes down to something about Western culture that values independence a lot.  However, the people here are super generous with their time and especially their food!
I think it is probably more noticeable because of the high frequency in which it happens, the lack of alternatives (i.e. I can’t just go and get takeaway if I can’t be bothered cooking), and the self-reliance of cooking. This is often quite a relief to someone who is (at best) an average cook!” (Read his full post here)

Arthur and Tamie in Tanzania

Arthur and Tamie are “shifting our horizons from Adelaide to Tanzania for working with students in universities”. In the last few years they’ve been taking theological training and working with CMS Australia. Today, Tamie blogs about marriage from a missionary’s perspective:

“Arthur and I went to a seminar on marriage with our Sudanese friends once. We were all ready to have a discussion about Ephesians 5 or 1 Peter 3 but our friends saw nothing controversial there. They wanted to talk about dowries. Living in Australia, the traditional dowry of cows was much more expensive than it was in the Sudan. How would they ever afford to get married?

“This week, the values of marriage across cultures are again in the spotlight. Daily Life ran an article about Kenyan legislation to legalise polygamy. It’s aimed at making sure that all wives have the same rights but controversy has arisen because it also does away with the bride price.” (Read Tamie’s full post here)

We know some missionaries work in sensitive countries and we’re setting things up so that they’re not compromised. Got a missionary we should know about? Email us here and we’ll follow them up.

Header image: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1170737