Brad Phillips with "Mercy," our Mercedes 911 truck.

PPF driver, David M., and Conductor, Peter B., had completed a delivery of shoes and medical supplies to the Darfur refugee community in Jaac and were headed back to Kenya before the Sudan elections when they were stopped by soldiers manning a roadblock. The rogue soldiers took everything of value the two men carried, including their identification, and forced them to drive troops through the bush to various villages and check points. While this was happening, Nashon waited in Kenya for the team to “check in” to report their progress for the day.

But no word came for three days.

PPF's driver, David M. (second from left) was kidnapped for three days.

Finally, the soldiers released our team, and they drove straight for the border, only to be arrested again by another group of soldiers because our men had no identification! Providentially, a group of Kenyan soldiers patrolling the border saw the truck stopped by the Sudanese soldiers and secured the release of our team.

The two men are now back in Kenya, safe but a little rattled, as you can imagine.

PPF is blessed with a dedicated staff willing to submit to the risks associated with working in a very volatile and even hostile environment. Our goal is to reach the lost with the message of the Gospel, and the persecuted Church with encouragement from the Body of Christ here in America.

God has used the continued support of our ministry partners to supply the materials needs of this ministry. But it is God alone who provides us with the protection to do our work. Please pray that God would continue to keep all of us safe as we seek to be an effective witness for Christ in Southern Sudan and Darfur.

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PPF team in front of "Mercy," our new Mercedes 911 truck.

During PPF’s Christmas outreaches, a team traveled south of Southern Darfur to the river town of Nyamlel, to visit an orphanage supported by PPF ministry partner African Leadership. While in Nyamlel, our vehicle suffered a puncture in one of the tires (a normal occurrence). After putting on a spare, which looked like it was about to join its predecessor, the driver recommended we drive to his office in Aweil to pick up a better spare. This would take us two hours out of our way, but we didn’t want to risk sleeping with hyenas in the desolate bush between us and our base camp in Jaac.

Aweil is a large city in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, and while there, we did a little shopping to replace our depleted stores. On the dusty highway back towards Jaac, we noticed a grey truck on the side of the road.

After pulling over for a closer look, to our surprise, it was PPF’s truck, “Mercy”! Mercy had left Juba several days earlier loaded with 10 metric tons of medicine, medical supplies, and shoes for the refugees in Jaac and was now only 3 hours from her destination.

Mercy was added to PPF’s vehicle fleet in 2009 to save valuable ministry funds that are usually spent on expensive relief flights. As an illustration, the cost for delivering 10 metric tons of aid to Jaac by air could easily exceed $50,000. But by using Mercy, PPF saved tens of thousands of dollars – money that can now go towards evangelistic programs and relief projects like our 100 Wells Campaign. We are so thankful that your support enabled us to add this truck to further our work in Sudan. God is good!

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One of the new wells.

I was somewhere between Gok Machar and Jaac with my team. It had already been a long day. What was supposed to be a three-hour journey had doubled. It was well past dark, and our vehicle was weaving in and out between trees and thorn bushes, trying to avoid the occasional stump protruding from the “road” that was really nothing more than a glorified cow path.

All of a sudden, PPF Director Matt Chancey yelled out, “Hey, stop the car! There’s our rig!” Off the road a ways, lit up like a Christmas tree, was one of our drilling rigs busily drilling another borehole to bring fresh water to the thousands of people in Jaac.

PPF's Matt Chancey washes a child's feet and presents the Gospel during a shoe distribution.

It was a beautiful sight. There was no moon, so the stars were very bright. It was a peaceful night, but not a quiet one, because the air was filled with the hammer-sound of the drilling rig as it pounded its way deeper and deeper through the dark red soil.

Although it was late, the noise of the rig had attracted a lot of attention, mostly from men and boys standing around watching the work.

I felt an overwhelming sense of peace and thankfulness at that moment. I remembered how difficult it had been to finish the first few wells in the community. Now I was witnessing the 41st well being drilled!

Residents of Jaac gather for a time of worship.

By the time I left Africa to return home for Christmas, the 45th well was completed. At the time of publication, the 52nd well was operational in Jaac. Our goal of reaching the half-way mark to 100 wells by Christmas was met. PRAISE THE LORD!

Of course, God uses means to achieve His ends, and that means I need to thank you, our ministry partners, for helping us achieve this aggressive goal in the middle of a world-wide recession. We know God is not worried about the economy, nor should we be. The year 2009 was filled with incredible challenges, but none were greater than God, and He provided for all our needs and many thousands of lives were impacted by the work you have chosen to support.

29 students graduated from our pastor-training program.

In addition to the water project in Jaac, we also witnessed the fruit of our other ministries to the community. It was my pleasure to be joined by my good friend and PPF ministry partner, Larry Warren of African Leadership. Larry and I were privileged to attend a graduation ceremony of 29 pastors in Jaac who had completed more than 500 hours of training sponsored by African Leadership. It had been two years since Larry had last been with me in Jaac, and he summed up the changes in one word: “health.”

Darfur refugees in Jaac eagerly await a PPF shoe distribution.

PPF’s medical clinic in Jaac was very busy, as we received the first of hopefully many shipments of shoes and medicine using our new truck, “Mercy,” to save us thousands of dollars normally spent on expensive relief flights.

It was a wonderful trip, and I felt so privileged to have been chosen to be a part of this vital work in a barren land forgotten by the rest of the world. It reminded me that the same God Who watches over the sparrows has remembered His suffering people in Jaac.

Medical ministry at the PPF clinic in Jaac.

I know most of you reading these pages will never have an opportunity to see this miracle for yourselves, but I hope my words and these pictures convey at least a hint of the magnitude your prayers and testimony of giving have made in the lives of the people in Jaac and other communities in Sudan.

As I write these words at the close of 2009, the words of a powerful hymn keep entering my mind – and I trust they will carry us all through a new and exciting year:

A village celebrates with PPF staff over the completion of a new well.

“To God be the Glory, Great Things He Hath Done!”

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With the relative peace in Southern Sudan, more roads have begun opening up and more and more truck traffic can be seen crisscrossing the country — especially during the dry season when most roads are passable. But the roads are still very bad, so special trucks must be used. Trucks like the one pictured here. This is a Mercedes 911. It is a four-wheel drive truck with a 10-ton capacity. And during the rainy season, it can go almost anywhere in Southern Sudan — and at a much cheaper cost than using airplanes.

PPF recently added this 911 to our vehicle fleet in the hope that it will cut our transportation costs significantly, so we can be better stewards of the funds our supporters entrust us with.

You can see this vehicle has a lot of character. She deserves a name, so we’d like you to help us name our new truck. On our website, you may send us your name suggestion through our contact page. We’ll announce the winner in the November Africa Messenger.

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