Sunday school teachers conference

During the Sunday school teachers conference, I asked for examples of when they had prayed and seen God respond.  Many of the stories that came back revealed some of the impact of their flight from Kajo Keji.  One boy spoke about arriving in a camp with nothing at all – except his Bible – so that he and his family didn’t even have sheets to spread on the bare ground so they could sleep.  Instead, they cut logs in two and slept on them.  He prayed – and the next day their neighbour came over and said she had noticed they had nothing to sleep on.  She not only gave them something but invited them to share her tukul.

A girl spoke about being moved without choice and with no warning from one camp to a new one, and in the move they lost their saucepans, without which they couldn’t cook and so couldn’t eat.  She prayed and ladies came over with saucepans for her family.

A young man told a harrowing story about one child he knew.  The family were fleeing, all on the father’s motorbike, but had made the decision they had to leave the elderly grandmother behind.  The child was sure this was wrong and that God wouldn’t want them to do that and pleaded with his parents to take the grandmother, but they didn’t listen to him.  Just one kilometre into the journey, the motorbike overturned and his father took that as a sign that the child was right.  They turned around and brought the grandmother with them.

The teachers also shared a little bit about their work with the children.  Francis and Daniel, working for CEF, simply go into a camp, set up their tents, and the children come running – hundreds and even thousands of them.  One of the things we have brought with us is ten megaphones so they can make themselves heard!  Another young man works with preschool children, and has 1,500 regularly attending his meetings!  Some of the teachers are graduates of CEF’s training programme – a four year exercise with regular get togethers for study and practical training.  They are all passionate about the power of God in their own lives and the importance of sharing that with children who have no knowledge of him.  When I was teaching them different ways to pray with children, I asked them to practice ‘drainpipe’ prayers – and what ensued was a five minute outpouring of loud and passionate prayer.  When you look at the teachers they seem like a bunch of good kids, laughing, enjoying their friendship – but behind each of those smiling faces are experiences we can never imagine or fathom.  In order to help with the children’s work we have brought a suitcase full of games equipment – footballs, play balls, ropes, a parachute.  For children with nothing, play is so important.  

Written by Becky Sedgwick