February 19, 2025 • 46 mins
In this episode, Brody sits down with his oldest daughter, Kilby, who, along with her husband Greg and baby girl, has been serving as missionaries in East Africa. They discuss their ministry work, focusing on the importance of sharing the Gospel in Uganda, where humanitarian aid often overshadows the spiritual needs of the people. Kilby shares powerful stories from her time working in prisons, her passion for ministry, and how her upbringing in Andrews, NC and involvement with SWO shaped her journey. They also dive into their work in South Sudan, where the need for the Gospel is immense. Brody is encouraged by Kilby's strong faith, and together, they reflect on the calling God has placed on their lives. Kilby shares how listeners can support them through prayer as they continue their mission in East Africa.
Kilby and Greg’s Ministry Website
Kilby and Greg’s Email - Greghelmsis@gmail.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this episode of no Sanity Required, I had probably
the greatest privilege a dadcould ever have and I sat down
with I didn't even sit downKilby and I, my oldest daughter,
who serves in East Africa wherethey're doing gospel work, and
her and her husband and daughterthey've been with us for a
(00:20):
couple months Got to come in forThanksgiving.
We got to see them Thanksgivingweek and then spend Christmas
with him, and the month ofJanuary has just been awesome
having him.
And so Kilby and I just wentfor a walk, stopped propped up
on the fence and talked aboutthe work they're doing there, so
wanted it to have a very casualfeel and wanted to bring you
into that.
I did.
(00:40):
I started recording and thenrealized at some point it had
stopped about five minutes in.
So we actually we picked theconversation up about five
minutes in, but it'll be fineand you're going to hear dogs in
the background, trucks and carsdriving by.
One.
At one point we have a neighborthat walks up and starts
talking, and so it was.
(01:02):
It was very casual, we wereoutside on a beautiful day and
so just wanted her to share thework they're doing, a little bit
about what they're doing andhope that you'll be encouraged
by that.
I know it's an encouragement tome every time I talk to Kilby.
She's a woman of incrediblefaith and action, with that
faith, with that faith, and Iwill say, from the time Kilby
(01:23):
was the smallest child, shewanted to be a missionary and I
remember oftentimes I've hadpeople ask me what's it like, or
how people might say, what's itlike having one of your kids
serve so far away, becausethey're really far away, even if
you, once you fly into theircountry, you're still a 10 hour
(01:45):
drive from their house.
And so what I tell people isit's the greatest joy to know
that my children are walkingwith Jesus and there's no
greater joy than that, and soI'm thankful.
And so um makes it.
It doesn't make it easy, it'svery difficult, putting them on
an airplane um on Sunday andSunday and saying goodbye for
(02:07):
who knows how long.
It's hard, but Jackie Leggettsaid in her book she wrote a
book.
Jackie Leggett is a missionarywidow and she wrote a book
called we Died Before we Camehere.
The idea is that the premise ofthat is that when you submit
and surrender your life tomissions, there are certain
(02:28):
things that you embrace andaccept on the front end and for
us.
I gave Kilby to the Lord as achild and at a young age she
expressed a desire and a callingto go into the foreign mission
field and so we embraced,accepted and cultivated that in
her heart from an early age.
And it doesn't accepted andcultivated that in her heart
from an early age.
And it doesn't make it easy now, but it sure is rewarding to
(02:49):
see her follow God's call on herlife.
So I think you'll be encouragedand enriched by this
conversation.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bible,culture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Uganda is one of the larger countries in the world
for humanitarian work.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yes, yes, yes, uganda is one of the largest countries
in the world for humanitarianwork and there's definitely a
need.
You see a lot of poverty andstarvation and a lot of
brokenness, but a lot of timespeople bring those things
without the gospel, and so allthey're doing is meeting these
people's earthly comforts andneeds and not offering any help
(03:38):
or peace or comfort to theirsouls, which is so much more
important.
We know that as believers froma biblical worldview, we know
that the soul, of course, iseternal, and so, greg and I, our
goal is always that theministry that we do be gospel
driven.
I, in my humanity, a lot oftimes feel a need to like add on
(04:02):
to that, when people ask whatwe do and we say, oh, we
disciple, or oh, we teach thebible, um, I sometimes want to
say, and we sometimes help feedpeople, because I know that
that's what people want to hear,but that's that's ultimately
not the the greatest need forthese people.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
So there was a guy, hold that thought there was a
guy I was talking to.
He's a local fella and he'sfrom a church in this area.
This is probably two years agoand he said we're now well, I
had gotten a call from a mutualfriend saying, hey, our church
is looking to get involved insupport, uh, for missionaries in
(04:38):
East Africa.
I guess they had had apartnership and it kind of
fallen through.
And I start talking to this guyon y'all's behalf and then
before I pass along y'all's info, and then all he's wanting to
talk about is how many wellsthey drilled.
And then he's like so what kindof work like that are they
doing?
And I realized pretty quick inthe conversation it wasn't going
to be what they're looking.
(04:59):
They wanted something wherethey can take folks and go over
there and take short term tripswith teams, send home videos,
put it on Instagram and that's.
That's okay, I'm notcriticizing.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Uganda is a pretty big country.
Like I said, it takes it takesabout 10 or 11 hours to drive to
where we are from the capital.
And that is not even you knowthe furthest point.
And it's funny because I'll getmessages all the time from
people saying like, oh hey, weheard about this orphanage in
this place.
Could you go and check it outand make sure that it's good?
(05:31):
And I'll look it up.
And it'll be like a 16-hourdrive from where we are or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
On dirt roads.
Yes, on dirt roads.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And I never even heard of the village and it's
just funny.
But I know that people don'thave context and I don't have
context for a lot of it.
So it makes sense but it is.
It's funny to me when I getthose messages.
But yeah, we do a lot of a lotof ministry in the prisons.
We're very thankful for thatbecause Greg, my husband, he
(06:07):
started working in the prisonmaybe the men's prison, maybe
two years ago and as soon as hestarted that I felt really heavy
on my heart to start going tothe women's prison.
But the door just was notopening.
And, um, two Octobers ago aGerman ministry there uh got a
foot in the door at the at theprison and they had heard I
wanted to go.
So they invited me and I'vebeen able to go since then and I
love it so much.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
There are about 1,000 men in the prison and about 60
women, so a lot fewer women.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Is it like a different building?
Is there?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
a wall?
How are they separated?
So it's like a lot of things inUganda are compounds, so it'll
be like a building and then afence around it or a gate around
it, and I think we live in acompound and I think when people
hear that, they think like, oh,it's very separated, or maybe
they have like a barracks typeof thing in mind.
But it's so many people and somany buildings are in compounds
in Uganda just for security, andso the prison is there's a
(07:01):
pretty big side for the men,because there's obviously a lot
more, and then the only thingthat separates them is a fence
like this Like we're standing infront of, like a little just a
small little, yeah, chain linkfence and it separates the men
and the women and then the womenhave like one room that's for
them to sleep in and then prettymuch everything else they do
(07:23):
outside.
So they cook, eat outside, theydo any sort of chores outside,
it's all outdoors.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
And those women.
They have to make their ownfood right.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yes, so they're provided with the staple.
From what I understand, they'reprovided with the staple food,
so it's like some flour that youmix with boiling water and then
beans every day, but then it'stheir job to prepare it and
usually they're on rotation withthat.
And then something that theLord has been really kind to let
(07:54):
us start was kind of a foodsupplement program for pregnant
and nursing women in the prison,and so once a week the wellness
officer there will send me amessage of food that they could
use for the women, and we'll buysometimes fish, greens like
they have kind of like Africanversion of kale and spinach and
things like that and potatoesand things and bring it to the
(08:18):
women, and so then at least thepregnant women and nursing women
get a little bit extra foodwhile we're there.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
The dog dog, by the way, barking in the background
is roxy, who is your dog?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
yes, how old were you when you bought her?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I think I was 12 she's to be a big old pyrenees.
She's really old, she's like 13years.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
She's, yeah, she's 13 years old, like right now
turning 13 um, and then we alsodo a children's program, which
is one of my favorite things.
Uh, schools in uganda are wildbecause they require a lot more
than schools in america umrequire a lot more like
academically yes, so even fromlike maybe like fourth grade,
(08:57):
because the grading system isdifferent there, but I think the
equivalent fourth grade you arein school all day, every day,
until like 6 pm, and then youalso go to school on sun, on
saturdays, in the morning time.
So the only time that we havelike as a slot to do children's
ministry sunday uh, saturdayafternoon.
But we're very grateful forthat and we take it.
We take the opportunity, we useit.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
We're very grateful so saturdays they get out of
school earlier in the day.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah, they get out at like lunchtime and then y'all
do that after yeah, so usuallywe do it around 2.
And I think it's time to walkhome and get out of their
uniform.
So Uganda is, from myunderstanding, this is why they
do it, but it's colonized by theBritish, so the school system
(09:44):
is more British than American.
So everybody has uniforms.
It's primary and secondaryschool instead of elementary,
middle and high school.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
so, yeah, they get home, change out of their
uniform, eat a meal and then goand not ever like there's no
free public education.
So kids, there are a lot ofkids that don't get educated.
There are Not a lot, but that'snot uncommon.
So in the village there are.
But I'll say in Arora peoplealways.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
A lot of times they make away on everything, but you
can definitely tell like whenit's around the start of the new
school semester.
So there's three terms inUganda instead of two semesters.
It's three terms with threeshorter holidays, and you can
tell like when a new term isstarting, because at the
(10:34):
children's program or even inthe prison, when with the women,
all their prayer requests areplease pray for school.
So it's like a really big deal.
It's always on people's mindsBecause they have to pay for it.
They have to pay for it andeven a lot of the women who are
in the prison are there for debtand oftentimes that debt is if
they're a single mother and theycan't pay for their children's
(10:55):
school fees, then the school canbasically have that mother
arrested.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So there'd be a mom could be in that prison because
she's trying to get her kideducated and she couldn't pay
her school fees, and they canhave her arrested and thrown in
that prison.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Yeah, the last Tuesday that.
so we go to the prison onTuesday mornings, and the last
time I was there before we camefor our home visit, which we're
on right now, um, a woman wasthere and she was pretty
heartbroken because while herkids were at school, the police
came and just took her away fromthe house and she's a single
mother and she was just askingand it was because of that she
(11:33):
couldn't pay the school fees andsometimes, like most schools
are pretty gracious uh, what Ihave heard, they're very
gracious um, so they'll giveplenty of time or they'll just
send the child home until, like,they'll say, you know, just
stay at home sit out until youcan pay the fee.
So it's very rare, I think it'svery rare that the school
actually has people arrested.
(11:54):
Um, but it can happen.
And if the school has money,then they can basically pay the
police to go and arrest somebody.
And so, yeah, that woman wasarrested and her, she was really
heartbroken when we were thereand her biggest prayer was, she
said I don't have any way tocontact anybody.
So my kids, my children, justgot home from school and I
wasn't there.
So I don't know if ourneighbors are taking care of
(12:15):
them.
I don't know if my familymembers have, you know, figured
it out and they're taking careof them.
I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Um and and what's for her to get out of prison?
How she get out of prison.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Somebody has to pay either somebody has to pay or
they will take.
They will have like a courthearing and somebody from the
school come and basically theyit's almost like they, they
barter, I guess and that personfrom the school can say we think
that this amount of time wouldwould like basically um pay for
(12:47):
the debt that she had, or thatshe will, she'll have a
punishment that you know theduration, for this long the time
of her, of her sentence, yes,of her sentence, which is, which
is similar, uh, to here in someways.
Um, so either she could pay, orsomebody could pay it, or, um,
they would have that that courtdate.
And the court dates in Ugandaare very similar to here, where
(13:09):
a lot of times, um, you know,when we go to the prison every
Tuesday, we have a time forprayer and half the prayer
requests are for court dates,and then next Tuesday we get
there and they pushed all thecourt dates and not a single
person went, or the judge didn'tshow up, or the complainant
didn't show up, you know.
So it's at least around andrews, very similar to the system
(13:30):
here it is it's.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
It's kind of like which, by the way, y'all are
gonna hear not just dogs workingbut trucks going by.
A big old cummins diesel justdrove by and it's because we're
literally leaning up on.
My neighbor is Hank Parker Jrwho has been on NSR and we're
leaning up on his horse fence,but there are no horses in this
place.
We'll go over when we're doneand see I want to show you his
(13:55):
buckskin, but anyhow, excuse thebackground noise, but we're
just enjoying this pretty daybecause it's been cold and nasty
, so we're outside.
That's similar to you know,your mama has done so much jail
ministry locally and those womenalways ask for prayer for their
(14:16):
kids, which is part of that's.
Part of how Penwell Tutoring gotstarted Was because there was a
need we saw with our kids, withmo and juju.
Well, juju, like man it's, forit's taking a lot of work to get
her through school.
And then so we're asking thefolks at the school do other
kids struggle?
Their parents help?
(14:36):
We're having to do a lot ofwork at home and I'm not
assuming that folks are givingtheir kids the support they need
at home, because we know thedynamic of the community.
And so then Mama was in theprison, in the jail, rather
doing her Bible studies, andmoms would always be like I
don't know, my kid's stayingwith an aunt or an uncle or
(14:58):
grandmother or whatever.
But you're right, the courtsystem being delayed, it is bad
here.
It's so bad here.
But the difference probably isjust when they're in jail here
they're going to get three mealsa day.
It's climate control.
It's pretty rough being in thatprison there.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Yeah, definitely not as rough as some places.
But because I mean somethingnice is they are outside most of
the day, which is quite nice,but there have been times where
we've gotten there and they'rein punishment and they won't
tell us why and we're prettysure like it's just an officer
got mad really hastily and sothey'll be locked in their rooms
(15:36):
for 10 days, or there was onetime that they had been in
trouble and we got there andit's quite a big compound and
they all were sitting on theground and their punishment was
they had to cut the grass withbutter knife.
So they're sitting thereholding a few blades of grass at
a time, just sawing with thebutter knife.
So it's not.
It's.
It's way better than a lot ofplaces, but definitely not as
(15:58):
nice as even the less good jails, probably in this area but I do
I think like one of the reasonsthat when greg started going to
the men's prison it was so muchon my mind to to try to get
into the women's prison wasbecause of mama and because I
had seen that so much in my lifegrowing up and I kind of
jokingly but kind of for real,always tell greg like I think
(16:20):
that growing up in andrews in alot of ways like prepared me for
living in Arua it's so funny orjust for the life that we live,
Because even like this thistime around for our home visit,
we traveled so much and slept inso many people's houses and
that was a lot of growing upwith you going around speaking
places was us traveling and it'slike oh you know your
Speaker 1 (16:43):
life is familiar, at least.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
So I'm really thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, so that was a little interruption there.
Our neighbor, jack, whostruggles with addiction, just
walked up and we had a littleconversation.
He could not recognize Kilby.
Anyway, what were we talkingabout?
Oh, just how your life is likebetween growing up here.
(17:11):
the type of ministry that justkind of prepared you yeah we did
, we, uh, when you were youngthere was, we would go.
I remember there was everyFebruary.
We would go on.
I remember there was everyFebruary.
We would go on like athree-week trip where Mama would
would have y'all in the back ofa 15 passenger van was that
(17:33):
when we go to florida?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
yeah, I remember that that was always the biggest one
.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
That's yep, and that's when we started calling
it world tour.
So we would take our band, theband would play music, I would
speak, we would be somewherepretty much every night,
sometimes two nights at a time,and we would hit all of the
florida churches that wanted tobe involved in that in a two to
three week run and y'all wouldy'all do school, sit in the back
of the van while we're goingbetween places, and then we'd
(17:58):
usually about every third stop,we'd stay for two nights, just
kind of break it up.
You did, you traveled a lot andalso, I mean I think you went
out of the country.
I mean, how old were you thefirst time you went out of the
country with me?
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Six.
I was five or six, I think yeahwhen we went to Honduras.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Because I have pictures of that.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
I can remember that, I can literally.
I have very vividly in my mindthe morning when it was still
dark and we were at our oldsmall stone house.
And we got in the car and droveto camp and met everybody and
then went to.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Got on the bus.
Yeah, like three the bus, likethree in the morning, and I
remember that's the trip.
Do you remember that littlegirl, nicole?
Yes, she was from roatan, andso people that were like black
people in honduras were morediscriminated against.
I remember she was, but shetook to us and, uh, y'all were
(18:51):
buddies nicole and also jessica.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
That was one of the girls as well.
And she had some issues fromabuse.
I remember and she actuallymoved to Tennessee.
She got moved to an orphanagein Tennessee.
Anyways that was my first time.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And then you started going every year.
And then we went to India.
The first time we went to Indiayou were 11.
Gary turned 12.
And that we went to India.
The first time we went to India, you were 11.
Gary turned 12.
And that was like a two-weektrip and we have a picture that
little kid we thought was a boy.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yes, and I came to find out that, because they were
Muslim, they weren't Hindu,they were Muslim, and the reason
we thought it was a boy wasbecause her head was shaved and
that is like a very, very normalthing within Islam for young
girls.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
But I didn't know that, you didn't know that I
didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
And we just assumed that it was a little boy.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
We're literally in the slums of Mumbai, india,
literally in the slums, walkingshack to shack.
Those shacks were made out ofcardboard and pieces of tarp and
plastic and they made chai teafor us.
We sat in there and you told acouple Bible stories.
That was so cool, and then youmerely played.
(20:04):
I played cricket with thoseboys.
I forgot about that, yeah, andI didn't know what I was doing.
I forgot about that.
I hit the ball and either itwent into the ocean, because
they're right there on the coast, or it went on a building.
But I remember I was like okay,guys, I'll buy y'all another
cricket ball.
We had to go find a streetvendor.
That's a good memory.
But we, when you were I thinkone thing that's interesting to
(20:27):
people is the way the Lord workswhen you were 13, almost when
you were 13, almost 14, is whenwe went and lived in Uganda
working towards getting Juju andMo home.
That was a four-month process,almost five-month process, but
(20:48):
at that point you were prayingabout when you grew up, going to
India and it's just cool theLord led you back there.
I'd like to pivot a little bitand talk about because you're
working in arua, uganda, but, uh, talk a little bit about south
sudan.
Yeah, which like the desire tobe there.
What time you have been there?
Why you're not there now andit's what's going on there which
(21:12):
quick.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
I think everybody always assumes that we're in
Uganda because of Julia andMoses, um, which that is very
cool, um, that the Lord hasbrought us to the same place.
But Juge and Mo are from like16 hours from where we're, from
where we live, so it's um, it'snot the same place and um, I
(21:35):
definitely think it was reallycool.
So Greg, my husband he feltcalled to missions from a very
young age and thought he wouldbe in South America.
I felt very called to missionsfrom a young age and thought we
would be, I would be in India,and we always joke that like the
Lord averaged the two and nowwe're in East Africa in between
those places.
But, um, it was very coolbecause we both separately,
(21:55):
before we even knew each other,had really um amazing
experiences in Uganda.
Of course, for me it was whenmy parents and my family adopted
Juliet and Moses, and then forGreg, he went and served kind of
as an apprentice for somemissionaries there, um, and so
it's really cool because theLord gave us really sweet
experiences in Uganda.
But it was just seemingly acoincidence that that's where we
(22:20):
ended up.
It wasn't like we specificallyfelt called to Uganda, we were
looking for a place to go in themiddle of COVID when we had
been sent back from Belgium andsomebody invited us to Arua,
uganda, for six months and thenwe just never came back after
after that, and that was fouryears ago.
Um, and it's really cool,because greg asked my dad over
(22:42):
the phone if he could marry mein a little cafe that is like a
five minute walk from where welive now so that's pretty cool,
so wild, yeah, yeah so coolum, but south sudan, sudan, is
where we love.
We love Uganda as well.
We love Arua, but we feel verymuch a passion for the people
(23:04):
and the place where we serve inSouth Sudan.
Arua is definitely not.
It's off the beaten path a bitin in Uganda, but there are
missionaries there besides us.
There are churches there.
The problem is finding a churchthat isn't corrupt, a church
that shares the gospel, but inSouth Sudan there's a lot less
(23:26):
of that.
The village where we live, wherewe serve I shouldn't say where
we live, the village where weserve and where we would love to
live, is a place where, um,there have have not really been
that many westerners and outsideinfluence.
So we feel very passionateabout that village.
It is um.
I think greg and I could easilysay we've never loved a place
(23:48):
and longed for a place so much.
Has given us a taste and aglimpse of what heaven will be
like, because I think we'vedealt with a lot of difficulty
in being there and I just feellike until we reach heaven, I
won't really feel that samesense of being in the place
where I love wholeheartedly anddeeply.
So it's definitely helped melook towards heaven and long for
(24:11):
that day.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
And the difference.
So Arua, the city y'all live innow I say city, I use that word
loosely the area you live is innorthern Uganda.
North of y'all is the borderwith South Sudan and west of
y'all is the border with DRC orthe Congo, where there's a lot
(24:34):
of fighting right now, a lot ofa lot of war going on there.
And so to get into South Sudan,y'all don't just drive over the
border.
You, you have a small airplanethat your missionary mentor owns
and y'all will fly in that intothe village in South Sudan and
then when get like when you flyinto that village, life is way
(24:58):
different there than it is inArura, and so maybe talk a
little bit about the difference,like what, how those people
live.
Yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
It's wild because, um , me and my dad were, when we
were getting coffee beforecoming here or before, uh,
starting this podcast.
He was talking about growing uppoor and he said, you know,
like I, we didn't know we weregetting coffee before coming
here or before starting thispodcast.
He was talking about growing uppoor and he said, you know,
like we didn't know we were poor, but I know now that we're poor
, but then it was just life, andI think that is a big
difference.
I mentioned that in Uganda,where we live, there's like
there's a lot of NGOs, a lot ofhumanitarian groups, and they
(25:31):
have done a lot of good andthey've also done a lot of harm
as far as making people verydependent on them.
A lot of handouts.
There's a book called whenHelping Hurts and there's one
specifically that hasspecifically been written for
Africa, because it's such a,it's such a big deal and it
jades.
It's really hard to not becomejaded in that place, because
(25:53):
there are friendships that seemso solid and so good and then,
after a year or two, you realizethat person has been just
trying to get close to you formoney or for school fees, um,
and so it's hard to sometimes totrust people, to be very frank
and honest, um, and so it'sreally difficult and I didn't
realize how much that weighed onme until we started going to
(26:14):
South Sudan, and it was sorefreshing to be in a place
where people weren't asking forthings, they were just content
to live.
And it's crazy, because thepoverty in Uganda is, it's very
real and it's very difficult.
It's more than anything I haveor ever will experience.
But the poverty in South Sudanis so much worse and yet they
(26:35):
have no idea that they're, thatthey're poor in a lot of ways.
Like, uh, people in Arua, um,they know they're poor because
humanitarian groups have come inand said, oh, you're so poor,
let us help you now, you know,let us do these things.
But in South Sudan, life ishard, yes, and people know it,
(26:59):
but in their minds that's notbecause they're poor, it's
because that's how you survive,that's a way of life.
Um, and life is very differentthere.
And I want to be very carefulbecause I I did a podcast here
on here really early on intomoving to East Africa.
I think we had lived in Ugandalike four months and I remember
we did a podcast and I talkedand talked on there, yada, yada,
and then when it came out Ilistened to it and I literally
cringed and I couldn't evenfinish the podcast listening to
(27:21):
the podcast, and I've neverlistened to it since because I
sounded so unsuff like, justunbelievably, insufferably
prideful in the way I wastalking.
And I look back now and I'mlike I didn't know anything
about anything.
And I still don't know a lot,but at least I'm aware that I
don't know anything now.
(27:42):
So yeah, I want to really not beprideful in the way that I talk
about this place and not buildit up or build us up in us being
there and wanting to servethere up?
Speaker 1 (27:54):
or build us up in us being there and wanting to serve
there.
Well, and I could say eventoday at lunch, or not at lunch
but at coffee, when I said Ididn't know we were poor For
context, that was in the contextof telling a funny story.
But the poorest people herehave so much more than the poor
of South Sudan, Like it's that,the way you describe that
poverty and what we've seen, youknow, like when mama and Laila
(28:17):
went and flew in there withy'all, like what does a normal
daily diet consist of for anaverage family there?
Speaker 3 (28:24):
It's usually in South Sudan.
It's usually that same.
So in Uganda it's called Inyasa, in South Sudan it's called
Madipi, but it's just cassavaflour mixed with boiling water
and then usually something thatyou can kind of dip it in, so
beans, sometimes okra paste,mixed with boiling water.
In South Sudan there is onlyone rainy season, wherein in
(28:48):
Uganda there's two, and sousually from July, june, july,
august, around that time thoseare just called the hungry
months in South Sudan, and allthe food runs out from your
harvest from the year before andwe have friends who will just
like go and find leaves on treesand boil them and eat them,
because they just need something.
You see everybody who alreadymost people are quite thin and
(29:08):
you just see them lose so muchweight.
It's like very, very, veryspecial if you get to eat meat
and most people to eat meat.
It's true, it's like very, very, very um special if you get to
eat meat and most people to eatmeat.
It's like a little piece ofmeat the size of it.
You get to taste it like thesize of a chicken nugget yeah,
yeah um and um, we, there's,it's just mud huts, there's not
(29:30):
really electricity, there's notrunning water.
Um, we are very fortunate inour hut and in the area where we
serve when we're there, we havesolar power that's on pretty
consistently, and then you justhave wells and boreholes for
water During the rainy season.
There's a river not too farfrom the village that people are
so excited about, and, yeah,it's in Uganda.
(29:55):
We, we speak english, which issuch a huge praise, a huge
blessing.
Um, but in south sudan, nobodyspeaks english, or very, very
few people, I should say, noneof the women that I know speak
any english, and so it's all, uh, the local language there.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
What's the name of the people and the language.
I don't know if I can, if wecould share it on here.
Oh, okay, good, call good callum, um, it's mind your business,
mind your business speaking,okay, while we're standing here.
Okay, our listeners know moe,so while did you see what he
just drove by?
with his, with his makeshifttrailer for his friends moe has
(30:32):
spent what a week building atrailer to go behind the
four-wheeler.
And we just saw the maidenvoyage he just went by.
It is a half a sheet of plywood.
He's cut it with my.
I have a steel chainsaw that'sa battery-powered chainsaw for
when we're just cutting limbs.
He's done all the work withthat.
He has disassembled askateboard.
He's taken two skateboards,taken the wheels and trucks off
(30:54):
and made a trailer out ofskateboard trucks and a piece of
plywood.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
And now he's driving and used one singular nail to
attach it to the four wheeler.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yes, to attach with a piece of rubber and then he's
now going down there to pick uphis buddies and he's going to
drive them back over here.
So he's going to pick up histwo buddies, brothers named Gus
and Oscar, and he's going tobring them and they're going to
play in the pond right there.
We just got interrupted againby our friendly neighbor, but
anyway, yeah.
So Mo will be back through herein a minute.
I'm sure y'all will hear him.
Could you tell one of myfavorite stories that just shows
(31:28):
the sovereignty of God workingin all of this is the story of
the gal at the prison that saidshe was that was not interesting
.
Let's this back jump back touganda um, which, by the way,
y'all are two home family.
You have homes in two countries.
Somebody was, somebody was hereone day talking about it was.
I met some wealthy people inthe valley here.
(31:49):
They were asking for directions.
They had an accent and theyhave.
Apparently they're from francebut they have a home in Florida
and now they're looking atbuying a home here.
And I said and I chuckled, Ithought, oh, my daughter has a
home in two countries.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Yeah, basically yeah, so we do spend most of our time
in Uganda.
We would love to spend most ofour time in South Sudan.
We haven't been able to sinceMay of this past year because of
some difficulty and securityissues with a new man there
who's been put in a position ofauthority.
(32:25):
So, yeah, we spent most of ourtime, a lot of our time in
Uganda the past year, and a bigpart of that has been the prison
, and there's a woman there whoI love.
Her name is Winnie, and thewild thing is that there is so
much turnover at the women'sprison there that most of the
women that I know and love couldbe gone by the time we get back
(32:45):
there next week.
Yeah, and that's just thenature of things.
That's something I am really,really bad at saying goodbye to
people in general, and I, theLord, has had to really like
help me hold things with a veryopen hand, because there's so
much transition and unrest inEast Africa that there are dear
(33:05):
friends that you never get tosay goodbye to.
There are people who you thinkwill be around for a long time
and suddenly they're back inSouth Sudan or they have moved
away for forever.
Um, so, anyways, all that tosay, this woman could still be
at the prison, she could be backin her home.
But her name is Winnie and sheis maybe a few years older than
(33:29):
me, I want to say but I could bevery wrong about that Um, and
we were at the prison a fewweeks before I left, and so this
would be like in September andof last year and she, she told
us she was, we had a time oftestimony and she was saying I
praise God so much because sheokay, let me give some context,
(33:50):
that a lot of the women Greggets on me sometimes for saying
this when I say they're notcriminals because they have done
something, but they're notcriminals in the sense that we
would imagine in the US.
So there are women who are therebecause there's a woman who's
there because she bought a dressthat was stolen and she did not
know it was stolen, and she'sbeen there for four years and
she did not know it was stolen,and she's been there for four
(34:11):
years.
And there's a woman who wasattacked by a man and she
afterwards heard that he wasattacking other.
He was very much older than her.
She heard that he was trying toattack other young girls,
teenage girls, and so she wentand threw acid on him and she
has been in prison for a verylong time and has a very long
time left to go.
So different situations likethat, that, of course, what has
(34:35):
been done is wrong, but it's notnecessarily what you picture as
criminals.
But this woman, winnie, I willsay she is in there for
something that she did that wasvery wrong.
So she's one of the few whowould maybe be in there for an
offense that you would imaginesomeone being in prison for, if
that makes sense.
And so she had been in anotherprison in a place called Gulu,
(34:58):
which is about five to sevenhours from where we live, and
she tried to escape.
And so they moved her to theprison in Arua and they added
more time to her sentence andshe was praising God.
She said I thank the Lord, Ipraise God that I got caught
when I was trying to escape,because if I had not got caught
(35:19):
I would not have been brought tothis prison, and if I hadn't
been in this prison I wouldnever have heard who Jesus
Christ was, I would never haveheard the gospel, and I have
hope and peace that I never hadin my life before and I know
what will happen to my life.
I know where I'll spendeternity and I praise God that
he saved me.
I praise God that he let allthose bad things happen so that
this could, this could be whatmy life came to.
So it's a lot of hardship andit's a lot of difficulty, but we
(35:43):
really praise the Lord thathe's working Um and a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
I love that story.
I've told a lot of people thatstory and I almost told it on
here on an episode.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yeah, I'm very thankful for her and she leads
the worship now for the prisonministry and she's very
passionate, so, yeah, verygrateful.
I would like to share justreally quick what we do in South
Sudan, because it is myfavorite ministry I've ever been
a part of Me and Greg.
We always say that we feel thismaybe sounds dramatic, but we do
always say that we feel likewe're living in the book of Acts
(36:18):
.
It is one of the most beautifulthings I've ever seen.
John Piper says that missionsexist because worship does not.
I think such a big goal for myfamily as missionaries is that
people wouldn't be reliant on us, that there could be a day
where we wouldn't have to leadthe children's program because
(36:40):
there would be a Ugandan whowould be leading, that we
wouldn't have to go to theprison because there would be
other Ugandans who were enteringinto the prisons.
And that is basically what ishappening in South Sudan, not
because of us, um.
So we have only been there fora very limited amount of time.
There's a man who is our mentor, who has served there
(37:02):
faithfully for 20 years, andwe're basically graciously able
to just ride on the back of whathe has done, um, and just help
in any way that we can.
So we just we play a very, very, very small role in that
village.
It is in large part what thisman and his family have done,
and then the faithful Sudanesepeople who have carried that on.
(37:22):
So South Sudan is the newestcountry in the world.
It has been there for a verylong time, but it only in 2014,
I believe, broke away from NorthSudan, 2011.
2011.
2011.
Broke away from North Sudan andit is very broken.
There's a lot of witchcraft anda lot of Islam, and so there are
(37:45):
some areas in South Sudan whereWesterners are not allowed
because they either, uh, forreligious reasons or they think
that we're coming to um, takeover their land, um, which is a
very sad reality, um, so most ofthese places are Muslim.
There's one, there's one placein particular, uh, that has
(38:09):
really it's really quite dark.
It's a lot of Islam mixed withwitchcraft.
I won't give the name of theplace, but it's one of the
earliest places where Africanpeople were selling their own
tribesmen to Westerners forslavery in the 18th century and
19th century as well, and thereare pits.
(38:30):
There are kind of big pitsthere.
You can still see in thevillage I've never been, but
this is what we've been toldwhere they would bring their,
their fellow tribesmen and theywould just drop them in those
pits and wait for Westerners tocome and to claim them and take
them to serve as slaves for therest of their life.
For the rest of their life.
(38:53):
So it's a very dark place.
Um, there's a lot of stigmaaround that place because Africa
is a very communal uh, cultureEast Africa, I should say and so
the the?
Um shock that people would selltheir own people.
Um, even still, even thoughit's hundreds of years later, it
it speaks a lot to that, thatplace, in those tribes, and so,
um, anyways, there's places likethat where we would love to go
(39:16):
and we are not welcome.
And so there's this village, thevillage where we sometimes live
and the village where wesometimes serve in South Sudan,
and they are very peacefulpeople.
Even when South Sudan has beenon the brink of civil war, this
place has remained mostlypeaceful.
It's very small, verysecludedink of civil war, this
place has remained mostlypeaceful.
It's very small, very secludedout of the way, and so what we
(39:37):
do is we share the gospel thereand we teach Bible stories.
So there's a very low literacyrate and it is an oral culture,
meaning people, anything thatpeople know has been passed down
orally and most of them it'samazing, most of them can
recount their lineage 10generations back, and that's
very normal.
Most of them can speak four orfive languages and they can't
(39:59):
read or write any of them, andthat is the norm.
And so what this missionary hasdone is he has composed and
compiled stories from the gospel, from the Bible, and he teaches
them to the people there andthey memorize them.
And it is amazing because Ihave taught these stories a few
times and I could have taught italready, and each time I teach
(40:21):
it I have to go back and listento it on audio and remember and
recall.
But these, especially the womenthat I've seen, they can hear
these stories.
They're three to five minutesand once they hear it once or
twice, it is locked in theirbrain and it is not going
anywhere.
So the same plane that bringsus from Uganda to South Sudan
then takes these Sudanesemissionaries, puts them on the
(40:42):
plane and they have thesestories from the Bible in their
mind.
And this plane takes them tothese villages where we as
Westerners aren't accepted.
But the Sudanese missionariesare accepted because, even
though they're not from the sametribe, they are Sudanese, and
so then they get to share thegospel in these villages that
are Muslim and witchcraft orpagan, I should say.
(41:02):
And that is what we do whenwe're able to be there, and it
is a joy, it is a delight.
There are people who walk milesat a time so that they can
share with people who they knoware dying without the gospel.
So I'm very, very thankful tobe a part of that.
And then the last thing, on thepresentation which my dad keeps
(41:24):
referring to, that it's justwhen we're in the States and
we're going around sharing atchurches we have just a little
very informal what is it called?
Slideshow of what we do.
And so the last thing that westarted doing last year is a
radio program.
So, um, if people have iPhonesin Africa in East Africa it's
very new, not very many havethem Um, people don't really
(41:46):
have TVs and radio is the mainmeans of entertainment.
So if people are in the garden,uh, working for hours at a time,
they have the radio on theirneck.
If people are selling in themarket, they have the radio that
they're playing.
And, um, someone the Lordtotally worked it out, because a
few years before this, we hadtried to start a radio program
(42:08):
and they the the people at thestation were really trying to
make a lot of money off of it,which we didn't have.
And then it just took time, theLord's timing, and last year
the door opened for us to havebroadcasts on the Christian
radio station.
So there's five times a weekwhere we share Bible stories.
(42:28):
John Piper sermons, things likethat, and we've been told that
the broadcasting in Arua canreach around six six million
people in Congo, south Sudan,because it's a very flat terrain
and I don't know how many ofthose six million are actually
listening.
A big prayer request is that alot of the Muslim people
actually listen to the Christianradio because we've been told
(42:51):
they like the music on therebetter than the other stations.
So the big prayer would be thatwhen our programs come on they
don't switch it to anotherstation, that they would listen
and hear the stories of JesusChrist as Lord, not just as good
man or good teacher or goodprophet.
So that's a huge prayer.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
That's so cool.
I love that.
Yeah, I love it.
Well thanks, yeah, love you, Ilove it.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Well thanks, yeah, love you, I feel like I just
rambled a bunch, so hopefullysome people can make something
out of that and be encouraged orknow how to pray for East
Africa more specifically.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Yeah, and they can follow y'all.
Yeah, follow the journey, getyour email.
Yeah, what's the best way?
Should we just link that?
Speaker 3 (43:32):
You can?
Yeah, you get your email.
Yeah, what's the best way?
Should we just link that youcan?
Yeah, you can.
Um, we'll link the email.
So we'll link the email thatyou can reach out to.
If you wanted to join ournewsletters.
We're pretty inconsistent withthem, but we do share on there,
and then we have a website aswell, um, and we're not opposed
to adding people on facebook whowe don't know so you can follow
.
Follow along.
(43:52):
We're we're not the bestoftentimes at sharing, but we
try to share when we're able.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
And how does that work?
Like, if they look for you onFacebook, it's just by your name
.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Just Kilby Helms.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Greg Helms, greg Helms.
Yeah, what is the Greg?
The wonderer thing.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
That used to be instagram, but we both got sick
and tired of being addicted tosocial media, so we only have
like old farts.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
We only have facebook nowadays, so well, I'm older,
fart and I have zero yeah, soused to be uh on instagram, but
now it's just facebook okay, so,and then we'll just link that
where they can.
They can look you up on onfacebook and then they we'll
link where they can sign up foryour email.
So, thank you, I love you, Ilove you.
(44:35):
I love you so much.
And Jack just came over andvisited with us.
Roxy walked by, pulled histrailer by.
It's been a good, it's been agood afternoon, yeah Well, I'm
wrapping this show up, thisepisode rather up, several days
after that conversation withKilby, several days after that
conversation with Kilby, and Ihope that you got kind of a peek
into what they're doing andtheir part of the world.
(44:56):
As you can imagine, as a dad, Idon't think I could be any more
thankful.
I'm hesitant to use the wordproud, though I know all parents
are proud of their kids.
Just thankful, my heart is full.
They are, as we're droppingthis episode and I'm recording
this kind of wrap up today, andwe're going to drop it today as
(45:16):
you're getting this.
They are now in, they're backin country.
We put them on a plane a coupleof days ago, the day after we
recorded, and they made itsafely back to that side of the
world, safely back to that sideof the world.
Tomorrow they'll be traveling 10hours by vehicle across a
pretty rough landscape to get totheir primary area of ministry,
(45:42):
where their base is.
So be in prayer for them andthank you for following along.
Thank you for your support atNSR.
It's something we're verygrateful for, and I would ask
that you pray for my daughter,pray for Kilby, pray for my
little grandbaby, who I callPunky, who I love so much, and
(46:03):
pray for Greg that he would leadwell and that they would be
smart and safe.
There's an element of riskwhere they're at.
Of course, they're serving in avery difficult part of the
world.
There's always a threat, and sowe cover your prayers for them
and appreciate it.
We'll have another episode upsoon.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at SWOutfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources, and we'll see younext week on no Sanity Required.
In this episode of no Sanity Required, I had probably
the greatest privilege a dadcould ever have and I sat down
with I didn't even sit downKilby and I, my oldest daughter,
who serves in East Africa wherethey're doing gospel work, and
her and her husband and daughterthey've been with us for a
(00:20):
couple months Got to come in forThanksgiving.
We got to see them Thanksgivingweek and then spend Christmas
with him, and the month ofJanuary has just been awesome
having him.
And so Kilby and I just wentfor a walk, stopped propped up
on the fence and talked aboutthe work they're doing there, so
wanted it to have a very casualfeel and wanted to bring you
into that.
I did.
(00:40):
I started recording and thenrealized at some point it had
stopped about five minutes in.
So we actually we picked theconversation up about five
minutes in, but it'll be fineand you're going to hear dogs in
the background, trucks and carsdriving by.
One.
At one point we have a neighborthat walks up and starts
talking, and so it was.
(01:02):
It was very casual, we wereoutside on a beautiful day and
so just wanted her to share thework they're doing, a little bit
about what they're doing andhope that you'll be encouraged
by that.
I know it's an encouragement tome every time I talk to Kilby.
She's a woman of incrediblefaith and action, with that
faith, with that faith, and Iwill say, from the time Kilby
(01:23):
was the smallest child, shewanted to be a missionary and I
remember oftentimes I've hadpeople ask me what's it like, or
how people might say, what's itlike having one of your kids
serve so far away, becausethey're really far away, even if
you, once you fly into theircountry, you're still a 10 hour
(01:45):
drive from their house.
And so what I tell people isit's the greatest joy to know
that my children are walkingwith Jesus and there's no
greater joy than that, and soI'm thankful.
And so um makes it.
It doesn't make it easy, it'svery difficult, putting them on
an airplane um on Sunday andSunday and saying goodbye for
(02:07):
who knows how long.
It's hard, but Jackie Leggettsaid in her book she wrote a
book.
Jackie Leggett is a missionarywidow and she wrote a book
called we Died Before we Camehere.
The idea is that the premise ofthat is that when you submit
and surrender your life tomissions, there are certain
(02:28):
things that you embrace andaccept on the front end and for
us.
I gave Kilby to the Lord as achild and at a young age she
expressed a desire and a callingto go into the foreign mission
field and so we embraced,accepted and cultivated that in
her heart from an early age.
And it doesn't accepted andcultivated that in her heart
from an early age.
And it doesn't make it easy now, but it sure is rewarding to
(02:49):
see her follow God's call on herlife.
So I think you'll be encouragedand enriched by this
conversation.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bible,culture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Uganda is one of the larger countries in the world
for humanitarian work.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yes, yes, yes, uganda is one of the largest countries
in the world for humanitarianwork and there's definitely a
need.
You see a lot of poverty andstarvation and a lot of
brokenness, but a lot of timespeople bring those things
without the gospel, and so allthey're doing is meeting these
people's earthly comforts andneeds and not offering any help
(03:38):
or peace or comfort to theirsouls, which is so much more
important.
We know that as believers froma biblical worldview, we know
that the soul, of course, iseternal, and so, greg and I, our
goal is always that theministry that we do be gospel
driven.
I, in my humanity, a lot oftimes feel a need to like add on
(04:02):
to that, when people ask whatwe do and we say, oh, we
disciple, or oh, we teach thebible, um, I sometimes want to
say, and we sometimes help feedpeople, because I know that
that's what people want to hear,but that's that's ultimately
not the the greatest need forthese people.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
So there was a guy, hold that thought there was a
guy I was talking to.
He's a local fella and he'sfrom a church in this area.
This is probably two years agoand he said we're now well, I
had gotten a call from a mutualfriend saying, hey, our church
is looking to get involved insupport, uh, for missionaries in
(04:38):
East Africa.
I guess they had had apartnership and it kind of
fallen through.
And I start talking to this guyon y'all's behalf and then
before I pass along y'all's info, and then all he's wanting to
talk about is how many wellsthey drilled.
And then he's like so what kindof work like that are they
doing?
And I realized pretty quick inthe conversation it wasn't going
to be what they're looking.
(04:59):
They wanted something wherethey can take folks and go over
there and take short term tripswith teams, send home videos,
put it on Instagram and that's.
That's okay, I'm notcriticizing.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Uganda is a pretty big country.
Like I said, it takes it takesabout 10 or 11 hours to drive to
where we are from the capital.
And that is not even you knowthe furthest point.
And it's funny because I'll getmessages all the time from
people saying like, oh hey, weheard about this orphanage in
this place.
Could you go and check it outand make sure that it's good?
(05:31):
And I'll look it up.
And it'll be like a 16-hourdrive from where we are or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
On dirt roads.
Yes, on dirt roads.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And I never even heard of the village and it's
just funny.
But I know that people don'thave context and I don't have
context for a lot of it.
So it makes sense but it is.
It's funny to me when I getthose messages.
But yeah, we do a lot of a lotof ministry in the prisons.
We're very thankful for thatbecause Greg, my husband, he
(06:07):
started working in the prisonmaybe the men's prison, maybe
two years ago and as soon as hestarted that I felt really heavy
on my heart to start going tothe women's prison.
But the door just was notopening.
And, um, two Octobers ago aGerman ministry there uh got a
foot in the door at the at theprison and they had heard I
wanted to go.
So they invited me and I'vebeen able to go since then and I
love it so much.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
There are about 1,000 men in the prison and about 60
women, so a lot fewer women.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Is it like a different building?
Is there?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
a wall?
How are they separated?
So it's like a lot of things inUganda are compounds, so it'll
be like a building and then afence around it or a gate around
it, and I think we live in acompound and I think when people
hear that, they think like, oh,it's very separated, or maybe
they have like a barracks typeof thing in mind.
But it's so many people and somany buildings are in compounds
in Uganda just for security, andso the prison is there's a
(07:01):
pretty big side for the men,because there's obviously a lot
more, and then the only thingthat separates them is a fence
like this Like we're standing infront of, like a little just a
small little, yeah, chain linkfence and it separates the men
and the women and then the womenhave like one room that's for
them to sleep in and then prettymuch everything else they do
(07:23):
outside.
So they cook, eat outside, theydo any sort of chores outside,
it's all outdoors.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
And those women.
They have to make their ownfood right.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yes, so they're provided with the staple.
From what I understand, they'reprovided with the staple food,
so it's like some flour that youmix with boiling water and then
beans every day, but then it'stheir job to prepare it and
usually they're on rotation withthat.
And then something that theLord has been really kind to let
(07:54):
us start was kind of a foodsupplement program for pregnant
and nursing women in the prison,and so once a week the wellness
officer there will send me amessage of food that they could
use for the women, and we'll buysometimes fish, greens like
they have kind of like Africanversion of kale and spinach and
things like that and potatoesand things and bring it to the
(08:18):
women, and so then at least thepregnant women and nursing women
get a little bit extra foodwhile we're there.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
The dog dog, by the way, barking in the background
is roxy, who is your dog?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
yes, how old were you when you bought her?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I think I was 12 she's to be a big old pyrenees.
She's really old, she's like 13years.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
She's, yeah, she's 13 years old, like right now
turning 13 um, and then we alsodo a children's program, which
is one of my favorite things.
Uh, schools in uganda are wildbecause they require a lot more
than schools in america umrequire a lot more like
academically yes, so even fromlike maybe like fourth grade,
(08:57):
because the grading system isdifferent there, but I think the
equivalent fourth grade you arein school all day, every day,
until like 6 pm, and then youalso go to school on sun, on
saturdays, in the morning time.
So the only time that we havelike as a slot to do children's
ministry sunday uh, saturdayafternoon.
But we're very grateful forthat and we take it.
We take the opportunity, we useit.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
We're very grateful so saturdays they get out of
school earlier in the day.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah, they get out at like lunchtime and then y'all
do that after yeah, so usuallywe do it around 2.
And I think it's time to walkhome and get out of their
uniform.
So Uganda is, from myunderstanding, this is why they
do it, but it's colonized by theBritish, so the school system
(09:44):
is more British than American.
So everybody has uniforms.
It's primary and secondaryschool instead of elementary,
middle and high school.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
so, yeah, they get home, change out of their
uniform, eat a meal and then goand not ever like there's no
free public education.
So kids, there are a lot ofkids that don't get educated.
There are Not a lot, but that'snot uncommon.
So in the village there are.
But I'll say in Arora peoplealways.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
A lot of times they make away on everything, but you
can definitely tell like whenit's around the start of the new
school semester.
So there's three terms inUganda instead of two semesters.
It's three terms with threeshorter holidays, and you can
tell like when a new term isstarting, because at the
(10:34):
children's program or even inthe prison, when with the women,
all their prayer requests areplease pray for school.
So it's like a really big deal.
It's always on people's mindsBecause they have to pay for it.
They have to pay for it andeven a lot of the women who are
in the prison are there for debtand oftentimes that debt is if
they're a single mother and theycan't pay for their children's
(10:55):
school fees, then the school canbasically have that mother
arrested.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So there'd be a mom could be in that prison because
she's trying to get her kideducated and she couldn't pay
her school fees, and they canhave her arrested and thrown in
that prison.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Yeah, the last Tuesday that.
so we go to the prison onTuesday mornings, and the last
time I was there before we camefor our home visit, which we're
on right now, um, a woman wasthere and she was pretty
heartbroken because while herkids were at school, the police
came and just took her away fromthe house and she's a single
mother and she was just askingand it was because of that she
(11:33):
couldn't pay the school fees andsometimes, like most schools
are pretty gracious uh, what Ihave heard, they're very
gracious um, so they'll giveplenty of time or they'll just
send the child home until, like,they'll say, you know, just
stay at home sit out until youcan pay the fee.
So it's very rare, I think it'svery rare that the school
actually has people arrested.
(11:54):
Um, but it can happen.
And if the school has money,then they can basically pay the
police to go and arrest somebody.
And so, yeah, that woman wasarrested and her, she was really
heartbroken when we were thereand her biggest prayer was, she
said I don't have any way tocontact anybody.
So my kids, my children, justgot home from school and I
wasn't there.
So I don't know if ourneighbors are taking care of
(12:15):
them.
I don't know if my familymembers have, you know, figured
it out and they're taking careof them.
I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Um and and what's for her to get out of prison?
How she get out of prison.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Somebody has to pay either somebody has to pay or
they will take.
They will have like a courthearing and somebody from the
school come and basically theyit's almost like they, they
barter, I guess and that personfrom the school can say we think
that this amount of time wouldwould like basically um pay for
(12:47):
the debt that she had, or thatshe will, she'll have a
punishment that you know theduration, for this long the time
of her, of her sentence, yes,of her sentence, which is, which
is similar, uh, to here in someways.
Um, so either she could pay, orsomebody could pay it, or, um,
they would have that that courtdate.
And the court dates in Ugandaare very similar to here, where
(13:09):
a lot of times, um, you know,when we go to the prison every
Tuesday, we have a time forprayer and half the prayer
requests are for court dates,and then next Tuesday we get
there and they pushed all thecourt dates and not a single
person went, or the judge didn'tshow up, or the complainant
didn't show up, you know.
So it's at least around andrews, very similar to the system
(13:30):
here it is it's.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
It's kind of like which, by the way, y'all are
gonna hear not just dogs workingbut trucks going by.
A big old cummins diesel justdrove by and it's because we're
literally leaning up on.
My neighbor is Hank Parker Jrwho has been on NSR and we're
leaning up on his horse fence,but there are no horses in this
place.
We'll go over when we're doneand see I want to show you his
(13:55):
buckskin, but anyhow, excuse thebackground noise, but we're
just enjoying this pretty daybecause it's been cold and nasty
, so we're outside.
That's similar to you know,your mama has done so much jail
ministry locally and those womenalways ask for prayer for their
(14:16):
kids, which is part of that's.
Part of how Penwell Tutoring gotstarted Was because there was a
need we saw with our kids, withmo and juju.
Well, juju, like man it's, forit's taking a lot of work to get
her through school.
And then so we're asking thefolks at the school do other
kids struggle?
Their parents help?
(14:36):
We're having to do a lot ofwork at home and I'm not
assuming that folks are givingtheir kids the support they need
at home, because we know thedynamic of the community.
And so then Mama was in theprison, in the jail, rather
doing her Bible studies, andmoms would always be like I
don't know, my kid's stayingwith an aunt or an uncle or
(14:58):
grandmother or whatever.
But you're right, the courtsystem being delayed, it is bad
here.
It's so bad here.
But the difference probably isjust when they're in jail here
they're going to get three mealsa day.
It's climate control.
It's pretty rough being in thatprison there.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Yeah, definitely not as rough as some places.
But because I mean somethingnice is they are outside most of
the day, which is quite nice,but there have been times where
we've gotten there and they'rein punishment and they won't
tell us why and we're prettysure like it's just an officer
got mad really hastily and sothey'll be locked in their rooms
(15:36):
for 10 days, or there was onetime that they had been in
trouble and we got there andit's quite a big compound and
they all were sitting on theground and their punishment was
they had to cut the grass withbutter knife.
So they're sitting thereholding a few blades of grass at
a time, just sawing with thebutter knife.
So it's not.
It's.
It's way better than a lot ofplaces, but definitely not as
(15:58):
nice as even the less good jails, probably in this area but I do
I think like one of the reasonsthat when greg started going to
the men's prison it was so muchon my mind to to try to get
into the women's prison wasbecause of mama and because I
had seen that so much in my lifegrowing up and I kind of
jokingly but kind of for real,always tell greg like I think
(16:20):
that growing up in andrews in alot of ways like prepared me for
living in Arua it's so funny orjust for the life that we live,
Because even like this thistime around for our home visit,
we traveled so much and slept inso many people's houses and
that was a lot of growing upwith you going around speaking
places was us traveling and it'slike oh you know your
Speaker 1 (16:43):
life is familiar, at least.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
So I'm really thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, so that was a little interruption there.
Our neighbor, jack, whostruggles with addiction, just
walked up and we had a littleconversation.
He could not recognize Kilby.
Anyway, what were we talkingabout?
Oh, just how your life is likebetween growing up here.
(17:11):
the type of ministry that justkind of prepared you yeah we did
, we, uh, when you were youngthere was, we would go.
I remember there was everyFebruary.
We would go on.
I remember there was everyFebruary.
We would go on like athree-week trip where Mama would
would have y'all in the back ofa 15 passenger van was that
(17:33):
when we go to florida?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
yeah, I remember that that was always the biggest one
.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
That's yep, and that's when we started calling
it world tour.
So we would take our band, theband would play music, I would
speak, we would be somewherepretty much every night,
sometimes two nights at a time,and we would hit all of the
florida churches that wanted tobe involved in that in a two to
three week run and y'all wouldy'all do school, sit in the back
of the van while we're goingbetween places, and then we'd
(17:58):
usually about every third stop,we'd stay for two nights, just
kind of break it up.
You did, you traveled a lot andalso, I mean I think you went
out of the country.
I mean, how old were you thefirst time you went out of the
country with me?
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Six.
I was five or six, I think yeahwhen we went to Honduras.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Because I have pictures of that.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
I can remember that, I can literally.
I have very vividly in my mindthe morning when it was still
dark and we were at our oldsmall stone house.
And we got in the car and droveto camp and met everybody and
then went to.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Got on the bus.
Yeah, like three the bus, likethree in the morning, and I
remember that's the trip.
Do you remember that littlegirl, nicole?
Yes, she was from roatan, andso people that were like black
people in honduras were morediscriminated against.
I remember she was, but shetook to us and, uh, y'all were
(18:51):
buddies nicole and also jessica.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
That was one of the girls as well.
And she had some issues fromabuse.
I remember and she actuallymoved to Tennessee.
She got moved to an orphanagein Tennessee.
Anyways that was my first time.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And then you started going every year.
And then we went to India.
The first time we went to Indiayou were 11.
Gary turned 12.
And that we went to India.
The first time we went to India, you were 11.
Gary turned 12.
And that was like a two-weektrip and we have a picture that
little kid we thought was a boy.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yes, and I came to find out that, because they were
Muslim, they weren't Hindu,they were Muslim, and the reason
we thought it was a boy wasbecause her head was shaved and
that is like a very, very normalthing within Islam for young
girls.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
But I didn't know that, you didn't know that I
didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
And we just assumed that it was a little boy.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
We're literally in the slums of Mumbai, india,
literally in the slums, walkingshack to shack.
Those shacks were made out ofcardboard and pieces of tarp and
plastic and they made chai teafor us.
We sat in there and you told acouple Bible stories.
That was so cool, and then youmerely played.
(20:04):
I played cricket with thoseboys.
I forgot about that, yeah, andI didn't know what I was doing.
I forgot about that.
I hit the ball and either itwent into the ocean, because
they're right there on the coast, or it went on a building.
But I remember I was like okay,guys, I'll buy y'all another
cricket ball.
We had to go find a streetvendor.
That's a good memory.
But we, when you were I thinkone thing that's interesting to
(20:27):
people is the way the Lord workswhen you were 13, almost when
you were 13, almost 14, is whenwe went and lived in Uganda
working towards getting Juju andMo home.
That was a four-month process,almost five-month process, but
(20:48):
at that point you were prayingabout when you grew up, going to
India and it's just cool theLord led you back there.
I'd like to pivot a little bitand talk about because you're
working in arua, uganda, but, uh, talk a little bit about south
sudan.
Yeah, which like the desire tobe there.
What time you have been there?
Why you're not there now andit's what's going on there which
(21:12):
quick.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
I think everybody always assumes that we're in
Uganda because of Julia andMoses, um, which that is very
cool, um, that the Lord hasbrought us to the same place.
But Juge and Mo are from like16 hours from where we're, from
where we live, so it's um, it'snot the same place and um, I
(21:35):
definitely think it was reallycool.
So Greg, my husband he feltcalled to missions from a very
young age and thought he wouldbe in South America.
I felt very called to missionsfrom a young age and thought we
would be, I would be in India,and we always joke that like the
Lord averaged the two and nowwe're in East Africa in between
those places.
But, um, it was very coolbecause we both separately,
(21:55):
before we even knew each other,had really um amazing
experiences in Uganda.
Of course, for me it was whenmy parents and my family adopted
Juliet and Moses, and then forGreg, he went and served kind of
as an apprentice for somemissionaries there, um, and so
it's really cool because theLord gave us really sweet
experiences in Uganda.
But it was just seemingly acoincidence that that's where we
(22:20):
ended up.
It wasn't like we specificallyfelt called to Uganda, we were
looking for a place to go in themiddle of COVID when we had
been sent back from Belgium andsomebody invited us to Arua,
uganda, for six months and thenwe just never came back after
after that, and that was fouryears ago.
Um, and it's really cool,because greg asked my dad over
(22:42):
the phone if he could marry mein a little cafe that is like a
five minute walk from where welive now so that's pretty cool,
so wild, yeah, yeah so coolum, but south sudan, sudan, is
where we love.
We love Uganda as well.
We love Arua, but we feel verymuch a passion for the people
(23:04):
and the place where we serve inSouth Sudan.
Arua is definitely not.
It's off the beaten path a bitin in Uganda, but there are
missionaries there besides us.
There are churches there.
The problem is finding a churchthat isn't corrupt, a church
that shares the gospel, but inSouth Sudan there's a lot less
(23:26):
of that.
The village where we live, wherewe serve I shouldn't say where
we live, the village where weserve and where we would love to
live, is a place where, um,there have have not really been
that many westerners and outsideinfluence.
So we feel very passionateabout that village.
It is um.
I think greg and I could easilysay we've never loved a place
(23:48):
and longed for a place so much.
Has given us a taste and aglimpse of what heaven will be
like, because I think we'vedealt with a lot of difficulty
in being there and I just feellike until we reach heaven, I
won't really feel that samesense of being in the place
where I love wholeheartedly anddeeply.
So it's definitely helped melook towards heaven and long for
(24:11):
that day.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
And the difference.
So Arua, the city y'all live innow I say city, I use that word
loosely the area you live is innorthern Uganda.
North of y'all is the borderwith South Sudan and west of
y'all is the border with DRC orthe Congo, where there's a lot
(24:34):
of fighting right now, a lot ofa lot of war going on there.
And so to get into South Sudan,y'all don't just drive over the
border.
You, you have a small airplanethat your missionary mentor owns
and y'all will fly in that intothe village in South Sudan and
then when get like when you flyinto that village, life is way
(24:58):
different there than it is inArura, and so maybe talk a
little bit about the difference,like what, how those people
live.
Yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
It's wild because, um , me and my dad were, when we
were getting coffee beforecoming here or before, uh,
starting this podcast.
He was talking about growing uppoor and he said, you know,
like I, we didn't know we weregetting coffee before coming
here or before starting thispodcast.
He was talking about growing uppoor and he said, you know,
like we didn't know we were poor, but I know now that we're poor
, but then it was just life, andI think that is a big
difference.
I mentioned that in Uganda,where we live, there's like
there's a lot of NGOs, a lot ofhumanitarian groups, and they
(25:31):
have done a lot of good andthey've also done a lot of harm
as far as making people verydependent on them.
A lot of handouts.
There's a book called whenHelping Hurts and there's one
specifically that hasspecifically been written for
Africa, because it's such a,it's such a big deal and it
jades.
It's really hard to not becomejaded in that place, because
(25:53):
there are friendships that seemso solid and so good and then,
after a year or two, you realizethat person has been just
trying to get close to you formoney or for school fees, um,
and so it's hard to sometimes totrust people, to be very frank
and honest, um, and so it'sreally difficult and I didn't
realize how much that weighed onme until we started going to
(26:14):
South Sudan, and it was sorefreshing to be in a place
where people weren't asking forthings, they were just content
to live.
And it's crazy, because thepoverty in Uganda is, it's very
real and it's very difficult.
It's more than anything I haveor ever will experience.
But the poverty in South Sudanis so much worse and yet they
(26:35):
have no idea that they're, thatthey're poor in a lot of ways.
Like, uh, people in Arua, um,they know they're poor because
humanitarian groups have come inand said, oh, you're so poor,
let us help you now, you know,let us do these things.
But in South Sudan, life ishard, yes, and people know it,
(26:59):
but in their minds that's notbecause they're poor, it's
because that's how you survive,that's a way of life.
Um, and life is very differentthere.
And I want to be very carefulbecause I I did a podcast here
on here really early on intomoving to East Africa.
I think we had lived in Ugandalike four months and I remember
we did a podcast and I talkedand talked on there, yada, yada,
and then when it came out Ilistened to it and I literally
cringed and I couldn't evenfinish the podcast listening to
(27:21):
the podcast, and I've neverlistened to it since because I
sounded so unsuff like, justunbelievably, insufferably
prideful in the way I wastalking.
And I look back now and I'mlike I didn't know anything
about anything.
And I still don't know a lot,but at least I'm aware that I
don't know anything now.
(27:42):
So yeah, I want to really not beprideful in the way that I talk
about this place and not buildit up or build us up in us being
there and wanting to servethere up?
Speaker 1 (27:54):
or build us up in us being there and wanting to serve
there.
Well, and I could say eventoday at lunch, or not at lunch
but at coffee, when I said Ididn't know we were poor For
context, that was in the contextof telling a funny story.
But the poorest people herehave so much more than the poor
of South Sudan, Like it's that,the way you describe that
poverty and what we've seen, youknow, like when mama and Laila
(28:17):
went and flew in there withy'all, like what does a normal
daily diet consist of for anaverage family there?
Speaker 3 (28:24):
It's usually in South Sudan.
It's usually that same.
So in Uganda it's called Inyasa, in South Sudan it's called
Madipi, but it's just cassavaflour mixed with boiling water
and then usually something thatyou can kind of dip it in, so
beans, sometimes okra paste,mixed with boiling water.
In South Sudan there is onlyone rainy season, wherein in
(28:48):
Uganda there's two, and sousually from July, june, july,
august, around that time thoseare just called the hungry
months in South Sudan, and allthe food runs out from your
harvest from the year before andwe have friends who will just
like go and find leaves on treesand boil them and eat them,
because they just need something.
You see everybody who alreadymost people are quite thin and
(29:08):
you just see them lose so muchweight.
It's like very, very, veryspecial if you get to eat meat
and most people to eat meat.
It's true, it's like very, very, very um special if you get to
eat meat and most people to eatmeat.
It's like a little piece ofmeat the size of it.
You get to taste it like thesize of a chicken nugget yeah,
yeah um and um, we, there's,it's just mud huts, there's not
(29:30):
really electricity, there's notrunning water.
Um, we are very fortunate inour hut and in the area where we
serve when we're there, we havesolar power that's on pretty
consistently, and then you justhave wells and boreholes for
water During the rainy season.
There's a river not too farfrom the village that people are
so excited about, and, yeah,it's in Uganda.
(29:55):
We, we speak english, which issuch a huge praise, a huge
blessing.
Um, but in south sudan, nobodyspeaks english, or very, very
few people, I should say, noneof the women that I know speak
any english, and so it's all, uh, the local language there.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
What's the name of the people and the language.
I don't know if I can, if wecould share it on here.
Oh, okay, good, call good callum, um, it's mind your business,
mind your business speaking,okay, while we're standing here.
Okay, our listeners know moe,so while did you see what he
just drove by?
with his, with his makeshifttrailer for his friends moe has
(30:32):
spent what a week building atrailer to go behind the
four-wheeler.
And we just saw the maidenvoyage he just went by.
It is a half a sheet of plywood.
He's cut it with my.
I have a steel chainsaw that'sa battery-powered chainsaw for
when we're just cutting limbs.
He's done all the work withthat.
He has disassembled askateboard.
He's taken two skateboards,taken the wheels and trucks off
(30:54):
and made a trailer out ofskateboard trucks and a piece of
plywood.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
And now he's driving and used one singular nail to
attach it to the four wheeler.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yes, to attach with a piece of rubber and then he's
now going down there to pick uphis buddies and he's going to
drive them back over here.
So he's going to pick up histwo buddies, brothers named Gus
and Oscar, and he's going tobring them and they're going to
play in the pond right there.
We just got interrupted againby our friendly neighbor, but
anyway, yeah.
So Mo will be back through herein a minute.
I'm sure y'all will hear him.
Could you tell one of myfavorite stories that just shows
(31:28):
the sovereignty of God workingin all of this is the story of
the gal at the prison that saidshe was that was not interesting
.
Let's this back jump back touganda um, which, by the way,
y'all are two home family.
You have homes in two countries.
Somebody was, somebody was hereone day talking about it was.
I met some wealthy people inthe valley here.
(31:49):
They were asking for directions.
They had an accent and theyhave.
Apparently they're from francebut they have a home in Florida
and now they're looking atbuying a home here.
And I said and I chuckled, Ithought, oh, my daughter has a
home in two countries.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Yeah, basically yeah, so we do spend most of our time
in Uganda.
We would love to spend most ofour time in South Sudan.
We haven't been able to sinceMay of this past year because of
some difficulty and securityissues with a new man there
who's been put in a position ofauthority.
(32:25):
So, yeah, we spent most of ourtime, a lot of our time in
Uganda the past year, and a bigpart of that has been the prison
, and there's a woman there whoI love.
Her name is Winnie, and thewild thing is that there is so
much turnover at the women'sprison there that most of the
women that I know and love couldbe gone by the time we get back
(32:45):
there next week.
Yeah, and that's just thenature of things.
That's something I am really,really bad at saying goodbye to
people in general, and I, theLord, has had to really like
help me hold things with a veryopen hand, because there's so
much transition and unrest inEast Africa that there are dear
(33:05):
friends that you never get tosay goodbye to.
There are people who you thinkwill be around for a long time
and suddenly they're back inSouth Sudan or they have moved
away for forever.
Um, so, anyways, all that tosay, this woman could still be
at the prison, she could be backin her home.
But her name is Winnie and sheis maybe a few years older than
(33:29):
me, I want to say but I could bevery wrong about that Um, and
we were at the prison a fewweeks before I left, and so this
would be like in September andof last year and she, she told
us she was, we had a time oftestimony and she was saying I
praise God so much because sheokay, let me give some context,
(33:50):
that a lot of the women Greggets on me sometimes for saying
this when I say they're notcriminals because they have done
something, but they're notcriminals in the sense that we
would imagine in the US.
So there are women who are therebecause there's a woman who's
there because she bought a dressthat was stolen and she did not
know it was stolen, and she'sbeen there for four years and
she did not know it was stolen,and she's been there for four
(34:11):
years.
And there's a woman who wasattacked by a man and she
afterwards heard that he wasattacking other.
He was very much older than her.
She heard that he was trying toattack other young girls,
teenage girls, and so she wentand threw acid on him and she
has been in prison for a verylong time and has a very long
time left to go.
So different situations likethat, that, of course, what has
(34:35):
been done is wrong, but it's notnecessarily what you picture as
criminals.
But this woman, winnie, I willsay she is in there for
something that she did that wasvery wrong.
So she's one of the few whowould maybe be in there for an
offense that you would imaginesomeone being in prison for, if
that makes sense.
And so she had been in anotherprison in a place called Gulu,
(34:58):
which is about five to sevenhours from where we live, and
she tried to escape.
And so they moved her to theprison in Arua and they added
more time to her sentence andshe was praising God.
She said I thank the Lord, Ipraise God that I got caught
when I was trying to escape,because if I had not got caught
(35:19):
I would not have been brought tothis prison, and if I hadn't
been in this prison I wouldnever have heard who Jesus
Christ was, I would never haveheard the gospel, and I have
hope and peace that I never hadin my life before and I know
what will happen to my life.
I know where I'll spendeternity and I praise God that
he saved me.
I praise God that he let allthose bad things happen so that
this could, this could be whatmy life came to.
So it's a lot of hardship andit's a lot of difficulty, but we
(35:43):
really praise the Lord thathe's working Um and a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
I love that story.
I've told a lot of people thatstory and I almost told it on
here on an episode.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yeah, I'm very thankful for her and she leads
the worship now for the prisonministry and she's very
passionate, so, yeah, verygrateful.
I would like to share justreally quick what we do in South
Sudan, because it is myfavorite ministry I've ever been
a part of Me and Greg.
We always say that we feel thismaybe sounds dramatic, but we do
always say that we feel likewe're living in the book of Acts
(36:18):
.
It is one of the most beautifulthings I've ever seen.
John Piper says that missionsexist because worship does not.
I think such a big goal for myfamily as missionaries is that
people wouldn't be reliant on us, that there could be a day
where we wouldn't have to leadthe children's program because
(36:40):
there would be a Ugandan whowould be leading, that we
wouldn't have to go to theprison because there would be
other Ugandans who were enteringinto the prisons.
And that is basically what ishappening in South Sudan, not
because of us, um.
So we have only been there fora very limited amount of time.
There's a man who is our mentor, who has served there
(37:02):
faithfully for 20 years, andwe're basically graciously able
to just ride on the back of whathe has done, um, and just help
in any way that we can.
So we just we play a very, very, very small role in that
village.
It is in large part what thisman and his family have done,
and then the faithful Sudanesepeople who have carried that on.
(37:22):
So South Sudan is the newestcountry in the world.
It has been there for a verylong time, but it only in 2014,
I believe, broke away from NorthSudan, 2011.
2011.
2011.
Broke away from North Sudan andit is very broken.
There's a lot of witchcraft anda lot of Islam, and so there are
(37:45):
some areas in South Sudan whereWesterners are not allowed
because they either, uh, forreligious reasons or they think
that we're coming to um, takeover their land, um, which is a
very sad reality, um, so most ofthese places are Muslim.
There's one, there's one placein particular, uh, that has
(38:09):
really it's really quite dark.
It's a lot of Islam mixed withwitchcraft.
I won't give the name of theplace, but it's one of the
earliest places where Africanpeople were selling their own
tribesmen to Westerners forslavery in the 18th century and
19th century as well, and thereare pits.
(38:30):
There are kind of big pitsthere.
You can still see in thevillage I've never been, but
this is what we've been toldwhere they would bring their,
their fellow tribesmen and theywould just drop them in those
pits and wait for Westerners tocome and to claim them and take
them to serve as slaves for therest of their life.
For the rest of their life.
(38:53):
So it's a very dark place.
Um, there's a lot of stigmaaround that place because Africa
is a very communal uh, cultureEast Africa, I should say and so
the the?
Um shock that people would selltheir own people.
Um, even still, even thoughit's hundreds of years later, it
it speaks a lot to that, thatplace, in those tribes, and so,
um, anyways, there's places likethat where we would love to go
(39:16):
and we are not welcome.
And so there's this village, thevillage where we sometimes live
and the village where wesometimes serve in South Sudan,
and they are very peacefulpeople.
Even when South Sudan has beenon the brink of civil war, this
place has remained mostlypeaceful.
It's very small, verysecludedink of civil war, this
place has remained mostlypeaceful.
It's very small, very secludedout of the way, and so what we
(39:37):
do is we share the gospel thereand we teach Bible stories.
So there's a very low literacyrate and it is an oral culture,
meaning people, anything thatpeople know has been passed down
orally and most of them it'samazing, most of them can
recount their lineage 10generations back, and that's
very normal.
Most of them can speak four orfive languages and they can't
(39:59):
read or write any of them, andthat is the norm.
And so what this missionary hasdone is he has composed and
compiled stories from the gospel, from the Bible, and he teaches
them to the people there andthey memorize them.
And it is amazing because Ihave taught these stories a few
times and I could have taught italready, and each time I teach
(40:21):
it I have to go back and listento it on audio and remember and
recall.
But these, especially the womenthat I've seen, they can hear
these stories.
They're three to five minutesand once they hear it once or
twice, it is locked in theirbrain and it is not going
anywhere.
So the same plane that bringsus from Uganda to South Sudan
then takes these Sudanesemissionaries, puts them on the
(40:42):
plane and they have thesestories from the Bible in their
mind.
And this plane takes them tothese villages where we as
Westerners aren't accepted.
But the Sudanese missionariesare accepted because, even
though they're not from the sametribe, they are Sudanese, and
so then they get to share thegospel in these villages that
are Muslim and witchcraft orpagan, I should say.
(41:02):
And that is what we do whenwe're able to be there, and it
is a joy, it is a delight.
There are people who walk milesat a time so that they can
share with people who they knoware dying without the gospel.
So I'm very, very thankful tobe a part of that.
And then the last thing, on thepresentation which my dad keeps
(41:24):
referring to, that it's justwhen we're in the States and
we're going around sharing atchurches we have just a little
very informal what is it called?
Slideshow of what we do.
And so the last thing that westarted doing last year is a
radio program.
So, um, if people have iPhonesin Africa in East Africa it's
very new, not very many havethem Um, people don't really
(41:46):
have TVs and radio is the mainmeans of entertainment.
So if people are in the garden,uh, working for hours at a time,
they have the radio on theirneck.
If people are selling in themarket, they have the radio that
they're playing.
And, um, someone the Lordtotally worked it out, because a
few years before this, we hadtried to start a radio program
(42:08):
and they the the people at thestation were really trying to
make a lot of money off of it,which we didn't have.
And then it just took time, theLord's timing, and last year
the door opened for us to havebroadcasts on the Christian
radio station.
So there's five times a weekwhere we share Bible stories.
(42:28):
John Piper sermons, things likethat, and we've been told that
the broadcasting in Arua canreach around six six million
people in Congo, south Sudan,because it's a very flat terrain
and I don't know how many ofthose six million are actually
listening.
A big prayer request is that alot of the Muslim people
actually listen to the Christianradio because we've been told
(42:51):
they like the music on therebetter than the other stations.
So the big prayer would be thatwhen our programs come on they
don't switch it to anotherstation, that they would listen
and hear the stories of JesusChrist as Lord, not just as good
man or good teacher or goodprophet.
So that's a huge prayer.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
That's so cool.
I love that.
Yeah, I love it.
Well thanks, yeah, love you, Ilove it.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Well thanks, yeah, love you, I feel like I just
rambled a bunch, so hopefullysome people can make something
out of that and be encouraged orknow how to pray for East
Africa more specifically.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Yeah, and they can follow y'all.
Yeah, follow the journey, getyour email.
Yeah, what's the best way?
Should we just link that?
Speaker 3 (43:32):
You can?
Yeah, you get your email.
Yeah, what's the best way?
Should we just link that youcan?
Yeah, you can.
Um, we'll link the email.
So we'll link the email thatyou can reach out to.
If you wanted to join ournewsletters.
We're pretty inconsistent withthem, but we do share on there,
and then we have a website aswell, um, and we're not opposed
to adding people on facebook whowe don't know so you can follow
.
Follow along.
(43:52):
We're we're not the bestoftentimes at sharing, but we
try to share when we're able.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
And how does that work?
Like, if they look for you onFacebook, it's just by your name
.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Just Kilby Helms.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Greg Helms, greg Helms.
Yeah, what is the Greg?
The wonderer thing.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
That used to be instagram, but we both got sick
and tired of being addicted tosocial media, so we only have
like old farts.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
We only have facebook nowadays, so well, I'm older,
fart and I have zero yeah, soused to be uh on instagram, but
now it's just facebook okay, so,and then we'll just link that
where they can.
They can look you up on onfacebook and then they we'll
link where they can sign up foryour email.
So, thank you, I love you, Ilove you.
(44:35):
I love you so much.
And Jack just came over andvisited with us.
Roxy walked by, pulled histrailer by.
It's been a good, it's been agood afternoon, yeah Well, I'm
wrapping this show up, thisepisode rather up, several days
after that conversation withKilby, several days after that
conversation with Kilby, and Ihope that you got kind of a peek
into what they're doing andtheir part of the world.
(44:56):
As you can imagine, as a dad, Idon't think I could be any more
thankful.
I'm hesitant to use the wordproud, though I know all parents
are proud of their kids.
Just thankful, my heart is full.
They are, as we're droppingthis episode and I'm recording
this kind of wrap up today, andwe're going to drop it today as
(45:16):
you're getting this.
They are now in, they're backin country.
We put them on a plane a coupleof days ago, the day after we
recorded, and they made itsafely back to that side of the
world, safely back to that sideof the world.
Tomorrow they'll be traveling 10hours by vehicle across a
pretty rough landscape to get totheir primary area of ministry,
(45:42):
where their base is.
So be in prayer for them andthank you for following along.
Thank you for your support atNSR.
It's something we're verygrateful for, and I would ask
that you pray for my daughter,pray for Kilby, pray for my
little grandbaby, who I callPunky, who I love so much, and
(46:03):
pray for Greg that he would leadwell and that they would be
smart and safe.
There's an element of riskwhere they're at.
Of course, they're serving in avery difficult part of the
world.
There's always a threat, and sowe cover your prayers for them
and appreciate it.
We'll have another episode upsoon.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required.
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