Creekbank Stories Curt Iles, Storyteller
- The Kakwa are a sub-tribe of the Bari People. The Bari make up five tribes in the area where three countries meet.
- Pray for Dry Creek Baptist Church. This church has engaged the Bari Kakwa in the Congo, South Sudan, and Uganda.
- Thank our Lord for Uganda Baptist Seminary (UBS) and the impact it is making with the Bari Kakwa.
- The pastor of Koboko Baptist Church is Mark Vukoni, a graduate of UBS.
- Moses, James, and Daniel are all Bari Kakwa from this church and attend UBS.
- Pray for Bakik, a Muslim convert in this church. Ask for provision for Miriam who is a young woman in the church that desires to attend UBS later in May.
- Many of the Bari Kakwa from the Congo are living in refugee camps near Koboko, Uganda. The national pastors mentioned above have established preaching points and times each week to minister at these camps.
- In June, Baptist Global Response (BGR) will be drilling some boreholes in these camps.
- Also in June there will be a team from Dry Creek Baptist Church that will be partnering with these pastors in distributing Mama Kits and sharing the gospel.
Click on sketch map for a larger view
Prayer Requests
Please use this information to guide praying for the Kakwa peoples of Uganda, South Sudan, and Democratic Republic of Congo.
To: Colleen Glaser
From: DeDe Iles
Colleen,
While in Koboko last week I made some plans for our trip. Please be aware that I know this is a Dry Creek Baptist Church trip giving you, Gordy, and Brady full rein to change these plans. I just thought that it would be good to give it a start.
Curt and I have invited Mercy and the Cranes to join us. Mercy is a very impressive Kakwa Christian from a Muslim background. She is presently studying nursing. I have made a reservation for her to stay at the hotel with us because she lives out such a long distance. Mercy will interpret and she has been great on helping with me with culture.
David and Renee Crane are out Cluster Leaders. They have been on the field 20+ years and worked closely with the Calvert’s. Renee is a RN and one of the most fun people you could ever care to be around.
Friday Morning: 10:30 Tea time at the home of one of the church members. We will bring tea, sugar, and milk. I am making bread. This is a time for the ladies to get to meet you. They will probably inform some on the community that we are there. If they do this will be an excellent time to share stories from God’s Word.
I am hoping that we have time after this to take Jamilia to the market. Jamilia is the wife of Daniel, who is away at seminary for 6 weeks. He is very concerned about the welfare of his family while he is away. I feel that if we could take her to buy some groceries it would minister to the entire family.
Click on image for larger view
These are the eight cluster camps that make up the Koboko/Waju Kakwa Camps. The Base Camp is where the organisations overseeing the camps are located.
May 30
Friday Afternoon-2:00-We will be out at the refugee camps. Adologo and Lokujo camps will be put together. Susan Maturu is a worker with the Danish Refugee Council. She is going to organize the women to come out at this time for us. Susan has been a tremendous help.
This is how I see our time at each campsite.
· Renee will explain the Momma Kits and how they are used. She will stress the need for women to come to the clinics to have their babies.
· You and I will tell stories. Why don’t we have two stories prepared each? If time is short we can each tell one.
· We will announce the time that the Koboko men come out to the camp each week.
· Pray with the women. I do not know how this will work out. At one camp I had an opportunity to pray with one lady. As the women realized we were praying individually a line formed. If we start this, probably each woman will want to express prayer needs and pray together individually. This may work with you, Renee, Mercy, and me all praying with women.
Waju 2 Baptist Church one of eight ongoing church plants in the camps
Friday all day-Curt, Brady, Gordy, and David Crane. At this time the plan is for the men to ride on Boda Bodas to the eight churches within the camps. The men from Koboko will be at Bible training in Arua. Possibly Bakik (a new believer) will travel with the men to show where the churches are located in the camps. The men can take pictures of the church sites and pray there for each church. This could be used as a virtual prayer walk for Dry Creek Baptist Church.
Saturday-10:00 AM—Women share at Waju II and Waju III
2:00 PM—share at Adranga
4:00 PM—Waju I
This is the day that I am most concerned about. It is difficult to keep a schedule in America, but much more challenging in Africa. We really need to leave the camp area by 5:30 in order to be to our destination by dark. It is not wise to be out after dark. Pray we make the most of our time.
Saturday-Men will be with the Koboko leaders
Sunday Morning—Worship in Koboko Baptist Church
Worship with the Koboko team at the Ponyura church in the camp.
Sunday 2:00 PM-women share with the Kuku and Ponyura churches
Special Prayer Need-There are two different schools of thought as to how we distribute the Momma Kits.
1. We give the kits individually to the expectant mothers.
Pros-
· We know the women will have a kit if they cannot get to the clinic-some live a good distance away and transportation is not an option.
· We know that the women will not be charged for items that were donated for them. Corruption is always a problem.
Cons
· The women may not go to the clinics for pre-natal care of delivery.
2. The kits are stored in the clinics for when the women come to deliver.
Pros-
· If the women go to the clinics for prenatal care they will be tested for HIV/AIDS. This will give the nurse or midwife delivering better knowledge in how to assist both mother and baby. It has been explained to me that they can even clamp the umbilical cord at a certain time and possibly help the child not be infected with HIV.
· The mother and child have medical help in the case of emergency.
Cons-Some women will not and some may not be able to get to the clinic in time for the baby to be born. Some would have to come a good distance.
Here is a list of times and churches where the Koboko men are planting churches:
Wednesday-
Men-James, Moses, Bakik
· Camp Church Plants: Ponyura and Kuku
Men-Daniel and Mark
· Waju II and Waju I
Saturday
Men-James, Moses, Bakik
· Lokujo, Adologo
Men-Daniel, Mark
· Waju II and Adranga
Sunday-All men together at Ponyura
Additionally we are planning to drill three boreholes at these camps:
Lokujo
Adologo
Ponyura
The tentative plan is to begin drilling on Saturday or Sunday (31 May or 1 June). It should be an exciting time.
the Waju Camp of Koboko, Uganda are two camps that need focused prayer: Lokujo and Koku Camps. The major tribe of these camps is Kakwa.
The Kakwa is a tribe of about 553,000. They are located in Uganda, Congo, and South Sudan. Many Kakwa have fled from the Congo and South Sudan due to severe unrest in their country.
The Kakwa are mainly Roman Catholic or have strong ties to the Anglican Church. This people group is currently being engaged by Dry Creek Baptist Church located in Dry Creek, Louisiana.
The camp at Lokujo consist of about 480 people. This camp has a desperate need for water. There is no borehole at this camp. The borehole they share with a nearby village is not in good condition.
Water is also a critical need for the 700-800 people living in the Koku camp. This camp also has no borehole and the women must walk a great distance to another camp for water.
Other needs for these camps include tools, tarps, food, medical care, and schools. They have asked for Bibles in Lingala or Kakwa.
Wajo Camp
Please pray for:
- Kakwa people to embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
- Dry Creek Baptist Church as they work alongside Baptaist believers in Koboko to disciple and plant churches
- Leaders of the Koboko Baptist Church: Mark Vukoni, Moses Yeku, James Metalo, Daniel Atiku, and Solomon Bakit
Koboko Baptist Church Leaders - Boreholes for each camp
- Pray that the Lord would clearly guide the IMB personnel who are assigned to work with South Sudanese in how they are to lead Southern Baptists to be on mission with Him.
- Pray for wisdom in responding to the spiritual and humanitarian needs of the South Sudanese who are now in both Uganda and Kenya.
- Pray that the Lord of the Harvest would call out and thrust forth more workers into the South Sudanese field. As of now, the number of personnel assigned to the Chadan Cluster is just too few to enable them to lead in a widespread response.
- Pray that the Lord would show the IMB personnel assigned to work with South Sudanese people how they can partner with national believers and gospel workers serving with other organizations/NGOs, so that through their cooperative efforts more might be done, and done effectively and in a timely manner.
If you will commit to pray for the spiritual and physical needs of the Kakwa at the Lokujo and Koku Camps please email DeDe Iles at deaniseiles@gmail.com.
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