ONMI News Brief- Families reunited in Borongole & Beth Israel Farmland!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Great Commission,

Shalom! The Levi family wishes you a Happy Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year)! We celebrated Rosh Hashanah yesterday in our home. Rosh Hashanah is the Feast of Trumpets; the Jewish feast that will be fulfilled at the Trumpet call when the Lord returns. "Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-57) Together, we look forward to the return of the Messiah!

Field Report South Sudan: Some women and children have begun to return to reunite with their husbands in Borongole and Beth Israel Farmland:

Last week, I promised you that I would dedicate this week's newsletter to the families that are now living in Borongole. This is exciting news that some of you have been waiting for some time now. It has been a little a over a year now since we witnessed the mass exodus of South Sudanese families leaving the area where Operation Nehemiah has been operating for the past 14 years in Pageri County. They fled to Ugandan refugee camps due to political Crisis in South Sudan.

By God's Grace, we were able to stay the course, regardless what was going on because the church couldn't just desert the region due to this Crisis. Our Mission headquarters in Borongole and Beth Israel Farm was deserted from July 2016- January 2017. We were operating with a very small amount of staff that kept things going forward from Gordon Mountain in Nimule. In March 2017, all that changed. We not only retained our third compound on Mt. Gordon, but we were able to restore both the Borongole Mission headquarters and The Beth Israel Farmland.

The fourteen men who were recruited to start the restoration initiative in the Borongole Mission Headquarters (7) and Beth Israel Farmland (7) were all men who came from the Opari village beyond the mountains without their wives and children. Some of their wives have become IDPs living within the country, but without their husbands, and some of them have gone with relatives to the refugee camps in Uganda.

Since then we realized that these men must be discipled spiritually in the word of God and they would do better in their job if we could reunite them with their wives and children. This would in turn pave the way to restore the basic infrastructure we used to have, such as Church and worship services, clean water, healthcare, schools etc. Our strategy is no longer trying to urge people to return in a mass repatriation from exile. Rather, it has to be done by individuals who are willing to bring their families back home. Women and children play a vital role in shaping the home front and civilization; without them, the homes don't thrive. In South Sudan, prior to this senseless war compounded by 50 years of Islamic persecution, families always worked the farmland together. Everybody has a role to play from the father to the mother and children.

I was born and raised in the midst of multiple wars, but my generation back in the 70s and 80s had intact families. Back then, families were not impacted by the relief dependence life style we have nowadays, destroying the family structure both in the refugee and IDP camps. As an agrarian community, in my generation growing up both in South Sudan and Uganda, the family structure was intact and people worked the land with their bare hands. The fathers cleared the fields while training the boys to work along side and the mothers did the weeding while training the girls. In the harvest time, men and boys helped with setting up food storage while women and girls did the winnowing and the separating of chaff from seeds. These were the shared responsibilities needed to create balanced, healthy society. This is the reason why my wife and I take our children with us to South Sudan each time we go. Once we are on the ground we work as a family.

We are raising $3000 to help weed 90 acres of cultivated areas so that these crops don't go to waste . The weeding time has come. We told our farm team that instead of hiring just any women to do the job of weeding, why not bring their own wives and children to join them so that they could all work together and be a family again? Every body applauded the proposal! So, last week, seven women and their children arrived in Borongole to join their husbands and work the farmland.

We have completed the water project on Gordon Mountain:

Today your contributions have enabled us to complete the necessary infrastructure in the mission compound to implement the Great Commission. This is an incredible feat of hydro engineering that has been successfully brought to completion after four months. On behalf of the South Sudanese, I want to thank God for all of you across the USA for co-laboring with us through your prayers, financial contributions, and encouragement in seeing us through in our effort to bring tangible support to our brothers and sisters in Nimule town, South Sudan.Our staff living on Gordon Mountain also thank you. This is what South Sudan needs as a young nation with great potential. There is no need for war, UN Interference or allowing Khartoum Islamic agenda in the region.

I want to thank God for our country director Mr. Timothy Levi, our Assistant Country Director Mr. Tombe Isaac, our Gospel radio broadcasting station manager Robert Amoko, and Pageri County Commissioner Emilio Iga. Without their tenacious cooperation, coordination, and understanding of the nature of our work in South Sudan., it would have been impossible to complete this noble task of getting water to our people.

Technically the well is powered and operated using DC/AC solar sub-pump using 2 KW solar panels. During cloudy days, we use a generator to operate the well.

The construction of our first residential Mission house on Gordon Mountain started two weeks ago:

ONMI Assistant Country Director Mr. Tombe Isaac and his future wife Katherine Saunders will take up residence in this house after their November wedding. We are delighted that the work is going fast. The availability of water in the compound has made all the difference.

We need your prayers to raise the remaining fund in the amount of $6000 to complete the entire building by the end of October.

How can you partner with Operation Nehemiah Mission to bring measurable, long term and practical help to the people in South Sudan?

You can join us today in lifting up our hands in raising up awareness of what Operation Nehemiah is doing through your local churches. You can gather people to pray and raise financial support to support and advance the work of the mission in South Sudan in the areas of critical helps listed below.

You can lift up these needs in your prayers: All in all, the Lord is continuing to meet all these needs and your partnership is intrinsically linked to this effort in a big way. Between now and November we are hoping to raise the following funds in the order of priority .

1. Bibles for Pastors - $5,000, We need many good Study Bibles for the Pastors in order to build sound doctrine.

2. Weeding in the Beth Israel farm - $3000

3. Construction Completion on Mountain Gordon mission compound - $6000

4. Nehemiah Water bottling project complete set - $18,000 to be installed on Mountain Gordon. The goal of this initiative is to empower our staff with small entrepreneurial venture to create capital within South Sudan so that they can support their family with fund generated from within the country.

Total: $32,000

Online contribution can be made to Operation Nehemiah Missions at www.operationsnehemiah.org or your Tax deductible check can be sent to our mission address below.

"The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore." Psalms 121:7,8

God bless

In His grace,

William Levi, Founder and Overseer,

Operation Nehemiah Missions

PO Box 563

Lanesborough, MA 01237

www.operationsnehemiah.org

423-770-4711