Tribute: After 31 years, children in South Sudan wanted to meet him but he is in Eternity!
Shalom to you brothers and sisters in Yeshua. Thank you for praying for us and ONMI. Physically, I have been under the weather lately. Thank God, I’m not totally bed ridden, still on my feet going about doing God’s work.
Mission report from the field in South Sudan is always exciting to share with you because of the enthusiasm that has been going on among our beneficiaries who are blessed and excited about seeing the grace upon grace pour onto their lives through your generosity. Your support has been felt broad and deep with gratitude for keeping us pressing ahead with the work in 2023. Your support is like manna from above because your brethren in South Sudan have not seen some of you personally. Your gift to them is like God’s hand feeding them with Manna from above. Yeshua said this in his teachings 2000 years ago “Indeed, if anyone gives you even a cup of water because you bear the name of Christ, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea.…” Mark 9:41-42
Tribute to Timothy David Galvan. He passed on at the age of 7. His spirit lives on in our lives.
Today I want share with you a small testimony of an American Christian boy born in 1992 one year before Operation Nehemiah Missions was formed and he passed away at the tender age of 7 in 1999. But His memory and spirit live on among the brethren in South Sudan and in my personal life. The children in South Sudan wanted to meet this young boy who has a small foundation in his name to help their medical needs. Until of late, I did not even know he was not physically alive on this earth.
Courtesy anonymous
Courtesy ONMI
Timothy D. Galvan was born into a Christian family that was so much committed to the cause of the Great Commission. But he was taken home by the Lord early on. The Plight of the persecuted brethren in South Sudan was weighing heavily in their hearts. They needed to get in contact with someone doing the work over there in the middle of a war taking a toll on the entire community.
So, in 1998, God began connecting the dots between me and the family of this young boy. He was about six in 1998. In those days, I used to collect used clothing, medical equipment, Bibles, and shoes from those who heard about ONMI that I ship these items to South Sudan in forty-foot containers to help people in the Sudan. I was living in Rutherford, NJ at the time. One day I got a call from a lady in Hackensack, NJ with a British accent. She wanted me to come and pick up some clothing and some bibles for the Sudan. I got to her house, met her and her British father at home. Pastor Jeremy was visiting from upstate NY received me and helped me load the donation into my car.
They got to talk with me and about the Sudan and prayed together. He asked me to come to speak at his church the following year about the plight of the brethren in the Sudan. I went and spoke at the church. I met several families who prayed for me and the mission and some pledged to support the ministry. I couldn’t quite remember who was who. Some of them signed onto our mailing list and kept in touch with me over the years.
Three years later, in 2003 after moving my family to MA from NJ, I was getting donations to ONMI from a lady who preferred not to be mentioned here in this article designated for medical needs in Memory of her son Timothy D. Galvan. This went on for year after year. Her support always comes in when we have medical shortages in South Sudan, and we needed the money to restock the Nehemiah Field Clinic. One day I decided to call this lady to find out who she was and where did I meet her. I wanted to know this man in whose memory the gift was always dedicated for medical needs in South Sudan to thank him. She said, Timothy did not grow up to manhood much less to the age of a teenager. He was only 7 when the Lord took him home. She preferred His childhood and memories be best remembered among the displaced families and children in South Sudan in their medical needs. I was stunned and speechless!
In 2021, when South Sudanese families returned from exile and we opened Bethlehem Primary school, over 500 children joined the school. A medical crisis ensued as there were so many children who were falling sick and in need of medical care. This humbled lady, the mother of Timothy continues to send support for the medical need to help these children. In the spring of 2021, I was visiting South Sudan, on ONMI Mission trip. We ran out of medicine at NFC. But I got a call from my office caretaker in the USA that someone sent a donation to the ministry in memory of Timothy D. Galvan for medical needs. What should be done with the money? I said we are short of medicine as we speak. Please wire the money here right now.
That afternoon, I went and shared the miracle with staff, students, and teachers. They were astounded and Thanked God for answering to prayers at the right time. When I mentioned the name of this boy and that he was no longer alive, but his spirit and love living on among them, they want to remember him with small Plaque to be dedicated to his name so that they can pray for his family here in USA. Today, the life of this young boy who is not more, sparks medical evangelism among the children of South Sudan. The versus the mother recommended on the plaque is Matthew 19: 4 “ Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
This testimony is so true of the support ONMI has received from countless names which time could fail me to name even a few for everything God has done through many of you to sustain the work of ONMI in South Sudan.
For 30 years the protracted war of Islamic persecution in Sudan was waged against Christians families, church, and community. The damage is done. South Sudan is independent of Khartoum Islamic regime, but impact of devastation is far reaching. ONMI has been involved in the rebuilding effort for the past 30 years. By the grace of God, we have made some progress but not enough to match the impact of the destruction. The South Sudanese families have been more impacted by displacement than any other institutions in that country. However, the children have been more devastated than their parents because so many of the families lost their lives moving their children from Internal displaced camps to refugee camps in neighboring countries for safety, family unity, faith, and freedom, seeking for education, and health and food security for their children.
Many of these parents never made it to their destination. They either died or the very family undergone through split and separation. Children who survived the journey who arrived in that destination were brought in by friends and relatives. They ended up in the UN refugee camps only to learn social engineering lifestyles which don’t match the life they once knew.
We have not been promised a continuing city or earthly heritage.
During such chaos, some families like my parents taught us to embrace Salvation in Yeshua and have Personal Relationship with God in the Messiah to weather down the storm of trials and tribulation in this life to build a godly character for a hope that won’t disappoint us. We have not been promised a continuing city or earthly heritage on this planet but a heavenly one. Early on in my youthful life they taught me that persecution will come to every believer in Yeshua. It is not if but when. But through it will cause us to grow our faith and be rooted and grounded, immovable in the word of God.
On behalf the persecuted church and the children of South Sudan, I pay my tribute to this young boy, 31 years after his passing because of the impact He has even in his physical absence on earth in the lives of others.
What to pray for.
In just less than 2 weeks over 500 children will be returning to Bethlehem Primary school in South Sudan. Our medical stock is completely empty. Yesterday, I got a very serious call from our medical Nurse, he was pleading for help to get medical supply for Nehemiah field clinic. We need $15,000 to restock the clinic for the next three months.
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