Our friend - Mike not Mark + Mama Linda's travels

Dear Jenny,

Thank you so much and accept my apologies for not responding to your email prompt. However, I am now in Juba since yesterday and will travel after a few days to Rokon. Many greetings from home in Rokon.

Yes, you are right and I think the right name for Yemba is Michael or Mike Yemba Soro. The other Mark is not real one as all his papers are carrying Michael Yemba Soro.

Mama Linda is in Nairobi visiting those of our children there and she will be back soon to Kampala to visit other children too. Later on she will join us in the diocese.

Jenny, the only connection with us is through prayers Link and hopefully one day we will be together.

Thank you for your continuous support for Michael Yemba Soro.

God bless,

Bishop Loyo.

News from Sudan

Bishop Francis' latest e-mail reads as follows:

Dear Jenny,

It is a long time since we communicated.

Yes, I have been engaged so much in church work in the diocese and difficult to connect because of lack of communication , - no internet services in my place.

However, most of the programmes are done except that some confirmation and the synod will soon come. At the moment am in Kampala for some few days and will go back to the Sudan.

Some two weeks ago there was convention in our diocese organised by the Mothers Union in the diocese where it brought all people from the diocese and its neighbouring dioceses .It was very challenging indeed and many still turned to Christ that was in the end of Jan,09.

And by the 12th Feb,09 we have retreat organised by the ECS Province ,where we were blessed with the two Archbishops to carry us along with the retreat for a week. Archbishop George Cary as well as Archbishop Orombi of the Church of Uganda and other Bishops from USA.

I have read the correspondences from Mike Yemba of the support for his upkeep has not yet reached although you told him that you have already sent. You have to cross check with the CMS-Nairobi with Omukuba Wycliffe whether the support money has arrived with them.

This is to assure you of our thoughts and prayers to you all.

This comes with much appreciations and thanks,

+Francis Loyo.

News from Nairobi

Mark's latest e-mail reads as follows:

"Dear Jenny, How are you doing over there? I hope you had a wonderful mass today like mine because the pastor was preaching about St Paul's letter to the Galatians which was interesting and understandable.I have just received some of the photo's that we took during the Christmas and i did not send to you immediately because i was expecting them. During our arrival, in church during Christmas, helping mum in her absence, cooking, clearing the compound. I hope they are nice. I did not hear from you about the neighbour who is coming to Nairobi - when am i expecting him? your brother in Christ Mike "

Oops! Mike? It seems I have been mis-calling our friend for 6 months. I am so sorry!

The good news is that donations have now passed £3,000.

I am trying to do my bit by running a Christian bookstall anywhere I am allowed to. New books (10% of cost goes to support Mike) and/or second-hand books can both be offered. All the second-hand books are donated by people who wanted to get behind the idea of a Christian bookstall in rural communities, so all the takings from these go to support Mike. I praise the Lord for all of you!

Such a gracious God!

I have been praying that support for Mark Yemba will continue to come in during the difficult months after Christmas. As I keep reminding God, I am not a gifted fund-raiser at all, and I always need his help.

I am always impressed when God takes my small efforts and turns them into something much bigger. I had thought I might raise a small amount of money, and provide a service for our rural communities, if I offered Christian Bibles and other books for sale through the church account with a Christian bookseller. This hasn't in fact made a lot of profit yet, but what has happened is that kind people have donated their second-hand books for sale, and these are raising more money than the new books.

Thank you Lord!

Then I appealed for more photos to send to Mark, and here is one of the beautiful photos I was sent.

E-mail from Bishop Francis Loyo 20-02-09

Dear Jenny,

Many thanks for your continuous concerns in the education of Yemba and we valued your supporting spirit and kindness.

Please you are not alone in this venture but we are remembering you and all friends who have given you this support. We pray for you and we assure you of our full support.

At the moment am in Juba where I can access the internet and will go back to our diocese today and will proceed to Kampala for some work.

We have just finished our Bishops and wives retreat and last 3 weeks we had a big convention organised by the Mothers Union to at least bring us together. Thousands of people gathered and prayed for the lasting peace in the country wide.

Be blessed,

+Francis Loyo.

Crisis in support for a Sudanese student

Mark Yemba Soro was born in south Sudan in 1988,and orphaned at the age of 6. When Mark was offered a place at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Bishop Francis Loyo of Rokon Diocese asked for support to meet Mark’s university fees and living expenses.

Individuals and parishes in the Deanery responded magnificently, and have met the first term’s fees and living expenses. Now, at the start of the second term, there is an urgent need to raise our level of giving. The falling pound has resulted in a 10% fall in the value of every pound we send. Meanwhile, Kenya also faces economic crisis, resulting in inflation and higher fees. The combined effect of these two changes has been to increase this term’s fees from £648 to £768. The extra cost to Mark has deprived him of some of the money he needed to live on.
At present, we therefore need an estimated £374 per month.

Dear heavenly Father, Please show me how to respond to what, in human terms, is a crisis. May I find the proper balance between doing all that you have equipped and called me to do, and putting my trust in you.

I pray especially that Mark may not suffer hardship because of our own national economic crisis, and feelings of insecurity. Help us, Lord, to keep a sense of proportion.

I pray also that you would bless Mark's studies, for his sake, as one of your little ones with no other support but you; as a member of a nation that sorely needs his love, his courage and his skills, and as an individual with a human right to develop to his maximum potential.

Lord, in your mercy, hear my prayers. Amen

Supporting a Sudanese student through university

Mark Yemba Soro is a twenty-year old orphan from the Diocese of Rokon, in South Sudan. He was orphaned during the long Sudanese civil war at the age of six. He and his sisters found shelter and support with Bishop Francis Loyo and his wife, Mama Linda.

They were deeply impressed by the strong Christian faith which Mark's parents had passed on to their children, and also by Mark's hard work and dedication to his education. Seeing his potential, they sacrificially funded his secondary education in Uganda (South Sudan had no secondary schools at that time), and Mark gained the local equivalent of our "A" Levels. Mark was offered a place at university in Kenya.

At this point, Bishop Francis contacted a friend in the Blandford and Milton Deanery, and asked for urgent prayer for Mark, saying that he desperately needed support.

Bishop Francis and Mama Linda were quite unable to go on funding Mark's education, and they were just praying that God would take care of it. The people of the Deanery responded immediately, and have so far funded fees and living expenses for one of two semesters in the first year, and the fees for the second semester.

Dear God, please help me to continue to be radically dependent on you, but also wise enough to respond when you show me that there is something I can and should do. Please don't let Mark's education falter now, for lack of support..