‘You certainly can’t help but be moved’
MELFA — A Christian mission based in Melfa is planning a trip to bring the gospel and humanitarian relief to the world’s newest nation, the Republic of South Sudan, which gained its independence in July after decades of civil war with northern Sudan.
South Sudan is among the poorest nations on earth and lacks infrastructure, Freedom Outreach International President Chris Davis of Melfa said. Davis’ regular job is as a fire captain-paramedic for the city of Norfolk.
The organization has raised about 15 percent of the $85,000 or so it needs to accomplish the goals set for the two-week mission, which starts Sept. 26. Those goals include drilling five wells in Lietnom, South Sudan, along with teaching basic first aid and bringing Bibles, medical equipment and supplies to an area with about the same population as the Eastern Shore of Virginia where at present there is no doctor and only one nurse and five existing wells.
Davis and Freedom Outreach Secretary-Treasurer Karen Agar, who is chief executive officer of Hospice and Palliative Care of the Eastern Shore, plan to go on the trip, along with eight other people from the United States and Uganda, the birthplace of Davis’ pastor, Mike Ashiko of the Norfolk Revival Church, who along with his wife is also on Freedom Outreach’s board of directors.
The fifth board member is James Smith, pastor of Living Waters Fellowship Church in Norfolk.
"You certainly can’t help but be moved by what’s happening there," said Agar, who lived in South Africa as a child with her journalist father.
Agar said the relief mission will be the biggest undertaking to date of the two-year-old organization, which also sponsored a trip last fall to Europe and Uganda.
Sitting in his comfortable living room in an older home on a peaceful Melfa sidestreet, Davis enumerated the difficulties the new nation faces, including the fact that there are only about 12 miles of paved road in the entire country.
Additionally, it is the most underimmunized nation in the world and 25 percent of its children die before age 5, while 15 percent die at birth, along with 10 percent of the mothers. "On average a child dies every six second in Sudan," Davis said, adding, "When they bury there, they don’t have a funeral for just one…It’s our hope to change that."
Physicians estimate about 60 percent of deaths in the region could be avoided if residents had access to clean drinking water. Freedom International will work with another Christian organization, Water is Basic, which equips local residents to drill badly needed wells and is able to drill a well for about $4,000, versus $35 to $40,000 it costs for the government to drill one, Davis said.
"It’s a hand up, not a handout," Davis said, adding of the people he encountered in Africa on a mission trip to Uganda last autumn, "Those are the hardest-working people you’ll ever meet. Before the sun comes up they are up and moving, because every day is about survival."
Because of the lack of roads makes air travel the most practical option, one of their largest expenses will be $9,600 for a charter flight from Uganda to Lietnom. The organization sees the need for access to the remote areas it wants to reach with the gospel and humanitarian relief, so it is working to train two pilots and purchase an airplane by the end of the year.
Davis’ living room decor stands out from the usual because of the digital photo frame on his desk, which displays photographs of emaciated African children and other reminders of the mission, as well as two large maps on the walls — one of Africa and one of the world, each dotted with colored pushpins.
"The red dots are places we’ve been, the blues are where we’re requested and the yellows are just where I have a desire to go," said Davis. Along with South Sudan, blue pushpins mark Pakistan and the Philippines as locations where Freedom Outreach International’s presence is requested.
Looking around, Davis recalls his feelings upon returning last fall from Uganda, which despite its poverty is far better off than South Sudan. "The last time I came home, I stood out in the street and I was just speechless…People here have no idea what they have."
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