God calls upon his followers to help spread his message, asking people to reach out to share the gospel with those not attending church.
<–Kelly and Noah inside a village in Uganda. For Kelly and Cameron Lewis, it was definitely a long-distance call. The couple, along with their three children, Noah, 9, Anna, 7, and Stephen, 4, spent a year 7,000 miles away from home helping provide logistical support for missionaries in the African country of South Sudan. The family returned to Lumberton in February because of the Civil War that had broken out in the three-year-old country. About 1 million people have been displaced.
It was a year spent with no running water, no air conditioning in a tropical climate, and the only electricity provided by generators or solar panels. Yet, says Kelly, it was a difficult decision to leave South Sudan, even with the war ramping up.
Cameron and Noah are pictured at right, outside the hut the family lived in for two months in Uganda.
“It was probably five times harder, maybe close to 10 times harder, to decide to return than to decide to go,” Kelly said. “Even though we had nothing to do with the war, our hearts still wanted to be there.”
<—-Anna Lewis is baptized in a bathtub in Nairobi, Kenya. She accepted Christ as her Savior in Uganda.
Cameron’s assignment for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention was to make sure missionaries in South Sudan had a place to stay, had transportation, and to take care of other needs for them.
“You’ve got the strategy missionaries who go to plant churches and to train nationals,” Cameron said. “Then, you’ve got the support side. The hope with that is to try to make it possible to free up those who are in strategy to focus exclusively on those things.
“The focus is to try to reach the people that are unreached. What the Mission Board entrusts us to do is try to give the missionaries as close to the equivalent of a western-style house, get drivers license, visas and paperwork. Just trying to get everything for them so they don’t have to worry about those things.”
The South Sudan trip was an opportunity to help restart the International Mission Board’s work in the region.
“This was a pioneer country,” Kelly said. “They hadn’t been established like Kenya and Uganda. We were having to learn the laws of this brand new country, and getting the missionaries established. A South Sudan sunset. —->
“Cameron established six missionaries — three couples plus their children — and he was working on the plans for building another property when the war broke out. Cameron was basically running the Baptist mission for the whole country. That’s what the logistics coordinator does.”
<—-Stephen, Noah and Anna make toys out of cardboard boxes in South Sudan.
The mission to South Sudan for Cameron and Kelly served as the latest chapter in a life spent helping spread God’s word. Both had been on short mission trips as teenagers — Cameron to Trinidad, Alaska and Mexico City, and Kelly to Galveston, Texas, twice to Honduras, and once to Virginia with World Changers.
The neighborhood in South Sudan where the Lewis family was based. —->
“Prior to us meeting, we both felt the Lord had placed a call to missions in our lives and on our hearts as teenagers,” said Cameron, who grew up in Bladenboro and was a member of the first West Bladen High School graduating class in 2002. “Kelly was on a mission trip to Galveston, Texas, at about 13 years old when she felt like maybe the Lord was burdening her heart to serve and do missions. I was about 15 years old and we were at Hickory Grove Church. There was a WMU study on how people could be reached. That was the first real burden that I felt for missions. From there on, we kind of lived our lives keeping that in mind.”
Those early mission trips set the stage for the life-changing decision that Kelly, who graduated from Lumberton High School, and Cameron made years later.
“It changed my outlook on things and broadened our perspective so far as the need goes, and what is possible to happen with a life surrendered to Christ for ministry,” Cameron said. “It’s not such a big step. Although it is out of your comfort zone, and it is a challenge. You do have things to overcome, but it’s not impossible to overcome those things.”
In the fall of 2007, the Lewises went on a brief mission trip to Vermont with members of Bladen Baptist Association. During the trip, they met other missionaries from North Carolina who were working in the area, and were told about an area in Vermont that needed full-time mission work. The family moved to Vermont and spent the next five years organizing and coordinating teams — many from Bladen, Columbus and Robeson County churches — to “reach just about every home in those (Vermont) communities,” Cameron said.
In 2012, after praying and studying, the Lewises contacted the International Mission Board about going to South Sudan.
“We felt like the Lord has put South Sudan on our hearts for several years,” Cameron said. “We didn’t feel like the Lord would have us go and serve somewhere else. South Sudan is the burden the Lord has put on our hearts, and that’s where we wanted to go.” Said Kelly, “It’s something that we looked forward to and waited on the Lord for over 11 years (to go).”
After a three-month “bush camp” in Virginia where they were taught about living conditions in South Sudan and the work they would be doing, the Lewises arrived in Uganda in January 2013 and, as Kelly recalls, became instant millionaires when exchanging their American dollars for shillings. “They said to get a million shillings,” Kelly said. “I said ‘a million!’ However, it’s about $400. You can’t really buy as much with it as you think you could,” Cameron said.
While Uganda has its share of modern amenities such as shopping malls, electricity and ATMs, the Lewises — all five of them — spent a couple of months in a hut before going to their new home in Juba, which is the capital of South Sudan.
“In our mission trips to Mexico and Honduras, we already knew what a foreign country was going to be like,” Kelly said. “We just didn’t know about Africa, but we knew it would be similar. The biggest adjustment was not drinking from the tap. In South Sudan, we washed and bathed with rain water.”
Added Cameron, “I think the mission board did a really good job of helping to prepare us for a different culture. They talked about medical issues. About how to deal with different kinds of food. How to be gracious or wise in your behavior depending on the culture.”
Noah, Anna and Stephen, the couple’s three children, also went through training in Virginia, and had to adjust to a new lifestyle in Uganda and South Sudan. By the time the family left for South Sudan, they had sold nearly all of their possessions.
“We told our children when we moved to Vermont that God has asked us to share the Gospel,” Kelly said. “Our family was going to be willing to move. That means staying out of debt. You’re not living the American dream necessarily because you have to be mindful of being available for the Lord. We’ve home-schooled them to be easily movable.
“The training in Virginia helped them about how they could talk to other kids in other cultures, and tell them about Jesus. The children were ready to reach people from day one.” Once in South Sudan, the children — as only kids can seem to do — settled in just fine.
“They didn’t complain at all,” Kelly said. “They were really our heroes in a lot of ways. There were many days it was 100 degrees in our house and we were trying to do our home school, and they obeyed and did the school work.
“One thing that helped us hang on is we learned how to make our own homemade pizza. Someone had shipped us some pepperoni, and we cut the pepperoni in half so it would last longer. We made homemade pizza dough every Friday night. We’d have three pizzas and watch a movie.”
Eventually, the fighting in South Sudan made it too risky for the Lewises to remain. So, after spending a year in Africa, they packed what they could and made their way back to Lumberton. “We lost a lot of belongings due to the war,” Kelly said. “We had to leave them behind.”
There were other opportunities with the International Mission Board after the family had to leave South Sudan, but Cameron and Kelly felt that God is calling them to work in that country. So, for now, at least, they’re back home and enjoying the American lifestyle.
“You wake up every day now and it’s like ‘Wow, I have hot water, and I didn’t have to boil it on the stove,’ ” Kelly said. “It’s winter now and there’s cooler weather. It was never really cool where we were. You wake up and you’re just thankful for every single thing that comes your way.”
That may include another call to return to South Sudan.
“We’re going to be here for a while,” Kelly said, “but if we get the opportunity to go back, we’ll be glad to do that. We’ve told the Lord that we’ll do whatever he wants us to do.”
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