I must start by praising God for His faithfulness and strength through my weakness! Once again, God showed Himself amazingly faithful on the Sudan trip. It was a very different trip from Sierra Leone, and I think it has taken me a little longer this time to process all that God accomplished through the Sudan trip. There is, of course, more that has been going on in the background of these trips, too, so I will do my best to concisely share where I believe God is leading me.

First, because I know many of you have been waiting patiently for pictures, I have posted most of my pictures from the trip at http://sudan.johnagee.com.

God blessed me in so many ways through being able to go on this trip to southern Sudan, including the following opportunities:

• Sharing life and working closely with three unbelievers on our team
• Participating in long-lasting discussions during devotions and throughout our time together
• Sensing God’s peace throughout changing and delayed plans
• Getting to spend my birthday on a bumpy drive through pools of water on a road in the middle of southern Sudan
• Spending lots of time in airports and passing the time with great conversations and cappuccino (especially in Ethiopia)
• Having a flight cancelled and spending an unexpected night in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Teaching team members (including interns) as much as I knew about water and wastewater design in Africa
• Worshiping God in a Sudanese church
• Learning even more about Engineering Ministries International from two excellent project leaders
• Observing the beauty of God’s creation, including some spectacular sunrises and sunsets
• Conversing with a Ugandan woman on the flight to Juba about how God is working through local African churches
• Landing on a gravel runway in a single-engine turbo-prop plane
• Experiencing God’s provision through His protection of the team
• Visiting eMi construction projects in Uganda

And, the team got to work together on preparing a fabulous preliminary design for a primary school site with a woman’s center, well, and latrines for the community of Jalle Payam. I think we ended up with a simple yet unique design for the school buildings and the women’s
center.

While both the Sierra Leone and the Sudan trips had themes of rebuilding and restoration, Sierra Leone was more of a spiritual mountain-top experience for me that included amazing connections with the indigenous people. God showed me how He is faithful to reflect His
glory through my life, and the reflection of the moon in the Atlantic Ocean still stands out as one of the most powerful images from that trip. Sudan was a more difficult trip for me personally, especially being so soon after Sierra Leone, yet so different. God continued to
show His faithfulness to me through every circumstance during the Sudan trip, but it was much less spiritually charged. I did not feel that I connected as well with the indigenous people, even though I am tremendously heartbroken by what many of them have survived. Throughout both trips, I saw people filled with hope, and I sensed that our presence and designs helped bring more hope into people’s lives.

My prayer is that the ultimate source of hope in these peoples’ lives would be the Lord Jesus Christ–”May the God of hope fill [them] with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit [they] may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13)! Christ is the only lasting source of hope for each of us personally, but it is a privilege to be a part of sharing that hope through designing projects that will further His kingdom and help the poor around the world.

Because of this, I have decided to begin the application process to join eMi’s staff. God has been so good at setting up this next step toward long-term missions, and I am extremely excited to see how He will use the coming months and years in strengthening my walk with Him and my testimony to others. While I had planned to work at least 4 years in consulting engineering before heading out of the country, I believe God has provided this opportunity at a key moment in my career. Work for consulting engineers has slowed dramatically, resulting in my hours being cut and less allurement to stay in private consulting. Working under eMi Professional Engineers still gives me experience toward taking the PE exam in October of 2010, plus it provides rare international design opportunities with a missions
focus. How incredible God is at providing something I cannot resist!

I appreciate all of your prayers so much, and I cannot wait to share new requests with you! Please pray for the application process with eMi, relationships with my current employer, the support raising process, and that God would grow my faith through all of this. Praise Him for His faithfulness!

Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.

Giving thanks and hoping in the One whose council stands forever,
John
Psalm 33

Greetings, or “Looi adï” as the Dinka say!

Thank you so much for your prayers throughout the past two weeks. My team finally arrived in Bor Town via a charter flight to the small gravel airstrip. Later in the week, we made the 3.5-hour drive out to the site in Jalle and spent a couple hours on site so that we could make the return drive to Bor before night. The team accomplished the preliminary school design for Rebuild Sudan, and Michael was pleased with our presentation. I feel like we all grew closer to the Lord and each other through our time together, but please keep praying for each member of the team as we reenter our lives in the U.S. I returned home on Wednesday, and the rest of the team that stayed for a safari in Uganda are on their way home now.

I plan on sending out more messages with reflection on this trip and how God has been working in my life recently. And, I will post some pictures soon. In the mean time, I would greatly appreciate you joining me in praying for God’s guidance and direction for the upcoming year. I think there will be some significant life changes for me in the coming months, and I am excited to see how God provides and leads! As He stressed over and over to me on this trip, HE IS THE FAITHFUL GOD (Deuteronomy 7:9)!

Because of HIS faithfulness,
John

Greetings from Juba! We have one final small flight into Bor scheduled for this morning because of flooding and safety concerns along the road. After that trip, we will finally be at our final destination for the rest of the week, the proposed school site.

On the flight from Addis Ababa yesterday, God blessed me with the opportunity to sit next to a lady from Uganda who works with the African Union and is a representative for her local area. I praise God for her encouraging words about how God is working in and through churches around Africa! She shared that churches are growing, and Africans are traveling to other parts of the world to share the gospel and help with church planting. Please pray that God would continue to strengthen His body in Africa so that many would surrender their lives to Jesus and live according to His Word.

Please continue to pray for the eMi team and the local churches here in southern Sudan. Praise God that He has used the Dinka tribe for His glory through severe persecution. May they continue to stand for Him and cling to Him in times of weakness and attack. Pray that the school we work on designing will be a place of peace and that God works in lives through it, including our own as we learn more about this part of the world. May God alone receive the glory as He brings scattered people back, purifies them, replaces hearts of stone with hearts of flesh, and fills them with His Spirit (Ezekiel 36:24-27).

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Seeking the sovereign Lord,
John

Greetings from Addis Ababa, where my team is unexpectedly spending the night!

After our flight from here to Juba was delayed three times due to plane maintenance, the airline ended up canceling the flight and scheduling a new one tomorrow morning. So, Lord willing, we will make it to our final destination in Sudan by tomorrow evening. In the meantime, we have had some good team bonding, and we plan to share our life stories after dinner tonight.

Praise God for His grace and provision throughout this trip. He is faithful! Please pray that our time of sharing honors the Lord and that tomorrow’s travel goes well.

For Christ’s glory,
John

Greetings from Frankfurt!

I am currently in a hotel room near the airport with the rest of the guys on our team headed for southern Sudan. We will still likely have time to explore some of the city before our flight to Ethiopia departs tonight around 11.

Flights so far have been full, but restful, and God has encouraged me greatly throughout the trip. As I was reading through Lamentations yesterday morning on the flight from Denver to Boston, the Lord brought to mind the similarities of Israel’s affliction and the affliction southern Sudan faced. Praise God that He uses persecution and hardship to strengthen His people and spread His message to new areas as people flee their home areas!

Please remember the people of southern Sudan who we are going to serve in prayer. Pray that they would call to mind and have hope in Jehovah because “the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” May their souls say, “The LORD is my portion, therefore I will hope in him.” Praise God that He “is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” Pray that those we interact with and those who attend the school we design would wait for the Lord’s
salvation, lifting up their hearts and hands to Him as they examine their ways and return to Him. (Lamentations 3) May Christ’s kingdom come and His will be accomplished in Sudan! Pray for renewal and restoration, and that the Lord would reign in hearts and lives.

I am excited to be a small part of encouraging believers in the south, as well as sharing testimony of God’s greatness, love, and power with any who do not personally know Him. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s leading in my life so that all glory goes to the Lord for what He accomplishes in and through me.

Filled with hope in the Lord,
John

In less than a week, I will be journeying to Sudan. Praise God that all of us who are going received our passports with visas to enter the country last week! The team of 12, including 2 eMi leaders, 2 eMi interns, 3 engineers, 2 architects, 2 church leaders, and a friend of the Rebuilding Sudan ministry will meet for the first time in Frankfurt, Germany before we venture on to southern Sudan.

Please continue to pray for the trip, including:

• Pray that the team would spend time seeking the Lord before departure.
• Pray that packing & preparation would smoothly.
• Pray for the team as we prepare to leave our jobs for an extended period of time next week. May this sacrifice stimulate discussion with
  coworkers about why we are going and Who we are ultimately serving!
• Lift up the people we will encounter along the journey to our ultimate destination. Pray that God would lead us and give us boldness
  to speak His name and share His gospel.
• Pray for those who will be hosting us in Sudan, including the Rebuild Sudan staff members who will be present.
• Pray that hearts would be encouraged in the Lord and that His Spirit would work powerfully in the lives of those who go to the school/well
  site, both during and after our visit.

I plan on sending some additional requests in the coming days. And, it is not too late to partner with me in reaching out to people of southern Sudan by giving toward the project. The website for online donations is https://emisecure.org/donate.html (include “Project 5493 – Agee” in the Designation box). Contact me soon if you would prefer to give by check.

I praise God for blessing me with the backing of such a strong partnering team! Thank you for your willingness to pray and be a part of where God leads me!

Rejoicing in reconciliation to God through my Lord Jesus Christ,
John

Romans 5:1-11

As April comes to a close, I have been reflecting on God’s faithfulness at the beginning of this month to lead me in deciding to go to Sudan on another Engineering Ministries International (eMi) trip. I got to snowshoe up to a hut just east of the continental divide near Leadville over the weekend. Yesterday morning before most of the group I went with were awake, I was reading in Isaiah and enjoying the beauty of snow falling on pine trees outside the hut window. God again impressed me with His power to save and how glorious, strong, and worthy of praise He is. My heart rejoices in the well of salvation through Christ, and I want to share about that life-giving water so that many might know redemption through the blood of Jesus!

Praise God for the opportunity to spread His gospel and provide for the physical water needs of Jalle, Sudan! Thanks to each of you who have contributed with prayer and finances so far! I still would like to challenge others to set aside time to pray for the trip or money to give toward the trip. I have included some requests below, and the website for online donations is https://emisecure.org/donate.html (include “Project 5493 – Agee” in the Designation box). Please contact me if you do not have my address and would prefer to give by check. You may also mail checks made out to “EMI” with a memo of “Project 5493 – Agee” directly to eMi: 130 E. Kiowa St. Ste #200, Colorado Springs, CO 80903.

Prayer Requests:

• That the team’s visas would be approved by the Sudan government (Our passports and applications are currently being walked through the
  Government of Southern Sudan by one of Michael Kuany’s contacts.)
• For Henry Watts, as he plans and leads the trip, as well as wrapping up the plans and report for the Sierra Leone hospital project
• That recent tribal conflict in Southern Sudan would subside
• That the team would work well together and bond quickly
• That God would prepare our hearts, as a team, to share His love and His gospel
• That the several unbelievers who are interested in the project and going with the eMi team would witness the power and love of Christ through the rest of the team during the trip
• That the Holy Spirit would be working in the hearts of people we will encounter on the trip
• That financial needs would be supplied for each team member
• That God will continue to provide vision to Michael Kuany and the Rebuild Sudan team
• That the school and community well would result in the gospel being proclaimed and transforming many in the Jalle area
• For continued restoration and peace after two decades of conflict in Sudan
• That people of Southern Sudan would be able to forgive and reach out to those in the North who persecuted them
• That the Sudanese church would be strengthened and that God’s fame would spread around the largest country in Africa

Thank you again for your prayers and support! Praise God for giving us all roles in outreach around the world so that worship of Almighty God
might exist among every tribe and tongue!

I encourage you to spend some time reflecting on Isaiah 12: praising the Creator for turning His anger away and comforting you; for enabling you to trust Him, your strength and song, without fear; and for restoring your life with Him through water from the wells of salvation. May He fill you with the desire to proclaim and exalt His name among all the people He places in your life!

Reflecting HIS glory,
John

Isaiah 12

You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.
“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds
among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.

“Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Greetings! I pray that as you focus on the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, He will bless you with the richness of His presence.

Our God is so awesome in the ways He works in and through us who were once His enemies! Praise Him for drawing us back to Himself through His incredibly good news! In Colossians 1, Paul writes “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

By God’s grace, I get to share in the proclamation of the gospel in Sudan at the end of May. I will be joining another Engineering Ministries International (eMi) team led by Henry Watts. This team will work on plans for a school and water wells in Jalle, southern Sudan, a country that recently entered a season of peace after two decades of civil war.

Most Southern Sudanese people are Christian, but they endured severe persecution and major displacement during the war. After the war, the area remains devastated, with crippled infrastructure and without education programs for children. Rebuild Sudan, the ministry we will be serving, was founded by Michael Kuany to fill the need for schools. Michael is one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan”, a group of tens of thousands of boys who fled the attacks by the Arab militias in the 1980s, miraculously survived two thousand-mile journeys without food or water through the African savannah, and spent their childhoods in two refugee camps–first in Ethiopia and finally in Kenya. Rebuild Sudan has acquired approximately two acres to construct an eight classroom school to serve 400 children. More infromation on Rebuild Sudan is available at www.rebuildsudan.org.

The dates of the trip are May 21-June 3. I will assist with well, water, sanitation, and site plans, as well as get a chance to interact with eMi construction management staff in Uganda at the end of the trip. I am especially looking forward to observing construction management in action on several Ugandan projects, as I may have this role with the hospital project in Sierra Leone once funding is raised. Continue to pray for God’s provision with that project, both for finances and a missionary doctor to run the hospital.

This trip to Sudan is another opportunity for me to trust God’s provision: spiritually, physically, mentally, and financially. Please lift up the team, which I will soon meet via e-mail, and our preparation for the trip. I will post additional Sudan trip prayer requests soon.

To those of you who would like to contribute financially, I appreciate your support. The trip is estimated to cost $2400. You may give online through eMi’s website or contact me if you would like to give by check. I am thankful for your generosity to support this trip, whether you donate $50, $200, or even $500.

The website for online donations is https://emisecure.org/donate.html Please include “Project 5493 – Agee” in the Designation box.

Pray that God would continue to lead in my life as I trust Him, and pray that He would work powerfully through this trip. I am excited to see a different part of Africa and to get to observe construction in Uganda! Pray that, above all, God would be glorified and be working in the hearts of people I will encounter on this trip.

Praising God for reconciliation through Christ Jesus,
John