Lorry

One of the common sites during the dry season are trucks rolling into town. The roads haved dried up and a fresh flow of goods like sodas, rope, coffee, cooking pots, clothes, shoes, bicycles, and visitors come into town. The trucks don't like to return to the towns up north empty so they take a valuable commodity: bamboo. Here is a truck laden with bamboo, crossing the river. As soon as the rains come in May, we will see the last of the trucks return north and will do without until January.

Our Family Vacation at Turtle Bay

We just got back from four days on the Kenyan coast in the warm Indian ocean. The hotel where we stayed was all-inclusive so we could eat, drink, and play to our hearts' content. Coke floats and milkshakes by the pool, long walks on the beach at low tide exploring tide pools for fish and shells, helping release two giant sea turtles back into the ocean, windsurfing, and spending every waking hour in the water is how we spent our days. We're now back in Nairobi finishing up our remaining business before we fly back to Sudan.

Fun in the pool

The windsurfer

Playing on the beach

Fun in the river

Isaac and donkey

Eli teaches Evan to saw

One more step toward opening our school

Our Secondary school was in great need of desks so with a solid design from Roger England, we trained a few men in the measuring, sawing, nailing, and building of these desks. Each desk is designed to accommodate three students. Here are a couple pictures of us making the desks in one of our classrooms.

Aunt Phalice

One of the newest additions to our team is “aunt” Phalice. Hailing from Washington State, Phalice has come to spearhead the Secondary School project. It is such a blessing to have her caring spirit, determination to succeed, and Scrabble prowess. Here she is enjoying a cool dip during the afternoon heat with our boys.

Meet Roger

Every once in a while you get to meet someone who makes you stand back and simply say, "wow". Roger visited during the month of March and I got to work with him almost every day. Knowledgable about most everything, I got to see him work on a water pump, doors, windows, a concrete slab, goat jerky, whittling, eating peanut butter, gardening, drilling rock, framing, and that was just the first week he got here. Enjoy this classic picture of Roger and his chickens.

Solar water pump

One of our main concerns during the dry weather is having enough water for construction, drinking, washing, and cooking for our homes. Our solution at the moment is an in-ground pipe connected to a solar pump. The pump is able to run off of a solar panel so it works only during the day. Just about anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. However, with a little creativity and dogged determination by visitors Roger England and Mike Lander got the pump to work. You can see Mike drilling holes into a Gatorade can to make a filter for the pump.

In Memory of Dr. David Masters:

We received a message on our satellite phone early on April 1,

2008 that Dr. David Masters, an English doctor and SIM-Sudan

colleague, had passed away in the night.  He and his wife, Irene,

have been stationed in Doro, Eastern Sudan, an SIM base only

3-hour drive from Yabus.  They've been part of a large medical

ministry team there.



This couple recently joined the SIM-Sudan team in January of this

year but they were among our most experienced missionaries.

Dr. David and Irene spent 19 years serving in Congo and then 19

years serving in England.  They arrived in Doro on February 4, 2008.



An hour after hearing the news, our SIM Yabus team drove to Doro

to encourage our colleagues and attend David's funeral at 4:00 pm.

Doro is home to the Mabaan tribe and the service was conducted

by several Sudanese church leaders.  Several people gave testimonies

of their friendship with Dr. David, a colleague nurse sang several

English hymns and another SIM missionary closed the service with a

call for the Mabaan people to follow Dr. Masters' example of pouring

his life out for the furthering of God's kingdom.  The day before he died,

Dr. Masters rode his bicycle over an hour away to visit a village, taking

care of their sicknesses and sharing the love of Christ.  



Please keep Irene and the Doro team in your prayers as Dr. Masters

will be greatly missed.