One Year Rememberance

Playing Uno in the UN Bunker in Melut, May 19, 2015

May 19, 2015, one year ago, was the day we had to quickly evacuate from our home in Melut, South Sudan. We had only just arrived 6 weeks earlier and were serving alongside our teammate, Claire, and South Sudanese Principal, Kur Deng, hoping to get the Bible College up and running with a whole new group of students. We were so excited to be back after a whole year back in the States praying about whether Melut would be stable enough for our family and if the college would be able to open again, even after war breaking out at the end of 2013. I remember those days clearly, even though they are a year away now. Those days were filled with - HOPE & ANTICIPATION.

I also vividly remember our emotions as we sat in our SIM guesthouse in Nairobi, Kenya wondering what was next for our family. We though we'd heard so clearly from the Lord to go back to Melut. We though God had BIG things in store for Gideon Theological College. And the truth is He did and still does. Eli and I know without a doubt that God clearly led us back to Melut for those precious 6 weeks to reconnect with friends, live in our home, even reunite with our silly, wild cat, Q-tip! But then He had other things in store. A year in Doro that we never could have imagined!

Looking back over the past year of our life, I am full of such powerful emotions, I can hardly stand it. I am in awe of our God, who nursed our wounds as we grieved over leaving Melut and our friends there, who took hold of our hands, weak as they were, and led us to Doro. Who provided a perfect house for the five of us and surrounded us with a wonderful team. And then - on top of everything else - showed us a whole new adventure He had for us - discipling seekers and new believers among the Ingassana tribe in three camps outside of Doro. Has had provided again and again. blowing us away with His generosity and perfect timing and causing our faith to grow in leaps and bounds. We are still very humbled by our ordinary selves and the fact that He is calling us to some BIG things, but we try to take one day at a time, grabbing hold of the Grace He gives us each day for what He's placed before us.

Friends, our God is Great. I have no words to express how thankful and in awe I am of our God. His mercies endure forever. Great is His Faithfulness!

Wedding Week

Teammates ready for the henna party

This blog post is a week late because our internet hasn't been working on our compound. Not only that, but life hasn't seemed to stand still for a single second to let me catch my breath. I so want to share about our week of wedding fun last week so here are a few pictures to help.

"Uncle" Yassir with Evan and Josh

 On Wednesday afternoon we were invited to the henna party. This special gathering meant the groom was being "groomed" for his wedding day - beginning with henna dye on his feet and hands. He had to sit for several hours, having the henna applied and then allowing it to dry.

While the groom was getting henna applied, friends of the groom celebrated with singing, drumming and dancing. Yes, even I joined in!

Joshua was the only Fader boy brave enough to get henna done. He got it on his left hand.

There was another henna party on Thursday and then on Friday we were invited to go out to Gendrassa camp where the bride is from, to feast with her family. We filled several cars with people from the groom's side of the family to drive out to the camp. In the photo above, we walked to the bride's family's house singing.

With the beautiful bride, Asha

A crowd sang and drummed as we escorted the groom to the church

Saturday was the wedding day and Yassir and Asha got to be the first couple to be married in the Gendrassa church. The ceremony was a beautiful testimony of each of their faith in Jesus and their desire to begin their marriage, committing it to Christ.

The bride wore a western style white wedding dress

 After escorting the groom to the church, a crowd of friends and family then walked to the bride's house to collect her and escort her to the church. In this picture, notice the bride's younger sister in red, wiping the tears from her face. There were a few tears, even from the bride, as this "leaving home" was indeed a final step of leaving her family. After the wedding, Asha left Gendrassa to move back to Doro (30 min drive away) to liver her with her new husband.

Following the Bride

 The bride got a ride in the car while the rest of us followed behind, still singing and celebrating.

Wedding Feast

After a beautiful ceremony and packing up the bride's belongings, we headed back to Doro with cars packed with people for the 2nd part of the wedding day - the after party at the bride and groom's new home. We ate a big feast of rice, macaroni, many meat dishes and their favorite, kisra, made of sorghum.

Teammates dressed up for the wedding

Needless to say, we were exhausted when we finally arrived home on Saturday at 6 pm after 9 hours of partying and celebrating! It was a day we won't soon forget and we pray the marriage of Yassir and Asha will be a light in the community here.

What is Mother's Day like for a missionary mom in South Sudan?

Special cards from my boys

 I woke up this morning to the sound of my three boys singing, "Happy Mother's Day to You" as they paraded into my bedroom, each carrying a specially made card they'd slaved over this morning. Behind them Eli carried a piping hot cup of coffee. What a way to wake up to my 12th Mother's Day. As I got dressed I started thinking about what I should make for breakfast but to my delight I found out that Isaac had already made a run to market on his bike and bought zalabia for breakfast. Zalabia are a local fried doughnut we can get here that taste very good dipped in cinnamon sugar or covered in Nutella. So far it was turning out to be a very special Mother's Day indeed. #1 Waking up to my children singing and handing me cards made with love and #2 a breakfast I didn't have to cook!~

Ironically I was the only woman in our little church in Yusif Batil camp for most of the service. But it was a special time of worshipping with the believers there and teaching them a few new songs.

A tasty Ethiopian feast with our friends

 On our way back to Doro we stopped in Bunj to eat at one of our favorite restaurants that serves Ethiopian food. We had four friends with us so we invited them to join us. The food was so good we had all broken out in a sweat by the end.

As we arrived home a cooler breeze was blowing in and the sky looked like rain was coming. We all settled down for a lovely Sunday afternoon nap.

Today, I began to reflect on what it has been like being a mother in South Sudan. Life as a mother, had we stayed in our home in South Carolina would have probably looked so much different. It too would have been sweet along with its challenges of its own but I wouldn't trade being a missionary mom for anything! Since the time I was potty training my boys, they have heard several other languages spoken, eaten foods most kids their age wouldn't touch, flown on countless types of airplanes and been treated for crazy diseases. No matter where I go in South Sudan, when people ask me, "Are these children yours?" and I answer, "Yes", I most often get the response, "Mash-Allah" meaning going with God. It's used to acknowledge when something is really good. Yes, being mom to these three amazing boys is REALLY GOOD. I am proud to be their mama. Proud to be raising them in this crazy and beautiful country of South Sudan. And today as I celebrate and thank the Lord for allowing me to be the mama of these three gifts, my prayer is that God is using their childhood growing up in this faraway place to prime them for a life of serving the Lord in faraway places where the name of Jesus has not yet been heard.

Cultural Experience of the Month!

The Nuban women arrive at the bride's house singing and drumming

One of our good friends is from the Nuba tribe. He is a gifted evangelist and teacher and has been part of our team that goes out to the Ingassana camps each week to teach the Bible to the new believers out there. He is engaged to be married to one of the young Ingassana ladies in the church. With the wedding only days away, today was the special occasion where the women on the groom's side of the family deliver all the bride's special gifts to her home. The gifts are not only for the bride but for her family as well - wedding clothes for her parents and grandparents, food, drink, many new clothes, shoes and accessories for the bride, etc.

The procession - friends of the grooms

When we arrived at the bride's house everyone unloaded the food and gifts and paraded into her compound. An interesting fact is that we did not see the bride this entire day. She had to hide at the neighbor's house and was not supposed to show her face.

Her sisters served the guests drinks and her cousin and auntie are the ones who looked through the gifts and decided whether it was all enough.

Kilos of wheat flour

Once inside the compound the ladies danced in a circle with the bride's gifts for a certain number of times.

My teammate Ruth and a good friend, Joy

The gifts were placed on a mat in the center

Felt like there were women everywhere!

My teammate Cathy, enjoying some shade on a very hot afternoon

Getting my baby fix

Cathy with the bride's older sister

The bride's cousin and auntie then unpacked the gifts one by one, inspecting each thing and sometimes holding it up to show everyone else.

Sealed deal!

Finally after a few tense moments of waiting to hear if the gifts were enough, the bride's family agreed that it was and the groom's friends and relatives broke into singing and dancing. This was definitely not the type of bridal shower I'm used to but it was so much fun!

Nuer Worship

The Nuer Youth Choir

On Sunday we were invited to worship with the Nuer tribe at their church set up right outside the military camp. Since there were 115 people and the church looked like it could hold 30, our service was held outside under several large Baobab trees.

Their songs were so meaningful and heartfelt. 

KITTENS!!!

We got a special delivery last week: 3 sweet, starving little kittens. One of our guards brought them as a gift for the boys, one for each of them. They have been a sweet addition to our already crazy household.

Trying to teach school with a kitty on my lap

 The main draw back of having three baby kittens in our family now is that they're so cute they've become quite the distraction during home school. They hear us all back in the school room and come meowing, begging for attention, climbing all over the boys and choosing to nap on their books!

Another Unity Sunday

The Mabaan Girls choir 

We just returned to Doro after a 2 week break in Kenya which we needed - especially to have a break from the continual heat. This morning we were excited to head out to worship again with our Ingassana friends. We heard they'd been invited to join a Mabaan church in a nearby village called Pekaji so we drove out with 2 Uduk pastors, 3 Jumjum new believers, a visiting Ethiopian and Austrian! We drove until we met up with the Ingassana folks walking towards Pekaji and gave lifts to the church (it took a few trips.)

It was a lovely service (though it took 4 1/2 hours!) with many people singing, sharing testimonies and a wonderful sermon from John 14. 16 people responded to the altar call following the sermon.

Anur, the Ingassana leader from Gendrassa camp

Since the service lasted 4 1/2 hours we needed periodic water breaks

 After the service, Mabaan women served rice and lentils to everyone in the church, followed by rounds of juice, tea and coffee. They showed great hospitality and it was beautiful to see the men sitting in a circle, the women in a circle, and the youth in a circle. It was really neat to see the mingling taking place, especially since these two tribes have been so antagonistic towards each other over the last few years.

A quarter to 5 pm we arrived home - hot, dusty and tired - but with very full hearts. God continues to amaze us with how He's working in our county between these different tribes. It's been incredible to see their new love for each other and willingness to reconcile and move forward together. What a beautiful picture of the True Body of Christ!

My Easter was like your Easter (and why it was NOT also)

My Easter was like your Easter

I woke up excited to worship together with other believers in remembrance of what my God did two thousand years ago.  My Lord, Jesus Christ, rose from the dead, conquered death and paid my debt of sin that I would otherwise have had to pay.  He proved to all that He is the King of Kings and no earthly or spiritual power compares to him.  What better reason is there to get out of bed and declare again that Jesus is my God?  I am sure that many, many others around the world got up with the same excitement and experienced the same joy as we went to our places of worship and sang, prayed, danced, and cried tears of joy that the promised messiah had come and opened the way of salvation for all of us.  I am sure many of us heard wonderful sermons, ate delicious food, laughed and shared time together with close friends and family.  My day was just like yours in so many ways.

This poor sheep probably doesn't have long to live.

My Easter was NOT like your Easter

Within these broad strokes of our common experience of Easter lies a story.  My day was pretty crazy.  We live in an area that has four different refugee camps surrounding it.  These camps hold people who have fled fighting in their home area of Sudan.  They have crossed the border into South Sudan and have been living as refugees for the past few years.  While some of these refugees are Christian, most of them are not.  While they have been here, some of them have come to learn about and accept Jesus Christ as their messiah and king.  Many of them have become followers of Jesus only in the last year.  This was their first Easter; their first time to celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead.  This was special. 

I woke up at 4:20 am so that I could take the motorcycle into town to meet up with a couple men from the Maban church (the local tribe here in Doro).  We got into two large lorries and rumbled down the road to go to the refugee camps about thirty to forty-five minutes away.  We had arranged to pick up the new believers from these camps and bring them into the main town where we would all worship together.  When we arrived at 6:30 am, we found that people were not ready like we had agreed.  This was going to be an interesting day.  The church service was supposed to start in the main town at 6 am (which means 7:30 am) and if no one was ready, we were going to be very late.  

As we alighted from the lorry and went to the church leader’s house, we found that he had just woken up and was beating a drum to call everyone to come.  A full hour and a half later we finally piled into the lorry and headed back to the church in the main town.  We met up half way with the other lorry who went to a different camp to pick up believers and eventually were on our way (a full two hours late now).  There were other adventures along the way like one truck ran out of gas and the guys stopped a fight between two people on the side of the road…but we eventually pulled up to the church.

Pulling up to the church

The entire group of believers were singing as we drove up to the church in a cloud of dust.  It was over a hundred degrees by now and sweat poured down people’s faces.  They formed themselves into a group and marched into the church singing Allela Farhan Allela or “Today we are happy!”  The church literally half emptied out as there was no more room for others to come in.  It is hard to describe the intensity and volume of the singing as the congregation joined in.  These are believers who had never met each other and yet their praises to Jesus on this day instantly bonded them.  Tribe, denomination, culture, weather, history: these all take second place to the fact that at this moment believers have gathered to worship their king, the one who has saved them and now calls them his children. 

The Ingassana and JumJum believers marching into church singing

Believers from the Maban Church come up and "cheer on" the new believers, snapping their fingers in time with the singing

The service eventually ended and many people went home but the youth moved outside under a huge tree and continued singing together.  An hour later, we gathered the visitors into the lorries to take them home.  Suddenly, all the youth from the Maban church began climbing into the lorries too.  They wanted to escort these new believers back home.  To say we were a bit of spectacle going to down the road does not quite capture it.  You’ve got about a hundred mostly youth singing in the back of lorries as we rumble down the road.  There were some serious stares, let me just say that.

Maban youth and visitors singing together under the tree after the service

One young Ingassana girl is playing a drum made from a mortar shell

Musa plays a rababa which is a lot like a guitar

I got home at 3:30, just in time to take a bath and change my clothes and we were off to another sort of celebration.  Samaritan’s Purse had invited SIM and MedAir to come and celebrate an Easter meal and games together.  It was a very different kind of gathering but one full of meaning too.  We were mostly foreigners who had come a long way to share the love of Christ through clean water, health, food distribution, sanitation and the teaching of God’s word.  

Trying to play horseshoes with teammate Khamboi

We all were pink from the hot South Sudan sun and sweating uncontrollably but this is where God has brought us.  We are doing the best we can to glorify our God through the work we do but our main goal is to point people to the one who can truly give them life and health.  The kind that doesn’t ever fade.  The life, abundant life, that was made available to us through the life, death and resurrection of our Lord two thousand years ago.  He is Risen!