Heading to the beach

No, I'm not joking. We're heading to this exact villa in Mombasa for a whole week! We're so excited. Eli's sister and her 7 year old son are in the air on their way to Kenya, and his parents, younger brother, and older brother and his family are all in Nairobi. On Saturday we'll make the 8 hour drive to this beautiful place and we'll be out of touch with the rest of the world for that whole week. Expect lots of pictures when we return!

Dying Easter eggs

I know Easter was more than a week ago but we didn't have eggs in Sudan to dye and my mother gave us a lovely dye kit so today I boiled 14 eggs and we dyed eggs. The boys had a blast although Joshua kept stopping my heart by dunking eggs, splashing dye everywhere, almost tipping the dye cups a few times...but it all worked out.

Evan's proud of his first egg.

Do you see the dye dripping?

Once the eggs were dry and while the boys were playing on the playground, I hid all the eggs near our house then called the kids to come look for them. They each had a bowl to put their finds in. Even Joshua was able to find some on his own.

Thank you Mimo, for the great dye kit. We sure had a fun morning and we've already eaten almost half of them!

A Post from Eli

I couldn't help but notice that it has been a while since I have posted anything. While Bethany posts wonderful things about our life, home, and family, I have the task of posting the unusual and disgusting. Well, I have recently run into something of that sort.

A couple weeks ago I was working in Yabus and accidentally kicked a piece of metal. It went right in between my toe nail and the skin, lifting it up all the way except for the skin in the back. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. I thought back to my years of having a hang nail from 7-12th grade. Mom would make me soak the toe in hot (boiling) water with salt.

Anyway, so after doing the salt and warm water (I remember boiling my flesh didn't accomplish much) I realized that there was just a bit of skin holding onto my toenail in the back. I grabbed my leatherman and set to work. Now I know a Leatherman is a normal surgical tool because I have seen my Dr. brother do home surgery on my Ugandan bush brother in our apartment in Nairobi. I held the blade over fire for a while to clean it (I saw this on TV once). I slit across the back of my toe and voila the toe nail slid right off. I am saving it in case I ever need to play soccer or rugby in the next couple weeks. I figure I would just tape it on and then I would be able to play.

Here is my toe present day. It is healthy and pain free. However, I am not sure how long it will take to get a new nail.

P.s. Bethany was in total disagreement for me to post these pictures as she found them incredibly disgusting. I just wanted to put something on for Seth Meeks and Jeremy Nairn.

A day at Lake Naivasha with our Yabus Team

On Tuesday, we piled our whole Yabus team into a van and drove an hour and a half to Lake Naivasha. We've gone here several times as a family and we love it. Before heading on home assignment, we thought it would be great to spend a day of fun and relaxation with all our teammates. The day was perfect. It truly couldn't have been any better!

Asule, Canberra, and Lori on our walk down to the lake.

When we got to the water's edge, the friendly security guard asked us if we'd like to see a large heard of zebra, gazelle, wildebeest, and waterbuck. We of course said yes, and he led us on a fabulous walking safari. This was a first for all of us! Instead of driving in vehicles to see the wildlife, we got to walk and be right there with them (since they're not dangerous animals.) It was amazing and such a great experience for many of our teammates who had never seen those animals in the wild before.

Lunch was a delicious buffet that we ate outside on the beautiful lawn. We all ate so much we had to take an hour "rest" before our next adventure.

After lunch and a nice swim, we took a lovely boatride on the lake and saw lots of hippos and different types of birds.

The highlight of the boat ride for me was when we found a cove in the lake where a bunch of fish eagles lived up in the trees. Our boat driver brought along some fresh fish and after whistling really loudly, he threw the fish into the water near our boat. From 200 meters away, the eagle flew right towards us and snatched up the fish in the nearby water. It was amazing! It all happened so fast and I was so entralled, I didn't get on camera!

These hippos were right near the shore of the lake where our boat docked. We got to stand on the land and watch them as they fought, yawned, and made their deep gutteral noises.

I just had to end with this darling picture of Evan. Our four year old sure has grown up! What a fun day.

Our last days - saying goodbye

As many of you know, we're heading back to the States on our first home assignment this May. So, during the first week of April, we visited with all our friends, saying our goodbyes, and reassuring them that we'll be coming back in 9 months. On April 7th, we flew to Kenya where we'll be for the next month, debriefing our first three years, getting medical check ups, getting some rest, and closing things up on this side before we head back to Columbia, SC.

Eli and Joseph. Joseph works at the Yabus clinic and is the one who stitched Eli's leg when we cut it open so badly last year.

Martina used to work on our compound until she had her baby. She is a sweet lady and her husband attends the secondary school and is a leader in the Mabaan church.

Mary is ever so dear to my heart. Here she is with her three daughters: Loise, Fatna, and Rahab. She has helped me so much in the past year, mostly in her role watching Joshua and the older boys while I taught math at the nearby primary school. She also taught me so much about culture and how to do things in Sudan. I can ask her anything and she answers honestly. I will miss her so much and so will Joshua!

We've known Esther since the day we arrived in Yabus. She cooks for us and has been a faithful friend.

Our Joshua - 20 months old

He loves reading on the potty though we haven't had much success with potty training yet!

I couldn't believe I got this on camera! I found them this way - no joke! This is Hallelujah who we love to call Joshua's wife. Her parents are our colleagues from Nigeria. First thing every morning he wants to get his shoes on so he can go over to her house. They are quite the pair!

Here they are again, tormenting the poor kitty cat.

This is Josh's friend Peter. He lives nearby and is the same age as Joshua. At the graduation celebration meal, Joshua chose to go over and sit and eat with Peter. It was so cute to watch them eating out of the same bowl.

Water is one of Joshua's favorite things. At home, during the heat of the day, I can keep him happy for an hour at least by putting him in a basin of water with some toys. He loves going to the river even more.

Evan's 4th birthday

Even though we were busy preparing for the graduation coming the day after Evan's birthday, we made sure to make it a very special day for him. He got to blow out a candle at every meal and the whole team went down to the river in the afternoon. We took about 30 balloons and blew them up and gave them out to all the kids who joined the fun. Later, when we got home, we enjoyed a yummy cake with lots of sprinkles, thanks to Evan's help!

Our latest family picture

After almost 3 years living in Yabus, Sudan, we packed up our home and flew to Kenya on April 7th. We're taking the next few days to unwind and catch up on some much needed rest.

Graduation - March 18th

Joshua is amazing at greeting people. On the primary school graduation we had hundreds of people on our compound and Joshua happily shook all of their hands!

Here we are: the 4 teachers at the Basic Education Learning Center. From left to right: Lori - science teacher from Wisconsin, USA; Victoria - Social Studies teacher from Nigeria; Asule - English and Bible teacher from Northeast India; Bethany - math teacher from ?

Yep, this was lunch! We killed 2 cows, 2 goats and 1 sheep! It took 5 hours to butcher the animals and cut up all the meat to be cooked for our 400 guests.

Lori and I just had to laugh as we printed off the graduation certificates, filled in the information with calligraphy pens and laminated them. Where did it all happen? On a dirty floor near a solar powered outlet!
On March 18, we graduated 29 students, 27 men and 2 women, from our accelerated primary school. In 3 1/2 years they went through Grade 1-8! It was a BIG day.

The ceremony was supposed to begin at 11 am but since our guest of honor never showed up we finally decided to go ahead and start a little before 2 pm! There were plenty of speeches, special songs, and a lot of loud applause. I even choked back tears a few times.
I have no doubt that God will use these 29 individuals to now lead the country of Sudan in the direction He has.

Faders in Feb.

Let me fill you in on a few details from our past month in Yabus. On February 1, we landed back in Yabus in 104 degree heat with three new teammates: Alexandra from Romania, Peter from Scotland, and Helene from Sudan to teach at the secondary school.

It didn't take long to get back into the Sudan way of life. Eli still has many responsibilites around the compound. One of his main projects these days is building a new office/library to be used by our teammates involved in church discipleship. In his spare time, he continues to teach Chronological Bible stories to the Ganza people on Fridays, play soccer, and keeps improving his Arabic.

This is a meeting Eli had with some of the local Uduk church leaders and SIM's Ganza team. They discussed strategies for reaching the Coma and Ganza tribes with the gospel. Until 2006, these tribes had never heard about Jesus and they're hungry to learn!

This is our 2010 graduating class. Four years ago, these 29 students didn't know their ABC's or how to add 1+1. Now they're writing essays in English, memorizing Scripture in English, and solving simultaneous equations in Math. I know because I'm their math teacher. I've enjoyed teaching them these past 5 months and we're proud to send them out into the world to be salt and light. Also pictured are the other teachers: Lori, Victoria, and Asule. Somehow we have an all-female staff this year!

Eli and I enjoy watching the boys' excitement about being home - they're definitely living in their "element." This picture was taken when we went to Doro, a nearby SIM base, to spend the weekend. The boys played with Caleb and Bethanie, their good friends, we ate some good food (Pizza in the picture) and were encouraged by friends we don't see much during the year.

Testimonies of Attack in Atar, Sudan

On December 31st, 2009, the SIM station of Atar, South Sudan was attacked by Shilluk tribesmen. The SIM station there had been set up first as a center to train Sudanese basic English and then later as a teacher training school. Three SIM related families were there – two Ethiopian and one Nigerian. The following are their testimonies told in their words but edited only for clarity. HEB 8 Jan 2010

Testimony of Getachew Abo and Kelemwa Tilahun
EKHC Missionaries working with SIM in Atar Sudan.
Attack of the SIM Atar Station 31 Dec 2009
It is a great privilege for us to serve as missionaries in the Kingdom of God.
But in the past 44 years of my life – I have never experienced the kind of difficulty that we passed through in the last few days. During our trial we experienced God’s miraculous deliverance from two life threatening dangers.
At 4:30 am last Thursday morning a band of Shilluk tribesmen attacked our SIM compound and the nearby village of Atar. (Atar is in Dinka territory). The first lit fire to the dry grass on our roof. When the fire was burning they began shooting into our house. I counted six bullet holes right in the area of our house where we were sleeping. With the burning grass falling in on top of us (it has fallen off the roof and was blocking our doorway as well) and the shooting all around us – both our lives and the lives of our two daughters were in grave danger. But somehow God protected us and brought miraculous deliverance.
We saw two amazing miracles during that night. First -- our enemies were watching and waiting for us to try and escape the fire. Somehow God blinded their eyes. They could not see us as we ran through the fire toward the only building that was not burning – our nearby toilet. All four of us escaped without being burned or being hit by bullets. But when the flames came into the toilet area we had to flee the second time to a nearby tent. Again no one saw us. We were able to lie flat on the floor of the tent – unseen to our enemy. By this time our enemies were now looking to see what had happened to us. As they searched all around us, we lay very quietly on the floor of the tent. Here again we saw God performing another miracle. If one our children (or the other three small children from another missionary family) had made the slightest noise – even coughing or crying – we would have been found and killed. But God kept them silent until the enemy went away. To us this is a miracle.
The verse that God had given me this past week was from Gen. 15:1 -- "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." During all this trial, God was our shield. He shielded us from both the fire and the bullets. He blinded our enemies so they could not see us, and covered the mouths of our children so they did not cry. He delivered not only us but the other two missionary families who were with us even though we were all marked for death. Just like the children of Israel who were thrown into the furnace of fire – not even the hair of our head was burned. Glory to His Name!
Getachew Abo
Nairobi Kenya
6 January 2010


Testimony of Yacob Aga and Tibarek Wondimu
EKHC Missionaries working with SIM in Atar Sudan.
Attack of the SIM Atar Station 31 Dec 2009
The text which God gave me many years ago and on which my ministry is based comes from God’s promise to Jacob in the Bible (I am also called Yacob). God promised, “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Gen. 28:15
First I would like to praise the Lord for his protection and guidance in the past 39 years of my life. I have been serving the Lord since I was a teenager of 17. In the past 22 years I have worked with both youth and adults in a wide variety of programs -- preaching, Bible teaching, youth sports programs and church planting. Since 2006 I have been an international missionary from Ethiopia but working in Atar, Sudan. My main responsibility has been teaching in the SIM Basic Education Learning Center. In the past few months my we have opened a teacher training school to train Sudanese teachers. I have been an instructor in this school.
At midnight on Dec. 30-31, I needed to go of our house to the nearby toilet shed. When I stepped outside, I could hear strangers moving about our compound. Sensing danger, I came back inside and immediately my wife and I began praying.
At 4:30 am we were suddenly awakened by gun shots being fired into our house. The bullets seemed to be aimed at the closed window -- very near the place where we slept. At the same time our thatched roofed house was ablaze. So my wife and I immediately crawled under our bed and began praying, “Jesus save us…” As the fire burned our roof, the embers began falling in on us we knew we had to get out of our house. But the enemy was outside with their guns! We prayed again. “Lord, Make our enemies blind so they cannot see us.”

When we reached our door – we could look across our compound and saw the two other families of our colleagues standing in their doorway as well. The only place to flee was to the toilet shed. It was built form zinc roofing material and should not burn. We motioned to them and all ran for the toilet at the same time. The mighty hand of our God protected us and we reached safely. One of the other missionaries had been burned badly so he ran for the river. But the rest of us (five adults and five children) hid in the zinc toilet shed.
By now the fire had spread to the fence around our compound. Our fence was made of sticks and grass -- so it was not long before the fire spread to where the toilet shed was. We could feel the heat coming. The only place to go now was into one of the tents that had not burned. All ten of us rushed from the toilet shed into the tent together. Miraculously, no one saw us.
As we lay on the tent floor, my wife looked up and saw two enemy soldiers coming back to see whether we were dead or alive. If we were alive, they would have killed us. But we claimed the promises of God. “When you pass through the waters I will be with you. When you walk through the fire you will not be burned.” The Lord protected us again and we are still alive to tell the story.
After things settled just a little, the Pastor of our local Sudanese church came to see if we were dead or alive. When he found us, we were without clothes or shoes. He and others from the community stood there crying for us and our loss. That day, the Sudanese people of Atar showed us their great love by giving us their own slippers so our feet so we would not be burned or step on thorns. They led us into the center of the village where we sat on the ground. They gathered around us and cried almost the whole day for our loss and theirs – for the enemy had burned many of their huts as they retreated back to their own tribal area.
Even though I have passed through many challenges in my life and ministry, this present experience was by far the most dangerous. As we look back now, we can see that through all this, God was teaching us that in times of trial – we must depend on Him alone.
Yacob Abo
Nairobi Kenya
7 January 2010

Testimony of Ruth and Ubandoma Nabad
EMS Missionaries working with SIM in Atar Sudan.
Attack of the SIM Atar Station 31 Dec 2009
Ruth and Ubandoma Nabad were among the first missionaries from EMS in Nigeria to join the Sudan team. Since 2006, they have worked faithfully at a station called Atar in Southern Sudan. The local people there love them very much and officials have even given them gifts in recognition of their service. The locals have given Ubandoma a Dinka name – “Thon Deng” refers to a very special bull which has red sides and a black design on its back. This bull is known for its hard work and it never tires. This is the story of their ordeal at Atar.
The Scripture that God gave us when we came to Sudan is Psalm 23. “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
Trouble started on November 18th when Shilluk tribesmen attacked a town called Canal – about one hour by boat or three hours by foot from our village. We do not know the reason for the fighting – but it took about two weeks for things to settle down there. The police from our village of Atar were sent both to Canal and to Atar school which is about 30 minutes walk from our compound. This Atar School is the place where our government Commissioner lives.
In the afternoon of December 30th I had been working in my garden. I stayed up late – till about 12:30 midnight working on some reports and pictures in my computer. We had just gotten to sleep when about 2:30; my wife started vomiting from some unknown sickness. I gave her medicine but for some reason, we could not sleep well. Then at about 4: 00 am, we wakened and heard some strangers behind our house. It sounded like they were cocking their guns. Not long after, the shooting started.
When the bullets started flying we don’t even remember how we found ourselves under out bed. Our three children were crying in a nearby room. “Dad! Mom! What is happening?” We called out to them to get under their bed.
It was only then that we realized that the thatched roof above us was on fire. Our roof had plastic under the thatch to keep out rain and bugs. This plastic was suddenly ablaze and the fire spread to all the rooms of our house in seconds. The house filled with smoke. My wife and I crawled to the next room where our children were. Bullets continued flying through our house. By God’s grace, none of us were hit.
I took my wife and children into the kitchen but we could not reach the front door because of the smoke. My computer and our thurya phone were lying on the kitchen table. I took the computer and put it on top of my head to protect me from melting plastic that was raining down on us. My wife got to our water supply and tried to spray the water onto the burning grass above us. She was trying to reduce the smoke so we could find the way to our door. Already she had picked up our passports in her hand.
I went to the door with my computer on my head. The melted plastic dripped down on my left hand and arm burning into my skin. I grabbed our youngest daughter Kezya and was holding her close to my chest with my right hand. Shielding my little girl I unlocked the door. My wife was right behind me pushing the children out the door. When they were all out, I came out last. The whole house was ablaze by now – even the door. As I closed the door and started to move away, it fell on me burning my back.
We moved out into the open compound and ducked into a tent. In just a moment or two, that tent caught fire as well. We came out and saw our fellow missionaries rushing toward the zinc toilet so we followed them. I was the last one to reach the toilet as I was protecting them and wanted to make sure they had reached safety.
Long before this attack, I had talked with the local Sudanese people about what to do in times of attack. They told me that in their culture, enemies will never kill women and children – only men. So I realized that once they had finished burning everything, they would come back to look for the men. If I stayed with my wife and children, they could kill us all. So for that reason, I left them. The fence surrounding our compound was not burning yet so I put my head down and plowed through the fence. The river was not far away so I ran there. Two men from our village were already hiding in the tall grass and so I joined them. They assured me that I had done the right thing and that my wife and children would be safe.
In the meantime, my wife and children were in the zinc toilet shed. Soon the fire reached them and they had to flee again to another tent that had not burned.
After about one hour, when the fighting had died down I heard people crying – because they thought I had been killed in the attack. I came out of the river grass and it was already morning. I met with my children and my wife they are all OK. She was crying because she had not seen me for some time. The local people, however, were comforting her telling her that I must be alive he is somewhere else. I had been embarrassed to show myself because I was only wearing the underwear in which I had been sleeping. Getachew – one of the other missionaries lent me his pants. So everyone was Ok. The Lord had truly been our Shepherd.
Since 2006, when we first went to Sudan, I have kept reading Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd.” During this whole ordeal this Scripture kept coming back to my mind. “Even though I should walk through the valley of death – You are close beside me” (NLT). “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” “Your goodness will follow me all the days of my life.” These words comforted and strengthened me
In retrospect now, I see that what happened to us is not our power but is a miracle of God. We lost everything in the fire. This included personal money, clothes, computer, camera, cook ware and all our books including those of our children and all my theological books. But even though we lost all these things, God gave us our lives. Their guns (they used large caliber shells) were aimed right at my bed where I had been sleeping. It is a miracle of God that we were not all killed. I believe this is because God has something for me to do before calling me home. I have this belief.
9 Jan 2010
Ubandoma Nabad

13 hours until take off!

In less than 13 hours, we'll be heading out the door to board the little plane that will fly us back to our home in Sudan. After almost 2 months away, we're all excited and eager to be back with all our friends. Please pray for safe travels tomorrow, February 1 and please also pray for our family's health. Bethany is just coming down with a flu that's been going around and we're hoping it won't spread through the family. Adjusting back to life in Sudan is hard enough without having to also deal with sickness!

Fun to the very end

We fly back to Sudan on Monday so we're craming as much fun in as possible. On Monday we took the boys to their first movie in a theater. They have a special deal on Mondays called "Monday Madness" and for the price of a regular movie ticket, you also get a soda and hot dog for free. So we took the boys to see the new Chipmunks II movie. Even Joshua sat through the whole thing!

Today we spent the afternoon in the pool.

Isaac did a great job paddling all the way across the pool.

Stan got a ride from school on Friday so he's spending the weekend with us. Tonight we all enjoyed big bowls of ice cream with chocolate cookies.

Joshua sure loves his Uncle Stan. He remembered him right away from Christmas and held his arms up to Stan to hold him.

4 days left

There's a wave of excitement going through our family right now. Since we've been out of Sudan and away from home for almost 2 months, we're all eager to get back. Yesterday we did our big Yabus shopping and filled 2 120-liter barrels with food, school supplies and books for the kids, and other stuff for the next few months in Sudan. Those packed barrels in our living room remind us that we're only going to be here a few more days. What will our next few days look like?
- dinner invitations with friends
- purchasing the last few items on our list
- eating the last few special foods that we'll miss while we're away.

Please pray for us to settle back smoothly into life in Yabus. After almost 2 months away, there will be a thick blanket of dust and many wild creatures living in our house.

Spiritual Life Conference 2010

From January 14-18 we attended SIM Sudan's annual spiritual life conference here in Kenya. We had an amazing speaker come from the States and he really spoke to all of our hearts - lessons about encouraging each other, forgiving and loving one another even when it's toughest, how to handle burn out, and other topics that really apply to our lives. We also really enjoyed a great worship band that came from a church in Tennessee to lead our worship times. It was so refreshing to sing songs in English and with two guitars and drums - so so wonderful!

Our memory/theme verse for the week was 1 Corinthians 15:58 and we reviewed it together every morning. The man with the microphone is Chris Crowder, our Sudan team director.

A team from the States also came to do a children's program for all the kids. Our boys loved it! This day Isaac baked me a loaf of bread and made a homemade flower vase in his class! I think he really enjoyed having a teacher other than his own mother!

This is the group of older kids that were in Isaac's class. Each of these children live in Sudan and their parents are our colleagues. Can you tell how many nationalities are represented in this one picture? Ethiopian, Nigerian, American, and British!

An Interesting Day

Today was a day of firsts. In trying to always be prepared for the unique challenges and difficulties that Sudan offers, we learned how to put in IVs, carry injured or unconcious people, and stitch up wounds. It was a good day.

I remember my first real exposure to blood was in AP Biology when we were required to go to the Kijabe Hospital and observe a surgery. I lasted a literal 2 minutes and sat down for the rest of the surgery in the room next door.

Today went a lot better. The kids enjoyed watching the adults run around, put holes in each other, and sew pigs feet. They even joined in and carried each other around on the stretcher.