Feeling the Balance

A few months ago I felt very overwhelmed with everything on my plate. In addition to homeschooling my preschooler, 1st and 2nd grader and keeping our house running, I taught a few classes at the college and did a math revision class for a month for students off campus. It was too much.

One morning I was writing in my prayer journal and knew the Lord was telling me to lighten my load and re-focus on my home ministry, especially giving my best to the boys' schooling. It has been such a good change! I'm so thankful I heard the Lord's gentle voice - I am experiencing such joy and contentment in this season.

I have been doing more reading on parenting lately and am again encouraged about this GRAND TASK of raising these little men. In the last month that I've stepped back and balanced my life a little more, I'm already reaping some great benefits. One of them being some precious moments in Scripture with my boys and seeing them grasp Truth. Another, seeing them get more and more into reading.

Marriage "Buzz"

      On Sunday Eli preached a fantastic sermon on marriage using Scripture passages from both Ephesians 5 and Genesis 2. Though the sound system decided not to work that Sunday, the whole congregation was all ears for his entire sermon. Why? Eli was giving them encouraging  and challenging words about something close to their hearts - their marriage.
      Not only did many come up and thank him after the service but his sermon has been the "talk of the town" this week. I've already had 2 very good conversations with some of the student wives regarding things Eli talked about and also what we had discussed in the women's conference last week. It is so encouraging to hear these women talk about what God says our marriages should be like. It would be easy to talk about the cultural differences in marriage but it is so refreshing instead to focus on what the Bible says about marriage and how wives and husbands should treat one another.
    This week God has reminded me that our lives spent here in South Sudan are a daily sowing of seeds. Seeds that God will water and grow in His perfect time.

Getting back into Melut life

It's always interesting to me how it takes some time to get back into normal life again after being in Kenya for a break. Of course this time around, circumstances were even more complicated by the sudden passing of our dear colleague, Philip Eisa, but as we cling to the Lord each day, we're slowly getting our feet back under us.

Some of the highlights of our first weeks back have been:
1. The beginning of the rainy season. Everyone on campus has been out digging and planting their gardens including our boys. This year they've joined their friends to plant their very own garden. They are planting maize, okra and onions. :)

2. Another highlight has been getting back into home school. OK, highlight for me, maybe not for the boys. :) Since we had just moved into our new house 2 weeks before we went on R&R in Kenya, we finally put up some posters, maps, multiplication tables and set up a real classroom!

3. Eli's birthday rolled around on June 6th and it was a joy to celebrate with our Melut team.

4. I always enjoy seeing Eli relax since he works so hard. I bought him a hammock for his birthday this year and he's already putting it to great use!

5. Last week our teammate Claire Meckler, finished up a great First Aid course she's been teaching to the student wives on campus. The grand finale was a presentation of their very own fully stocked first aid kits. They were ecstatic.

6. Q-Tip, our cat, was very relieved to have us home after a very lonely month. He is now making up for lost time with many hugs and cuddles.

7. Our first Saturday back, we went into town to have breakfast: Sudanese chai (tea) with zalabia (doughnuts). It's sure good to be back!

Principal Philip's Funeral

Last Monday most of Gideon Theological College's students and many people who loved Philip piled into a bus and 13 missionaries squeezed into a landcruiser to travel the 4 hours to a small village called Dangagi in Mabaan county, South Sudan. We traveled to Dangagi to attend a special funeral service for our beloved friend and Principal of GTC, Rev. Philip Eisa, who passed away very suddenly on May 21. Dangagi was his home town.

 

Philip's service was held on Tuesday, May 28, a week after his death. That morning we arrived in the village around 10:30 am. David Heska, our SIM Melut teammate, arranged the flowers on Philip's brand new grave stone.

 

At 11 am the service began. Chairs were set up under several large shade trees. The service lasted 6 hours until shortly after 5 pm. Many people gave speeches honoring Philip's life and character. We sang in different languages and shed many tears.

During this particular song people came forward to cry for Philip as they sang in his native tongue, Mabaan. It was overwhelming as almost 1000 people cried and wailed for our loss.

One of GTC's students, Andrew Nita, encouraged everyone in prayer and with words from Scripture.
He was a great help to Lydia, Philip's wife and their 5 children since he too is from the same tribe.

This was just one of the sad, grieving faces

Eli represented Gideon Theological and gave a speech in Arabic honoring Philip and the great man and leader he was.

Philip's wife, Lydia, is in the black covering and her son, Jif is there on the right. PLEASE PRAY for this precious family who are now without a husband/father!

After the service we were fed a giant feast. The GTC students and staff sat together. Though it was a very difficult day emotionally, it provided some good closure for us, especially since we weren't here for his death. Seeing his grave and officially having his service made it more real. Please pray for our family as we grieve his loss and pray that the board of our college will be able to find an outstanding Sudanese Christian man to be our new Principal.

Please also pray for our college students as we resume classes again tomorrow, Monday, June 3rd. They will be doing a 2 week intensive class on the Psalms which we believe is very providential.

A HUGE loss

We were very shocked and saddened yesterday to hear the news from Melut, that our dear friend and colleague, Rev. Philipa Eisa, Principal of Gideon Theological College in Melut, passed away suddenly. He was teaching a morning class and collapsed.
     Thankfully we were already scheduled to fly back to Melut on Thursday so we will arrive tomorrow and then on Friday travel to Mabaan county where Philip's family has taken his body for burial. We are grateful that soon we will be back together with our GTC family and able to grieve together with them.
     Please pray for Philip's wife Lydia, and their 5 children. And please pray for all who knew him as we each process this grief.

Weeding in his garden last August

Philip was a great teacher, father, and friend.

We will deeply deeply miss you Brother!

A Very Special R&R so far

As many of you know, we left South Sudan at the end of April to come to Kenya for a break. We met up with Eli's parents in Nairobi and flew to Mombasa, a beautiful beach on the Indian ocean! We spent 6 wonderful days together swimming, snorkeling, building sand castles, walking on the sand bars, exploring tide pools and eating lots of good food!

These were such happy times for all of us!

Don't we look relaxed?

We took a glass bottom boat out near the reef to snorkel and the boys found all these starfish in the tide pools. They gathered them into one place for the picture and then put them back.

 

 When we returned from the coast, Eli's 2 brothers and sister joined us! Jason and Caleb were passing through on their way back from a ministry trip to Burundi (in E. Africa) and Alyssa didn't want to miss out on a family gathering so she and our 9-year old nephew Jordan, joined us!

To have some quality time together, we drove 2 hours out of the city to Lake Naivasha and spent 3 beautiful days together catching up, seeing beautiful scenery and wild animals, and being so encouraged by one another.

At the lodge where we stayed

Isaac and his cousin Jordan on a boat ride to see hippos and explore an island full of wildlife.

A Change of Pace

The day before we left Melut, the boys caught their best catch of fish ever!

Then they had a big fish fry with all their friends. One of their mamas offered to fry it all up for them.

There was space in the back of the caravan plane so the boys played with their friend Rachel on the flight to Nairobi, Kenya

On our way we spent the night in a town called Lokichoggio which is on the border of Kenya and South Sudan
We got to eat burgers, fries and ice cream for supper! This is what we call, "initiation to R&R"!

On our first trip to the grocery store the boys picked out these gigantic lollipops that will take all week to eat!
We are so excited to have a month away to rest and be refreshed before heading back in May.

A Large Lamb Feast

Evan welcomes the 2 sheep and goat that Eli bought in the market for the big occassion.

Butchering and cutting the meat was the men's job

The women began by chopping almost 2 buckets of onions!

This was my first time to clean sheep stomach - lovely!

Karen and Monica made delicious kebab

Cheya (fried meat)

Viola and Claire baked bread together

At 4 pm all the men gathered on our new veranda for tea and coffee

Amie and her girls decked out in lawas (traditional dress)

We had a lovely program thanking the Lord for the completion of 3 new houses

Eli shared a few words

Isaac got to do the drumming

After the program we walked over to each house to pray and commit them to the Lord. This is our house - we moved in a week ago.

Then the women got busy serving up the food

Quite a team effort!

Yohanna, one of our students, with a tray full of delicious food

Everyone really enjoyed the food

Providence played a game with the girls

It was a very full day of work but such a joy to celebrate with our GTC family all the amazing work the Lord has been doing on our campus in recent months. Glory to God!