Update on South Sudan

The Situation
It has been just over six months since fighting broke out in South Sudan.  The numbers are scary.  While we can only estimate right now, it appears over 15,000 people have lost their lives while close to 1 million people have fled the fighting to return to their homelands or taken refuge within the UN camps around the country.  Often people have fled with only what they can carry so imagine the lost businesses and personal possessions.  Schools in the areas of conflict have suspended, travel is dangerous, and food is scarce.  Those who have fled have made grass shelters to give them shade but the rains come this month so many organizations anticipate a sharp increase in disease.

President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar
Leaders of opposing sides of the conflict

The Good News
In early May a peace agreement was signed between the two opposing leaders of the conflict and again on June 10th, they re-affirmed their commitment to peace and gave themselves 60 days to form a transitional government to move the country forward.  Here is the article: Sudan Tribune.
Fighting on the ground has continued but at a much slower pace and intensity.  Hopefully, the main fighting has stopped and the country can move forward in earnest to establish peace.

Gideon Theological College
The school remains closed at this time.  The principal, Kur Deng, has remained at the college but is taking this time to continue his studies doing long distance learning.  Steve and Judi Cochran have continued to live and work on the campus.  Steve is preparing the housing and buildings for when the school opens up again.  The school will most likely remain closed for the rest of the year but we are hopeful to open up again in early 2015.

What Can you do?
Pray that God will give great wisdom to the leaders of South Sudan and those who counsel them as they figure out the next steps.  For you Americans, think of it as 1776 and a new nation is defining who they are and what they want to become.  It is a key time.

Give to Grain for Pain.  This is an organization led by a Christian Southern Sudanese woman that we know from Melut who is helping to meet the needs of those who have fled from the conflict and now are starving from the lack of food.

-Eli

Special Family Time

A Picnic at Lake Murray

Obviously our lives here in the States while on Home Assignment look quite different from our lives while we're in South Sudan. But this year in the States is our season of soaking up as much time with family and friends on this side of the ocean and we are trying to do just that. Eli's sister Alyssa and her family of six came to Columbia, SC last week to spend a few days with us and boy did we maximize our time together!

Bethany playing with her nephew in the lake

The two 5 year old cousins

The whole gang - 7 boys!

Watching World Cup games during lunch

A picnic in the backyard

No Fader reunion is complete without games!

Settling - after many months of moving around

Home school in the sun room

We have now been back in South Carolina for two weeks and we are really enjoying being in one place for a while! The boys seem to appreciate it too. They love having a routine. So we're back to our home school routine every morning and including lots of fun summer activities in the afternoons.

Swimming in the neighborhood pool

Taking bike rides in the neighborhood

Eli was thrilled to be reunited with his motorcycle

Mmmm...fudgesicles on a warm day

Playing in the sprinkler

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a wide range of artful designs and embellishments to choose from.

Road Trip Finished: May 7, 2014

Packed in our van in Greenville Texas before starting our final leg of the journey back to SC

 

As you all know our family took an epic road trip this spring that lasted 67 days, took us through 21 states and covered 11,000 miles! It's very hard to find words to describe what the last two months have been like: wonderful times of reconnecting with friends, being with family, sharing in churches, raising prayer for South Sudan, and seeing so many incredible, historic sites.  We also want to give glory to God for His protection and provision. Not once did we have a "scare" on the road or car trouble of any kind. All along the way God has provided for our every needs, even blessing us with a "peaceful haven", a 2 bedroom condo in Columbia, SC to call home until our renters' lease is up at the end of June and we can move into our very own home. We have been living in transition since we left South Sudan in early December so that is a very long time not to be settled. Thank you Lord for giving us a little bit of normal for now.

Thank you to all of you who have prayed for us on this journey. For those of you we haven't seen yet, don't worry, our adventures in Odyssey (our van) are not over yet! :)

More highlights of this amazing road trip!

Our boys' dream came true and we got to spend a day at Lego Land!

Lots of special time with Audrey, Bethany's sister down at the beach
We had three years of talking to catch up on!

Just this week we visited the Grand Canyon as we drove through Arizona

The work of God's Hands

Our Happy Travelers

This is where we've been the last 3 weeks!

Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota

Special friends in Idaho

We got to see Bethany's 89 year old Grandma

Bethany's uncle and aunt in Olympia WA

Stonehenge near Goldendale WA where we visited Bethany's other grandma

A ride in a 1923 Ford at an auto museum

The Redwoods in CA

We got to Laguna Beach just in time for Easter!

An Easter egg hunt at Aunt Audrey's

So far we've spent every morning at the beach!

Yes the water is freezing!

A whale breeching right by our beach! What a treat! We watched the mama and baby gray whale come up right in front of us for about 10 minutes.

2 dolphins right by our beach too

Evan on a boogie board for the first time

Eli did pretty great too!

We have been so encouraged by all our friends that we've seen along the way. What a gift to get to visit so many on this insane cross-country road trip! The boys are doing well and we are trying to enjoy every special moment with loved ones. Thank you for your prayers!

Day 34

34 days of travel! Phew! Today we drove thru western Montana and into Idaho and it was just beautiful. The scenery took our breath away! We're slowly getting closer to the west coast.

The First Few Days of our April Road trip

Truck Museum in Iowa

What an adventure we are on! On Saturday, March 29, we packed up the apartment in Illinois where we've been staying for the past month and we began our journey. Our first destination was only 2 hours away in a small town called Dixon. There is a wonderful church in Dixon that supports us and we enjoyed spending the weekend with them.

After church on Sunday we decided to drive for a few hours to get a bit of a "head start" on our travels. We found a fun place to stop in Iowa - the world's largest truck stop. And across the street was a Trucking Museum which the boys loved!

For this part of our journey we are staying in motels along the way. Once we reach Montana we will have friends to stay with all along the way for the rest of the journey. Don't the boys look so cozy all snug in a bed together?

There is so much to see in South Dakota

We spent Monday night in a small corn town called Mitchell, South Dakota. The boys were thrilled to find that our hotel had an indoor water slide and mini water park.

Even Josh braved the water slide

Going down on a double inner tube

Isaac

 Today we drove another 4 1/2 hours to Mt. Rushmore. After doing home school in the van (not as easy as I'd expected), and stopping at the famous Wall Drug mini town, we arrived at Mt. Rushmore. The boys were thrilled. Sadly, it was a cold 21 degrees and snowing for part of the day but Mt. Rushmore was beautiful nonetheless.

Great memories in the making!

We enjoyed the cool museum that explained how it was built and we watched a 12 minute movie in the theater that showed its construction.

A picture I will treasure!

Every day has definitely been an adventure. We're all realizing how crazy this is to drive for hours every day, not know what we'll eat for our next meal or what bed we'll sleep in next, but it's been fun. Even when we hit challenges I remind myself that these are memories we'll fondly remember as a family.