Familiar and Changed

Flying over Mundri, I could already see some of the changes that had taken place over the last year and half. There were more tin roofs in town and a lot more organized gardens.  The second thing I noticed is that the main road in Mundri is A LOT worse than when I left.

It is easy to spot the changes, but starting with Bishop who picked us up at the airstrip, I noticed that one thing has definitely not changed, and that is the happy, welcoming greetings of my friends in Mundri.  Even as I sit in my room and write this post, I can hear James Wani's familiar happy laugh across the compound. Some things will never change. =)

Over the next few days I got settled back into daily life in Mundri, greeting friends, slowly remembering Moru and Juba Arabic words and phrases, fixing bikes, making sorghum tortillas, buying food in the market, sweating while biking down the red dirt road, and driving the Land Cruiser or more accurately, stalling multiple times in town on my way to church and developing an audience waiting to see if I would manage to get the car into first gear. In the end a shopkeeper came and parked the car for me.  =)

So many things are familiar, but a lot has also changed.  My role on the team has also changed significantly. And so a new season of life in Mundri starts for me.  It has been such a blessing to step back into friendships that have survived my long absence, particularly at Mundri Secondary School (MSS).  Tomorrow will be my first meeting with the young women who are students at (MSS), so please pray for me as I consider what God would have for our time together each week.