Jesus Calms the Storm

On Saturday mornings Bethany and I hold a club for women who are students at Mundri Secondary School. Typically we play games, tell a Bible story, and do a science experiment each week. I love getting together with these women, and I always have so much fun!

*What happens when you hold a flame under a balloon?*

Two weeks ago I told the story of Jesus calming the storm. I like this story because it shows so clearly the power Jesus has over creation, but I also like it because I identify with the disciples in their unbelief.

I know God and have experienced His faithfulness and loving care for me. Still I don't believe. I don't trust. I have little faith. I am in a season of life when many things are uncertain, and my tendency is to be anxious. I am thankful that Jesus is patient with me when I struggle to believe and trust. There are moments when I wish Jesus would instantly calm my heart the way he calmed the storm, but I praise God for the ways He has worked in my heart slowly as I grow in trusting Him.

This week I am learning the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead which I will tell to the women on Saturday.

Mud

I woke up early on Tuesday morning for our usual 6:30 AM women's prayer and it was already drizzling. It was the first day of computer classes for the staff of Mundri Secondary School, so I was a bit flustered by the rain since the school is a twenty minute bike ride from our compound. When the rain let up, I got on my bike and headed towards the school with a white board strapped to the back of my bike.


It was a smooth bike ride until I had to turn off the main road. The side road was a huge mud pit! I tried to bike through, but after slipping a few times, I decided to just get off my bike and walk the last mile. There were lots of students on the road walking to the nearby primary and secondary schools. One skill I still have not mastered is walking through the mud without getting muddy. Some of students helped me by pointing out the firm paths that I should take, but I was still doing a lot of slipping and sliding. Thankfully I never fell!

I showed up at Mundri Secondary School with my hem six inches deep in mud. I imagine I looked a bit like what Elizabeth Bennet must have looked like when she showed up at Netherfield. If you didn't already know, I'm an Austen fan. =)

Once I got to the school, John was already there teaching his Physics class. He managed to bike the whole way without getting muddy. John got the generator started after about 10 tries. It is a pretty massive generator and difficult to start.


I taught the first group of teachers starting with the basics. It was a fun class, and the teachers are very eager to learn. There is a wide range of previous computer experience ranging from teachers who have never used a computer before to those who have had training in Microsoft Word and Excel. Around lunch time, the generator ran out of fuel. John and I ended up teaching the remaining two groups of teachers computer basics by drawing a computer screen on the white board I brought. We will be teaching all the teachers every Tuesday, so hopefully they will all get more practice actually using the computers next week.

I really appreciate the relationships we have built at Mundri Secondary School. The teachers are great, and I enjoy all the time I get to spend there with the staff and students. To give you an idea of what the student body looks like here are a few statistics. There are 218 students and only 46 of those students are women. All of the full time staff are male. There are 75 students in John's first year Physics class.

Because of the rain that had continued on and off most of the day, Michael came in the Bishop's car to pick me up from the school. I was so thankful for the pickup and not having to walk through the mud which was much worse after the continuing rains. Well after loading by bike on top of the car, Michael realized the car was stuck in the mud. The teachers came running over to give us a push. Somehow in this process I managed to get even more mud all over my legs and skirt and the teachers still looked relatively clean.


We got going, and then after a few meters we were stuck again. The teachers came running over and gave us another push out of the mud and this time the teachers watched as we drove down the road in reverse to make sure we didn't get stuck again.


There is a list of African proverbs on the wall of the BNTC office. At the end of the day I thought of the proverb that says something like "when you pray for rain, you also pray for mud".

Water Tower

Here are two pictures of the current progress on the Hai Salaam water tower. If it doesn't rain Thursday we will start work on the solar panel rack at the site of the borehole.

Praise God!

Anna from the Bundibugyo team came with Kim and me to Okari church a few weeks ago and it happened to be the day that the Sunday school was performing their songs for the church. It was a beautiful morning of children praising God by singing, dancing, and drumming!


After two years of WHM Sudan flying into and out of Mundri, last month we had our first flight that was diverted due to weather. Most of the team piled into our new Land Cruiser, and we headed to Maridi (about a 3 hour drive) to pick up Melissa and send off Scott, Larissa, Kim, Heidi, and Anna. I had never been to Maridi before and being a water engineer, I took the following two pictures of the water taps in Maridi. The top rectangular structure has 20 water taps at the same location! I didn't get to count the taps on the bottom circular structure, but it is an interesting design. Hopefully sometime soon, I will have the chance to go to Maridi to learn about their town water infrastructure. There were even some street lights in Maridi.



After picking up Melissa, we stopped for some lunch which consisted of linya and greens.


There is one type of local green which is very tasty, but also a bit slimy (notice the strings of slime between Acacia's fingers).

We praise God for His provision of the Land Cruiser and for Melissa's presence on our team!

After many weeks of waiting, the truck of supplies we purchased in Uganda finally arrived! It included supplies we needed to continue work on the water project at Hai Salaam. We called the staff of the water office and resumed our work days this week. The tank is now on top of the tower and all the pipe connections to the tank are completed thanks in large part to John who crawled in the rather small tank and worked on top of the water tower platform.


On the truck were also supplies for a solar power system for BNTC. Paul, the principal of BNTC, can now check his email and charge his computer from his office.


There are also lights in one of the classrooms which means the students can study in the evenings. They were so excited that they even sang a song and danced when the lights came on!

We praise God for the supplies that arrived from Uganda that have allowed us to continue work on the water project at Hai Salaam and install lights and power at BNTC. We also praise God for our partnership with the water office, the Hai Salaam community, and the BNTC staff and students.

Everything Sad is Coming Untrue

"From the war torn city streets
To the trash the slum dogs eat
It seems so hard to believe
And meaningless to pray..."

As we walk through the streets of Mundri, it is easy to see brokenness. It's easy to give up and live in a state of hopelessness. If that was the end of the verse, it would be a pretty sad song.

As we welcomed the WEPC team to Mundri, they walked through the streets, the market, and had conversations with young men on the football pitch. At first glance, it's hard to have hope for development with so little infrastructure in place and so much uncertainty in Sudan. It's hard to have hope when the youth are disillusioned with the church and their community leaders. There have been times when I have felt it might be meaningless to pray, when I can't see any glimpses of hope, when I don't see how God could even start to work in a situation. Our eyes can become clouded by sin.


It isn't always easy to see the foretastes of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in Mundri. However, we can boldly share the certain hope we have in Christ! God is at work in Mundri!

The WEPC team was challenged to look for places that the Kingdom is advancing in Mundri. As they prayed and spent time with our Sudanese friends, they saw God at work. If you attend WEPC in Richmond, VA, I hope you have an opportunity to hear from the team in their own words.

I pray that you would all see God at work in your own communities and share this certain hope because everything sad IS coming untrue.

"... But in Rwanda's killing fields
Forgiveness blooms and heals
And the power of love reveals
The Kingdom come today
Everything sad is coming untrue."

~ Everything Sad is Coming Untrue, Pt. 1, Jason Gray

The Month in Pictures

Here are several pictures from the last month. I will write more on my thoughts and prayers from the last few weeks soon, so think of this a preview. =)


DEDICATION

The Archbishop came to Mundri for the dedication of the Bishop's house and our houses at the end of July.




The community planted mango trees on church land which will bless generations to come with good fruit

Women reading scripture at the dedication of the Bishop's house

Archbishop and his wife, Bishop and his wife, along with Reverend Yona and his wife whose generosity is an encouragement and a blessing to the community

SAFARI

I headed back to Uganda for some errands and to go on safari with our interns, Jordan, Phil and John. We were joined by several members of the Bundibugyo team and their intern, Anna. It was a great time of fellowship, and we got to see a lion!



On the roof rack of the Land Cruiser

WEPC

A team of six men, one woman, and one 12 year old boy from my home church in Richmond, VA came to Mundri for a week. They were a deep encouragement to our team and we are very grateful!



Computers up and running at Mundri Secondary School thanks to the WEPC team


The whole team from WEPC with me at the Hai Salaam water project site


The incredible blessing of having a friend from Richmond experience Mundri with me

Gold and Gray

One of my favorite times of day in Sudan is the evening time when the sun is low in the sky but still bright, and everything the sun touches glows warm golden tones.


The night before the dedication of the Bishop's house and our houses, we had some strange weather. First, there was a bright rainbow that came out behind our house after a hard rain. Second, the sun came out casting golden light on our house while the sky was still dark gray on the opposite horizon line. Third, the wind picked up and we had some crazy clouds moving quickly across the sky. One cloud in particular was very low and looked like a wave rolling on itself or a small water fall in a steam.


The pictures don't quite capture what we all saw that evening. It was strange and beautiful. Our whole team was outside watching the sky change minute by minute.

Pictures from Mundri

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks in Mundri.


Kids watching the water office staff work during yield tests at the BNTC borehole.


The completed first tap for the Hai Salaam water project.


Michael teaching the water office staff how to weld.

The water tower was successfully raised.

Training the water office staff on pump curves.

The rehabilitation of a room on the secondary school campus to house the generator for the computer lab is nearly complete.

The Woman at the Well

Today Bethany and I started our journey with Bible storying!

Well really our journey started about a month ago in Greece when we both attended a workshop on Bible storying at the WHM conference. We got excited about the possibility of using Bible storying at the Girl's Club we have been holding on Saturdays at Mundri Secondary School.

After talking and praying, we decided to try it out the first week of the Girl's Club. I was so thankful for all the materials that a fellow WHM missionary shared with us at the conference! Really we would not have been able to have our first Bible story lesson so soon otherwise.

We choose the Samaritan Woman for our first Bible story, which fit right in to my water themed week. =)


Over the last week, Bethany and I have been taking turns reading the story to each other. After we both had the basics down, Bethany practiced telling me the story since she was the primary speaker this week. Learning to tell a Bible story orally was harder than I expected.

The story of the woman at the well is a story we were both very familiar with, but after reading the story slowly and deliberately several times, we were both struck by new things in the Samaritan woman's story.


I was again reminded of the grace and patience Jesus has for sinners like me who just don't get it sometimes. My favorite line in this story is when the Samaritan woman replies to Jesus "Sir, you don't have a bucket and this well is very deep. Where would You get this living water?" It made me smile every time Bethany said it.

Today there were only two girls at Girl's Club because of some early morning rain. It was a wonderful chance to interact more personally with these girls who are S1 students and new to Mundri Secondary School. I really enjoyed watching them listen and respond to Bethany as she told the story of the Samaritan woman. The girls picked up on the story so quickly, even though it was told in English which is not their first language. In fact is isn't even their second language. They were learning the story faster than Bethany and I had, and English is our first language.

We are going to continue with Bible storying during our time with the girls on Saturday, and I'm excited to see God at work through His stories being told orally.

Next week, God willing, I will be telling the story of the healing of the paralytic.

An Abundance of Water

Water was the theme of the last week for me in Mundri. I guess that isn't unusual seeing as I am a water engineer. =)

Hai Salaam

Day one of work for the water project meant doing some testing on the borehole which is located in the Hai Salaam community.


We tested the yield and measured the drawdown. With a bucket and a stopwatch in hand we were expecting that after a few hours of pumping we would see the flow rate go down, but it didn't. At the end of the day we were surprised to find that the yield was even higher than we expected!


With the pump running powered by solar panels and a generator during different portions of our testing, people lined up with their jerry cans for water. It was a welcome break from the hard work of pumping water by hand for women and children in the Hai Salaam community.


Children watched eagerly as we did our work.

Later in the week Michael and I walked around the Hai Salaam community with Kenneth from the water office and our GPS in hand. We took a second look at the locations for taps and the water tower that will be built for the water project and talked about future expansion possibilities for the project considering the high yield of the borehole. Later we stopped to sit and talk at the local church in the Hai Salaam community which is named Mili Zakaria after Kenneth's grandfather. I am continually impressed by communities in Mundri that gather together to support one another and work for community development, and Hai Salaam is a wonderful example. I am thankful for the partnership we have with this community and the local water office.

Bishop Ngalamu Theological College (BNTC)

This week we also found out that God has provided funds to install a similar water project for BNTC through a church in Australia! With this news we set out for the BNTC borehole to do the same testing that we had done just a few days earlier at Hai Salaam. The yield at BNTC turned out to be very high as well, which means this system will be able to expand as the college rebuilds.

As we worked along side the local water technicians this week, I was encouraged by their eagerness to learn about yield tests and system design. I am looking forward to the continuing training we will be doing as the water project continues over the summer.


Praise God for an abundance of water!