Thankful Hands

I am so thankful for our Thanksgiving celebration!

Jomima, Mary, and Silivia who all attend Mundri Secondary School joined us in giving thanks to God. I love laughing with these women!

The day started with James and John killing the turkey we bought a few weeks ago in Juba. I will spare you the pictures of the turkey while it was being prepared.

The final product was truly a thing of beauty and it tasted fabulous!

We had a true feast! Many of the foods we served are available locally, but are prepared differently. I was truly thankful for pumpkin, which is currently in season in Mundri. I was also thankful for cranberry sauce which came from America thanks to Linda and Ginny!


After dinner we took a break from eating before serving the desserts. We took that time to write 5 things we are thankful for on each of the fingers of the construction paper hands.

Collectively we thank God for...

Family and friends in Sudan and in America
The Thanksgiving feast
Cool nights and rain
Every living creature
Gumboots
Pumpkins
God's patience
Safety
Games including Bananagrams, Dutch Blitz, and Settlers of Catan
Singing and laughing
Paradoxes of the Kingdom of God
The gift of life
Flowers
Coffee
God's provision
Knowledge
Jesus Christ who died on a cross for our sins
Beauty in Nature
Peace
Cold showers
God's blessings
Hope
Skype
For the opportunity to study at a school
Differences in people and cultures around the world
A stable marriage at home
Music
God's love for us all

I Asked the Lord that I Might Grow

We sang this hymn last night during our half night of prayer. The lyrics have been running through my mind all morning.

“I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow”
by John Newton

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.

’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“’Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

Importance of Rest

Living in Sudan over the past year and half, I have grown to see the importance of rest. I am not talking about just physical rest and sleep. After over four months in Mundri, needed emotional and spiritual rest beyond my usual weekly patterns of rest. My thoughts were always scattered and anxiety was building in my heart. It was becoming more difficult to love people and show grace to others as I was increasingly impatient and judgmental. It is so easy for me to fall into patterns of unbelief when things are so crazy in my mind and heart that I am not spending good times in relationship with God.

Praise God because he provided for me to go to Arua, Uganda for a week or spiritual renewal and rest. I spent the week at the beautiful home of a missionary couple we know well. I read books, prayed, journaled, took naps, and had good conversations with Heather and David. At the end of the week, I was ready and excited to get back to Mundri.

Things are in full swing here in Mundri. We are celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow with many of our Sudanese friends. The kitchen will be a flurry of activity as we take turns using our one small oven until we serve the food. Saturday we will be gathering with many members of the Hai Salaam community and the water office staff for prayers and to dedicate the water project in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Sudanese friends are registering to vote in the referendum at locations all around Mundri. We may even be replacing the hand pump at Bishop Ngalamu Theological College with a solar powered submersible pump this Friday. John has been working hard with a team of Sudanese men to get this project completed.

Looking at the calendar today, I was struck by the fact that I will be leaving Sudan in less than six weeks. This also means that the referendum for independence is scheduled to happen in about seven weeks. Please pray for peace and justice in Sudan. Pray for us as we celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with our Sudanese friends.

If you are looking for a book to read over the holiday season, here are few books I have read since I arrived in Sudan that I would recommend.

When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett
King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
What is the What by Dave Eggers
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Water!

Yesterday we installed the solar panels and the submersible pump at Hai Salaama. Today we are heading back to fix some leaks and install the float switch. Check out these pictures from yesterday!

Everyone posing with the submersible pump (except for John who took this picture)

Putting in the submersible pump

Water flowing!

Fixing leaks in the late afternoon

Some of the kids that we watching us work

A jerrycan for every size person =)

TCKs

Our team is going to miss the three Masso children dearly as they are heading back to the US for the next seven months.

Gaby is just so cute, and he knows it.

Even when Gaby puts on his Jedi fighting face, he is still cute!

Liana is wearing a dress she designed and sewed herself.
She even taught me how to sew last year.

I love these two pictures of Acacia.
The first captures her natural smile and warmth.
She didn't know I was taking the picture. =)

This is her classic awkward face as she wonders why I am taking a picture of her swinging.

There are five TCKs (Third Culture Kids) on our team. The three Masso kids have spent most of the lives in Africa. Gaby even calls himself African American since he is an American born and raised in Africa. Last night as we celebrated the Masso as a team, we were playing a game that required everyone to answer questions written by other team mates. One question read "What is your favorite African English word or phrase?". Acacia answered that she can't tell the difference between African English and American English which makes complete sense for her.

It isn't uncommon to find TCKs living and working overseas as adults. Larissa and I are also TCKs in different ways. I have a unique connection with my friends that are also TCKs. I could ramble on more about TCKs, but that isn't the point of this post.

The Masso children are returning to America for the first time in three years. Pray for these three wonderful little people as they go back to a country that their parents call home.

Group Photo!

Above is a picture of Bethany and me on Saturday with women from the secondary school after I told the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. You can see some of Bible storying tapestry behind us. We also did a physics experiment using a piece of string, a straw, some tape, and a few balloons. I really enjoy doing hands-on activities with these women.



Here is another group photo from the last week of John, Phil, and me with the men on staff at the water office after completing the solar panel rack for the Hai Salaam water project. You can make out the structure which is painted silver behind us. It looks simple, but it required a few days of cutting angle irons, welding, etc.

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.