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!

African Women

(A photo of the batik I have hanging in my room)

Moringa

I planted over 30 moringa trees a little over a week ago, and 8 have already come up!

Welcome Interns!

The interns arrived safely and with all their luggage! Phil, John, and Jordan moved into their room yesterday which they are calling "The Bachelor Pad". This morning they are already at work assembling their bikes. Please pray for these men as they transition into life in Mundri.

Thursday the interns will join us in starting the work on the water project in partnership with the water office staff and the community. Please join us in praying for the water project.

• For wisdom as we continue with the water project
• For our relationships with the water office staff and community
• For good communication especially with many cultural and language differences
• For safety in all the work we do this summer
• That God would provide a good translator for the training of the water office staff who is able to understand and communicate engineering and technical concepts
  

The Blessings of Rain

It was a long and hot dry season, but God has brought the rain to Mundri! We returned to a lush, green town. People are out in their gardens digging and planting and we are no exception. Larissa and Scott are hard at work planting fruits, vegetables, flowers, and experimenting to see what will grow in Mundri. Even Liana has her own small garden. Saturday I planted two rows of Moringa trees. I love the taste of Moringa leaves, and it won't be too long before the trees provide some shade. Even the Moringa seeds can be used for water treatment.

Seeing everything growing around me, I realized that in some ways my spiritual life has mirrored the weather in Mundri. During the dry season, I was weary, tired, and spiritually dry. In God's providence, I then had the opportunity to travel in Europe and be blessed by nice hot showers, comfortable beds, and great food. As the rains started in Mundri, God placed people in my life to pour into me. I had wonderful conversations at the WHM conference with older women who have walked through many desserts and seen God faithful through them all. I was encouraged by other single women serving God in Europe in a completely different context, but facing similar struggles. I laughed a lot with new friends and connected with friends from my sending church in Richmond.

I was even blessed by wonderful conversations with Larissa. I have lived with Larissa for over a year now in tight quarters in Sudan, but during the dry season we hadn't been connecting or encouraging each other in the same ways we had during the last rainy season. Especially after we moved to the new land with more personal space, we each in certain ways retreated to our new spaces.

I came alive as the World Music Mission team poured into us through their worship, especially when they sang "Did you Feel the Mountains Tremble", a song that meant a lot to me after singing it in worship with hundreds of other college students so many times at the CCO Jubilee conferences.

When I returned to Mundri I was greeted with exuberance by friends at the secondary school and the water office. I am so happy to be back home in Mundri, and I am praying for the rains to continue to bless the land and for God to continue to pour into my heart.

As a team, I think we have all noticed that the scripture verses that talk about the blessings of shade, shelter, and rain mean so much more to us now. And I can identify a whole lot more with Jonah's response when God took away his shade plant.

Isaiah 32:1-2 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

"When you think your well has run dry and you send it down for one last try and you raise it up to find it full the overflow so beautiful..." - Jason Gray, When the Stars Fall from the Sky

Spain, Portugal, and Greece

It had been over a year since I had seen my parents, when I met them in Madrid. We spent two weeks touring Spain and Portugal by bus with a group of people from around the world, a funny and knowledgeable tour guide, and a driver that got us through narrow streets that I probably couldn't drive my old Civic through.



I was immediately struck by all the intricate decorations on buildings and statues. Sudan is recovering from decades of civil war and new buildings are built strong so they will last, but with little artistic expression.



We saw many cities, but my favorites were Granada and Salamanca. I got to spend a perfect sunny afternoon walking through the gardens and buildings of the Alhambra. That evening I met up with a friend from Richmond who now lives in Granada. We had a great dinner and even better conversation.


From Madrid I flew to Athens and spent a day seeing the sights before heading to the WHM conference. After two weeks of traveling, never spending more than two nights in one city, I was ready to settle down in one place for seven days.

When I arrived at the WHM conference, I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of people who were ready to talk. People knew who I was and had been reading my blog, but I had no idea who they were. After the initial wave of people subsided, I was incredibly blessed great conversations throughout the week.

In the places where I was feeling empty and weary, I was encouraged and blessed with words of hope and truth.

In the places where I had begun to serve more a development worker and the Gospel had become peripheral, I was challenged and convicted.

The best part of the WHM conference for me personally was worshiping with hundreds of people who love God. As our voices sang out lyrics of praise, hope and truth, I felt that we believed the lyrics and were claiming those truths for the nations. As the conference ended we sand the doxology and tears started streaming down my face. It was truly beautiful.

PRAYER REQUEST:

In Greece I met new friends, had great conversations, laughed, swam, and enjoyed lots of salad (with feta of course). For me personally though, the two weeks in Spain and Portugal followed by the WHM conference was a lot of people time. I am currently still in Uganda, but before I get on a plane to Sudan, I am taking a prayer day. Please pray for me over the next two days as I spend time in the word and in prayer. Pray for good times of processing the last four months in Sudan and processing all the things God showed me during the WHM conference.

Praise God!

God has provided in unexpected and amazing ways! We now have all the funding for the summer water project and the computer lab that I mentioned in a previous blog post and in my last prayer letter. Thank you to all of you who have been partnering with us in prayer.