It's time to worship with the church in South Sudan!

       A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.  I woke up with first 2 lines of this song in my head and it's a great reminder that God is our fortress and he will never fail us (but I do wish I remembered the rest of the song).  Today started with breakfast of champions, Mundri bread and eggs cooked by our sweet hostesses, and I think that we all chose the option of taking in a little hot tea so that we could have some help from the caffeine to get us going.  We split into 3 different groups today to worship with the church in South Sudan.  John and I worshipped with the church at Okarri where John delivered the message and I extended a greeting from Philippians 1

After services this morning, we joined back together at the compound for lunch and the men went out under the mango tree to teach whomever would come.

A picture from the worship service on Sunday morning

Archbishop interpreted the message that John taught at the service on Sunday

Later in the afternoon, we got word that the commissioner was on his way.  Because of this, we all went out to meet him and spend some time with him.  He and his friends spoke to us about things that were changing within South Sudan and mentioned several things that simply broke the hearts of some of us (including that they want to build bigger buildings and no longer have big trees, the women should teach their wives to be good housewives, God is very rich and doesn't want us to just minister to the poor, He wants to make us very rich too, and he said that all world religions are basically the same).  WELL......if they wanted Bethany and me to teach their wives how to be "good housewives," I think that the WRONG people are here!!  I am over 30 and have never been married.....I can tell them what I've seen, but I have no references (even in scripture) for how to be a housewife - I'm pretty sure that the Proverbs 31 woman wasn't a housewife, since she worked with her hands, invested in land, and made sure that her family was nurtured.  But, back the commissioners comments, I mention them mainly to ask that you please pray for both the leadership and the people in the County of Mundri that they would be infected with the true Gospel of salvation through Christ Jesus alone.  And that they would see the purpose of glorifying God's great name among the nations!  Pray that they would see in scripture that it's not about gaining worldly wealth, building taller buildings, and bringing more wealth to South Sudan.  Pray that God would open their eyes that there is only 1 way to salvation and that all world religions are not alike.  Pray also that they will realize that God will give them a new love for ministering to the poor, not simply taking them out of their circumstances for the sake of giving them more material possessions.  There was also some talk of American politics and what is going wrong in America.....why some don't support Obama.  Jeffries later told us that most people in Africa see Obama as a hero, but can't state any heroic qualifications when they are asked.  They don't understand why a lot of people in the states don't like him as the president and they only site racial bias as the reason.  What an unfortunate line of thinking.

The message I came away with today is that we have things so messed up in America and the image that we portray to the rest of the world of our so-called "Christian nation" is a bunch of falsehoods that only serve to make us feel better for a short time.  Some other key things to note from today include:

-Archbishop has renamed me again - I'm now Lohassa!!  What in the world?  But, John seems to want to call me Louise.....I wonder how many names I'll have before we leave.  I'll probably just start answering to anything that I hear and say "sorry" when I realize that it's not really me that they want....hahaha.

-Archbishop has also told me to get ready because there will be much practice in learning African dancing by driving up and down the roads on the way from Mundri to the villages.  I just wish that my friends that I spent time in India with last September were here to re-live this with me.  Leslie, David, and Jessica would love it.....and Corey and Brian have already lived it here in South Sudan.