Saturday - we FINALLY were able to get started doing what we came for!

Buagyi (sorry - it's a bit long; a LOT happened)

This morning, we were up and ready at our usual time to have breakfast at 7:30 and to be ready to leave the center at 8:00.  We actually left around 8:15 and started on the road to Buagyi - we were originally planning to visit this village on a different day, but given the events of yesterday, we had to shift our plans as we knew that we could get to Buagyi without too much trouble.  The ride there still had enough adventure with the treacherous places in the road and it seemed as if more and more drivers were being risky in trying to cross the muddy areas.  At one point, Agustina, our driver, asked us to all get out of the vehicle so that it would be a little lighter as he tried to cross the muddy road and then we would walk across and hop back in the truck and be on our way on the other side.  We were able to get some text messages out to friends and family to ask them to pray for no rain for the next few days due to the fact that we know if it rains anymore, we will not be able to get to the villages that we plan to visit because of the additional damage it will do to the roads.

Of course, we had to take advantage of a photo op here!!

As we continued on the way, there were other places that were a little "sketchy" (I think that's the best way to describe it) and we sped through the mud here.  But, if you've ever been driving in some thick, muddy roads, you know how trucks tend to react, so it pulled a little to the right and we almost hit the side of a parked truck that wasn't able to pass.  We would've literally T-boned that truck....we came within about 3-inches of hitting it.  So, to try and lighten the situation a little, as Agustina was backing up to go around the truck, Bethany and I began to sing "Hakuna Matata - it means no worries....." (I think my dad would be so proud that these words came out of my mouth since he tells me that all the time!!).

We arrived at the village around 10:45 and got settled in and met the Pastor, Chief, the ladies that Bethany and I would be spending time with and a few other people who were there.  The community health worker, Darius, was there and was our interpreter during the day.

Once all of the greetings were exchanged and those there had met our whole team, we each went into our classrooms to begin doing what we came here to do.  Don was in 1 classroom and was getting a map of the village to see where all the clans are located in relation to the significant landmarks (borehole, market, school, etc....).  Jack was in another classroom teaching the pastors and church leaders that were present Romans 1-8.

The ladies that came to talk to us in Buagyi

Once Bethany and I got settled, we moved right into the malaria teaching and Bethany did a great job leading this part.  The ladies seemed to enjoy hearing that, although they said that they knew most of it already.  Repetition is key here, though, so it never hurts to say the same thing several times and several ways to reinforce the importance of the point.  One of the things that we made certain we did was ask them if they had any questions about the information that we presented and they did.  I was excited that they spoke up to ask them, too.....even though we didn't necessarily have great answers for them.  One of the questions was how to get rid of/control mosquitoes in/around the latrines in the village.  Our best advice was "just go really fast," but, of course they had already thought of that one!  And, they countered it, too, so Darius took over and answered that question for us.  We were quite grateful!  To end the malaria talk, we had a game for them to play to test their knowledge on the information and they really liked that!!

After the game, we moved right into talking about another “sickness” that everyone on the planet suffers from and only 1 can cure!  I led this portion and started off with Genesis 1:26-28 and focused on the creation of man and the perfect relationship with God that was established and how God had already provided for every need even before He placed man on earth.  That was immediately followed with the fall of man found in Genesis 3:6-7 and that led us straight to Romans 3:23-24 to talk about the sufficiency of Christ to overcome sin!  The next topic we discussed was the necessity of faith and we focused on Romans 5:1-5 for this.  Then, I asked them if they were promised tomorrow and some said "yes" while others said "no."  So, we turned to James 4:13-15 to show them that no one is promised another minute and how there is an urgency to submit to Christ and His Lordship before the end of their lives.  They seemed to understand well what we had taught them.  At the end of this teaching, we asked them if they had any questions and the ladies present didn't really have any, but Darius spoke up and asked a few questions that he had.  Here they were:

What a great experience - answering Darius's questions with truth

• He has a friend who is growing weary waiting for the 2nd coming of Jesus and wants to know how to encourage his friend as he waits and looks for Jesus. (we took a quick journey through scripture to find the answer to this one)
• Darius asked if people who go to hell will, after a time, be allowed to come back and rectify their lives?  Or, after a time, will they be allowed to go to heaven? (I pointed him to the story of the rich man and Lazarus to answer this question)
• He asked if the thousand year reign had already begun - For this, we went to Revelation, which led to other questions!!

Every time that he asked a question and we answered it, Darius would interpret the question and the answer for the ladies present to make sure that they also got the knowledge.  During this conversation, too, Darius made some great points about Satan being limited by God's authority.  This was awesome news for us to hear that he understood this concept.  However, he didn't completely understand that bad things can happen to people even if they aren't living in sin - so we took a journey through Job for a little more explanation.  This went on for about 1.5 hours!!  What a great interaction to have today after yesterday having been so frustrating.

When we arrived back at the compound in Mundri, we had a little time to take showers before dinner.  For dinner, we had "greens," rice, and bread.  Don asked Paul (Archbishop of the whole world - please see posts from November 2011 for explanation), "back home, we call these greens, what do you call them?"  Paul answers, "Greens."  Then, he continued, "Agba is our word for green."  So, I chime in and say, "instead of Louanne, which is very hard to say, you can just call me Agba since Green is my last name."  And, so goes the accumulation of names for me in South Sudan!

It didn't rain today!!  YAY!!  However, it was quite hot on the journey to and from the village.

We took a little time to debrief tonight from the day's events and even talk a little about future trips to this area and focus points of those trips.  When we had been doing this for about 20 minutes, the gentleman that was our security at the compound came in and turned off all of the lights to the compound and told us all to be very quiet.  About that time, we heard a gunshot, then another.  He told us that we had needed to turn off all lights so as not to draw any attention to ourselves.  So, there we sat for over an hour in the compound, dark and trying not to talk above a whisper.  Can I tell you that those 60+ minutes were probably 60 of the longest minutes I can ever remember?!?!  During this time, the security guard walked around the premises simply making sure that no one got into the compound where we are. 

After this (it almost felt like time stood still, so I don’t know how long it really was), our security guard came back and told us that all was clear and that the police had found those responsible and arrested them.  He also told us that the soldiers had gone without pay for 3 months now and they received their pay this weekend and some of them came into town and drank too much alcohol and began to shoot their guns in the air.  They finally told us that it was all clear and we were good to go.  We asked if we could use the latrine and they said that we could - then, I'm pretty sure that they were making fun of us when we asked if we could use our flashlights.

Just before going to bed, I told Bethany the one scripture that came so easily to mind was Psalms 46, which reads:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, through its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.  Selah.  Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought us desolations on the earth.  He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.  ‘Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!’ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.  Selah.”  (emphasis added)

That is one thing that this event forced us to do since we have been so eager to complete what's on our schedule and get everything done and He has challenged us each day with something....yesterday was rain; today was misbehaving soldiers.

Tomorrow, we plan to attend worship services at 2 different churches and then will come back to the compound, have lunch and Jack will spend 3-4 hours with the local pastors talking with them about creation and the fall of man and using that to lead him into teaching from Romans 1-8. 

Friday - OH, the adventures that our first full day here brings.....

Today, our plan was to load up in the LandCruiser and head out to Matta - the farthest village from where we are staying in Mundri.  We estimate it should take around 3-ish hours to get there.  Once we started our trip, though, it was easy to see that it was going to be a LONG day (and a LONG week for that matter) because the roads were really washed out due to all of the rain.  If you aren't aware, there are only about 10 miles of paved roads in the young country of South Sudan and they are in the capitol city of Juba.....a little over 100 miles from where we are staying.  So, you guessed it.....7 consecutive days of rain, red dirt/mud road = TRAVELING FRUSTRATION!!

Early on in the trip, Jack made the statement, "just imagine, this is the good road."  Of course, I just couldn't let that go and I had to reply, "I think this is the only road."  And, yep, for where we were coming from and going to, this was our only option!!  Jeffreys actually told us earlier in the day that the worst car accident that they have ever had happened about 5 days prior when 12 people died as their LandCruiser was swept away by the river.  And, if you've never had the privilege of spending much time in one of these LandCruisers, I will testify:

#1 - Toyota makes a mighty fine automobile!!!!

#2 - They aren't afraid to take these things across puddles of water (running or standing)

#3 - These vehicles were able to get us into/out of places where other vehicles were getting stuck pretty badly.

Our trusty transportation for the week!!  You'd be surprised at what this vehicle can go through.....

The road is BLOCKED!

So, as we continued down the road, the conclusion I came to about the rain is that it's GREAT for temperatures (lowers them drastically - if you've ever felt the heat of the Sudanese sun, you'll be able to well sympathize).  BUT, it's BAD for the roads (which means at times, no one can pass in certain places), bad for the crops as this year, they have not survived well due to the increased rain fall, and it brings lots of mosquitoes since they love standing water!  Another story that Jeffreys told us as we were on our way to Matta was that the week before, there were 60 trucks (picture 18-wheelers here) lined up for 4 days because 1 of them was stuck in the muddy road.  We made it to Lui and past 3 of the other villages on the agenda for the week, then a couple of miles later, there we were.....stopped!!  Along with a number of other South Sudanese people who couldn't pass the road here.  Agustina (our driver this year) parked the truck and went to assess the damage as someone had told him just as we were stopping that there was no longer a road up ahead.  What he found, though, was that there remained a road, it simply was impassible at this point because of the number of vehicles that were stuck.  Jeffreys told us that once this truck was pulled out, we will be able to pass and we were determined to make it to this village today.

Just an example of the trucks trying to get through the roads

While we were waiting, a Sargent with the medical corp (Santiago) walked over to our truck and began to talk with Jack.  He told us that he and some others in his unit had been stopped here for 2 days already due to the road conditions and he was trying to get back to work.  Jack began to ask him questions about his faith and salvation.  Santiago told Jack that he does pray twice a day.  So, Jack followed that up with a question about who he prays to and I honestly didn't hear the answer to his question.  But, the next thing I did hear was Jack asking him if he had a personal relationship with Christ and Santiago said that he doesn't.  So, right there, on the side of the Juba Road, Jack was able to share the gospel of Christ with him!  If this is the only reason we came this far to stop, it was totally worth it!!

After about 4 hours in the car, we decided to change our plans for the week and pray that the rain would hold off and that the roads would be pass-able by early next week so that we could try again.  These villages are ~45 miles from the compound and with dry roads, it takes over 2 hours to reach!!

After we got back to the compound and settled down for the evening, we began to have some conversation with Jeffreys.  This man is such an incredible man of God and he's impressively well versed on American politics and history, too.  This is even more amazing since he doesn't even have daily access to the internet (he has to arrange time to visit a local NGO office so that he can check his e-mail).  He told us of research that he'd done on the faith of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and John Adams.  He is convinced, based on what he knows of their lives, that these men were Christians.  He said, though, that there was 1 person he had been researching that he wasn't convinced is a Christian - Thomas Jefferson.  This man is so aware of what happens on the US political scene because, whether people at home know it or not, there has been little assistance given to this very new country by our current administration.

Throughout the day, all I could think of was that God has the power over all wind, waves, and rain and He chose to bring this area this much rain at this time and He also orchestrated our trip from the USA to Mundri, South Sudan and the 5 villages that are part of our agenda.  All I could focus on was Mark 4:36-39:

"And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was.  And other boats were with him.  And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat was already filling.  But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?'  And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Peace! Be still!' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.  He said to them, 'Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?"  And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'"

South Sudan 2012 - yep, we're going back!!

We spent all of the day Tuesday and Wednesday (11-12 September) flying from Birmingham to Entebbe, Uganda (through Detroit and Amsterdam).  We stayed overnight in Entebbe at the Lake Victoria View Guest House and had a "good rest" for the night - all of about 5 hours of sleep!!  It was great not to have to sleep on a plane, though.

On the 1st long flight....to Amsterdam

When we woke up this morning, it was VERY chilly in Uganda!  So chilly that I wish I had brought a coat with me....I wasn't expecting that at all!  Then, we loaded up and hit road to the MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) hanger at Kajjansi Airfield.  This is where we'll be loading up and boarding our 12-passenger plane to get into South Sudan.  Our pilot this trip was Simon (the same guy who took us into Mundri last year).  As we were boarding the small plane, Simon informed us a particular piece of global news that he thought we might want to know about (or maybe he thought we already knew, I'm not sure), but he told us of an attack on the US Embassy in Libya and the death of the US Ambassador there.  There was no other news to report that he was aware of, so we prayed, made the final preparations for take off, and we were officially on our way to Mundri!  Of course, we had to register our exit with Uganda in Arua, Uganda.  The next stop we made was just across the border to drop off 2 other passengers on the plane with us.

One of the benefits of flying in such a small plane is that you never really get up to an incredibly high elevation.  So, you can have a great view of what's going on down below.  As we were flying over Uganda and the southern most parts of South Sudan, I couldn't help that notice that most of their fields look ripe for harvest.  This is the end of the rainy season, so that makes perfect sense that they would be ready.  But, I notice very few people in the field who seem to be bringing in their harvest.  I also took a look around the plane at the 3 other members of my team and couldn't help but think of the spiritual harvest that is also waiting to be sowed and how few people actually brave the challenges of travel that it takes to actually make it into the areas we are going to.  It reminds me so much of Matthew 9:36-38:

Bethany and me while stopped at the Arua airfield

"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.'"

That's EXACTLY why we're here.  We're here to help point the people that we'll interact with during this week to Christ and also to help encourage the workers in the local ministries and churches that are already established there.  The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  As Don (our team leader) pointed out on this plane ride, "you have to really want to come here in order to do it.  It's not an easy place to get in and out of." He's exactly right!!  It's a place with very little resources and almost no conveniences of the western world...the only way there is by small plane that lands on a dirt/grass air strip (there is a road that runs through Juba that will also lead to the border so that you can cross into Uganda, but this still takes a VERY long time).

The White Nile River in South Sudan!

As we continued our flight to Mundri, the closer we got to the town, the more we could see the effects of a particularly harsh rainy season they have experienced.  The rivers were very swollen and overflowing their banks in many places in the country.  Simon, our pilot, had already told us that some roads had been flooded due to the excessive rain, but you don't really grasp what that means until you see it first-hand from the air.  But, from this viewpoint - you can get a very clear picture!

Once we arrived at the Mundri Conference Center, we were taken to meet the acting commissioner of the county where we were staying.  When we arrived back at the center, we were all quite exhausted after having traveled across 8 time zones with only about 6 hours of "good" sleep, so we decided we would "take a rest" (that's what we all call in the US taking a nap).  When we awoke, we were still very tired, so we covered a few logistical items for the day on Friday and then decided we would just all get in bed early.  So, as Bethany and I were in our room, all of a sudden she says to me, "it's only 8:15?"  I replied, "yep," to which she then asked, "you got anything you want to talk about?"  Of course, since we had been together for about 36+ hours traveling and experiencing the same things, I couldn't think of anything else to talk about at the moment, so my speedy reply was, "nope; I'm good.  Thanks!"  Then, we settled in to try and recover a few extra hours of sleep before we had to be ready for breakfast on Friday by 7:30, then ready to leave the compound by 8:00 to make it to our destination.