A Welcome from the Pastors

We have now been here 3 days and to our great surprise, because we came on a weekend, we had some time to ease into our responsibilities.  Every time we talk about starting on some of the tasks that we will be working on, Suzy has given us a grin accompanied by “enjoy your rest while you can because tomorrow we are going to work you hard”.  All talk of work stops at that point.

We woke up to sounds of barn animals and far into the day the rooster kept crowing.  The group soon split in half between those who wanted a longer morning and those who wanted to go to the cattle action at 7:30.  The group that went came back with pictures of the cows that we were named after.  One of the great gifts here is our new cow names, for you can only get them here in Sudan.

Church followed breakfast and the white people sang rounds of Humble Thyself with the Dinka people.  We sounded pretty good!  Stacy commented that even though she came before they didn’t have a church service while here.  She was really happy to be part of this one and excited about the prospect of this being her church body for the next year.

We went to the market after lunch where there was no getting around how different we were.  The Dinkas are friendly and our hands were shaken by many strangers.  Tim and Alicia got traditional Sudanese outfits but the rest of us just stared clothing that would not be too out of place in America.  It is funny how there is so much polyester in a place this hot!  The hard thing was the many reminders of our foreign state in this far land for instance they butchered the cow in the meat market that morning and a mangy dog was still roaming for an unattended piece, a woman danced in front of us putting her arms out blocking our way until paid, and a unclothed child followed and hung on us and cried when we left.  There are situations in this world that you will come to that nothing can prepare you for but the Lord’s strength is sufficient to give grace in all situations.  We are finding these everyday.

The evening cooled down and we got yet another wonderful meal which I would compare to chili over white rice.  Some of the compound workers played volleyball and the medical clinic jobs got passed out.  We are 
all ready for the busy week to start.  I know that once it does it will soon be the weekend and that our time here will be almost up.  We just got here but I already feel 2 1/2 weeks are not enough time for us in Sudan.

Signing off- Tiffany McKeighen