Today was really nice. We started a women’s bible study in the church and I taught on “The Call to Prayer”. After the teaching we had a time of praying for the women and it was very special. A few tears were flowing and I really felt I connected with them.
1st Week in Sudan!
What a crazy few days we’ve had. We left Nairobi early on Tuesday, where 9 of us flew into Tonj. Sabet and Jim Ennis were waiting for us at the airstrip. It was a weird feeling arriving after being gone for 2 years. In some ways it seems like yesterday that I was here and in other ways it feels like eternity. Definitely my greatest moment so far was meeting Sabet’s Mum and Dad for the first time, especially his Mum, who moved from the capital Khartoum to Tonj since I was here last.
While the Gamboa family was with us we focused on the shoe distribution that the kids at their school raised money to do. It was a special time on Wednesday giving shoes out to kids in a remote village. And later we went to one of the lepers colonies where I saw some old friends and even a deaf boy that I hadn’t seen in years. He’s now taller than me! He used to come and do odd jobs for us and we would feed him and take care of him. His mother is one of the lepers and had trouble cooking etc. Now he’s a young man. After the Gamboa’s left we moved out of the bedroom our family uses as the grass roof is failing and is full of rats that kept me awake at night. We’re now in two small rooms and trying to get organized with school. We’ve been eating fresh Papaya from our trees everyday and enjoying a slower paced life. Even the new cell phone service has had no connection for the past 2 days. Yesterday we woke to Jed having a few itchy spots and by the end of the day he was covered and has chickenpox! Hannah is still struggling with her cough also. Both the kids are enjoying having their cousins to play with.
Beth Arrived!
Saturday October 18th 2008
Jim and Sabet are really enjoying the CC conference. I’ve been busy getting the truck and planes ready for Sudan. Beth arrived tonight from California and will go into Sudan with me and the kids on Tuesday. She’ll be there 3 weeks serving in our medical clinic.
Athi River!
Thursday October 16th 2008
We drove 2 hours out of Nairobi to visit a friend who built a house from mud, similar to the old cob method in England or Adobe in America. It was quite a trek as they were fixing the road and the dust was unbelievable, we could hardly see where we were going. But it was worth the hair-raising drive, as we entered their property we saw wild giraffe eating the tree tops and gazelles bouncing along the road. The kids were immediately excited and forgot about the horrendous journey to get there.
The house was absolutely gorgeous and gave us a lot of ideas for Sudan. Like us, they don’t have running water, electricity or a phone. And the design of their house was breathtaking. We are having 3 guys coming out of Sudan to train and learn how to build using this method.
We left there and went straight to the airport to pick up Jim (one of our board members) and 2 others coming to Kenya to teach at the Calvary Chapel East Africa pastors conference. Jim will go into Sudan with Sabet on Monday.
Jed’s Birthday!!
This last week has been super crazy with unpacking boxes and packing a 5 ton truck and two 1 ton airplanes and collecting three individual groups arriving and planning for everyone to go to Sudan. Just to add to the craziness we celebrated Jed’s 4th b-day also!! So I apologize that I haven’t had the time to get on the tinternet and update our blog. But here it is for the last few days, starting with Jed’s birthday.
Wednesday October 15th 2008
All Jed wanted was a “rocket spaceship” birthday party and we managed to pull it off. We invited old and new friends to celebrate with us. Sabet was a great sport as one of the games involved the kids throwing water balloons at him! I made Jed’s Spaceship cake and it came out pretty good. We were thankful the rain stayed away for a day and it was the perfect weather for an outdoor party.