American Girl!

Hello All! So, for about one month I've been back in America. I wasnt able to give a proper notice that I was leaving South Sudan, because 5 days before I was supposed to fly home, I discovered I had a bacterial gut infection. Those are no fun. Praise God I was finally able to hold down solid foods the night before my big 20hr flight home. When I got home, I was comepletely out of it for a good few weeks. I'm still trying to adjust to American life. So sadly, I'm no longer "Rockin' it in Rumbek". But I want to thank you all for all of your prayers and support.

It's In English!

So, for quite a while my blog has been all in Arabic, and I have not been able to navigate it whatsover. However, I am now in Nairobi and hope to have some long over-due blogs up shortly :-)

So, I Basically Love Living in Africa.....

So alot of people ask me "What's it like living in Africa? What is your typical day like?" And really, the only answer I can give is "There are no words to describe what it's like living in Africa, and you really don't know what each day holds." For example...



Yesterday (that is Friday), I rode my bike over to the Rumbek Youth Union in the morning to teach our Women's English class. That day, we learned very valuable vocabulary, such as vomit, diarrhea and so on. Afterwards the manager of the Youth Union persuaded me to stay for lunch, which ended up being green slimy stuff with chunks of "meat" (and meat is a relative term here). Praise the Lord, he is faithful and helped through lunch, and made me thankful that we were even able to have meat. So anyways, we finish lunch and I have green slimy stuff all on my fingers (because we don't use utensils here) so I walk over to the water bucket with a spicket to wash my hands. As I stood there waiting for my turn, a hawk come swooping down from behind and bites/claws (not too sure which one) my green slimy fingers thinking they were food!! I was terrified/amazed by the whole ordeal.

And that is why I love living in Africa. The End.

Women's Bible Study, Take Two

So this morning we had our women’s bible study, and it was so exciting, I had to blog about it immediately. The past few weeks have been a little difficult when it came to bible study time, because our friend who has been translating for us has been M.I.A. So we have been trying to teach the ladies ourselves in Dinka the bible stories. While the ladies absolutely loved that we were trying to learn their language and wanted to teach them these stories, it was extremely challenging for them to learn from us. One lady, Mary Agum, is the pastor’s wife and has basically stepped up to be a tremendous leader in the bible study. So, Whitney and I prepared the story that we wanted to teach, translated it ourselves into Dinka, and then met with Mary Agum on Tuesday evening. Mary came with her husband, Maleth, who knows a little bit of English, and we taught her the story of Cain and Abel, so that she can teach the ladies the story in the morning. We showed up in the morning, and Mary had everything rolling! We thought she had already started telling the Cain and Abel story, but soon realized she had just finished reviewing over all the stories that we have learned to far to make sure everyone still knew them! She then proceeded to tell the story, and did so beautifully! Watching the ladies, I could see that they understood what she was saying, and were learning! She then made the ladies break up into three groups so they can tell the story among each other, and then later had one lady from each group tell the whole group the story of Cain and Abel! Praise the Lord! It was so good to see these ladies learning the word of God, discussing it, and teaching each other. Please continue to pray for these ladies, and that God continues to give them a desire to learn more about Him.

Women's Bible Study

So I wrote this blog a month ago and just realized that I forgot to post it. oops, sorry about that. But like they say, better late the never aye?

So my teammate Whitney and I have started a women’s bible study at the small church that we’ve been attending. It has been so cool seeing how God’s hand is the one that is completely guiding this study. We were blown away the first day with a great group of ladies ready and excited to learn God’s word. Nothing went according to our plan, which was good because they were our plans not God’s. In the end, that first day many ladies heard about Jesus for the first time! Praise the Lord! One lady in particular, Rosa Rial, is seeking the Lord like crazy! It was amazing to see her wrestle with the Word of God and ask questions and desire to know more. So all in all, the first bible study was a big success, Praise the LORD!

The next bible study however, was more of a challenge. Our friend John Puot, a Dinka Baptist pastor that goes to the Rumbek Secondary School was not able to come to the bible study to help us translate. So Whitney and I prayed and prayed that God would provide a translator for us or grant us with the gift of tongues (specifically the Dinka tongue). So it was the night before the bible study, and there was no translator and it was my turn to teach the story. Looks like it’s gonna be the gifts of tongues.

So that night, I prepared to teach them the story of the woman who was bleeding for 12 years and was healed because in faith she reached out to touch Christ’s clothes…. In Dinka. Now although I have been in Sudan for about 8 months now, my Dinka is not quite up to the level of teaching. So Praise the LORD, for He is faithful. The ladies were able to tell the story back to me and to each other. It also really solidified our relationship with them.

Please be praying that God is stirring in their hearts and giving them a desire to worship Him only. And please also be praying that Whitney and I are constantly walking in His Spirit and seeking His guidance in how to lead His precious sheep so that He is glorified.

Ok, So I Hit a Cow

So, about a week after I returned from my leave in Nairobi, Kenya my partner (in Sudan, not life) Jamie and I piled into our sweet land cruiser for a quick day trip to the village of Akot. Our mission was to seek the counsel of three Dinka Baptist pastors on the matter of our Christmas play. We were driving along, and all of a sudden we hit 9 am traffic. Now this kind of traffic is very different than the kind everywhere else. See, the Dinkas are big cattle people, pastoralists if you may, and figured “Hey, why don’t we drive our cattle on this nice big road every morning and every afternoon?” And so 9 am traffic and 5 pm traffic means trying to get through herds of 200+ cows. So we manage to get through 2 big herds of cattle and only had one last small one to go. As the last cow was following her fellow heifers out of the way, I almost gave a sigh of relief until that last cow decided, “Wait, I don’t want to follow my fellow heifers”. BAM!! The cow caught the corner of our vehicle.
We then spent the rest of the morning, and a good chunk of the afternoon, stuck in a police shack negotiating. Since cows are basically the currency here, I was in big trouble. The cow owner, began to demand $1,500 U.S. dollars for breaking two ribs of his cow. But, God is faithful, and sent our friend John who happens to be a Baptist pastor to help us.
At one point, I was stuck in the police shack by myself with about 7 Dinka policemen, and decided to practice my Dinka. After using about every Dinka word and phrase I could think of, I began to recite bible verses that I had memorized in Dinka. After messing up John 3:16, I brought out my Dinka New Testaments to say it correctly. One of the policemen then grabbed my bible, and started reading the rest of John chapter 3 to all the people in the shack! Praise the Lord!
The funny part of the story is that according to the policemen, the reason why I hit the cow was because I was “…Wearing the sunglasses, and so you could not see the cow in front of you. And that is why you hit the cow. You are a very bad girl” In the end, everything got sorted and we were finally able to go home.

Moral of the story: Don’t wear the sunglasses or else you might hit a cow.

Random Ponderings

So the other day, I was trying to think deep thoughts and meditate as I sat outside on the beautiful, soft grass of Kenya. However, I kept getting distracted by this ridiculous bumble bee that was hanging around me, and when I say “hanging” I literally mean hanging. For some odd reason, this bee refused to use his wings and was maybe also blind. For a good fifteen minutes, I watched this bee crawl up blades of grass, run out of grass to crawl up, but still tried to get higher and higher, until he eventually fell back to the ground landing on his back with his feet fluttering as if he was surprised. After doing this more than a dozen times, I was astonished at how dense this bee was. Didn’t he realize that God gifted him with a pair of wings that can take him higher than any blade of grass could ever take him? And then it made me think of how many times I try to accomplish things completely by my own power while neglecting the gifts that God has given me. No matter how hard I try, I always look foolish grasping for the grass that is not there, when I could be flying through the sky. Just as that bee finally realized he could use his wings, please be praying that I also continue, or even begin, to use the gifts that God has blessed me with to do his work.