Sudan Partnership Weblog

It’s been a crazy ride the past few weeks. Today I was reminded that Jesus came into the mess to bring redemption and in that we may have hope.

We found things in Magwi were a mess when we went up last month. The rains have started, so things are muddy and the holes in the roads are becoming deep ponds. But that was just a glimpse of the mess. Relationships among the 5 men we’ve been working with had broken down and the work had come to a halt. We were pleased, though, to find two brick and grass thatched huts standing on the property which had been all bush when we left in April. Jeff and I slept in one of the huts but the men had not finished the roof so when it rained we got a little damp. Perhaps because one of the guys mismanaged the money, there were no windows or doors either. The good thing, though, was that the thatch which was in place kept the hut cool in the daytime.

We also discovered that one of the men has taken a second wife so now has a wife and children in Adjumani and another with him in Magwi. His Magwi wife is soon to deliver their first child together. The others do not seem to have confronted the issue so the church is suffering perhaps from this and from other issues with their focus.

When we finally figured out what was going on, we decided we needed to step back from the mess and have been trying to process where things stand and what we need to do. We also discovered we need to develop a constitution to be legal with the government so our Nongovernmental Status as SudanVenture will be authentic. Jeff is working on that now.

We have been in Kampala for the past week for mission meetings. Now we are preparing to return to Adjumani and plan to go to Magwi later this month. We so need wisdom and discernment as we return to the mess. I was reminded this morning that Jesus faced the mess. In fact, for this he died. And with his death and resurrection there is promised redemption in messes such as this. We certainly need that hope.

On another note, Esther Miller and Derin and Andra Williams left us last Wednesday to return to the USA. Our community will greatly miss them especially as we go back to Adjumani. Jeff and I also will miss our colleague, Connie Jarlsberg, who’s been a great friend and exceptional help (with medical advice and as our field leader) over the years. She had her farewell party this past Sunday and leaves the Uganda field June 10th. Our prayers are with them all as they face big transitions in their lives.

The missions conference in Kenya is past history now. Our travel went well as did the meetings there. The young folks spent a lot of afternoons in the sand and surf while Jeff and I spent a lot of time escaping the heat and humidity in the wonderful air conditioned hotel room. Just goes to show we are getting old.

Nonetheless, we have shifted gears back to ministry. We are enjoying our newest short term community memebers, Darren and Andra Williams, from Rick and Fayes’ home community. Rick and Darren are working on projects building chicken coops from local materials and a fruit drier which went into commission today drying mangoes which are abundant from the trees in our own compound.

Yesterday Faye, Andra, Jaclyn, Esther, and I went to Uderu Baptist Church which is located in the far reaches of Adjumani District. You would almost think you had come to the ends of the earth because of its remoteness. We arrived to find many people in the church awaiting our coming. It proved to be a very rich time of sharing about valuing each individual member of the body and recognizing the giftedness of those ministering to each other in the church. Some of the gifts we identified among them were the gifts of teaching, administration, helps, hospitality, mercy and wisdom. This church has only been in existence 4 years so it is wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit is developing them. In this particular church many of the men joined us for the day and insisted we have a Q & A time so we dealt with issues that are very pertanent to them about people backsliding into witchcraft and what I perceive to be adultry though they spoke of it as men taking a second wife.

Today we shifted gears again in preparing to leave for Sudan tomorrow. We hope to spend a full week this time with the purpose of bringing more focus to the ministry attempting to define some boundaries to the work. We’ve felt rather scattered and unfocused in the last trips as there is much to see and learn before knowing how to start working. This will be Esther’s last trip with us as she returns to Oregon the end of April. In February she left sewing materials with 5 women so we want to see how they are handling the project as it was laid out for them and encourage them to become a catalyst to bringing other women into the project. We also want to invest time in simply getting to know them and encourage them so we plan to invite them to our camp site for tea one day and then hopefully to join them in cooking dinner one night for their families and the 4 of us. Jeff will be attempting to spend a couple of days just in dialogue and training with the 5 guys, husbands of the 5 women, who are on staff with our NGO SudanVenture to try to get on the same page with one another. It’s challenging as they have a lot of ideas which require money we don’t have so Jeff needs a lot of patience. Rick, Faye, Darren and Andra will remain in Adjumani and continue ministry here while the rest of us are in Sudan.

I find I am far from excited about another Sudan adventure. The past few trips have been far more adventure than I could easily handle emotionally. So I would appreciate lots of prayer that we’ll have a smooth trip without a lot of excitement such as sleeping in the bush due to car troubles and broken bridge experiences. I am encouraged, though, that one of the guys is meeting us in Nimule and will travel back to Magwi with us. I always like having one of them accompany us as it comforts me greatly. FYI we’ll be away from April 10-18th.

I haven’t found words or energy to write lately. It seems my mind is a bit scrambled not conducive to writing since coming from Sudan. A lot is going on, nonetheless. I just cannot seem to put thoughts and words together to communicate it all. It is time, it seems, to get away for a little while. We all will be traveling to Kenya next week for an East Africa Renewal Conference meeting with other World Venture missionaries from East Africa. So we will be out of Adjumani from March 22 until the first week in April. When we return the Meyer’s friends, Darrin and Andra, from their home community in Portland will join us for a month. So our Adjumani Imago Dei Community will swell to 8 people. Thankfully, our mission is allowing us to rent a vehicle for the month.

I find myself struggling with my emotions a lot. Maybe it is because I am so tired. But I was encouraged this week as I was reading Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience in the Same Direction these words:

Shalom, “peace,” is one of the richest words in the Bible. You can no more define it by looking up its meaning in the dictionary than you can define a person by his or her social securtiy number. It gathers all aspects of wholeness that result from God’s will being completed in us. It is the work of God that, when complete, releases streams of living water in us and pulsates with eternal life. Every time Jesus healed, forgave or called someone, we have a demonstration of shalom.

And shalvah, “prosperity.” It has nothing to do with insurance policies or large bank accounts or stockpiles of weapons. The root meaning is leisure–the relaxed stance of one who knows that everything is all right because God is over us, with us and for us in Jesus Christ. It is the security of being at home in a history that has a cross at its center. It is the leisure of the person who knows that every moment of our existence is at the disposal of God, lived under the mercy of God.

Worship intiates and extended, daily participation in peace and prosperity so that we share in our daily rounds what God initiates and continues in Jesus Christ.

So as we go to church Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, I wish you all shalom and shalvah!

There were many positive things about this recent trip to Magwi, Sudan Feb. 25-March 1. Our journey there was uneventful which is always positive here in this part of the world. We were warmly welcomed and given a piece of land for building the SudanVenture Resource Center. The land is about 3 kilometers from the town center and is totally undeveloped at this point. It consists of about 4 acres of wilderness. Our Acholi team, Franco, Okot, Otema, Okeny and Oringa had dug a latrine and cut down trees and bush to make a rough road into the property and cleared areas for tents and a cooking area so we could set up our camp on the land for the week. The first full day there was spent in putting up our 2 tents, finishing the temporary latrine and bathing area putting up posts with tarps to lend us some privacy.

The rest of the time, except for one morning dealing with 2 flat tires, were spent with meeting village chiefs and communities along with the county administrator or walking to town to visit the wives of the Acholi team. Esther brought crochet thread and hooks to encourage the 5 wives, Irene, Santa, Helen, Gloria and Mary to begin a small project making items to sell. Four of the five wives were present and each immediately launched into crocheting items for their babies or to sell. It was great to see their enthusiasm.

Visiting two villages further down the road from the Resource Center site proved to be a highlight of the trip but also was heart rending as the depravation of people returning to their home areas was so evident. There is little clean water available and people are very hungry as they have not yet been able to get their gardens established this being the dry season. However, I believe people were encouraged as Jeff, Franco, Esther, Jaclyn and the county administrator Mr. Okello Johnson took time to sit and listen to their plight.

Jeff also took time to make three trips to another village to transport grass thatch for roofing the houses the team members are building for their families. By Saturday March 1st, Jeff, I and Esther were thoroughly exhausted and ready to return to our base in Adjumani, although it was hard to leave knowing there is so much to do. Franco and the team are continuing development of the land clearing about 500 small trees and they hope to fence 2 sides of the property and build 2 huts for our use when we return. Our next Sudan journey has to wait until April as we will be traveling to Kenya this month for a WorldVenture East Africa Renewal Conference. We hope to get new tires for the pick up as the ones we are using are shot plus we need to have the whole vehicle checked over after the shaking up on the rough roads. The new vehicle is still just a prayer.

One incident on the way back to Adjumani will remain forever in our memories and may haunt our dreams. We were about 2 hours out from Nimule crossing the longest bridge over one of the bigger rivers. It has always been a bit scary as there are loose boards laid across metal beams and often some of the boards are broken or missing. The noise as vehicles traverse those loose boards is appalling. As we approached the bridge we could see a good section of the boards had been splintered and destroyed by heavy transport trucks and buses using the route which goes to Juba. Jeff told us all to get out of the truck and said I should guide him so he could at least keep the tires on the supporting metal beams which were exposed with lots of space showing the long drop to the rive below. But as I pointed at the beam and he maneuvered the truck the metal under the right front tire collapsed under the weight of the vehicle dropping about a foot below the next beam. People started mobbing the vehicle all giving Jeff advice. So Jeff found an army officer who seemed to be in charge of the bridge. They got a bunch of guys to lift the front end of the pick up as Jeff reversed to get the wheels up on solid beams. Then Jeff was able to get around the broken beam and drive the rest of the way across the bridge as Esther, I and Jaclyn gingerly tiptoed across the open spaces on narrow pieces of metal to reach the other side of the bridge. YIKES! I really needed time to collect my head after that whole escapade. We managed to reach the border before it closed for the night and were safely back in Adjumani by 8 p.m. with grateful hearts. Esther said she kept dreaming that night of falling through the bridge. Word is that repairs will begin this week on all the bridges between the border and Juba. PRAY it is true!

We reached home/Adjumani safely after a looooooooooong eleven hour road trip from Kampala. My body still hurts from the rough roads. But we were warmly received by Rick, Faye and Esther, and our new community member, Jaclyn, is a gem! I love her already. She uttered not one word of complaint on yesterday’s trek even though she must have felt like a sardine in a can. As usual, our vehicle was packed to overflowing with everything for the next Sudan trip and just stuff to make our community life here more homey. Plus we had a Ugandan passenger and his baggage and stopped in Gulu to get 200 kg. of beans, rice and flour for a pastor’s wedding feast to be held here in Adjumani next weekend.

It was almost comical that we stopped on one stretch of lonely road after leaving Gulu, as a big truck was broken down and the guy was flagging us down. His request was that we take another guy down the road and across a bridge to an army bivouac so he could go get food for the night as they were surely going to spend the night in the bush. We asked where would he ride and he very happily climbed to the very top of the vehicle and sat on the roof of the cab as I tried to drive more carefully than ever so as to deliver him all in one piece to his destination. I would not have done it but, of course, Jeff thinks nothing of such things and always wants to help if he can.

So we are home for about a week before we make our next trip into Sudan. We finally have some contact with people there through another organization letting our guys e-mail through their service and computer. We were informed there are 3 pieces of land to choose from. So that will be great if we can actually get the land and start the process of establishing a base there and then begin building infrastructure for our community and the resource center.

We’ve not been able to get the new vehicle yet as the price keeps going up plus the situation at the port and on the roads in Kenya has stifled the plan to bring it in that way. In the meantime, our current vehicle has seen 6 years of hard use. Another piece broke off the suspension on the front right wheel on the journey from Kampala. There is a stretch of tarmac we call the moon where the incident happened. Jeff feels he can repair it but it just seems things are very challenging with the vehicle. Pray for us as we continue to use it in our travels here.

Thanks for praying. It was a very difficult week with all of us sick. Thank God we are now on the mend.

Jeff and I will travel to Kampala tomorrow, Feb. 11th, as our newest community member, Jaclyn Konzal, will be arriving Wednesday, Feb. 13th. Jaclyn is coming from North Carolina with a heart for people who have been affected by war and deprivation. She is coming into a community of strangers as none of us have met before. I think perhaps she must be as nervous as I am because of the fact.

I am realizing that we all have come into this community with hopes and expectations and certainly some misunderstanding of what it would look like. The realities here often look very different than many of the ideas we all came with and I personally feel God revealing areas of brokenness in my life in light of those realities and my own stuff. In that process, I am being stretched and deeply challenged. I find I have to continually push back against the darkness in my own soul which wants to either isolate or to run. I am so very grateful that God is speaking into all of this even though it is very painful at times. Today God gave Jeff and me this word from Isaiah 30:15 “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.” It seems to be calling me to a posture of surrender of my fears, failures and disappointments.

This week Rick, Faye and Esther will be remaining in Adjumani while Jeff and I go to Kampala to meet Jaclyn and to restock supplies. The Meyers and Esther are very comfortable staying here and will be a welcoming community as we bring Jaclyn on Friday.

Also this week, God willing, Faye and Esther will be connecting with the Madi Baptist Women’s Leader, Margaret Alumai, to discuss how we can get involved in building relationships with Ugandan Madi women in the Baptist churches in the area. It is amazing how difficult this is. People in the villages have no e-mail nor phones so most everything takes days to organize, even this simple meeting with Margaret.

Reality has set in after a very hard week in Sudan. Two of our members have malaria with vomiting or dysentery. Two others of us have had stomach problems and feel weak and beat up. Personally, I am battling a sense of hopelessness after being in that craziness with hundreds of people being dumped back in the bush and all scrabbling for means to simply survive. There is a lot of drunkenness among men and women there as they battle their own sense of hopelessness. The reality of it is too big for my mind and heart.

Reality in Magwi was that, with no communication to prepare the way, we found the government and community leaders all involved in a week long reconciliation seminar aimed at dealing with serious conflicts involving murders between Acholi clans which need to be resolved as people return to their land and communities. Due to the seminar we were unable to accomplish the business of finding a piece of land (the purpose of our visit) for the beginnings of ministry there; Jeff was, however, able to meet briefly with some key leaders with our request for land.

It is hard to think of returning later this month for another week in the mess there. We need supernatural wissdom, strength and courage.

Here in Northern Uganda we find ourselves thanking God for blessings like water, electricity, gas for cooking and fuel for our vehicle. When we left Adjumani 2 weeks ago there was no city water so no running water to our home. We monitored the situation during the 2 weeks we were away for meetings and the arrival of Esther Miller from the USA. As we left Kampala Monday to return to Adjumani, service had not yet been restored. But our gatekeeper, Ijjo Sunday, called when we were 2 hours from Adjumani to inform us that water service had been restored and our Crestank was filled. We each enjoyed a good shower at the end of our dusty journey. Maybe you heard our hearty Hallelujahs!

Yesterday, our first day back, we met with Ochira Franco, the Sudanese leader of the church plant in Magwe. He and 4 other leaders are now anxious to begin repatriating their families to their home area Magwe. Franco came with a request for funds for transport and food that they may begin the process. At first we were hesitant to hand them over $400 which they requested. How can I explain what it all means. As we sat with Franco asking questions to get a better understanding of all that is involved in moving and resettling, our hearts were captured. The 5 men desire to return ahead of the hundreds, thousands of other refugees so they can prepare the way for their wives and babies. When they arrive they have to get land and clear trees and bush that has been growing for over 20 years. They have to start cutting grass for thatch and make mud brick for their simple houses living in makeshift shelters in the meantime. They have to begin preparing the land for cultivation so it will be ready to plant when rains begin in February. We were a little put off because these guys requested help for 5 couples. We could envision helping one or two but five!? Why were they not waiting for the UN’s resettlement program? As we sat with Franco we heard how the 5 young men had been together from childhood in the refugee camps and how together they will seek to begin the hard tasks of reclaiming their land and community. If they wait for the UN’s process they fear there will be no grass available for roofing. We asked what they would do if we only helped 2 or 3 of them and Franco replied the 5 of them would struggle with the little we could give them. That kind of solidarity spoke to us of strength as they are committed to one another and helping each other survive and build. This is COMMUNITY! Four are young married men with babies; one is resettling with his widowed mother. It is moving to see their hope and courage in pursuing their dream of living in their homeland as well as being instruments of peace and restoration.

As we sit here thanking God for our comforts of running water and electricity, it seems now a very small thing we can do to help these young families with transport and a little food as they do a pioneering work where running water and electricity are only a dream. And with these few words I realize I fail to communicate the depths of the struggle ahead for hundreds of thousands of Sudanese beginning to return to their land after 20 years exile. We are grateful that we have a little extra money to give them a headstart on their way. They will need a God sized portion of strength and courage for the road ahead of them. I must say it is AN IMMENSE PRIVILEGE to be here to walk with some of them on that journey. Jeff, Esther and I plan to travel to Magwi later this month to sit with the community and church there to listen, to pray, and to encourage, to be the Imago Dei (image of God) together with Franco and his brothers in that great story of God’s redeeming work in Sudan.