Greetings,
I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year; it’s been a while since my last post and a lot has been happening. Christmas in South Sudan was an experience I’ll never forget, it was odd not to be around family and be in shorts, but I had a good time with everyone out here. Two bulls were slaughtered over the holidays, so I got to eat meat for the first time in a while, which was nice, but nothing on dad’s sirloin steaks. Whenever a cow is killed all the villagers come down, so plenty of people turned up to church on Christmas day in anticipation of some free grub. However no cow was killed for Christmas this year, one was killed for the meeting of the village men, where they discussed village matters. It came as a surprise to me that they ruled girls must now be 18 before they marry, I hope they will be able to keep the law. Meanwhile the other bull was to celebrate the arrival of Chuck and Shelly Parker from America who will be staying here indefinitely. Chuck is a doctor, engineer and pastor and Shelly is a nurse. They have both brought new energy to the mission here and I believe they will be a big force in reviving the church.
In more recent news the Secondary School opened two weeks ago and out of maybe 65 students only 8 turned up! Because both the headmaster and deputy were having problems getting back I had been left responsible for opening the school and was uncertain what to do. After talking with a couple of older teachers I found out that it’s apparently normal for African schools to take a couple of weeks to fill up again. In the end I decided just to carry on teaching and will let the other students catch up when they get back (and dish out a few detentions at the same time). However, after two weeks of teaching I can sympathize with those students who are taking their time coming back; the dry season heat makes you so fatigued that paying attention to me probably isn’t the easiest or most enjoyable task in the world.
Now that it is dry season, we haven’t seen rain in over a month, which means that all of our water has to be pumped at the “bore holes.” To make the heat even worse, the villagers are still burning down the mountainsides out of their spiritual beliefs. This now means that the valley in which we live is like a basin full of dusty air and makes things somewhat unpleasant. Apparently 50 years ago there was a lake and wildlife in the valley, however due to the villager’s activities it is now turning baron. With the mountains burning, wildlife is starting to descend to the compound, especially snakes. Around New Years Eve there was an 8ft black cobra on the compound, which was killed by our watchmen Angelo, who under the influence of alcohol fearlessly attacked the writhing snake (which had been shot with an ak-47) with his spear from close range. Whilst the problem of Alcohol abuse is a big one in the village in this instance I was grateful for Angelo’s Heroism.
The fires have also meant that a lot of crop has been burnt and many villagers are now depending on UN supplies. One bush fire hit Steve’s farm with flames reaching 20ft. Thankfully all of the village men rushed out in what was a moving effort to stop the fire, they succeeded with only a small amount of crop being destroyed. Attempting to stop the fire was a scary business and at times I was just running away whilst the local were running in and whacking the fire with branches, which was the only way to stop it.
Steven has now left for a break in South Africa with his family and will return before I leave. He also allowed me to move into his house whilst he is away, which means I now have a fridge, which is a blessing when the temperature is getting over 40 degrees. I also have a new housemate called Holger who is a German eye surgeon. Having watched two of his operations and helped out a little, I can definitely say I wouldn’t be able to do what he does. The skill he has in cutting open the eye (with his diamond knife) and removing the lens to replace it with a new one was very impressive and at times looked like something out of a horror movie. It was an eye opening experience.
The bible studies on Sunday and Monday are going well. I believe that a couple of the guys are really interested, I pray that God would fill them with a desire to know him and also that more guys might come along to the studies. The school devotion talks are also going well, to start the school of we have primarily been preaching what the gospel is all about and students seem to be attentive when I am speaking, but the rest lies in God’s hands and theirs.
Whilst much is going well out here, I find that as I am approaching the last few months of my time I grow stressed and tired at times. I see these times of hardship as a chance to grow in my faith, but still struggle at times. I would ask that you might pray that I could be strengthened and might finish my time here leaving the ring fighting as strong as I entered. What I will say however is that my time out here has shown me how incredibly blessed I am and appreciative of the fact that I don’t deserve any of the gifts I have in sight of the sinner I am. What a great God we have. Before I came out here, I would rarely speak so frankly of God’s goodness with atheists and agnostics, but I now see that to not do so whether out of shame or fear is to do nothing less than not love your neighbor. If you are not a Christian and reading this, you have to appreciate that Christians, however odd they appear at times preach their gospel to others because they care for others, it is those people who are not prepared to talk frankly with you that you ought to be wary of. I pray that you might find the God I delight in, because words can’t describe what living with him is like.
I plan on teaching for the next 6 weeks or so and then Steve will return and Dr. Hopper will arrive shortly after him giving me an opportunity to go on medical outreaches again, which I’m excited about. I will either write again in 4 weeks or if there is nothing interesting to write about 6.
Blessings,
Yours in Christ,
Chris
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| pumping water |
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| thrashing the harvest |
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| Angelo and the snake |
