A Future, Football, Floods and Feasting

As you walk the first few paces away from the primary school buildings along the narrow dirt trail to Luonyaker, the sound of the children playing in the school quickly starts to fade. The the conversations of the pupils who are escorting you home become the main distraction from the chatter of the scattered birds and the incidental noises of the forest. The red dust trail first leads from home to home and then on into the patchy forest. The pupils track the driest course with some paths still thigh high in water. In the passing homes, you see the harvest displayed to dry, laid out on the handmade mud platforms at the centres of the homesteads. Sorhgum's head of small, brown berries, the yellow of the maize and the small green circles of okra paints a hope-filled pattern beneath the sun. For now, food is more than enough to eat and storing this collection will sustain the family until this time next year. As we walk further, children donate the sugar cane to us that they've acquired along the way. It is too sweet to ask if it was scrumped.

Things To Pray For
A Future
Marol Academy Secondary School will open after the four month holidays on the 1st April 2013. For its pupils, this is the only opportunity for secondary education. Walking over three hours each way, each day, one of the few local church leaders is coming to Marol to gain his first post primary education. Pupils like him make the school worth growing. Yet, for the last two years, the secondary school has been reliant on the sacrificial nurturing of Gordon and Joyce. Please pray that God will provide the next leader(s) to direct the studies at this school at least for the first few months of the next academic year. Marol is a unique environment and not a predictable calling. Yet, God has provided again and again for this school. There is a real need to start asking God to provide once more. Please also ask God if you know anyone he might be asking to serve here.

Football
As the ground slightly slopes away to the school from the teachers' tukals (thatched huts) and you wander towards the hand pump, a clearer area of dry, hard earth marks the Marol Academy football pitch. All without shoes to prevent any unfair advantage, the pupils run for hours up and down the pitch chasing the ball of this worldwide game. Now, come Saturday afternoons, the volunteer Kenyan teachers also join the match. Having gathered the pupils and played the match, the afternoon ends with a Bible passage and some prayers. Through football the children of Marol are gaining a new taste of God's promises to them.

Floods

Having been drenched in torrents of water since the end of May and with land fully saturated, much of South Sudan is now submerged by floods. Although the land seems perfectly flat and without boundaries, rain seems to unpredictably focus its distribution on certain villages. This year Marol received more water than elders remember having fallen for twenty years. As you walk the 6km from the market in Luonyaker to Marol, the road slowly changes from sand to a knee-high swamp. Fields of groundnuts have been flooded to ruin and the road to Marol became impassable to all vehicles. Further south in Unity State, floods have displaced whole villages from their homes.

Feasting

With perfectly perpendicular postures, the young girls walk their routine path from home to the water pump. Yet, at this time of year, their journey too is accompanied by sugar cane. They tear off the skin and munch the sugar from the long canes as they walk along. Little children carry bundles of this sweet bounty. With the promise of the sorghum harvest close behind, the munching of the cane signals a happy time of year. Friend even donate handfuls of maize from their seemingly plentiful stocks. Thank God for the harvest that has come.

Journeys, Joy, Families and Funding

[Note from blog editor: Apologies for not posting this sooner, I was away in Africa myself!]

"Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever. I will be to Israel like a refreshing dew from heaven. Israel will blossom like the lily; it will send roots deep into the soil like cedars in Lebanon". (Hosea 14 - a verse I've been pondering since May).

As I start to pack my bags to head back to South Sudan, I realise that I have not written for many weeks. After a summer holiday, I hope you will rejoin me in prayer for South Sudan and for our journey there.

Thank God for:
Family at Marol Academy
Again and again they amaze me with their fellowship and love for each other and the children they serve. Thank God for Gordon, Joyce and the Kenyan teachers (Loice, Floyd, Elkana, Lawrence and Thomas) who are living and teaching at Marol. Their compound has long been flooded and the nearest market is a few miles walk through water. The road is impassable by vehicle. Thank God for their resolve and faith to keep going despite it all.

South Sudanese Teachers
South Sudanese teachers who are willing and educated are so hard to find. They seem more scarce than riches. Please pray for the teachers who are serving Marol, often walking for hours to be there and for less than £50 per month salary (inflation is very high at the moment). Pray especially for Donato (one of our longest serving teachers), David (who lives next to the school and lost a child this year) and Adeng (our only female teacher).

Joyful Time With God
My years in South Sudan have seen ebbs and flows in my relationship with God. I know He has been with me in every season and on every step of my journey. Yet, sometimes I have seen him less clearly. I am really grateful for the chance to listen to Him again these last few months and know intimacy with Him. I am so grateful for that. Please pray that God would keep showing me His glory and His provision.

Family and Friends
God has given me a life of coming and going in this season. Family and friends have shown me such endless grace to put up with this season of my life. My mum and dad have been especially wonderful. Please thank God for them. Also thank God for the families of Gordon, Joyce and the Kenyan teachers. They must be missing them so much.

Ask God for:
Funding
Kenyan teachers, construction and daily running costs are all financial needs at the school. There are possible funding opportunities although it is unclear exactly how God will keep providing. Ever since I have known Marol, I have been overwhelmed by God's abundant provision. He must truly love the people of those villages. He has given lavishly and has allowed us to build more than we could ever imagine. Please pray for God's hand in this next season of seeking provision. Let it be an opportunity for God to show what he can do. Also pray for wisdom for those who decide exactly how its spent, from which bricks to buy to how much to pay teachers as inflation increases.

Richard
Richard is an experienced science teacher in the UK and has managed to get some time off work in order to spend three months with us in Marol. He travels to South Sudan in early September. Please pray that God will prepare his heart for the unique adventure ahead of him. Please also pray for Judy his wife who will remain behind in the UK.

Talking about South Sudan
By God's incredible provision, I have been asked to advise a few policy makers about conflict in the Greater Wunlit region of South Sudan (the region I visited in May and June). The dynamics of the conflict are complex. In the 1990s they saw an explosion of violence and the arming of teenage boys who look after the cattle. Armed violence has never ended. When I was there in May, a dozen or so young men were killed from the village I was in. Pockets of violence have killed hundreds across the region this year alone. It is a daunting privilege to talk to people who have enough money to possibly try to make a difference. Please pray that God gives me words to say that show mercy and bring justice and offer insights beyond our own wisdom. It is a comfort to know that even Moses, when he talked to Pharaoh about his own people's slavery, did not have the right words to say but needed God with him (Exodus 4).

My Journey to the Village and in the Next Season
Starting on Sunday, I have a long journey to the village in South Sudan with two overnight flights and a total of five flights in six days. It is an unusual route to Luonyaker as I have to call somewhere along the way. I fear that it might leave me a little exhausted. Please pray for God's incredible blessing and strength to ease the burden of these journeys and make them a gift. Please also pray for God's guidance as I make decisions in the months ahead about the shape of the next few years. I know my heart roughly but would really like to know God's heart with clarity. He seems to be offering me some amazing gifts and I would just like to know that they are good to accept. Pray that doors will stay open for the life journey ahead. Please also pray that I get my written work finished before I travel (that will be a miracle).

I hope to have many fresh tales from South Sudan in a couple of weeks time.