Not Quite So Simple

AThousand Returnees on the Nile

Through growing lengths of grass and footprints in the swamps, the cattle move west towards Thor Village to find pasture.  Herded by Nuer young men and children, they all have guns slung over their shoulders for fear of raids from the Dinka.  In February, when I first visited, Thor was a hive of activity surrounding Nyachol - the tribal prophetess.  Youths walked for days to seek her blessing believing cattle dung from her would make them immune to bullets.  With cow dung in their hands, many of these Nuer youth launched a massive attack against the Dinka of Warrap.  Now fearing revenge, and living on the edge of the no man's land between the Dinka and Nuer, the prophetess retreated to a safer village in the heart of the southern Nuerlands.  Many of the youth fled with her.

Our Boat Along The Nile (Shambe to Adok)

Yet, this left a dilemma.  My translator and I found unusual favour with Nyachol when we initially visited. While she let no other foreigners or government visit her, she allowed us to support the church to build a school adjacent to her home in Thor.  It would be called Long Lieth ("No More Killing").  Yet, the displacement from Thor meant the village was now too insecure for the school's construction.  The suggestion was to move it ten minutes walk away to the nearest occupied village of Dablual.  Protecting their village's interests, disagreement quickly erupted between the elders of Thor and Dablual.  Both wanted the school on their land.  

Riding the bike, we sped out to meet them.  The Commissioner (head government official of the county) had sanctioned the meeting to decide on the school's location.  Some of the elders had walked five hours to reach the school's site to argue for it to be theirs.  After many hours of waiting and eating walwal (milk on sorghum), we had all gathered.  Our small cohort made its way to the start of the flood plain between Thor and Dablual.  Despite weeks of arguing at a distance, in a few moments of grace the decision was made. The Long Lieth Primary School will now be placed in Dablual and the story continues. 
The school will reach out to both villages.

Thank God For:

1) The Initial School Construction

The poles were brought by the men of the community and the iron sheets have been secured on top.  Now the walls are to be mudded.  Thank God for these resources.

Nuer Literacy Training

2) Ten Trained Teachers

Beneath the warming iron sheets of the mud walled church, the ten teachers gather for the training.  All have previously served as volunteer teachers and were eager to learn more about how to serve better. They spent a week being trained on how to teach Nuer literacy using newly printed Nuer books.  Only four of the ten teachers trained will be based at the school.  The other six are heading out to the cattle camps, to teach adults and children as they dwell amongst the cattle.

Please pray for: 

1) Gatkuoth and His Family

Gatkuoth, The Bike and The Children

After sweet, early evening tea in the market, we wander home to his circle of thatched huts and the promise of fresh milk for dinner.  His children are usually sleeping but their presence carries the promise of a curious waking in the morning.  Mut, his youngest, two-year old son (and late father's namesake) is usually found peering in my tent when I wake.  They are my family when I'm in the Nuerlands, and Gatkuoth is my translator, chauffer (on a motorbike), security guard, advisor and friend.  He's also an elder in the local church.  Please pray for this family - that we'd grow in love for each other and for God.

2) The Teachers

The Teachers

They are the school's heart.  Please pray for their endurance, health and safety.  When at the cattle camps, they'll live beneath the stars (and rain), feeding on just fresh milk with no clean water supply.  Even at the school, there is no clean water.  Both places take them closer to risks of raids and away from the comfort of the market villages.  They need lots of strength.

3) A Peaceful Meeting With The Nuer Tribal Prophetess

The first time I met her, our clothes had to be taken off (to beach type wear) as a sign of submission and security.  She remains coy and fearful of foreigners.  We've met another couple of times and her relationship has grown.  I hope to soon meet her again.  Yet, stories of the white girl and the prophetess quickly take on a life of their own.  The county commissioner thanked me, in front of politicians from Juba, for reducing her authority.  Yet, I suspect God's witness to her is not through me being a government agent.  Please pray for wise words and her understanding.  Pray that she'll know the authority of the lion of Judah.

The Children

4) Finances to serve the ongoing witness of this school.

The genesis of this school has been incredibly and rapidly funded by USAID.  Yet, their grants are short and the funding runs out in September.  Please pray for the resources to support these teachers in their struggles.  It's be incredible to have money to know we can at least employ a headmaster for a year.

5) My Safe and Easy Travels

On Monday (19th), I travel back to the Nuerlands.  As the months pass, the rains grow and the water pouring down the Nile billows until the banks burst and the flat flood plains are again swamped with water.  Roads are impassable even on motorbike and, after just a short shower, planes cannot land on the muddy airstrips.  To try to travel to the Nuerlands at this time of year is naive in its optimism.  Even when we travelled in July, the journey involved a day's flight (as we couldn't land due to rain), a bump car journey, a boat trip along the Nile and a lorry journey to Mayendit.  I am praying for miracles of easy journeys in and out.
I also managed to catch bilharzia last visit, so would love prays for health and strength.

Thank you.

Love,

Naomi

As It Happens...!

Sleeping with the Cattle

The day before he had been coaching the basketball team, but now, wearing the same red football outfit, his gun did not leave his shoulder.  The raid the night before on the Nuer cattle camps had prompted the whistle for war.  The young men had removed their guns from their hiding places and were now watching in case a battle found them.  Since before they can remember, the Nuer have fought and died against their neighbouring community.  Cattle were often the loot from the fighting.  Yet, with the coming of guns and the interaction of government wars, fighting and fatalities have only grown.  They fought the north, then they fought other Nuers, then they fought the southern rebels and now they fight the elites (or for the elites) who make demands on resources.  The Nuer prophetess has led the most recent raids. War is a way of life that has left the land bitter.  

Yet, God hasn't given up in despite the bitterness.

As It Happens

Life at the Swamp's Edge

As it happens, one day in these lands of South Sudan, back in February, I met a Nuer, tribal prophetess.  In the dusty, hot, sauna like luak (cattle hut) where we met, as it happens, I thought of asking if she would welcome an education project in her village.  She had refused all other interventions from outside whether from the government or others.  As it happened, she agreed to us supporting education in her village.  As it happens, the local church had long been praying for God to help them in their spiritual battle against the prophetess.  As it happens, USAID were willing to support projects in this area due to the high level of insecurity.  They were willing to give funding for a basic structure, literacy training for teachers and the printing of Nuer literacy books.  As it happens, I was staying at the guesthouse in Juba of SIL (Wycliffe Bible translators).  They had two folders of Nuer literacy books they were willing to offer us to reprint.  As it happens, last week, I was running late for church in Juba and sat at the back next to a stranger.  He happened to be experienced in literacy workshops in South Sudan and available at the beginning of July to train the teachers.  As it happens, despite the heavy rains, the showers paused for a few days just as the construction materials were bought.  Along the muddy road, the materials reached the village. As it happens......

Next Monday I travel up to the Nuerlands to see how this story continues.  I have spent a couple of weeks in Juba enjoying the abundance of fellowship and waiting to see what God will provide for this Nuerlands school.  It is really the beginning and I am praying it will become something long lasting.  We really need your prayers.  God seems to really love and be willing to provide for this distant people.  I wonder what God will let happen next.

Thank God For

1) This first funding.

2) The safe arrival of the construction materials.

The classroom is built from a hybrid of local mud and poles, mixed with iron sheets, nails and other odds and ends.  These had to be driven from Rumbek.  In the dry season, this would be a six hour drive.  The lorry had to pass along a thin road through the swamp, covered in soggy, clay-like mud and past scattered lorries stuck in the mud.  The week before a lorry driver was also shot dead on the road by cattle keepers when he refused to stop.  Yet, amazingly, despite the rain and dangers, our materials safely arrived and the lorry safely returned to Rumbek.

3) The provision of a literacy trainer.

4) God's love for the people of the lands of the Nuer.

Pray For

1) It to be God's work.  It will be nothing without his help.

2) Teachers.

God's work here will really be lived out through the first teachers recruited.  Pray that God has already selected them and is preparing their hearts for the task now.  They will be living in the middle of a swamp, far from fresh water and the busier lives of the market villages.  Few educated people are willing to live in such primitive conditions.  Pray for passion and strength.

3) Travels

I would love your prayers for safe travels and quickly feeling at home again in the village.  There are places and people that I really miss this season.  It feels more of a sacrifice than normal to be in South Sudan, as much as I love life here too.

4) Future support in prayers and funds.

Love, Naomi

Link to Marol Academy, South Sudan