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