Happy Easter

Just to wish you a very Happy Easter. Sorry it's a little late - our internet disappeared yesterday. I hope you've enjoyed celebrating the resurrection of our saviour.

Easter here has been without the familiar traditions and songs, but we have carved celebrations of our own. On Thursday night, a handful of local men gathered with Joyce, Gordon and I to read the Bible, break bread and drink wine (well it was actually mango juice). Sitting outside the tukals, beneath the palm trees of Marol, as the stars emerged in the sky, it really felt a God given blessing. And then on Easter Sunday I ate fresh mangoes for breakfast, sat with my friend's son on my lap as I met him for the first time and worshipped with our brothers and sisters in the middle of South Sudan. For my own treat last night, I drank pineapple juice and digestive biscuits (bought from Wau) as I reread the Easter story. A beautiful day and God is here.

I pray that you know God with you too.

Starting, Suffering and Struggling

The clouds are thickening ready for rain above the slippery sands of Gogrial East. Yet, still the sun seeps through leaving the ground pounding with heat. Mangoes are in abundant supply in Wau but I am still carefully watching the ones on the tree besides my room swell. Patience and promise are in the air. While the start of Marol's Secondary School, Joyce's work and the use of the library have brought thanksgiving. There are still many struggles to face and too much suffering to see.

Thank you again for all your prayers. As we step into new phases and adventures, we are desperate for your prayers.

Things To Thank God For:
1) The Starting of the Secondary School
On Wednesday, the first pupils sat beneath a tin-roof classroom for the first lesson at Marol Academy's Secondary School. Over twenty have registered but only four attended on that first day. Gordon was their first teacher with a lesson in something scientific. His wisdom, experience and wit have made him the strength of the secondary school already. And RE lessons, filled with reading the school's new Bibles, have witnessed some incredible conversations.

2) The Start of Joyce's Work
Joyce (a trained midwife) has also now started work at the pan akim (small, health clinic). Her first day was a hard introduction to the unhidden suffering here. Two babies died that day during labour in the small, dust-covered maternity room. The second child would have survived if the mother had been given a few fizzy drinks earlier in labour to keep her energy high. Many of the simplest skills still to be taught here.

3) The Start of Life in the Library
This year the 90,000 Apuk Dinka have their first library hidden at Marol. Surrounded with textbooks, bibles and novels, the library is always quietly filled with teachers and older pupils. Having struggled for a year to see the foundations dug, the books delivered and the doors opened, it is a privilege to sit amongst what God has given us.

Things To Ask God For:
1) The Suffering in the Toc
Last Sunday, over a dozen people from our county were killed in deadly cattle-raiding in the Toc (the swampy areas). Having driven their cattle to the swamps for pasture, they found themselves closer to the neighbouring tribe and the potential for raiding. The attack swept away hundreds of head of cattle and injured even more than it killed in the accomanying gun battle. Fears remain of further attacks into our state and revenge attacks are already being planned with care. It feels like this local, deadly conflict is unending.

2) The Struggle of the Secondary School
Pupils are still only slowly filtering through the doors and the exact teaching arrangements are yet to be confirmed. There needs to be massive protection over this small gathering of students as it starts to grow.

3) Struggles of Omar
Marol Academy has, this year, invited its first teacher from Uganda to teach English to its highest classes. With few people of the Apuk having ever attended school, it is difficult to find people with the education to teach at primary level and impossible to find teachers for secondary level. Omar's teaching will be a blessing to us. However, on Thursday, an old injury reoccured and he has rushed to Wau for treatment. Please pray for him and that our prayers will be a good witness to him.

The Night Before School Starts

Just above my knee in height, in her red, dust covered dress, Nyandut has kept appearing at my side today. She was on the branch at the front of church when I introduced Joyce and Gordon to the gathered, Luonyaker crowd. She was at the borehole when I was pumping some water to wash my clothes. She had been sent to the market to fetch something and she walked with me, hand in hand, on the way home. She was excited to tell me how, tomorrow, she would be going to Marol for the start of the new school year. Her little legs alone would have to carry her the five or so miles. With all the hassles and competing logistics, it is lovely to have even one little person to remind me what it is all about. The more I know the children and young people of this community, the more I feel the weight of Marol. I have to trust God that he will not fail them.


Things To Pray For:
Joyce and Gordon
Them and their car are now happily resident at Marol. They are a real gift from heaven to Marol and to me. Pray for them as the routine of life, the pace of the school and the heat of South Sudan invade. The smothering South Sudanese sun seems at its hottest at the moment. I sleep beneath the stars and can hardly face work until the sun is sleeping. Pray that God keeps reminding them of the strength he has given them, the love he has for them and the people he has called them to.

Pupils of Marol
Tomorrow, their little feet will carry them for miles across the sliding sands to Marol Academy. Pray that God brings them with care and has a plan for each one of them. Pray too that God will really seep into the school this year and make himself seen.

Teachers For Marol
God has called Gordon and Joyce from England, but I am now really praying hard that he will gather some teachers from the local villages to teach at our primary school. I fear there is still such a vacuum and they are needed if we are to feed the children with education.

Anthrax, Exams, Teachers and New Arrivals

This morning we woke to a covering of sand. The wind had swept the particles into the air, forming a yellowish cloud in this meandering sand storm. The floating sand hides some of the sun's intensity but it has also left all my belongings covered in a fine film of dust. I never quite know what South Sudan will bring next but a day of cooler weather was a blessing.

Things to Thank God For:
1) Marol's Results
Our first final-year primary class was quite an odd collection of people with a mix of educational backgrounds (Marol had only been open for three of their eight years of study). Yet, they all managed to pass and some with flying colours.

2) The Married Couple - Dut and Regina
Having been married through their love and the birth of their son, they were kept apart by Dut's poverty and his inability to pay the cattle price. She was left to remain with her family in the highly volatile region of Abyei. She is now safely in Luonyaker (where Dut migrated) and Dut seems to give thanks for her every other minute. They are also a faith filled couple and I pray that God has called them here for a reason.


Things to Pray For:
1) New Arrivals - Joyce and Gordon Lovering
This amazing couple from the Forest of Dean arrive into Wau on Tuesday. They are coming to teach, help with midwifery and pray for up to a year. Please pray for their safe travels (to Juba on Monday and Wau on Tuesday) and that God will guard their heart in their initial impressions of Marol. It is a hard place to grasp from a distance and it is easy to be overwhelmed at first sight. They have already given much, so pray that God brings fruit from all that they are sowing. Please also pray for the logistical arrangements - it is not very easy in South Sudan.

2) Teachers
The last week has been a humbling reminder of how far we have left to go. In this season of teacher recruitment, I have seen again the low capacity of the teachers of these villages. There are currently no secondary school graduates available to teach amongst all of the 90,000 Apuk Dinka. It is a humbling thought.

To try to correct this situation, the hope is to run top-up secondary lessons at Marol, in the evenings, for the most advanced primary teachers. If we are able to do this with even ten teachers, it will cost us just £20 per teacher per month. They will not only then qualify for further teacher-training but also be able to share their knowledge with the 150+ primary school pupils they teach each week.

3) Health
There are anthrax scares amongst the herds of cattle and two infant deaths from measles reported in the last week. Disease can spread too fast through these small communities and intimate homes. Do pray for their protection and strength at this hungry, weak time of year.

Finally Home

Wau Aiport.

Finally, the WFP (World Food Programme) plane lowered us down onto the dusty airstrip in Wau. We had hopped around South Sudan on the way, dropping other passengers off at different strips of dust along the way. So, after a long journey, I am safely tucked away back in the village.

And, in all the muddle, I love how God always gives me something to keep me smiling. Often when I walk the streets of Wau, I come across street boys. They have a mix of stories of their own. They have fled homes that cannot afford to feed them or that abuse them, or have disregarded them. They trek hundreds of miles to the apparent glory of the city. Yet, once they are there, amidst the bustle and the litter, there is no welcome and they scavenge from the streets for survival. Deng was a Dinka boy originally from Gogrial West. He was little higher than my waist and was dressed in torn, sagging clothes. They were now a patchy grey although I am sure they started as something else. With an hour to spare while I waited for my lift to the village, Deng gave me a Dinka language lesson as we sat on the side of the road and then walked through the markets. His pay for his teaching was his first pair of flip-flops. They cost only £1, but it is rare to see street boys with anything but bare feet even in the harsh streets of the city.

Things To Thank God For:
1. Safe Journey to the Village. It is lovely to be back and I am glad that I am safely here.
2. Reunions. Last night, I wandered to the market and was met with a sea of familiar faces. Having greeted people there, I wandered on to the house of Akwol (the only girl I have found who is about my age with good English). We sat and talked about her husband-to-be, her house and her work. It is a blessing to have friends here who are now feel so familiar.
3. Health of A Sick Friend. Last year, I asked you to pray for a mother who had fallen sick due to a bullet that is lodged in her stomach. Yesterday, when she saw me at a distance, she ran up to me shouting words of praise to God. When I left Luonyaker, I really was not sure I would return to see her alive. Yesterday, she was bouncing with life. However, the bullet is still lodged in her stomach meaning that there is potential for this sickness to keep coming and going. Every episode only seems to make it worse. There is a medical team coming from a UK hospital to Wau for two weeks in in May, so I am praying that they may be able advise her. Please keep praying.

Things To Pray For:
1. The Street Boys of Wau. I still find it hard to know how to respond to them and what God would have me do. Boys like Deng I just want to pick up and take to Marol so they can live and learn there. But their family is now the other boys of Wau, and their home the dusty streets. They feel secure there. Do pray for an opportunity to help them or to know how to serve them best.
2. Marol Academy. In just over a week's time, Marol Academy will open for 2011, including with its first secondary school class. Many of the students are currently away with the cattle, despite the heavy, deadly raiding in some parts near the cattle camps. The secondary school teachers are also still preparing to travel to us, from the UK and from Uganda. Please pray for God's protection over the journeys of the pupils and teachers. Pray too for God's hand on all that Marol is this year.

Introducing Some of the Littlest in South Sudan

Yaar
The daughter of a single mother, she is rejected by her father and toddles at the edges of society. But her mum is a strong, dynamic, eager Dinka mother and she is struggling to give her the very best. Her mother is even buying and saving cows herself to ensure she can independently chose the best for her little girl. Little Yaar now often spends lots of Sunday with me, sitting on my lap at church and playing at the compound afterwards. She is a blessing. I pray that she has the courage of her mother, built on a trust that Jesus loves her.

Aluets
There are three little Aluets amongst my friends' homes and many more of the same name scattered around the village. One is around three, one is around eighteen months old and one is just six months old. In the Dinka villages, names often run in the family making it much easier to remember. Aluet means cloudy. They are all beautiful little girls. Especially in the coming season of mosquitoes and malaria, pray for their protection. Two of them were serious will last year.

Madut
A little, wriggling baby boy, only a couple of weeks older than Joseph Joshua, he is the fourth child of his mother. Long before he was born, during the fighting of the North-South war, his mother was shot and the bullet remains in her stomach. Having never seen a doctor, the bullet remains and often causes her severe sickness. She recently fell ill again, causing fears that she would not survive to look after and breast feed her little Madut. Pray for mother and son.

I would appreciate your prayers too. I always feel like a child in South Sudan. Like the little children, I cannot speak Dinka nor walk very far very fast nor do anything very practical. And even the Dinka children know how to do things that I am still to master, such as eating sugar cane. Plus, like a little child, I am completely dependent on my Father in that land. I will soon be traveling back to South Sudan, so also please pray for safe and fearless travel. It is always hard to say goodbye to mum and dad, as well as the promise of seeing friends and our green and rolling land. In the sadness, fears and doubts rise up. So, prayers are much appreciated. But I know God is calling me on and I know I have a second home to return to in South Sudan. The thought of seeing friends makes be crave my return.