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

Contemplating Customs

Tightly curled on a metal hospital bed with her back to the world, Elizabeth wrestled and wriggled in pain on the dusty sheets of the village health clinic.  Her mum was perched at the foot of the bed, cradling Elizabeth's new born baby.  This small, young creature was still pale from the birth.  Elizabeth could barely spare the energy to greet me.  Having given birth three days before, by this morning the pains had become too much and her family had carried her to the small clinic.  Pains had immersed her legs until she could no longer walk and now the pains were seeping up her spine.  A complicated labour and birth is now threatening to leave Elizabeth paralysed.  Although the village health clinic could have helped with the birth, the family had refused to bring her to seek medical attention.  Local custom claims the pain of birth as the best time to hear truth from a woman.  Accusations of adultery are often discussed in these painful moments and these testimonies carry weight in the customary courts.  Members of the husband's family threaten to the woman in labour that the baby will not be born if the struggling woman does not tell the truth.  The birth acts as a natural form of torture to entice the woman to truth telling.  So, despite the labour being long and unusual, Elizabeth's husband's family had refused to take her for medical help wanting to question her until the baby came.

While local chiefs and customary judges are the main justice providers in the local community, some painful, harmful customs remain deeply rooted.  These last weeks have been spent speaking with many chiefs about how they protect their women and children through the law.  Many try.  Yet, so much wisdom is needed by them as these leaders negotiate the delicate balance between tradition and the opportunities emerging (such as health care) in the new South Sudan.

Please pray

1) Marol Academy Primary School

Unusually early in the year, the government has decided that the primary schools should be reopened.  Marol's primary school has now opened for registration with lessons starting next week.  Pray for a God given academic year ahead.

2) Elizabeth

Pray for her healing and strength of spirit.  Pray for her family as they decide whether to seek medical assistance.  Pray for wisdom for elders and customary law judges as they negotiate the old and the new.

3) Travel Safety and Ease

Over the weekend and until Tuesday, I will be moving around South Sudan a little.  Pray that it is all in God's hands.

Thank you.

Through Cairo to South Sudan

Many smartly painted taxis rushed by without stopping, until an old, rumbling, black Lada finally slowed down and curved into the pavement where I stood.  The taxi driver spoke no English and I can speak no Arabic, but we managed to negotiate a price for him to take me to drink tea with friends in the middle of the city.  As we rushed along the fast highways from the airport into Cairo, a strong smell of fuel lingered in the air of the car.  The car's windows still had protective plastic on, having recently been replaced, but the door handle mechanism was held together with a thick piece of string.  Yet, in his black Lada chariot, the grey haired, Egyptian taxi driver could have been king.  He turned up the classical Egyptian music that had been just humming in the background.  Waving his arms in dramatic gestures, he accompanied the singing voices.  Unfazed by my Arabic incompetance, he made me repeat the lyrics.  The half an hour's ride was quickly transformed into a lesson in Arabic language and Egyptian music.  It was a perfect final step through Cairo as I made my way back to the familiar bustle of Juba (South Sudan).

The next few weeks will be a muddle of tasks and God's provision, starting with a flight to Warrap (where I usually live) tomorrow. With the dry season having sucked all the water from the earth, the cattle have long been shepherded to pasture.  With this task comes the closing of the school for these long months until April or May bring rain.  Yet, in the absence of school and with the roads as dry as dust, there is much to be done in South Sudan along side the preparations for Marol.

For Marol, Please Pray for:

1) Training Teachers

Incredible people have responded to the request to finance the training of teachers.  We are now confident that we can send Dut, Donato and John to Yei to be trained for the next two years.  John will be the first qualified teacher in Panyijar County and Dut and Donato will join Nhial as the only trained teachers in Gogrial East County.  All this will be possible through your prayers and giving to Marol.

2) Recruiting Teachers

FOCUS (the Kenyan Christian Union) is starting to look for new teachers to be the 2013 Marol Family teaching in the Marol Academy Secondary School, helping with the primary school and growing the Christian witness in the village from the foundations laid over the last two years.  Pray that God is already preparing these teachers.  It's a tough year for them and they need hearts filled with faith.  Pray too for finances to come flowing to fund them.

What Else I Will Be Up To

The first weeks will be spent with the chiefs of Warrap State talking about justice and mercy.  In South Sudan, almost all the courts in the villages are presided over by the local chiefs who use the customary law to bring justice and resolve conflicts.  With the coming of the new state of South Sudan, there are questions about how this type of justice can mix with a modern justice system written from the distant capital city.  When I was a little girl, my late godmother gave me a book of Celtic Liturgy.  Inside its cover, she scribbled Micah 6:8 (What does the Lord require of you but to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God).  I hope I will spend those weeks listening to those chiefs about what it means to show justice in South Sudan.  To have the chance to seek what justice is in this unique setting seems a perfect privilege.  I hope, in time, I can share what I find with people who make policy in Juba and elsewhere.  Please pray that God would let me seek to live these weeks as he commanded in Micah.  And let me know Him close to me.

After that, many more things might happen.  I look forward to sharing the stories with you.

Thank you

Finally Finding Home and Rest From Riots

Thank God for Finally Finding Home.
After weeks of planning, praying and help from very kind friends with logistics, the Marol family finally found their way to their homes just in time for Christmas. Two teachers' were delayed by an extra two weeks, Gordon had to travel to the distant airstrip of Aweil on his own and endless prayers were said in hope that they would find their way from Marol to Juba, Nairobi and on to the UK (for Gordon and Joyce). Sometimes the journey takes just 24 hours, yet the last month was a vast collection of delays and complications. However, now, they are all safely home to their families with the promise of rest and Christmas celebrations. Please pray that God provides graciously for their hearts and for the next steps of their journeys as they return to more familiar life. Also, pray that God will start to build the next Marol family for 2013.
Thank you too for all your prayers for these journeys.
Ask God For Rest From Riots in Wau
Along its dust covered streets, between the horse-drawn loads and the shining Land Crusiers, women and men of many languages scurry to bring their crafts and cooking to Wau's markets. Traders from northern Sudan quietly sip sweet tea in the entrances of their boxed shaped shops, peacefully dwelling in this ethnically eclectic city. Since the North-South peace agreement in 2005, Wau has defied predictable patterns of violence across South Sudan to remain a calm combination of cultures and peoples. Yet, a couple of weeks ago, protests became violent in Wau. Soldiers poured in to the city to offer protection and a display of power. Protests have again erupted in the city with more people being killed. With stories starting to be spread that the violence is one tribe against another, the fear is that the conflict will quickly escalate. Pray for a peaceful Christmas for Wau. Pray for the church leaders there to have wisdom and humble hearts as they lead their flock through these tricky times. Pray for friends from Luonyaker who are trying to study in Wau.

http://dailynewsegypt.com/2012/12/19/rioters-rampage-through-south-sudan-town/

Still trying to get home

After many logistical difficulties, the two Kenyan teachers (Elkana and Lawrence) remain at Marol. They hope to now fly to Juba tomorrow and Nairobi on Saturday. This is their last chance to make it to Nairobi in time for their graduation.

Thank God:
1) That they have been so understanding and graceful about this delay in travel. Their trust in God is great.
2) The extra few days they've had Marol. They've even been able to mark the end of term exams!

Ask God:
1) Finally for an easy, quick journey home.
2) For the homewards travel of Gordon, Joyce, Loice, Floyd and Thomas on the 10th December.

South Sudan always leaves many stories to tell.

Thank you.

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.