then came the fam.

My family came to visit for a week!!!  It was awesome.  Such an encouraging, fun, crazy, restful, uplifting, special week!  They just jumped into whatever Mindy and I were doing, and they helped out in ways I can't even count.

 Christian, Charlotte, Colin, and me in the back of the truck headed to share stories from God's Word with a group of men under a tree.

 Lots of playing Nertz and Monopoly Deal--I lost a whole lot.  But it was still fun!!!

 After church on Sunday morning.  Mom taught about the bleeding woman whom Jesus healed.  It was a perfect story for Toposa culture.  The woman had been to every witchdoctor and friend, all of which could not heal her.  Until she touched Jesus.  And she knew He alone had that kind of power.  Later, my brother, Colin, taught on the parable of the sower at the tree by the clinic for church on Sunday night.

During a visit to the village nearest the compound 

 Mom with some of my dear friends

Taking the fam out to eat at the one and only "restaurant" in town called Junction Inn

Mom helping carry sodas--it was weird to have people help Mindy and I carry things or unload things or get fires going for us.  It is against Toposa culture for men to help the women, so we do a lot on our own around here.  It was nice having help for a week!

The siblings on my porch in South Sudan!!!

Something that made the week extra interesting was that our gas bottle for our stove/oven was very low, which means that we cooked most of our meals for 7 people for one week all on this charcoal jiko!

Woohoo.  Colin is skilled in starting charcoal fires, so he was a big help for the many fires we started this past week.  Mom and Char helped with making tortillas from scratch twice!  And Dad and Christian, well, they kept us laughing during it all!!!

Dad and Mom with Charles, our translator--so great to have him help us speak God's Word and share AIDS stories with the Toposa people!

 Mom, Mindy, Colin, Me, Christian, Walker, Charlotte, and Dad

And...silly picture!

So glad she's here with me.  There is no one better.

There are so many other pictures and fun things we did, but I thought this was enough for a good-sized blog post.  Thanks to all of you who were praying for their trip!