He heals!

This afternoon, Carrie and I returned to the clinic and found Lotaa (or Loataar) and her family.  Lotaa is better!!!  She is still on malaria medicine for now, but the doctors okayed her return to her village.  Once she got in the car, she did not stop smiling.  We had to stop as we left the clinic area, because she wanted to come sit up front with Carrie and I.

PRAISE THE LORD!!!  HE HEALS!!!

too late.

Nyamuria's parents were too late.

The precious anemic girl, Nyamuria, from the clinic yesterday passed away around 8:00pm.  Even if she had made it the hospital to get blood, it still would have been too late.

Please pray for the children and the adults who get sick and are taken first to the witchdoctor.  They remain in their sickness, getting worse and worse.  Their families only resort to taking the sick person to the clinic when it is already too late.  Please pray that instead people would begin to trust in God's power when someone is sick.  That turning to Him first would be their response.  And then, that they would see how God has provided medicine and doctors in this area to help them as well.

Thank you.

there was an old lady who swallowed a fly...

I am not old,
But it was I.

I was talking in the car ride home from another crazy day in Sudan, and a bug flew into my mouth nearly choking me.  I spat.  Instead of coming up and out?  It went down and in.  Blegh.  Nastiness.

Anyway...guess what happened today?  If you guessed changed plans, you are correct!!!

Today is Tuesday, which means that we have the women's gathering to hear God's Word on the compound in the afternoon around 3:00pm.  I finished school early today, the subjects went fast, and ate lunch around 12:30pm.

Carrie then came over to remind me that we needed to pick our translator up in Lomeyen (I saw a sign today--this is actually how it is spelled) which is about a 30 minute drive away.  And we had wanted to ask her some language questions before the women came.

So Carrie and I left for Lomeyen.  We found Rebecca where she said she would be!  When we got back to the compound, she helped to translate some very useful sentences such as...

Tochoito iporonokinete nyagari ikwamakin iyong totan.
Take care, don't chase the car.  You will fall and die.

Ayakae ayong akisimar Felicie.
I have been teaching Davis.

Nyacamitai ngitunga lukwalak, ikarabaar ngakajen ka nyagari na nyichuri elote.
We don't want many people, it will destroy the feet of the car (tires) and it won't go.

Acamit ayong ngamadarai kotere nyiyekito ngakongyen kang ejok.
I want spectacles because my eyes do not see properly.
(this last one's because they always want to take my glasses so they can wear them for their ngakidamdams, or celebrations--many people wear sunglasses as decoration for these jump fests)

When it came time for the women to come, only three showed up.  Odd, because before picking up Rebecca, we reminded two villages about coming at 3:00pm.  We soon found out why.

A little girl, maybe five years old, was having seizures and convulsions at the clinic that is right by our compound.  They do not have emergency medicine at this clinic, so they needed to get the girl quickly to the clinic in Naskal (out toward Lomeyen but not quite as far).  There are no cars to be used by the clinic so they came to us.

We made the quick decision to have the women's gathering on Thursday this week, and Carrie and I took the car and drove to the clinic.  We picked up precious Lotaa and drove to Naskal.  I held her head the whole bumpy and muddy way, as she was spitting up a lot and needed to have her head kept sideways.  Both Carrie and I prayed aloud in the car for her healing and for God's power to be shown.

We got her there, and they immediately gave her a relaxant for the seizures and began treating her for malaria.  She did calm down some, taking time in between seizures to rest and sleep.  After we left, we encountered her mother walking to Naskal.  She was not in the village when all this happens, but was in town.  I have never seen emotion like hers from a Toposa before.  She was panicking and so afraid for her daughter.  Please take time to pray for little Lotaa.  For complete healing.  For no permanent brain damage.  For peace for her mother, Lokuru.  For God to demonstrate His power and to receive glory in the midst of all of this.  Thank you.

There was another little girl in the clinic with serious anemia.  Her name is Nyamuria.  She has been sick for three days, but her parents sought help from the witch doctor first.  She had fresh scars on her chest from where they cut her to let evil out in her blood.  She looked like she was in so much pain.  Please pray for Nyamuria as well.  For complete healing and an end to the pain.  For transport to the hospital in town as soon as possible for a blood transfusion.  For God to be glorified.

On the way home from this trip was when that bug decided it wanted to end its life by flying straight into my esophagus.  Oh well.  More protein, right?

a night to remember.

Church in Kop on Sunday night was a night to remember.

Stood under a beautiful night sky, one perforated by a half moon and stars, and even at one moment a shooting star, for almost an hour with over fifty people singing worship songs to God in Toposa.

And then...

A drunk young man stumbled into the circle.
He was chased away.

And then he came back, this time high kicking left and right.
He was chased away, after scaring away people from the group.

Then, he came back again and fell on the ground, so drunk.
For all practical purposes, he was passed out.  People scattering.
Finally, several men came and toted him off to his village.

The leader, Joseph, just kept preaching away, once the crowd sat and settled down again.  He talked about Jesus as the Door and explained miracles that Jesus performed (those that are made visual to the Toposa through the "Jesus" film).  He ended with a prayer, and all the people said, "Amen!"

Not your typical church service, although on several other occasions drunkenness has played its hand in interrupting and disrupting worship time.

What disrupts my worship?  What things cause me to be distracted in church?  What about you? You may not have a VERY drunk man stumble into the middle of your church and fall on people.  But what other things pull you away from listening intently to God's Word?  Those questions threw themselves into my head when Mr. Drunk Man threw himself into the church crowd.

The best part?
The message was still proclaimed.  And heard.
And His Word never returns void.  Never.

And THAT, my friends, is the real reason it was a night to remember.

Some pictures of other things I am remembering...

 Kindle by candle.  Our solar power had been strange.  Not holding enough charge.  We think we have finally found how to adjust certain things to make sure we have lights at night!  This means turning the fridge on around 9 and off by 5, but it seems to be working well so far.  Please pray for His sufficient grace as we go sometimes without power.  After all, it is but a light and momentary trouble.  :)

 Ngakidamdam time!  A celebration, this time by the nyapeses (or young unmarried girls), after a bull slaughtering (for food).  Consists of clapping and singing in a circle, while a three to five girls jump around in the middle.  They all take turns jumping in and leading the singing.

 Mindy and I were in attendance at this one!  

 So was Carrie.  In a crowd of Toposa greeting her!

 A little girl with bottlecaps on her head.  Either they were decoration on her nyakou, or some other girl had them formerly tied to her calves (to jingle like bells as she jumped) but grew tired of them and gave them to this little girl to hold on her head.

 The bright green skirts are celebration attire.  They are goat skins with bright beads sewn into them!

Away in a manger...bought in a Zambian market now sitting in a tukel in South Sudan...a Savior was born!!!

Black Friday and Thanksgiving Part 4

The Day After Thanksgiving...just a little timeline so you can see how we spent our Black Friday...

9:00am - Picked up by taxi driver.

9:30am - Get "top up" minutes for phones.

10:00am - Go to the customs clearing office in Loki.  Do some passenger and cargo paperwork.

10:15am - Go to another customs immigration place.  Taxi driver stuff.  Nice not to have to drive back to Kapoeta, but also means we're at the mercy of the taxi driver.  If they see their buddy, they will stop to say hello.  Oh, and then our taxi driver has his friend drive us instead, because he was feeling sick.  Poor guy!

10:30am - Stop and wait for fifteen minutes at the gate to leave Loki.  The taxi in front of us is having problems.

10:45am - Start timing our travel time as we've finally left Loki and are finally headed home!

12:00pm - The roads are really bad from all of the rain. Several times we had to stop to make sure all the taxis in our taxi train made it over a bump or through a puddle.

12:10pm - See the border office to exit Kenya, but can't get close yet.  Two giant trucks and one taxi are stuck in the road in front of us.  Taxi driver gets out to investigate the safest path to the border.

12:40pm - Finds a safe place and we...make it!  Then we wait for others to make it.  Taxi driver gets out to help others.

1:00pm - Make it to the border office.  Easily stamped through.  Use the not-so-fine facilities.  So many flies!

1:20pm - Make it to the Sudan border crossing.  Stamped out so quickly!  Fastest ever!!!  Then, we naturally had to wait again.

1:45pm - Wait while the one soldier goes through every taxi (ours was last) and checks baggage and cargo.  I carry over the bags, and the soldier checks and says go!

2:00pm - Leave Nadapal (the border crossing).

2:40pm - Stop in another town for another border check for the taxi.  Clear to go!

3:45pm - Flat tire.  Thankfully, there was a taxi driver behind us!  The community part of the African culture that is so lovely.  The old tire was removed and stowed away, and the new tire was retrieved and attached all within 8 minutes.

5:00pm - Get to Kapoeta.  Taxi drops us at the tented camp where our car was parked.  We hop in and drive home!!!

5:30pm - HOME.

It was a lllllllooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggg day.

But the most beautiful part of it was the drive back to the compound.  The whole way we kept saying things that we were thankful for from our trip over.  And we could have kept going.  And going.

God, I am so thankful for You.  And Your faithfulness, no matter the circumstances in my life.  And Your presence, no matter where I am.  And Your love, which You continuously lavish upon me no matter what I do or say.  Thank You for being my Savior.

Saturday was full of cleaning and more cleaning, but we ended the day with yet another Thanksgiving Meal, Part 4 that is.  Boxed stuffing from the states, chicken marinated in some fancy herb packet from the states, green beans (because upon cleaning we found maybe 10 cans!), and gravy from my white elephant Christmas gift.

YUM.

And thanks to all of you who contributed to this final Thanksgiving meal!  

Thanksgiving Parts 2 and 3

"The river is flowing.  No cars have crossed the border yet.  We wait for two hours and then see."

Our taxi driver, Peter, met us in the Loki airport with this news.  He even took us to see the river that no one had yet crossed that day.  The border crossing that led to home in South Sudan was impassable.

On Thanksgiving Day.

Peter left us at a restaurant called 748 for four hours.  We ate our Thanksgiving Part 2 meal from an African buffet.  Please note that we did eat meat of some sort, bread, green potato-tasting mushy thing, and beans (though those weren't green).  We also each had a peach O, our orange dessert, and we even split the last peach O as if it was a wishbone.

Me with my peach O/pumpkin pie substitute and my so-bored-here-and-so-sad-this-really-isn't-pumpkin-pie face

The hours passed as we sat at the restaurant.  We heard from Peter that it still looked bad but that we should wait two more hours.  More waiting while watching a ridiculous movie on the tv in the restaurant until Peter finally came to take us to our hotel where we'd stay for the night.  The river?  Not good for crossing until morning.

At the hotel, we were blessed with an actual little house with two rooms and a large bathroom.  For dinner that night, we ate Thanksgiving Meal Part 3 from another African buffet.  More meat and green veggies and potatoes.  And then back to the house for more peach O's from a brand new bag!

Thanksgiving was definitely different this year.  A planned skype call to the family gathering back home was not only interrupted by no internet or electricity, but my phone time ran out as well.  I got to borrow Mindy's last few minutes on her phone to call my dad and talk to my grandpa too and say, "Happy Thanksgiving!" and "I can't skype because I'm stuck in Loki."

Still Mindy and I had fun watching a couple of TV shows, as long as my computer battery would last, and then eating those peach O's until we had to hide the bag to keep us from eating any more.  Those things are addictive.  You cannot eat just one.

And...I must say that I am glad and so thankful that of all the people in the world to be stuck in Loki with on Thanksgiving, I was incredibly glad I was stuck there with Nyatabo.

Kampala: the Equator, Restocking, and a Poolside Day.

After the retreat, Mindy and I stayed with our friend, Carolyn, who lives in Kampala.  It was so pleasant to be in her home for several days.  We ate more veggies and fruit than we had in a long time.  Never thought a plate of veggies and a salad with lettuce and dressing along with the side plate of fruit followed by a dessert of homemade cookies and ice cream would be such a treat.  But it so was.

The view from the top of the hill where Carolyn's place is...Kampala is gorgeous!

We made a little day trip to the Equator!  Touristy? Yes.  Exciting?  Sort of.  Cool thing to do and get to say you did afterwards?  For sure.  After admiring the yellow line and big white hoops that signified the equator, we crossed over and ate lunch in the southern hemisphere.  Lunch took an hour, and the poor guy had to bring our plates in the rain, but the meat in chapati thingy I had was pretty good.  Crossed back to the northern hemisphere and headed back toward Carolyn's.  Made a stop on the way by this big grocery store aptly named Quality.  Teehee.  Did a little restocking, including two packages of peach O's (or as called on the package "hola hoops").  Got more fresh fruit and veggies and headed back for a restful evening.

Mindy and I on the Equator

 In two hemispheres at once!

 Carolyn and I falling off the edge of the earth.  

Not.

 Did you know that water swirls to the left on one side of the Equator and to the right side on the other side?  And that right on the Equator the water goes straight down?  Well, now you do!

Mindy and I on other sides of the world.

Even though we're approximately 11 inches from each other.

The next day was spent at a lodge on a hilltop overlooking Lake Victoria.  Beautiful place to sit by a pool and just...read.  We got fresh salads for lunch.  I had several flashbacks to La Jolla, California where my family has spent time in so many summers.  And that, of course, made me smile.

The View.

And the sunburn you ask?  It got to looking quite strange, with some spots worse than others...

And oh yes, notice the scabs?  Those are from rafting.  Well, truthfully, they are from before rafting.  My foot just slipped on some rocks as I stood still before we got into the rafts to go down the first rapid.  Silly foot.

And for the faint of heart when it comes to gross things like dried skin, you may want to stop reading...

Because this is just that.

One piece.

Of dried skin.

From my sunburnt thigh.