Flooding in South Sudan

We have an urgent prayer request from Sudan to share with you. This morning we received an email from our director in Kenya telling us about severe flooding in M. county, where Amy lived during her first year in Sudan, all along the river. The picture above shows the same river in Y., Nate's previous base, at the high water mark of 2007. However, Y. is approximately 1000ft. higher than the lowlands that are flooding in M. county. Corn and pumpkin crops that sustain people until the sorghum crop is ready in December have been totally destroyed in many areas. To make matters worse, even people with some money to buy grain in the market town are going hungry because the food supply from a city on the Nile has been cut off. The SIM team in D. is facing a situation where the local people who work in the clinic and people from the church are not getting enough to eat.

Please pray for relief for those going hungry and wisdom for our teammates as they minister to our Sudanese friends. I believe there are emergency meetings taking place among the NGO's in the state capital and that the UN is trying to provide emergency food relief. Please pray for success in this endeavor. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we're going to join our Nairobi staff in fasting and praying for the hungry in M. county. Maybe you'd like to join us as well? Please keep this situation in your prayers. Thank you!

One Year Ago Today...

Today marks a very memorable day for Nate and me. One year ago today, we met on the Y. (Nate's village) airstrip when introduced by teammates, shook hands and smiled at each other, and then said goodbye a few minutes later so my plane could head on to D. (my village). Little did I know as I flew the 15 minute trip over to D. that Nate was concocting a plan with his teammate Kassu to make a 5 hour ATV trip to D. the next week to get to know me. For my part, I had been excited and nervous to meet him, having heard many good things about him from various SIM Sudan personnel over the previous weeks. I had delivered some of his mail from Nairobi that day, as well as a bag of miniature Mars bars that a Y. teammate suggested I should pick up for him, as a treat in the bush. (Thanks for the tip Bev!) Later in the day, after I arrived back in D., I was pleasantly surprised to get not one but TWO text messages from Nate on my satellite phone. He nonchalantly thanked me for the mail and wanted to check that we'd arrived safely. You can imagine my shock and excitement the next week when I heard that Nate and Kassu were planning to come over and visit us for a few days! To be continued next week...

Life in Sudan: An Introduction

We've been brainstorming about the blog and what we'd like to post for the next few months. So our idea is to give snapshots of life in Sudan, including a photo and brief description. We hope you enjoy! Here's the first installment...

The photos to the left are one example of the exotic foods that Sudan features. I was grading exams in my tent when I heard some commotion in the back lot. Turns out, a 2ft. monitor lizard had come through the compound and our guard had killed it. Moments later, it had been skinned, a fire built, and rotisserie lizard joined the afternoon menu. Here I am, enjoying the feast! Want more details? Leave us a comment and we'll get back to you.

Prayer Update

We are getting word that there is serious flooding in South Sudan right now in some of the SIM areas. Please pray that our personnel on the ground will not be limited in their ability to spread the Gospel through their various ministries. Also, there are some malnourished babies from the G. tribe being brought to the compound in Y. Please pray that our teammates there will know how to care for these children without creating a sense of dependency. Email or leave a comment if you would like more details.

Amy and I just got back from a wonderful weekend with some of her relatives here in Ontario, Canada. We stayed at a beautiful camp on a lake near Georgian Bay. Pray that we will continue to meet people with a heart for the Lord and be able to communicate with them about His work in Sudan. We had a chance over the Thanksgiving (Canadian) holiday to share our photos and talk about our vision for work among the K & G Tribes.

Thanks for praying. God bless you!

Nate Jr. and Amy Jr.!

Yesterday we heard of a new trend in Y., South Sudan where Nate lived for the past year and a half. One of our teammates wrote to tell us that 2 of Nate's former students in the school have just had babies and guess what their names are? Yep, Nate Yuna and Amy Yusif! By the way, last names in South Sudan are always the father's first names so Yuna and Yusif are the fathers. As well as little Nate and Amy, 2 other babies have recently been born in Y. and were named Stu (after one of the new short-term SIMers) and Evan (one of the missionary kids in Y.). So indeed there appears to be a new trend of naming your children after a missionary! If we're able to procure pictures of these babies we'll post them so you can see.

Seasons of Change

We've arrived in Canada safely for the first stage in our year-long home assignment just as the seasons are changing. The leaves on the trees here are beautiful. And like the changing of the seasons, our lives have had some significant changes in the last 3 months. We got married on the coast of Kenya on 05 July 2008 and were in South Sudan briefly, pursuing the Lord's calling toward ministry with 2 unreached tribes.

Among these people groups, there is a very low literacy rate, limited exposure to the Bible, neither schools nor educational opportunities. For one group, no published materials exist in their language.

Please pray that as we are in North America, we will connect with people well and paint a vivid portrait of our ministry vision. Pray that people's hearts would be stirred by the Lord as we communicate about these tribes... that they would be excited with us as this new season unfolds.

We would also like to stay in touch with people who read this blog by updating posted information more regularly (2-3 times per month). From Sudan, we will try to give snapshots of our life there. From North America, we will try to give information about our location and schedule. And from anywhere, we will ask for prayer and support in our shared mission. We would love to hear from you, perhaps introduce ourselves more thoroughly, and share more about the Lord's work in Sudan. May God bless you... thanks for reading!