Camper Updates!

I promised several people at Every Village that I would share updated pictures of our camper life...so here goes!

We had a cook-out here at the camper/farm a couple of weeks ago, so that really kicked Blaise and I into high gear to finish some items on our to-do list (we need that kind of inspiration, because I especially get really burnt out on painting and trimming).  Anyway, I finally got my curtains finished; I altered the 84" curtains from our house, cutting them in half, hemming the cut edge, and sewing the tabs over on the top. I also finished trimming in the kitchen and living area, painted the T.V. cabinet, painted the bathroom, hung new hardware (Blaise did that, actually), and hung the mirror over our bed (Blaise did that, as well).

I know I've done this before, but just as a reminder, here are some "before" pictures...

Here's how the place looks now that we're all moved in and updates are finished (except for some odds-and-ends)...

Our bedroom (we call "upstairs" because there are a whopping THREE steps that lead up to the bedroom)...

Our bathroom, which as I've written about before, is a walk-through.  Paint, new hardware, and a few personal touches changed the entire look of this small room! I still have a few pictures to hang (of course), and I'm going to paint the brass/gold color silver trim around the lights and shower door to match our hardware, but it's finished otherwise...

And finally the living area.  This took the most work, by far, as I had a lot of painting and trimming to do, as well as furniture to replace.  We still have to get a new couch, so ignore the throw blankets tossed over it! Again, other than that and some new flooring, this area is finished...

Since we've been here, we've survived our first 96 degree days (plural), our first couple of storms (with ample winds), and ANTS! I have to say, for all of the kicking and screaming I did to avoid moving in here, I really like it.  Seriously! It takes all of about 15 minutes to clean (vacuuming, dusting, and tidying up), and it is SO FREEING to not have as much stuff...or nearly as many bills! Cooking is tricky, our refrigerator freezes stuff on the top shelf, and right now we don't have a sewage tank to dump into (so we use a portable tank...talk about humbling a person!), but it's lovely to have simplified our lives and we are experiencing greater togetherness as a couple (mostly because we can't escape each other).  If you're contemplating downsizing--maybe not to this extreme, but a smaller house/apartment--I would HIGHLY recommend it.  We are reminded daily of God's provision and calling on our lives by living here, and I'm still really blown away by how much peace we've both experienced since we've moved.  It's a crazy lifestyle, but so far it has blessed us tremendously.
 

Unqualified.

I'm going to tackle something today that is really an area of insecurity to me as we prepare to head to the mission field full-time: our education and training.

You see, neither Blaise nor I set out to become full-time missionaries in the sense that we would pack our bags and move to another country to spread the Good News.  We never thought that it would become our occupations.  I am a teacher; that's my training, that's my expertise.  Blaise is a sheet metal worker; that's his trade, that's his expertise.  We never attended seminary, we never went to Bible college.  So, more than once I've listened to the Enemy when he's whispered that his lies that we're unqualified for this caliber of service...You don't have what it takes.  You don't know enough.  You don't have the abbreviations that follow your names or the ordination as pastors.  You don't belong and you should just sneak away before everyone realizes that you're completely out of your depth.

It's something that I struggle with in my own little head, and it's especially something that I struggle with when we meet with churches and they ask what training we've had to prepare us for this calling.  I fumble.  Blaise fumbles.

No, we aren't seminary trained and on paper, I guess we look like the wrong people for the task at hand.  However, then the Holy Spirit swoops in with some precious reminders.  It's said that God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called.  It also says in Philippians 4:13, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."  And in the Gospels we see that Jesus selects the Twelve, not because of their education, degrees, or qualifications, but because of their willingness to follow Him and to serve.  In fact, many were, for the most part, not men of high education.  But Jesus didn't ask them where they studied...He asked them to follow Him.  And that's what He's asking us.

Here's the bottom line: We love the Lord fiercely and we are truly willing to give up everything we have, everything we are, to serve Him to the fullest.  And we love the South Sudanese passionately.  I cannot explain the fire we feel, the absolute desire to be there--loving, serving, and teaching our South Sudanese brothers and sisters...not to mention learning from them how to love, give, and praise to the fullest.  We just want to do life with them...to be the Lord's hands and feet.  We are completely open and willing to let the Lord use us and wreck us for His glory and His Kingdom.  I know that we have a lot of learning to do, some of it during our six months of training in Houston before heading off to the mission field, but most of it during our day-to-day lives in South Sudan as we follow Christ.

This is probably something that I will always struggle with, truthfully, because there will always be missionaries and other godly leaders with far more qualifications than us.  There will always be someone skeptically asking how we feel that we're qualified for this service.  There will always be that nagging voice in my head telling me I'm not good enough; I don't know enough.  In the end, though, I just have to trust that God will equip us and strengthen us for the exact job to which we have been called.  I have to trust that He will work through our weaknesses, maybe not even in spite of them, but because of them.

We can do all things through Him...

I'm Going to South Sudan...AGAIN!

I totally started to title this blog post something else, but I decided that in keeping with tradition (see this post and this post), I would go with the title I've used today.

We've moved into the camper, we're raising support, and life keeps on keeping on.  So what's next? Well, for me (Cass), the next step is a trip back to Nasir, South Sudan!! I know...I'm excited, too! I was recently asked by my grandmother, who is very baffled by how smitten I am with South Sudan, "Why on earth do you feel the need to go again this summer when you're moving there???" And here's my answer...

I LOVE South Sudan and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the people...if that's not already obvious! It's a really tough feeling to explain to other people, mostly because I have no other context or experience with which to relate it; however, I will say that I KNOW in my kidneys that this is a love and passion given to me by the Lord.  I cannot possibly explain to you the feeling of exactly-where-I-need-to-be-ness (yeah, I made that up) that I feel when my feet touch the twak (mud) in South Sudan.  It's home to me in a way that my house here in Indiana has never been.  In addition to my "home"sickness, I also have some important educational intel to gather and two awesome short-term mission teams of which to be a part.

So this summer, I will once again lug my well-packed backpack and suitcase to the International Airport; say a tearful goodbye to my hubster; fly off into the sunset and sunrise (it's a long flight); bump along the pothole-filled roads of Entebbe/Kampala; vibrate down a dirt runway and over the countrysides of Uganda and South Sudan; and jostle along another dirt runway before I will hop off of that tiny plane and greet my other family...my Nuer one! Last summer's reunion in Nasir was awesome, but I feel like this year's will be epic! I have prayed SO HARD for my brothers and sisters in Nasir over the last year, and I cannot wait to see them again! Why isn't Blaise going? Well, two reasons: funding is tight and [more influentially] he was just off work for three months following his injury...no way he's going to get another month off right now! It kills us a little that he can't go, but we're excited because it looks like we will be taking a vision trip together with a small team hopefully later this fall.

Anyway, aside from a few fun things I have planned with the ladies on our compound (spa day, anyone?), I will also be doing some other really awesome things such as telling Bible stories, meeting with VIPs (Very Important Pastors) in the community, and other work planned out for our teams.  I also hope to spend a significant amount of time in the Nasir area schools talking with the headmasters and teachers about their needs, observing their teaching strategies/skills, and planning some new programming for the radio.  We may host a teacher training workshop or two, if time allows.  However, this survey work will give me some important details and framework I need for writing a plethora of radio programming that meets the teachers' needs.

I'm very excited, too, because my trip is an extended version in South Sudan.  I will be flying in with a short-term mission team at the end of June and staying with them for the duration of their trip, but then when they leave, I stay behind.  No worries, another team is coming in the night before the first team leaves, so I won't be alone.  I will welcome and stay with the second team, as well, and then leave Nasir when they do sometime in mid-to-late July (I can't remember the dates).  I might also be staying in Kampala for a short time to work out some programming details and get as much written as I can while I'm still within the African context.  I don't have all of the dates and details yet, but mostly, I'm just so excited about being there.

I hope and pray that this feeling never wanes, but only grows stronger the more and more time I spend in South Sudan.  And, because I'm just all antsy and excited about making new memories and building new relationships, as well as strengthening old ones, here are some of my favorite moments from Nasir, South Sudan in 2011...


Seeing NyaReat and family again after a year of being away.  I LOVE that woman and her precious daughter, NyaPal...

Introducing my hubster to the families on our compound and watching him fall so in love with them, too! This is us with NyaBol and her children...

Spending time at the local borehole in the community.  It provides such an awesome opportunity to love on the women and children who are fetching water...

My first visit to Kierwan.  We commissioned the newly constructed school and borehole, and I had the opportunity to really investigate the school rules, outdoor classroom setting, and reading program...

Okay, so during my 2010 trip to Nasir, we walked out to the radio tower to survey the work that still needed to be completed.  I met this boy (I seriously cannot remember his name) on that trip, and actually kept his adorable face as my iPhone screensaver because he made me smile.  I was SO EXCITED to go back last year and see him there again! He's an absolute character and I'm pretty sure that we'll be best friends when we move there! Here he is in both pictures below...

The night of the fire last summer was not a favorite memory in terms of fun, but it was one of the most powerful experiences I've had in South Sudan.  I never really blogged the story, because it took me a long time to process through everything that happened that night; however, maybe I'll dig out my journal and tell you that story...it's worth remembering.

Our team got to be on the ground (actually at the tower) when we kicked off the current radio broadcasts last summer.  It was an AMAZING night getting to sit with our friends in South Sudan and listen to Bible stories, health and hygiene training, and educational training in Nuer.  It was also a great joy to watch how much they LOVED listening to the hand-held radios! The first picture is John Chol, a local pastor who has been an integral part of the Radio Station Project in Nasir...

In 2010, when I travelled to Nasir for the first time, we spent the bulk of our trip teaching the pastors in Every Village's Bible duel gora (school) stories from the End Times track.  It was an awesome time, but last year it was even better to host a graduation ceremony and celebration for those same pastors, who had trained for three years to learn 118 Bible stories from Genesis to Revelation.  I can't wait to get there this year and see the fruits of their hard work and dedication to seeing God's Word saturate their communities...

And there's a very special place in my heart for Mary, the lone female Bible School student, who is full of energy and love.  She absolutely makes me laugh and fills me with so much joy!

Oh yes, and we cannot forget about the feast following the graduation.  We dined on freshly slaughtered beef and I even tried some intestines, which I decided I didn't like so much; however, the rest of it was delicious!!

I cannot say enough great things about the beautiful women who stay with us on the compound and take such amazing care of us.  They cook, they fetch water, and they even do our laundry! NyaReat and Martha are such strong, courageous women of faith and I absolutely love them!

The other beautiful thing was watching Blaise love them, as well.  They were THRILLED that I came back AND brought my husband (though visibly disappointed that I was STILL not with child), and he had such a great time getting to know them...

Blaise and his South Sudanese brother, Kim (pronounced Keem).  These two really made me laugh, especially as Blaise acclimated to some cultural nuances (such a male friends holding hands)...

I LOVE the mud huts and I cannot wait to spend more nights under the thatching this summer! Blaise and I took a moment to pose in front of our future home...

Oh, and I can't forget to mention how pumped I am for rice and beans! Okay, maybe not so much, but I am getting more and more excited about the trip as time ticks on and d-day gets closer.  Please pray with us over the details of the trip, the teams that the Lord has assembled, and the hearts of the South Sudanese--that they would be ready to receive the gospel.

THE Book.

So, after I spent an hour or more praying and crying out to God, face-down on the living room floor, telling Him all of the burdens on my heart, the fears I had been holding onto, and my desire to ultimately surrender to His will, I asked that God would reaffirm our calling and especially the new possibility of living in Nasir.  It has only happened a couple of times since last fall, but on occasion someone would make an off-hand comment about our desire to serve in South Sudan and I would have a few minutes of doubt.  Are we making a mistake? Were we really called or did we make it up? It usually didn't last long, because all I had to do was join an Every Village prayer call, watch a video or look at pictures of South Sudan, or spend any amount of time in prayer and I KNEW that we were absolutely following the specific calling placed on our lives.  Oh, and anytime I mentioned even an inkling of doubt to Blaise, he'd just remind me with such strong conviction that we have to go.

Well, during the Jonah months, I doubted almost everything.  I had completely lost sight of the big picture...the one with Jesus smack dab in the center of it.  All I could focus on were the waves of life crashing around me, and I could barely even remember what it felt like to be in South Sudan.  Seriously, dark time in my life.

So I prayed and I BEGGED God to speak to my heart about this, to refresh me, and to reassure me that all of this madness is for His glory and His will.

It was then Saturday, two days after I prayed so fervently.  We had been BUSY for those two days, though, so I wasn't thinking much about having our calling affirmed and I had not talked to ANYONE about the details of that prayer...I only told Blaise that I finally really cried out to God and felt that He had moved in power that night on the living room floor.  Anyway, we got home Saturday evening and I had a package in the mail from a dear friend whom I met on my very first trip into Sudan...Mandy Gehle.  I could feel through the package that it was a book, and because she also has an intense passion for serving the South Sudanese, I assumed it was a book about the country, the people, or perhaps even a dictionary.

Oh no.  I couldn't have possibly prepared myself for the beautiful, tattered answered prayer I pulled out of that package.  In my hands, I held a complete Holy Bible translated into Nuer (Thok Naath).  I literally just sat down on the couch and wept.  I was overwhelmed with a sense of peace and God's presence, and I KNEW that this was His response to that prayer.  The timing was absolutely divine, as Mandy had asked me for my address MONTHS ago, but wanted to get the Bible rebound before sending it.  She decided that week to just send it anyway, missing cover and all!

This beauty is now a part of my daily devotional time, because I desire so much to be able to learn some of my favorite Scriptures in Nuer before getting to Nasir so that I can share the Word with my brothers and sisters in their heart language.  I still, more than a week later, get teary-eyed when I think of how God has just continued to show me over and over again to just keep pushing through despite my emotions, despite others' opinions, and despite the trials.

Yes, following Christ will wreck your life, but it will also bring about some of the most beautiful, moving moments with Him ever.

The Jonah Months.

I promised to blog about this, but I'm not promising it will be pretty.  In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that it will not.

Blaise was injured at work back in February, and it actually kept him off of work for three months.  During that time, we focused almost entirely on his hand and healing.  I was also working at that time, and life was just incredibly overwhelming.  At first, we really drew nearer to God and prayed fervently for healing, really trusting our lives to His will.  We took our house off of the market and took some steps toward leasing it, I went through a Beth Moore James study, and Blaise started going to a men's prayer breakfast since he was off work.  It wasn't too long, though, before I just got way overwhelmed and went into survival mode...you know that kind...just trying to keep my head above water.  I completely took my eyes off Christ and life nearly swallowed me whole.

When I say those months were grueling, I mean that Blaise suffered from depression, discouragement, and a tremendous amount of pain.  I was stressed, frazzled, and completely shutting down spiritually.  Instead of turning to God in my weakest time, I chose to grit my teeth and do it myself.  I don't know what, exactly, I thought I would accomplish, but I was just sacked and ready to give up.

During those months, Satan also began working in our lives...and hard.  I became extremely selfish: with my time, with my life, with my house, with everything.  I also allowed myself to worry incessantly about Blaise's hand, our house, and our very unknown future.  I worried like it was my full-time job.  Blaise and I both started feeling really discouraged with raising support, and I was really struggling hard against giving up our house and giving up my career.  I love both things.  

If this is something you've ever experienced, then you know how deep and dark a place we were in...not pretty.

From about the beginning of March until the end of April, I spiraled into a ball of emotions, worry, selfishness, and absolute rebellion.  It was ugly and though I'm not at all proud of this reaction to the struggles we faced, I just want to be honest.  We're human and we're broken.  I gave Satan a stronghold through my disobedience and worry, and I paid dearly.

There was a break, though, at the end of April.  Blaise and I went camping for the weekend, and it was a very nice opportunity to get out of town and remove ourselves from our environment.  It was there, that Saturday night in our tent that I just completely lost it.  The wall came crumbling down and I just sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.  I kept telling Blaise that I just couldn't do it...any of it! I was even rambling on about misunderstanding our calling, doubting that we should even go to South Sudan, and ranting about how much I just wanted to stay put.  This journey we're on, it is SO hard.  Thankfully, Blaise was complete patient, but also completely insistent on us moving forward and being obedient.  Unlike me, he was not having a Jonah moment and he was desiring to be obedient.  Bless that man!

It wasn't until the Thursday following our camping trip that I finally cried out to God in a way that freed me from the bondage I was in.  I couldn't sleep that night, so at around 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning I got up and went into our living room.  I started on the couch, just praying and crying to God.  Soon, I was on the floor, and before too long I was face-first on the ground just sobbing to God, telling Him how much I DO NOT want to move into the camper, DO NOT want to leave our families here while we live in Africa, DO NOT want to give up teaching.  But that I would do it if that's what He continued to ask of us.  Submission.

I got up from the floor feeling about fifty pounds lighter than I had been, and completely exhausted.  I slept hard and sound that night for the first time in a couple of months.  During that prayer time, I also asked that God affirm our commitment to the South Sudanese people...affirm our calling.  And did he ever...LOUD and CLEAR!

I'll share the rest of the story tomorrow!

Good Mistake.

Sometimes, I LOVE to discover that I have overlooked things.  Earlier today, I posted about living in our camper...and having to take "bucket baths" because of a lack of water pressure.  Well, today I discovered that I was WRONG!!

I was really trying to check things out in the shower, and I took the shower head (on a hose) down to see if I would get better pressure having it lower to the faucet.  Nope.  However, just as I was about to put the shower head back up, I noticed a small little mark on the back of the shower head.  It's a cheap, camper shower head/hose, so there are no colors or words...just the smallest, raised mark.  It piqued my curiosity, and then struck me that I should try turning the back of the shower head.  BAM! Water comes SPRAYING OUT!!! It turns out that the water was just dripping out because the shower head was turned off!

I literally--in the middle of my shower--started shouting WOOHOO!!! It turns out that I was taking bucket baths for nothing...and that our water pressure is just fine! God just keeps revealing things to me as we're here, and I have to say that I now feel very clean AND very blessed!

I just thought I would share that we aren't "roughing it" even as much as we originally expected!

We're In!

Our move to the camper is complete! Our move was swift and surprisingly unemotional for how much I fought against it, and now that we're here, it's comfortable.  Now don't get me wrong, it's not the kind of comfort that most Americans strive for...it's more about the fact that we are finally being obedient to God.  There's been a shift in my spiritual life and overwhelming feelings of peace for following God's leading.

The last couple of months have been my Jonah months...I knew what God was asking us to do, but I didn't want to do it.  Instead of running, I simply stayed in my house and refused to even talk about it with Blaise.  He was pretty insistent about moving near the end, and I'm very thankful for his leadership on this issue.

Anyway, living in the camper is quite a bit different than just coming out to work on it and even spending a night here and there.  Let me paint the picture for you...

The fifth wheel is 33 feet long, has an 8 foot slide out in the living area, and a walk-through bathroom.  It's not a terribly small space, as Blaise and I keep comparing it to our first apartment (which was horrible), except that camper kitchen is way better (that's what happens when you get married at 20 and broke)! :) There are a few quirks about living here, though, that require some adjustment on our ends.

First, water pressure is laughable.  There's not even enough pressure to get water from the pump in the kitchen to the shower head.  It's pretty sad, but we have a pitcher in the shower and baths resemble bath time in South Sudan.  We're hoping to upgrade the water pump to a 60 psi pump (we currently have a 45 psi) until we move somewhere that has a city water connection.

Our bathroom is a walk-through, which means that there are times when we are trapped in one room or the other while one of us utilizes the facilities.  Before either of us goes into the bathroom, we are courteous enough to ask which room the other would like to be in.  It's not a big deal at all, it's just amusing to both of us.

We have ants...and moths...and wasps on occasion...and spiders...and so on.  I thought this was a problem unique to us, until I mentioned it to our friends who also live in their camper (they, too, are missionaries who will focus on church plants in North America, so they will travel the country in their camper as they plant churches in different locations).  Apparently, all of these critters are just part of camper life.  It's probably best that we get accustomed to this now, because there WILL be uninvited guests living in our home in South Sudan!! At least we know that here in Indiana the bugs and critters are harmless.

I calculated that we have about 350 square feet in the whole camper.  That's about one-third of the floor space we had in our house (our house wasn't very big), so we bump into each other and the dog about three times more than we did in the house.  It's mostly the dog's fault...as she feels the need to stick to us like velcro, so every time we turn around we're tripping over her.  Luckily, we are currently living on a farm, so she's getting a lot of outside time!

Otherwise, it's just living life.  Satan has told me a lot of lies over the last few months, and worry has been my number one emotion.  After moving in, I realize that all of the worry was for nothing.  Yeah, it's a lot different and a little harder than living in a house, but it's also VERY freeing to be living in God's will.

I also have some VERY COOL stories to tell you about how all of this fits into a plan MUCH BIGGER than my own!! I'll be blogging those over the next couple of days...so stay tuned! Also, if you would like to see pictures of our almost-complete remodel of the camper, see the post, Camper: Remodeled!  

  

Love Language.

God created me with an absolute passion for learning...I think it's a huge reason why I love teaching so much.  As a part of that desire to always be studying and learning, I read extensively.  I don't just read now and then when I have down time...I read all of the time (as in, I average anywhere from 5-10 books per month depending on whether I'm working or not)! At work, I read educational literature, newsletters, and websites to further my depth and breadth of knowledge; at home, I read memoirs, biographies, and blogs to increase my awareness of global issues, various cultures, and human struggles/triumphs; for the mission field, I read biographies of missionary greats, spiritual warfare materials, and other literature on how to do missions.  Reading is a tremendous part of who I am.  On occasion I read fiction, but it has to be pretty compelling (like the Hunger Games!).

So it's no surprise that God uses books to speak to me.  It's one of my love languages, I'm pretty sure! A great example of this is the fact that reading almost of all of What is the What was enough to convict me to travel to Sudan and love people whom I'd never met and with whom I have very little in common (and I say "almost all" because I wasn't even at the end of the book before deciding that I had to go).  Recently, I have been fasting from secular books (I would recommend this) and choosing to read only literature which will increase my faith, expand my view of God, and encourage us in this life of missions to which we have been called.  And let me tell you, God has been TALKING!

I mentioned yesterday that I read two books by Kim Abernethy, In This Place and In Every Place.  Both books together chronicle her family's cross-cultural missionary career and provided me with some valuable insight and encouragement.  Abernethy writes in such an honest and revealing way that I can actually relate to her struggles.  She doesn't place herself on some holier-than-thou pedestal that our culture often does to missionaries...she's a flawed human who followed God's call on her life, just like I am trying to do.  One thing she wrote is this, "If we ask God to use our lives completely for His glory, we should then be prepared for our lives to seemingly spiral out of our control and ultimately into His will" (In Every Place, emphasis hers).  Wowza! That is EXACTLY where I feel like we're at right now...spiraling out of control.  I had an epic meltdown last weekend (short only of me actually throwing myself on the ground and flailing), and I actually said out loud that I feel like everything is out of control: our house, our fundraising, my job search, the timing of everything, and on and on.  It was epic, and you can believe that Satan was having a great time with my little pity party...I was focused only on myself and not at all on God.  Then I read this quote, and it was like God smacked me upside the head...it's not about me and my will for my life!

Another thing she wrote in her first book, In This Place, is this, "Then there are those times when He calls us out to walk alone with Him--down paths that may seem very strange and isolated, but also potentially fruitful.  Are you heading down one of those paths?" I'm going to admit, when I read this, I had not yet had my epic meltdown (I'll tell you about it later) which eventually led to a breakthrough for me spiritually, so although I highlighted it in my reading, I was not yet prepared to embrace its meaning.  However, where I am now, this speaks volumes to me about our unique situation.  As Christians, our lives are not supposed to look like everyone else's...they should be radically different.  This obviously means something different for each person, but for us this means that we are to give up our fleshly comforts for the sake of His calling.  It has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do--leaving our house--but I believe that this is just one of the times that He is calling us to walk alone.

I've also been reading a book called Spiritual Warfare by Jerry Rankin, which focuses on the lies Satan tells us and the daily struggles we face to fully live our lives for Christ.  I love it, because nearly every page speaks to me about something we've experienced over the last nine months: our families being angry at us and hurting us with their words, the temptations to desert our calling and live the lives of comfort we had planned, and even the struggle to raise support in such a tough economic climate.  The book is laden with Scripture and encouragement to keep fighting the good fight, and to not take our eyes off of Christ for even one second, lest we will sink into the life the world tells us is the right one, the deserved one.

I'm so thankful that we serve a God who loves us enough to meet us exactly where we are in life.  I have been hurting and struggling to keep my focus on Him while the world has been vying for my attention, but God is bigger than the world.  In addition to moving me powerfully through Scripture, He has also been speaking to me through voices of experience...through the lives of those who have served Him faithfully all around the world.

I love that He speaks my love language of books!

Keepin' It Real.

I recently read two awesome books written by a woman, Kim Abernethy, who has been a missionary for her entire adult life (nearly 30 years).  The books are called In This Place and In Every Place and they are both about her and her family's experiences as career missionaries. While I love her humorous stories of bugs, cultural miscommunications, and other cross-cultural mishaps, what really sucked me in (and prompted me to buy the second book immediately upon finishing the first one) is how raw and honestly she writes.  She not only tells the good, lighthearted, inspiring side of missions, but also the difficult, dark, and ugly sides as well.  She includes excerpts from her meticulously kept journals into the books, and really writes from the heart.

Honestly, it was refreshing.  I needed to hear another missionary talk about how incredibly difficult it is, how the enemy plays on every fear, every emotion, and every weakness, and how rewarding it is to keep being faithful to the Lord's leading.  At this particular point in our journey, I needed her honesty.

That also made me start to think about my own writing here on this little bloggity of mine.  Am I honest enough? Am I raw? Or do I edit some things out because I'm afraid of how it will sound, what people will think? Perhaps I'm a little of both depending on my moods or on what I have to say.  When I first started this blog, I wanted it to be real...to be a reflection of the truths of this journey.  It's not all pretty stuff, but over the last few months, as the things I've been going through has gotten uglier and uglier, I've edited more and more out. Not so much when I write, but simply by not writing.

Well, those days are over! If you are on this journey with us--as friends, as supporters, as people who really enjoy hopping on and reading--prepare for this journey to get a lot more honest.  I don't want to leave out the tough stuff just because I'm afraid of what people think; I want to share the tough stuff, because that's where God has been doing the most important work in our lives and where the most change is happening.

Stick with me.  I'm not promising that it will always be pretty, because I'm flawed and in need of God's saving grace just as much as everyone else, but I am promising that it will always be real.

Are you ready?

 

Aid Sudan becomes Every Village!

After months of prayer and eager anticipation, Aid Sudan has officially announced their BIG NEWS...Aid Sudan is now Every Village!

Why the name change?

Well, it's quite simple, actually.  Sudan changed on July 9, 2011 when the south split from the north and became an independent nation.  The name Aid Sudan, then, no longer described where the ministry focus lies...which is exclusively in South Sudan.  In addition to the two countries separating, this name was born out of the most basic desire of the Every Village family, which is to reach and transform the lives of the people in every village in South Sudan.

Make sense? Okay, well, I think Peter does a MUCH better job of explaining the name change in this BEAUTIFUL video...

Aid Sudan becomes Every Village from Every Village on Vimeo.

Aid Sudan: Water Wells.

It's no secret that access to clean water is rare in developing nations, and South Sudan is no exception.  Over my last three trips into South Sudan, I have witnessed some heartbreaking truths about what it means to not have clean water coming from a tap.  I watched women scooping water from mud puddles and collecting water downstream from where goats and cows were using the restroom in the river.  I have heard accounts from women who have talked about their daughters being kidnapped when fetching water far from home.  And the stories go on...

One of Aid Sudan's primary physical ministries is to drill deep water wells in locations where clean water is lacking or nonexistent.  Teams survey the areas in and around villages, and then determine where the best, most feasible locations for wells are.  I don't know all of the details about the logistics involved, but I do know that by proving clean water to the families who live near the new wells, it not only helps protect them from the spread of disease via contaminated water, but also keeps young girls and women safer because they aren't traveling as far to fetch water.

There's also a cultural aspect of Aid Sudan's water well drilling...one I never would have thought of before traveling to South Sudan.  Whenever an organization decides to work in South Sudan, the people in the villages look for signs of how the organization is going to help them.  It's not to say that giving the people the Gospel is not enough, but providing something tangible that meets the people's physical needs usually helps the organization gain respect within the community.  Aid Sudan's clean water ministry does just that...provides a tangible form of the love the team feels for the South Sudanese people.

To read more about Aid Sudan's clean water well ministry, click here.

Here are some shots taken from clean water wells drilled by Aid Sudan in recent years...

Nasir, South Sudan

Well commissioning in Kierwan, South Sudan

Kierwan, South Sudan