O Come, All Ye Faithful

“City street lights, even stop lights, blink a bright red and green, as the shoppers rush home with their treasures. Hear the snow crunch. See the kids bunch. This is Santa’s big scene. And above all this bustle you’ll hear…”

This song reminds me of the Christmas preparation that Americans partake in each year. I can just imagine the scene: the malls are bustling with last-minute shoppers; the children are asking Santa for one more toy; lights twinkle in each neighborhood; Christmas music can be heard everywhere you turn; the house smells of cinnamon and nutmeg; neatly wrapped packages, both large and small, are gathered beneath a beautifully trimmed tree. People are also preparing menus for the big Christmas meal, making travel plans to visit family and friends, and wrapping those last minute gifts. Even here in Africa, people are preparing for Christmas in very similar ways. This Christmas the people of Ikotos are preparing to slaughter a goat for the big meal. The people of Torit are busy buying nice dresses, shirts, trousers, and shoes for the Christmas festivities. People all over Sudan are preparing for long journeys to visit family and friends. Even here in Loki, Kenya, we are preparing for a big missionary potluck. But what have we been preparing for?

A voice of one calling:

“In the desert prepare the way for the Lord;
make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”

(Isaiah 40:3)

This verse has come up four different times in my quiet times and church services this Christmas season. Although the voice of one calling applies to John the Baptist, the message is clear for all Christians: “prepare the way for the Lord!” I believe the prophet Isaiah is telling us to prepare our hearts to receive the greatest gift of all: Christ our Savior. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). What a wonderful gift! In response to that gift, the only thing God asks of us is to prepare our hearts and come. “O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant; O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem; come and behold Him, born the King of angels: O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.” We just simply have to come; come adore the King of angels; come adore the baby born of Mary; come adore Christ, our Lord.

As you finish your Christmas preparations, my prayer is that you would also prepare your hearts to receive the greatest gift the world has ever been given. Please do not leave Christ out of your Christmas festivities but place Him at the center of them. I would encourage you to spend some time in prayer Christmas morning, attend a Christmas day/eve church service, or read through the scriptures of Jesus’ birth with your family. Praise the Lord for His glorious gift! May the Lord wrap you with His love this Christmas season. Merry Christmas to you all!

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”
~Luke 2:11

Tents, Peace, and Women of Good News

The Home:
Part of the AIM missionary experience is living with an African family in order to get a feel for how Africans live, what their culture is really like, and also to established relationships. This experience is called a “home-stay”. During the first week of December I stayed in a tent at the home of Pastor Peter and Beatrice and their family. Peter and his family (Beatrice, their three girls, and Beatrice’s mother) live in the old parish house right next to the Africa Inland Church. The house was partially destroyed during the war so the family is only using two small rooms out of the whole house while Peter continues to make improvements on the other areas. Peter’s family is not the only one in the church compound. There are at least two other families that live on the compound and several young men that live somewhere close to, if not on, the compound. The families are constantly interacting with one another as if they are one big family. It is not unusual for there to be five or more people at Peter’s house in addition to the six that already live there.

Peace

The Family:
Peter and Beatrice have three beautiful little girls and they do an amazing job of parenting each one. In Africa, parents are not always available to really parent their children; to play, let alone interact, with their children. The mother is usually busy preparing meals, getting water, or doing whatever else. The father is usually working in town or in different countries for better pay, or unemployed and a drunk. I know that last scenario sounds really harsh but it’s actually very common in Sudan. Families are also so large that the children rarely get individualized attention. But these things are not the case for Peter and Beatrice. They, too, are busy with the daily chores of life but they make it a point to show their children attention. Their parenting shows in each of their child’s development. Their eldest daughter, Amama, is an intelligent girl of about six- or seven-years and very much like her father. She is a natural leader and it shows in her composure and interaction with other children. She also has a side of her mother in her because she is already a very helpful, hospitable girl. The first morning I was there she brought me some water so that I could wash my hands before taking tea. Peace is about three- or four-years and very stubborn. For such a young girl, she is already very strong-willed. She knows exactly what she wants. But she is also a very happy child and just loves to play. When I was there she would climb up on my lap and play with my watch or the hair tie on my wrist. She also loves playing with buttons or zippers. It doesn’t really take much to entertain Peace. Linda Hope is only a few months old but she is so alert. She has huge brown eyes and a sweet smile. She laughs frequently at the littlest things. She is very laid-back and I can’t even remember her ever crying while I was there except for when she was hungry.

The Experience:
I would spend the early mornings, late afternoons, and evenings with Peter and Beatrice. In the mornings I would get up and get ready before leaving my tent. I would then try to help Beatrice with breakfast but normally she wouldn’t let me help so I just watched. I watched her make mandazis the first morning I was there. A mandazi is kind of like a triangular donut. I usually took tea and mandazis with Peter and few of the other men. I never had breakfast with Beatrice and her mother since I was a guest. In the African culture, the women usually eat after the men or away from the men. Rarely do they eat in the company of one another. After breakfast I would spend my day either at the hospital or the pre-school. Later in the day after my work, I would go back to the Byler’s house just to get away and have some alone time or do some computer work. Here in Sudan, it seems you are constantly surrounded by people, especially when you live in a setting like Peter and Beatrice.

The Women of Good News

I usually made my way back to the church compound around four or five. As soon as I’d get there I would have dinner with Peter. We would talk about our days and he would teach me some Arabic. Luckily during these times it was still light enough that I could write these things down. I would play with Amama and Peace after dinner up until bath time. Right before bed, we all gathered together outside under the stars and had a nightly devotional. Usually this gathering consisted of Peter’s family, me, and some of the young boys/men in the church compound. Peter led the devotional in Arabic so that the children would understand. Daniel, a young man from the church, would translate for me. We started the devotional in song and prayer then someone would give a mini-sermon (I gave one the third night I was there). We ended in prayer and usually another song. I loved that this time was set aside every night for the entire family to gather and worship God. Not only is it a great example to their children but it’s a great example to those in the church compound. The nightly devotionals were probably my favorite part of my time with Peter’s family.

At the end of the week there was a women’s retreat for the AIC Women of Good News. These women traveled to Torit from all over South Sudan to attend this 3-day retreat. I knew that the retreat was going to take place but I don’t think I realized just how many women would be participating or where they were going to be staying. When I returned to the compound that Wednesday evening, I saw that there were many women and children there. It was then that I realized that these women were attending the retreat and they would be staying at the church compound. A few of the women and children stayed in tents in front of Peter’s house but the rest of the women slept on tarps on the church floor. Thursday evening brought even more women and children, along with an even more overwhelming atmosphere for me. At first it was just awkward being the only “girl” surrounded by “women”. In Sudan, you are still considered a “girl” until you are married. After a while some of the women began including me in their conversation which was slightly difficult since very few of them spoke English. Some of the women didn’t even speak Arabic, only their mother tongue (mainly Acholi or Lotuko). Sometimes it was very difficult to even find a common ground. Devotionals started later than usual that night, but shortly after they were finished I went to bed. I didn’t realize how exhausting it can be to be constantly around people. As soon as I got into my tent, the women began singing. At first it was really neat because they were singing Christmas hymns in Arabic. As the night wore on the songs got louder and they began dancing. The women were performing their shrills (just a high-pitch shrill noise), laughing, singing and dancing. The music went on well into the night. Although sleep was hard to come by that night, it was so amazing to hear the women worshiping God under the stars with their sisters.

Angelina and Bianca

My home-stay was very short and ended quite abruptly due to the women’s retreat. I would have stayed longer but I know that with all the women around I would have been overwhelmed the remainder of my stay. I also wasn’t able to see the family interacting as they normally do since Beatrice’s duties had shifted while the Women of Good News were there. I am thankful that God provided me with the opportunity to stay with Peter and his family even if it was only a short time. I am looking forward to spending more time with that family in the future: chatting with Peter over tea, learning Arabic from Beatrice, and playing with the girls.

Peace and Amama

The Wounded and the Lost

I want to share with everyone two experiences I've had in the past few weeks and offer up some prayer requests. (To those of you on my email support list, I have already sent this same text to you in my last email update.)

First, when Meghan (the short-term missionary in Ikotos) was still with us over the Thanksgiving holiday, she joined me at the HIV/AIDS center at the hospital to see how their counseling and testing process went. After a while, she asked if we could get a tour of the hospital which was a great opportunity for me as well since I hadn’t gotten a tour myself. One of the counselors in the center showed us all throughout the hospital. (Just to give you an idea of what the hospital looks like: it is an open compound with several different buildings designated to certain focuses like surgery, maternity, outpatient, etc.) The most noted ward of the tour was the children’s ward. I was not prepared for what I witnessed when I stepped foot into this building. The rooms will full of beds with screens between the beds for privacy and there were only a hand full of children in the ward, all of whom could not be older than 3 years. One child was there due to malnutrition. When she was brought in they hooked her up to an IV but the catheter was not inserted properly and it somehow caused a rupture on the side of her head. As a result, she has a large opening on her head where the skin has not, and may never, grow back. She was sitting on the bed eating porridge but she looked so frail. Her arms and legs were so shrunken from the lack of nourishment. She was not much older than 1 or 2 years. Another child was in because of severe burns from a house fire. This child had burns all over her face and torso. Her hands were so severely burnt that the bones in her fingers were barely there. It took so much energy for me to not break down in the middle of the ward. My heart just broke for these children. You can read about these things in magazines and see them on television but you do not really understand scenes like this until you are standing right in the middle of them. To those of you who are doctors and nurses, I have so much respect for you because I know that I could never do what you do. Thank you! I would ask you all to lift these children up in your prayers. Pray for their healing and pray that they would experience love from a parent, sibling, doctor, or anyone. So often, children with defects like these are abandoned because parents just do not know how to care for them.

Second, this past Saturday (December 1) Torit and places all over the world celebrated World AIDS Day. I was also part of this celebration. The HIV/AIDS center set up a clinic in the middle of the town close to the festivities and we had close to 200 people come out to be tested. Another girl and I were in charge of filling out forms for people and then sending them to counselors for the counseling session and test. The forms consist of questions like age, sex, marital status, place of residence, had they been tested before, etc. I filled out 87 forms alone. The goal of the day was to create awareness about HIV and AIDS and to encourage people to get tested to find out their status. We were successful in our goal! Praise God! There was one thing, however, that did bother me during the day that I didn’t realize until I got home. When I had to ask about a man’s marital status and they said they were married, I also had to ask how many wives they had. Not only did I ask this but I asked it so nonchalantly. Now, Torit does have a very high Muslim population so it is not uncommon for a man to have more than one wife. But there are also many men here that claim to be Christians and they, too, have taken more than one wife. The day after the celebration I spent the morning in the Word. I am currently going through Jeremiah and I was reading through Chapter 4. God is telling Jeremiah of the disaster He will send to Israel from the north because Israel has denied God. Israel has committed sins against God, so much so, that they have brought this disaster on themselves. I then came to the part of the chapter where Jeremiah openly shares his anguish for his people:

“Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry. Disaster follows disaster; the whole land lies in ruins. In an instant my tents are destroyed, my shelter in a moment. How long must I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?” (Jeremiah 4:19-21)

When I read this, I could understand the pain Jeremiah was feeling because I felt the same for Torit. There are so many people here that are just lost. There are many who are drunk by the middle of the day. Teachers will show up in the schools in the afternoon drunk. Sexual immorality is everywhere. There are many mentally-disturbed people who wander through the streets terrorizing people. My heart aches for these people because they do not know the Lord. They do not know peace or love because they do not know their Savior. But this is not only so in Torit but it is all over the Sudan. Hatred has brought war and pain. Even though the war is over, hatred still exists. I ask that you would pray that God would move through this community as well as the rest of Sudan. Pray for peace to come between the north and the south. Pray that the people here in Torit would see that their lives are of the world and not of God. Pray that all of the missionaries in South Sudan would be a light to the people and that God would use us to pour forth His love and truth.

A Sudanese Thanksgiving

Matt, Johnston, Me and Meghan

Saturday, November 24, we celebrated Thanksgiving with several friends from Torit. But before I can dive into the meal I must tell you of our preparations.

To Americans, the Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. This is when it seems the entire country gets up before the sun rises to get to the shopping centers for the big sales. Well, Meghan and I did some shopping on Black Friday: Sudanese style. We left for the market mid-morning and shopped around for a few clothing items before purchasing food for the Thanksgiving meal. In addition to the African gumaas (dresses) we both found, we also purchased things like cabbage, eggs, onions, papaya, bread, egg plant, and other foods. Not entirely like an American Black Friday, but shopping none-the-less.

Our Monkey Friend

Saturday morning, Meghan and I hung Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music. Linda and I started the food preparation while Meghan organized the house a bit and set up Thanksgiving-like decorations. I was pretty much in charge of the baking. I made pumpkin bread (this was the closest we were going to get to a pumpkin pie – and yes, Sudan has pumpkin but they are green instead of orange). Since we don’t have an oven everything has to be cooked on top of a gas stove. There is a pan called an Egyptian oven that is very similar to a bunt pan with a lid. You set this oven on top of a fluted metal piece that sets on top of a stove burner so that heat can move through the middle of the pan as well as around the outside of the pan. This is what I used to bake the bread. I also made a chocolate cake. We had some cocoa and Meghan’s home church sent her a can of chocolate icing and some chocolate sprinkles along with some other things in a care package. I also had some chocolate squares so I was able to make a chocolate, chocolate cake!

We also prepared beef in a brown sauce, cabbage salad with carrots, tomatoes and onions, bread and Sudanese cakes (like corn bread), rice, pumpkin leaves in peanut sauce, homemade stuffing, and boiled sweet potatoes. Our dessert table consisted of chocolate cake, pumpkin bread, papaya, and, of course, tea. After all the food was prepared we also prepared for the celebration. Linda, Lyn, Meghan and I all wore African gumaas.

Meghan and Linda Hope

Later that afternoon our guests started to arrive. There were eleven of our African friends that came, making us 18 in total. While we were waiting for everyone to come we set out large pieces of paper and markers for people to draw the things that they were thankful for. Afterwards we gathered together to share each of our things. It was so neat to see the various things that everyone was thankful for!

After Phil blessed the food, everyone dug in. Most of the foods that we had were African-style foods so no one had any problems finding something to eat. When it was time for dessert I was anticipating none of the Africans to take much, if any, of the chocolate cake because they tend to not like very sweet foods (even though they put five heaping spoonfuls of sugar into their tea!). However, I believe almost everyone tried a piece because the cake was almost gone by the end of the night. After our dessert and tea we spent some time singing and then Phil gave a mini sermon on giving thanks referencing 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. We ended the evening in prayer and everyone went on their way. It was definitely a different Thanksgiving than I’d ever had but I was still surrounded by a family of believers.

Me and Melesh