Egypt

I just got back from a week in Egypt with my sister Audrey, and our long-time friend Melissa. The pyramids and the sphinx and the tombs and temples were absolutely breathtaking! I still can’t believe we were there! After climbing in and out of pyramids and tombs and up and down the 5 floor walk-up hostel we were staying at, and riding camels, we were quite sore, but it was all worth it! I have never seen anything so amazing! I look at this picture and still can’t quite believe it.

Audrey then came and spent a week with me in Juba. We did workshops, went on a couple road trips to Lainya and Rokon, met with teachers and bishops, and visited the one swimming pool in town! It was wonderful to have her and share what my life is like here.

A Joke!

I have a joke to share with you. Bishop Alapayo has told it to me twice, because I asked for a repeat performance.

There was a pastor in a rural church, and there was an old woman who went to his church who lived alone. She had a cat who she loved very much, so one day she took the cat to the pastor and said, “I love this cat very much, and I want to make sure that he goes to heaven with me, so I would like you to baptize him.” The pastor was surprised, and tried gently to tell her that he couldn’t baptize a cat. But the old lady insisted, and said, “you know this cat is very important to me, it would make me so happy if you baptized him, I would put an iron sheet roof on the church.” Well, the pastor thought about it, Why not? And so he baptized the cat, and the old lady was good on her word, she fixed up the church properly, and everyone was very happy. But then the bishop heard about the cat. He called the pastor to him, “What is this I hear about you baptizing cats!” “Well, your Lordship it was only one cat, and now we have iron sheets for a roof.” The bishop continued to scold the pastor thoroughly. Then a few weeks later the bishop was visiting the church. “Oh, pastor,” he said, “What has happened to your church?” The pastor smiled and said, “remember that cat I baptized?” And the bishop said “Bring that cat to me, and I will confirm it!”

Ok, so it’s probably not as funny without Bishop Alapayo telling it. My favorite part is the “Oh Pastor,” the way Bishop Alapayo says it, and the way you can see the punchline building in his grin and the twinkle in his eyes. And then he tells the punchline again, and we laugh again. In my family we like to retell punchlines too!

Part of the humor of the joke is how important roofs are here. The vast majority of villages in south Sudan are made up entirely of thatched buildings. Houses, schools, churches, stores all thatched buildings. I have seen some impressively huge thatched structures. But thatch has to be replaced at least every 3 years, and mud buildings get infested with termites and bats, and have to be rebuilt at least every 10 years, and it is a lot of work, and a lot of materials. So an “iron sheet” roof, which we would call “corrugated tin”, and which is actually zinc, is the desire of every church that meets under a tree or a thatched roof. In communities where no other building has a permanent roof, the people make the church roof their first priority.

Pray for Peace

The UN has officially recognized death tolls from violent conflict are now higher in south Sudan than Darfur. Leaders in the government as well as other leaders including Archbishop Daniel, have sounded the alarm that the peace agreement which ended the longest running civil war in Africa in 2005, is now in danger of failing. But there is still hope!

Please pray for the peace process, pray for the leaders of Sudan, pray for the Church, pray for the people.

ECS Agriculture Gifts

For those of you interested in supporting the specific projects of the ECS Agriculture Office, here is your opportunity!
Click Here for a brochure that has funding options from $40 to $70,000 to support the work of the agriculture department of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, which I am helping to establish. If you are interested, please contact Frank Gray (info on brochure).
(photo: demonstration garden at the ECS guest house, paid for by small gifts fundraising)

God can revivie us!

The hot winds blew across the parched ground. The rains are late this year in Abyei. There are scattered scrub trees, but the grass has long since been grazed to nothing on the flat, dry plain. We gathered at the site of the ECS church and school, which were destroyed in violence that flared one year and two weeks ago. The church is now just a grass mat shade structure under a partially burned tree, with indistinct piles of rubble around. The mother’s union came to greet us with song, dance, and welcome banners carefully lettered in English and Arabic. Just like churches everywhere, the ladies wore nametags, and just like churches across Sudan coming to greet their Archbishop, they jumped and danced and clapped and sang with glee. The Sunday school came out in a line, dancing and singing with hand-cut tissue paper flowers in their hair. There were cold sodas, and loud speakers. Everyone wore their best clothes. It was a celebration of great joy.

Bishop Francis Loyo of Rokon Diocese was with our delegation. He had been the ECS representative sent to Abyei last year to distribute emergency assistance after the conflict. He spoke to the people, “Following Christ is not an easy task. It is founded on suffering.” Bishop Loyo is a man of tremendous faith, and unquenchable joy.

One of the representatives from the government addressed the gathered congregation, “Despite everything we have suffered, we still trust in God who can revive us.”

God can revive us! That thought has remained with me. As in the other desperate and conflict torn places in southern Sudan, there was unexpected hope and abundance among the ashes.

Visiting Abyei was part of the Archbishop’s tour of Wau diocese. We spent a week in the town of Wau for a diocesan meeting. It was the longest I’ve spent in any town besides Juba, and it was a bit like going on a short term mission trip with the staff from the provincial office, and several bishops. We spent a lot of time chatting together, meeting people, and putting on workshops. A group of women priests (photo above) waited on us hand and foot, and it seemed as though a goat or sheep was slaughtered every night for a feast. When we left, we were presented with gifts. The men received walking sticks, and I was given a beautiful carved tea tray, and an embroidered bed sheet. This is the paradox of mission work, you go to serve, give, and work, and in turn you are served, given gifts, and revived!

God can revive us! This is a theme that has entered my agriculture workshops as well. It has surprised me how closely agriculture and theology can be related. Without realizing it was happening, the lessons I have learned traveling with the Archbishop have worked their way into my teaching. Peace, development, and agriculture improvement do not come from stuff, they come from a changing of the human heart, and that is the work of the Spirit. Should we pray for our land? Should we pray for the knowledge to help revive it? Are the answers already written in creation around us? Yes, yes, yes! Our job—each one of us, as members of the human race who hope for a better tomorrow—is to plant the seeds. We can plant the seeds of hope in everything we do. The Spirit will water them.

Q&A with 7th Graders in Georgia

My cousin Hayley’s 7th grade advanced social studies class at West Side Magnet School in LaGrange, Georgia sent me questions about life in Sudan. Some of our conversation is included below. If anyone has more questions, you can leave a comment on this post, and I’ll answer.

”What food do you eat?”
Stew, roasted meat (goat or cow), greens, rice, stiff porridge of flour, bread, beans, fruit, and vegetables.

”What is the weather like in the place you're at?”
In Juba it is hot all the time 80-100 degrees. The rainy season started in April, and we get a good storm a couple times a week. The rain will last until November here in Juba. Climates vary tremendously across Sudan. With tropical forest, grass land, mountains, the largest swamp in the world, and desert.

“What are the conditions for people?”
In south Sudan the situation is dire for many people. Returning refugees do not have access to the food and water they need. Education and health care facilities are rare and poorly staffed when they exist. Maternal and child mortality are some of the highest rates in the world. Hunger is widespread.

”What is your job, specifically, in Sudan?”
I work for the Episcopal Church of Sudan, which is the largest Christian denomination here. I work for the provincial office, which is the office of the Archbishop for all of Sudan (north and south). I am a missionary of the Episcopal Church USA, assigned here to work for the Archbishop at his request. I am an agriculturalist, and so my job is to start an agriculture department for the church. I have been helping in the planning process for larger scale food production projects, and I assist the regional bishops with training and advising for their agriculture programs. I do workshops with subsistence farmers and pastors, teaching them improved farming techniques, that allow them to increase their food production without having to purchase expensive inputs (sustainable techniques like composting, mulching, adjusting plant density, etc). I spend most of my time traveling in the south to the rural areas. When I am at home in Juba, I attend a lot of meetings, and work in the office.

”Do they have any similarities to us? If so, how?”
People everywhere are essentially the same they have the same concerns: family, friends, making a living. People argue and tell jokes, they go to work, they go shopping, kids play games and make toys out of anything they can find. Soccer is the favorite sport. People go to church, sing songs… the similarities are endless. There are 5 kids in the family I live with and we don’t speak the same language, but we still play tons of games together, and laugh all the time.

”Life is obviously different there; how did you adapt?”
Its not so hard to adapt. The food is different, but good. Learning the meaning behind different sayings and how to be polite is difficult at first when you come to a new culture. What is difficult now is worrying about the future of the country and the increasing violence. But it is also hard missing my family and friends.

”Where and how do you get most of your water from?”
At home we have running water in the house. When I am traveling in areas that don’t have running water, someone goes and hauls water by the bucket from a hand-pump well, or from a river. Many diseases are spread in water, so drinking water must be boiled or purchased.

”What is your living system (daily routine?)”
When I am in Juba, I get up around 7, have tea with family I live with, drive or walk about ½ mile to the office. Where we have power, internet, printers, scanners, etc. I research on the internet, communicate with bishops and others about projects, planning (calling, meeting, writing). When I am traveling, which is more than ½ the time, it is different. We drive down dirt roads, stay in local accommodations which are usually tukls (huts), we are greeted by the people, eat, meet with bishops, tour the diocese, see agriculture projects, conduct workshops, and pray together.

”Do you know anyway that we may help?”
You can write to President Obama and to your Members of Congress and Sentors. Tell them that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan is in danger of falling apart, and the country going back to war. Remind them that the US is one of the countries that signed the agreement as a guarantor of the peace, and it is our responsibility to do something before it is too late.
You can also give money to groups working in Sudan. And you can pray for Sudan.

Special thanks to Hayley for organizing this discussion, and to she and her classmates for their concern for the people of Sudan!

Hope and Fear

More than 1,000, possibly more than 2,000 people have been killed in south Sudan in tribal clashes over the last two months. It is hard to know for sure, because it doesn’t seem to be on the news. And the LRA is still killing and spreading fear throughout Western and Central Equitoria states. I have noticed that the conflict in Darfur has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world, but people fail to realize that Darfur is part of Sudan, and if there is no peace between the north and the south, there will be no peace in Darfur. The peace today stands uncertain.

The Archbishop of Sudan, Daniel Deng Bul, sounded the alarm this month in a letter to the international community. “Arms smuggling, re-armament and incitement of tribal violence is being carried out by enemies of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement… Why is the international community allowing this violence to continue? I beseech you to act now to prevent it and protect the peace of my people.” (full text)

The Archbishop is a man of tremendous vision, and I am honored to be working for him. In his first year in office he has been working tirelessly and without pay to bring development to Sudan. But development work cannot happen in the presence of violence and insecurity. I had an agriculture workshop scheduled today, which was canceled because of insecurity in the area. Now, as the CPA is threatened, the Archbishop has become an outspoken advocate of peace. Last week, the front page of the Juba newspaper had his photo and the title, “Church sounds the alarm”. He is struggling to find the means to travel to some of these conflict torn areas to preach about peace, and reconciliation. His voice makes a difference. The Church makes a difference.

It is easy to feel hopelessness in the face of mounting uncertainty for the future of Sudan. It is easy to see only the bad things that are happening anywhere in this world. But this week, I am inspired by this leader who stands firmly with the Gospel message of peace and reconciliation. And I am honored that my presence here is helping support the programs of the Church, which bring hope.

I had my first agriculture workshop last week in the diocese of Lainya. I met with 17 pastors and lay leaders for a day-long discussion and practice. We started with a bible study on passages that talk about stewardship of the land, and a discussion. “We need tractors, tools, seeds…” this is a refrain I have heard everywhere. But this time, we used it as an opportunity to talk about what they do have, and how God might be calling them to act with what has been provided in creation around them. One thing we came up with was that they could plant a teak plantation using seeds from the wild trees, and use that for an investment for the church and the pastors. We also went out into the field to observe and practice some improved techniques. By looking and evaluating, the participants came up with 7 different benefits of mulch! Convincing people to mulch instead of burn is one of my priorities as an agriculturalist. Since we talked about what happens in both mulching and burning, and looked at the results, and connected that to what we read in the bible about learning from creation, it seems to have made an impact. It was a good and hope-filled day.

God has been moving in my heart on the subject of hope. As I sat praying a few days ago, demanding answers to my worry and longing, a single word came to me – patience. And all my questions and demands of “why” and “when” and “how,” seemed to be clouds of darkness and confusion, and at the center of it all was a dazzlingly beautiful light, that was the love of God. This seemed to be the answer to my questions… take a step back, remember what is important. I find it immensely difficult to trust God, because after all, bad things happen to good people. But this picture in my heart is a reminder. There is no truth in these questions I ask, no hope. Hope is in the love of God, everywhere and eternal.

Patience is a choice, focusing on the love of God is a choice. I have been frustrated that I don’t find these choices to be natural. It takes me whispering the words “rely on God” before I can even consider that patience is a choice! But I think this is the work of life to which we are called. We can choose whether our work is fulfilling or not, based on the choices we make every second of the day. Many of these choices are too hard, too different from our normal way of being. But we have the Holy Spirit inside us, just waiting for us to remember that we can’t do it alone.

So in spite of all that is going on, and because of it, I feel the presence of the peace which passes understanding. And I am assured that it is through our weaknesses and failings, and through the troubles and hopelessness of this world that God’s glory is revealed.