Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Well, I guess being in South Sudan has a lot of advantages - like, we have no COVID-19 here......well at least no one knows about it.
The truth is it probably is here but has not been identified yet since this time of year there are a lot of respiratory problems due to the dust and burning of vegetation. We still shake hands, although some organizations are putting a ban on that. We still go about our normal day.
Lynn is coming back from Kenya today where he went for a meeting and some routine medical stuff. Poor guy had to suffer with Ethiopian and Indian food and getting to go to our favorite coffee shop, Java House. Oh, and seeing friends and being invited to their place for a meal.
We were planning a trip to Sudan but that has been put on hold due to the virus even though it is not in Sudan or here where we live.
I have been thinking a lot about all the travel bans and now the whole of Italy being on lock down. Maybe this is not such a bad thing. Just think, we can stay in our countries and not deal with airport stuff, maybe actually do some real cleaning at home, talk with each other - really talk with each other, take a break from the craziness of our normal lives. I realize that there is the financial side of things and that that is scary but I still wonder if this is a chance to hit a reset button on what is important in our lives.
Okay, on to fun things - like I just tried a bread recipe I got from Kendra and it is SO good. More of a pain to make but really worth it. I would love to try sour dough bread but we travel so much. I was wondering if you can freeze the starter?

Monday, February 24, 2020

Well,it is a new day in South Sudan. On Saturday the Transitional Government was put in to place. The hope and prayer is that this is the beginning of true peace in South Sudan. Please continue to pray that the leaders will put the needs of the people and country first.

We celebrated the day by staying at home. Not because we could not go out, just because we had no reason to go out! I must say, it ended up being a boring day - boring enough that Lynn made a coffee cake in the afternoon!

We are thinking of making a trip to Khartoum in March - well, at least is going and we will see if I can go along or not. With the change in government in Khartoum that happened last year it is now much easier to go there. Of course, we have now waited until the hotter time of year to go but, oh well, a little sweat never hurt anyone.

We will be coming to the States in June this year for 4 months to do speaking wherever anyone wants us. It is always an interesting time doing the speaking. We are building on past visits so it is like seeing old friends and then the new churches is the opportunity to make even more friends. It is tiring and fun at the same time. It is nice to be able to talk with folks who have an interest in the places that we work and the wonderful people that we work with. It is great when people have a lot of questions even political questions that I pass off to my hubby to answer! 😁

Oh, guess what??? We have city electricity at our apartment building! We have had it for about 3 weeks now and while there have been a few outages, they have not lasted long. We have not blown any chargers or computers either so that is really good! We now have street lights in parts of town and each day new areas are getting city power so things are brighter at night. Bad thing now is that there is so much light at night that I cannot see the stars as well.

We are feeling better about things these days. Lynn and I reminded ourselves that we are at the 5 year mark and that is often when missionaries get discouraged. It helped remembering that and talking it through together - we try to laugh more now rather than just look at the negative. Sitting and talking with our friends and partners here over a casual tea time or meal is also a good way of getting past some of the negative feelings.

Something just happened that is one of the difficult things about being so far from family. Our son's father-in-law just passed away and we cannot be there at this time. Please keep the family in prayer as they plan a funeral and adjust to a new reality.

Sunday, January 26, 2020

I keep seeing posts on Facebook about snow, ice and freezing temperatures and I am so glad to be back in Juba! We have had the most beautiful weather since we returned. Hot during the day but at 6:30 am when we go walking it is almost cool enough for a long sleeved shirt.

Things are ..... interesting right now. There is so much hope and optimism in the air - many people moving back to Juba, new construction everywhere, city electricity in some areas of the city ( really expensive and not in our area yet, of course) and way to many cars in the city now. BUT.  There is real fear with many people fleeing South Sudan. The transitional government is supposed to form on Feb 22 after being put off twice already. The bench marks for this to happen have not taken place and there is real fear that there will be a repeat of 2013 and 2016 when major fighting broke out.

We were at a ecumenical church meeting this last week and it was interesting to hear how people are afraid and optimistic at the same time. There is also the feeling that it will really take the grass roots people of South Sudan to make a difference in this country.
We continue with our work with the partners of PCUSA, trying to be an encouragement to them as they continue to encourage us.

How are we doing, personally? Not to bad. I feel like Lynn and I are pushing through a wall that has been around us and it feels good to be coming out the other side. You know, with every job you have there are stages of liking and not liking your work. We have always liked living in Juba and working with the partners. Our stumbling block has been so many changes within PCUSA that have caused a lot of stress in the work we do. It is good to know that things are settling down in PCUSA and that there seems to be more communication with everyone, so, we are hopeful for the future.