I remember

" I remember your father", "My parents knew your parents", " I knew little Timmy" Names of places like Doleb Hill, Nasir, Leer. These are all things I heard this morning at a very large Nuer Church here in Juba. I was introduced to the congregation as Nya Dhouram, daughter of Dhouram, with Dhouram being my father. I was touched by the cheer that came with my being introduced and by my very simple one word greeting in Nuer. After church as we stood in line to greet everyone so many people said they remember my father or have heard of my father and were so appreciative of the work and years my father gave to the Nuer. When the one man said he knew "little Timmy" ( sorry Tim) I almost cried. For those of you who don't know my family, Tim is my oldest brother.

How different this mornings service with the Nuers was compared to the services I went to as a kid in Ethiopia. The biggest difference is that there were 2470 people in church this morning!!! That number is right -2470!!!!! I knew the church was large but that is a lot of people:) I was afraid we would be there all day when the pastor said he had two parts to the sermon and 22 points but we actually only had a 2 1/2 hour service :)

We are trying to visit different churches in the Juba area and this was a really good start. Most of the congregations are by tribe and the services are in either the tribal language or in Arabic. It makes for time to think if we can't understand what is being said.

Right now, Lynn is between building projects and the church office people are gone for a week so we are heading to Kenya again for a one week break. It will be good to get away for a little bit, away from the heat, the tension and the dust. It will be good to have different food and even some really good ice-cream. You know, priorities are important and ice-cream is at the top of that list:) We will be doing a little work in Kenya too, with trying to touch base with a group there that will be helping with a project in the town of Pibor here in South Sudan.

So, while there is not really much new going on with us, we are doing well and continue to put our lives in God's hands daily. We continue to be challenged with how to respond to so much need but we are also inspired by the faith of the people around us and by their positive outlook for the future.