Road Blocks

I don't usually write a post like this as it is not my strong point but I have been pondering this since my trip to Ethiopia.
I planned to go to 4 different areas of Ethiopia to visit 4 different Presbyterian Synods. I mad it to the first two and then was not sure what would happen. I wanted to go to Dembi Dollo  but was not sure  I would be able to make the trip since the road was closed due to unrest in the area. The road opened and away I went. About half way there we started encountering huge rocks, whole tress, tree stumps and branches on the road. At each place small path had been cleared for traffic to to go through but everything else was still on the road. At places we had to weave our way through these road blocks. It bothered me that the roads were not completely cleared as it was vary dangerous driving through all this, especially after it got dark. I was worried about having an accident and then we saw an accident where a truck hit one of these partially cleared road blocks, flipped and the driver was killed. So, why are the road blocks not completely cleared? Because they man y want to put the block up again and why keep moving all the rocks!!

I have thought of this from several different angles in my Christian life. The main one is this. How many road blocks do I put up? Television, sports, food, friends, education etc.? How many do I only partially clear and try to squeeze through? I argue that I have to eat, or that sports is just fun, friends are important......and on  and on. Do I need to do better at clearing the road blocks in my life? These road blocks can keep me from deepening my relationship with God.

Then there is the thought,  do the road blocks in my life have an affect on others in my life? Are they a spiritual danger to them? By my willingness to weave through these blocks without clearing them am I showing others that it is not important to have a clear path to God?

Then I also looked at it this way. God clears a path for us through all the "stuff" in out lives if we but ask Him to and trust in Him.As we drove through those barely cleared paths in the stones etc, I thought how narrow is the path to God and how He will protect us on that path if we just ask Him. There are many twists and turns on the path and sometimes we come to a place where the way is blocked and we need to examine our lives and ask God to help us clear a path again. Ask for forgiveness, wisdom and grace and eyes to see the path ahead.

I arrived at my destination safely but wondering if I would be able to leave on my scheduled day. Another road block? My own desire to stick to my schedule and not be open to God's? I was delayed a day because the roads were blocked again and it did change my whole schedule and kept me from going to another town. God's hand was in this because that other town started having clashes between ethnic groups and it was better for me not to be there.

My final thought from this trip is this. The driver of the vehicle was driving very fast and as it started to get dark he would not turn the lights on. I was afraid he would not see a road block, or the many cows and people on the road. Do I need to slow down and take my time and let God be in control? YES!! He did not turn the lights on until completely dark. Why? I really don't know but I was thinking how much easier and safer it would be with the headlights on. The same as how much clearer we see if let Jesus be the light  that leads the way. Psalm 119: 105 says " Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path" The interesting thing here is that I wrote this during church ( don't judge - Church was in a language I did not understand and this was on my heart) and there was a banner hanging at the front with that Psalm on it but I did not see it until I was done writing this in my notebook.

There is also a song that goes " God will make a way, where there seems to be no way, He works in ways we cannot see...."


I am sorry the pictures are not clearer but I had to take them as we were driving - not safe to get out to take pictures of this stuff! And Yes, that is a guard rail that was twisted across the road.

I often wonder what my legacy will be. I know my father, who was a missionary for 42 years, never really worried about that, he knew that he was doing the best that he could and while he was making mistakes, he trusted God to work through him.

Now, I am back in the same country that he served in and I get to hear about his legacy. Of course, at first what they tell me is all very good and nice but as time goes on and I am here longer… well, I hear more of the whole story. It is not a bad story, just one of a man doing the best he could with the knowledge of the times about how to do mission.

I hear stories of how he was a task master at the school he worked at for a very short period of time. How he would not give a direct answer but would rather make people read the Bible, talk about things and come up with their idea of what the answer was. He would also not intervene when the children, of all colors, would fight over my brother’s bike but would rather, tell them to work it out themselves. He would lose his temper, I have been told. Do things that were not culturally acceptable, and I am sure other things that they have not told me about.

The thing I keep hearing is that he is remembered for bringing the word of Christ to South Sudan. Not a bad legacy. What I take from this is we need to forgive ourselves, and each other for the mistakes we make and look at the bigger picture. I am making a lot of mistakes here in the same country as my father. I wonder what my legacy will be since they already have the word of God. I have determined not to wonder about this anymore because the only legacy I want to leave is that I loved God and tried my best to follow him.

Where to begin??
There are times when there is so much going on it is hard to write and then, at times there is nothing going on!
We have been in the States March, April and May then back to Juba for about 5 weeks in the States again until Sept 18. Well at least for me that is how it is going. Lynn has had to go back to Juba for about 2 weeks for a big meeting the church is having so he will return Sept 1 and then go back with me Sept 18. I have a feeling he will not know what time zone he is in for a while!😃
We have had a lot of nice family time but we have been traveling all over the place - Ohio, Penn. Michigan, Florida, Nebraska, Missouri and Kentucky. I have been lucky on this last trip to be able to drive on back roads and see how beautiful this country is.

I am learning to enjoy all aspects of this crazy time in the States, from meeting new people all the time, to talking about our Faith with people we just met to discussing sports teams and of course our President. I am constantly challenged by people concerning my Faith and what I want to stand for and how I want to be seen. I am humbled by what I see so many churches and individuals doing. I am struck by how when we put Christ first how many of these other " things" don't matter.

I don't know if we have told everyone and I am to lazy to read through my other posts, but Lynn and I have signed up for another 2 years of this work and we will see what God says at that time. I know I say this a lot but it is true, I really do feel alive and at peace doing this work.

Sorry this is short but I just can't think of anything more to say.

Thank you for reading my rambling thoughts!!

Airports

I am sitting in the Toronto Airport waiting for the next leg of our trip - on to Frankfurt then and overnight in Nairobi, Kenya and an early flight to Juba on Saturday.
In a way I like this time in between so that I can let go of the America part and start getting back into the Africa part. True, we do work the whole time while in America but it is hard, at times, to really focus on the work.

We had a good 2 months in the States and got to see most of the family and visited churches in Pa., Fla., Michigan and Ohio. A great time to catch up on people and get them caught up on our lives. We will be back in the States in July -Sept so we have a lot of travel this year.

Airports are an interesting place and I used to enjoy them a lot more than I do now. Maybe, just maybe, I am getting old and the novelty of watching people has worn off. I think it is more that with planes packed all the time and everyone is in a hurry and people are just not as polite as they used to be. Mind you, the conveniences in the airports are MUCH better than when I was a kid. Coffee shops, nice restaurants, soft chairs to sit on and really good WiFi. Honestly? I think I would give up some of those nice things for bigger seats on the planes! It is interesting to look around and see how other people pack and dress for travel and how they deal with tired children in a public setting for hours on end.  I wonder where all these people are going to and how they afford this kind of travel. We have met Service men, other missionaries, people on vacation, young adults doing a summer program, people traveling to a funeral or wedding and on it goes.

I am looking forward to being back in Juba! I have a whole other family there that I have missed in the last 2 months. Things in South Sudan are not looking to good right now and while I think things could get worse I really think that we may be close to a turning point.

4 countries in 4 weeks.

Ok, so it has been a month again since I last wrote but this time I feel like I really do have a good reason. :) Feb 1st I went to Ethiopia and returned to Juba on the 18th. Then on the 22nd Lynn and I went to Uganda and returned on the 24th only to leave again on the 26th to go to Khartoum, Sudan.

Ethiopia was a really good trip! I was able to go to Gambella and Jimma again, 2 places I visited the last time. I was hoping to go to one other place but things just did not work out so I had extra time in Addis which ended up being a very good thing.  I always have trouble with the internet  in Ethiopia so that is my excuse for not writing while I was there. Let me tell you, we in the States have much to learn about hospitality from our friends in Africa!! Tea and coffee several times a day, more food than we can eat, and long conversations about so many different things. Oh, and don't forget the laughter - so much time laughing and sharing.  I also got to see a school mate that I had not seen since 1992! It was such a good trip! I did realize that I am way more of an introvert ( yes, really! ME!) than I ever knew. Luckily I was with people who understood that and gave me time in the evenings to just be by myself. :) I am already looking forward to my next trip to Ethiopia in the fall.

Uganda was just a quick trip to see some co-workers there and get some "mega hugs" from their kids! We were in Arua and I think I could live there the rest of my life! Just the right size town, cooler than Juba most of the time, friendly people and the neatest old style houses. The flight back was an interesting one though. Our plane had room for 12 passengers and the 2 pilots. Well, for both legs of the trip we had 13 passengers! These are smaller planes and the isles are REALLY narrow so the 13th person sat in the last row with a butt cheek on the seat on either side of the isle!!!! The plane also did not have all the seat belts working and when we brought this to the attention of the co-pilot he said " no problem"! I will say the pilot landed the plane with one of the smoothest landings I have experienced! When we arrived in Juba we had to sit on the plane for a little over an hour while waiting  for the President to arrive, do an interview and then leave - luckily it was a cooler day or it would have really been miserable.

Now we are in Khartoum visiting friends and seeing some of the sights around the city. We will be heading back to Juba on the 5th and then on to the States on the 12th. Is it any wonder that I wake up wondering where I am??

Oh, by the way, the coffee in Ethiopia and Sudan is FAR better than anything I have had in the States!

One of those days

Have you ever had so many different things on your mind that you don't know where to start? That was us today. Trying to get a visa for Lynn to go to Khartoum. If he does not get it then the person traveling with him will not get hers. This means she will go to Ethiopia early which means I need to go early. This means getting my ticket changed which is not so bad except to get the really good deal on that we have to pay on line and that has never worked for us on the airlines website. Plus we need to spend a half a day getting our 1 year visa renewed. Oh, and there is a financial report to get sent, emails that need to be worded carefully, check about a place to stay in Ethiopia and flights to different places and make sure the people will be around that we want to see. Then, this morning we get a call from Rev. Yor saying that Michael Weller has been trying to reach us by phone but is not getting an answer from either of us. I call back and he was very relieved since there was a recording on my phone in Arabic and he was worried something had happened to me. Got that cleared up and then got a message from Rachel Weller in another city in Ethiopia saying "please call right away"! This was because she also was worried that something had happened to me.

By now it is noon and neither one of has cooked lunch and we need to get going to the immigration office. Well, we decided to go to a restaurant near the immigration office and walked in to see the dinning room blocked off!! NO way was this happening! When we asked they said, oh, yes, you can go in - WHEW. WE had some GREAT Ethiopian food and then walked over to the immigration office and walked out 45 minutes later with our visas renewed, no problems and feeling like things were looking up. We start walking up to the main road to get a bus when Lynn's phone starts ringing like crazy and when he is finally able to answer it is a co-worker saying our boss (in the States) has been trying to get through to us and someone strange is answering our phone! HUH??? We get through to her and take care of things.

We get home only to have more phone calls and emails that all need us to do something right now and some we cannot do at all. We get it all taken care of (sort of) and I go to sound off to our co-worker then return to our apartment only to realize there is NO CHOCOLATE in the house!!!! This cannot be and I will not make it through the evening without my chocolate. I decide to sit and look at facebook and there is a message from a friend living across town who has made a chocolate pudding dessert and I should come and get some! It is now 6:30 and will be dark soon and it is a 15 min walk there and then back again and it will be dark by then. Someone tried to steal by bag off of me last week so I am a little nervous of walking around dark by myself. Lynn was starting to make supper so he could not go. Well, nothing was going to keep me from getting some chocolate so off I go. I was able to get a rickshaw part way there which gave me a little time to visit before starting back. As I was walking towards the big traffic circle I was praying for a rickshaw to come along and just as I got to the circle there came a rickshaw. I got home just at full dark.

Whew! Supper is over, my belly has chocolate in it and I feel like I will be to relax.
As I look back on the day I see how so many things worked out so well for us, from getting the rides we needed, having lunch where we wanted, getting our visas in 45 Min ( truly a miracle) and ending with chocolate. Plus, having wonderful people around us to listen as we gripe about things.

Hello!

Well, I did not get the new year off to a very good start - I was going to write more often this year -HA!

We stayed in Juba for all of December and it was very quiet. There are 2 things about it being very quiet. The church office closes for a month so everyone can go be with their families and this is good because many of them do not see their families except for once or twice a year. It makes it boring for us because there is not much to do (well , there is plenty that needs doing but no one is here!) Quiet is good during December because that means there was no fighting. This year we really noticed how people seemed to feel a little more hope and there was more social activities among the South Sudanese. New Years eve at midnight I heard all this noise outside and at first I thought it was a bad sign but then I went and looked out the window and saw that it was people celebrating and there was so much traffic that they had the traffic police out! It was fun to watch people dancing and singing in the streets. Other years people have tended to stay inside or if they were out they were not singing and dancing in the streets.

This is not to say that peace has arrived in South Sudan. I really look forward to the day that I can say that it has. There is still fighting in the country and every group blaming another for the fighting.

Lynn is hoping to leave on the 29th to go to Khartoum again. He ha not received his visa yet but we still have this week so who is worried??? I will leave on the 4th for a 2 week trip to Ethiopia and Lynn will join me their on the 12th.

Then guess what?? We will be going to the States mid March and be there for 2 1/2 months!! This is part of our Interpretation Assignment (IA) so that means we will be traveling around talking at different churches. We will be doing this again mid July to mid Sept. so you all get truly blessed with our company this year.  Ha. :)

I know this is short but I seem to be having trouble thinking of things that would be interesting to you all. I do want you to know that we are praying for you. I am looking forward to coffee dates(Brandon L) play time with grandchildren, teaching a niece (Emersyn) some bad things for her parents and long talks with everyone. Oh, and eating Mexican food. :)