Off to Terekeka!

Yoyoyo fellas,

We are getting into a car tomorrow and driving for ~8 hours to get to Terekeka, South Sudan.  We will stay for 13 days.  It is a smaller orphanage of Harvesters (40 kids rather than 150) and happens to be on the Nile river.  Can't wait to go swimming with the crocodiles! ;)  Its also gonna be fun to be crammed in a car with Ben Baker and Johnson, a Ugandan worker at Harvesters.  We should get to see some cool Sudanese countryside.

We met tonight with our 5 brothers:  John, John, John, Samuel, and Nicholas.  Good guys, had a good time talking about Luke 9.  "Take up your cross and follow Jesus"  Praying that God would use us to bring more glory to himself in these guys lives.  Such potential exists in this orphanage for future leaders of this nation.  When we get home from Terekeka we have the privilege to lead 2 other groups of guys that are high school age.  Can't wait, as we've already become friends with most of these guys and have spent considerable time with them. 

For the record, I agree with Ben by saying that making cabinets is one of the most frustrating things on earth.  You seriously cannot be 1/16th of an inch off on a lot of your cuts, then you have to take account for boards being warped.  Being a perfectionist doesn't work well for me with this job.  It didn't work well with tiling an uneven floor either.  lol.

Ok enough rambling.  Off to Terekeka, pray that we can be a real encouragement and help to Lance and Kim, the leaders of the orphanage...and that we'll love some cute African kids to the glory of God.

Pray. Love. (A Month Living in) Sudan.

So, I'm ashamed of myself for not blogging before now, but I think I underestimated how difficult it would be to blog while working over here.  As for Treat, he's such a seasoned veteran when it comes to mission projects that he's figured out a way portion out his time so that he can keep everyone updated on our comings and goings.  BUT... as for me, I'm a rookie.  So, with that being said, please excuse my delay.

But, let's get this thing started.  Like I said, this blog article is long overdue, but once I realized how miserably I'd failed at keeping you guys updated, I tried to time it out so that I could give you A MONTH IN RETROSPECT.  So that's what this is -- a collection of several memories from Sudan thus far.  So… Sit back, relax, grab some popcorn, and… ENJOY!

1) Terrain, Terrain!

I'm not an experienced flyer, and flying to Sudan was BY FAR the longest flight I have ever experienced in my life.  Flying into Yei, we landed on a dirt airstrip, and as we were descending, the computer in the cockpit audibly started saying "Terrain.  Terrain.  Pull up.  Pull up."  I looked down, and all I saw was green.  I laughed it off at the time, but I literally felt like my time had come -- I was going to see Jesus.  But, alas, we lived.

2) Singing.

Every morning at 6:30am in the building where the children eat, about 120 orphans gather and, acapella, sing praises to God.  It's one of the most beautiful things that I have ever heard… And is definitely quite a way to start a morning.  If I don't have this when I get back to Hattiesburg in a month, I will be supremely upset.

3) Ruben.

I can't write this without mentioning at least one child.  Ruben.  He's the child on the top.  By far the cutest child I have ever seen in my life.

Needless to say, if adoption in southern Sudan were easier, this one would be coming home with me.

4) The House.

This entire past month, my life has been consumed by working on a house.  On July 2, a doctor with his wife and 8 kids moves into this house, and we have been sprinting to finish it ever since we arrived.  I have tiled.  I have wired up electricity.  I am building mahogany and teek cabinets.  The work has been difficult and tiring, but it's so cool to literally be the hands and feet of God for a doctor who is going to save thousands of lives.  We had no idea that they would need this much help with the house when we signed up with Harvesters about 4 or 5 months ago.  And they didn't know either.  But, God's timing is perfect.

5) Cell Groups

The older students here at Harvesters are trained and are given the opportunity to disciple groups of kids and adults from surrounding villages in the Word of God.  It's so cool to see the Great Commission fleshed out through the lives of these guys and girls.

I actually had the opportunity to teach a cell group about a week ago.  About 70 kids crammed into this tiny hut to hear the story of Jesus calming the storm.  It was a beautiful thing.

Cell groups also give Nic and I the opportunity to see some of the Sudanese countryside.  This country is so beautiful.

6) The Goat

On the way back from one of the cell groups, Nic and I were surrounded on either side by thick African bush.  When the bush suddenly started shaking, I braced myself for a hyena to jump out and eat my face off, but I felt like a fool when a goat emerged from it.  Actually, an entire family of goats surfaced.  Nic laughed.  I punched him.

7) Father's Day

I should have made this a separate blog article in itself, but, oh well.  I may later on down the road, just to further flesh out my thoughts from this day.  The Sunday before Father's Day, Pastor Pushani reminded the congregation that the next Sunday was a day where we were going to be celebrating fathers.  As cold-hearted as this may sound, I naturally started asking myself… "How does a large group of orphans celebrate Father's Day?"  Many of these orphans don't have parents or have been abandoned by the fathers that brought them into this world.

The next Sunday, as I listened to 150 children who don't have daddies shouting out the words to the great hymn "I Surrender All", my question was answered.  As I held back tears in my eyes, I realized -- these children have a daddy.  In fact, these children have nothing BUT that daddy.  And they love him that much more for it.

                       

                        "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

                                                                                                - Matthew 5: 3

These pictures were drawn by the children in their Sunday school classes that morning.

8) Woodwork

I am terrible at woodworking.  Building mahogany and teek cabinets has shown me this fact.  I mess up frequently, and I have no patience when I do mess up.  Oh well… Doing it for the kingdom.  But, just for the record… Don't ask me to build your cabinets when I get back home.  My rates are high.

9) Pushani

Today, Nic and I had to say goodbye to one of the godliest women I, personally, have ever met in my life.  Pastor Pushani is leaving Sudan for about 2 months to rest and grow in the Lord.  It was tough saying goodbye to her.  What a fire and a passion she has for the Lord.  I covet that passion.

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SOOOOO, yeah… That's about it up till now.  Hopefully, in the coming month, I'll update more than once.  At least that's the goal ;-) 

Thanks for listening.  I wanted to add more pics, but the internet connection here really isn't capable of uploading too many of these pictures  Keep Sudan in your prayers.  In 2 weeks, this great place will be the newest nation in the world.  May that day be a peaceful day.

Ben

pictures!

 Ok finally I took some time to upload a few pics.  The one above is a pic of part of the house we tiled.  We have now finished wiring the electrical.  Woot.  I loved hooking up electrical.

 James Bond vs. Vito (a guy on the KC team that was here for a week and a half).  Ben is looking away.  We thought it was pretty epic to be playing checkers using a lantern as light.

This is me and Nyoko.  He's super cute, and kinda naughty as well.  Momma Lilly told me the other day he took another kid and just walked into her house.  Lol.  Not allowed to do this.

 Ben and Nyoko.  He has a scarf tied around his head.  Ha!

 This was taken today when we went to see the house of the guys we disciple every Thursday.  We played cards, they gave us some pepsi and cookies.  Legit.  They seem like really good quality guys.  Seem to really know the Word and its importance in their lives.  Pastor Pushani has done really well.  It was good to hang out and get to know them better.

And finally, this is Rejoice Lilly.  She's a cutie.  I try so hard to get her to smile at me or give me some sort of emotional response but she just stares at me.  The other day I was playing a game with other little girls where I'd chase them into their dorm and Rejoice joined the game, giving me the smile that I wanted to see so bad.  In fact, it was a laugh and it was hilarious.  I picked her up yesterday and noticed that her pants were wet.  I asked someone else if it was urine and they said yes.  So I learned, when younger kids have wet pants, just don't pick them up, or you will have urine all over yourself.

lovin it

This is a pic of part of Harvesters compound.  This building is the kitchen where the kids all eat.  Usually they eat something called posho which is sort of like bread with a playdough consistency, and beans.  This at least shows a little of the landscape. 

Update on the work on the Perry's house.  We have now finished running all of the electrical wiring!  Ha!  Much less labor intensive than tiling and much more fun, in my opinion.  We hooked it up to the breaker box today and started flipping some light switches to see if they worked and they all did! It was funny because we had like 4 lights that didn't work at first, so we switched them out with lights that were working, and then we tested again and every light worked! 

Yesterday Ben went out with Dawa to a cell group with 60 kids that stuff into a tukel (mud hut) to hear a story about Jesus and sing some songs.  He taught them about Jesus calming the storm.  They have like ~9 cell groups that go out each week.  Most of the leaders are roughly high school age, but some of them are even younger, like Mangar, a 12 year old!  I'm just going to throw this one out there...but I feel like the American church needs to offer younger people more ways to lead.

I'll try to upload better pics of kids soon (I know I keep saying this).  Tonight we had the weekly prayer meeting with all the older kids.  Always a good time.  Tomorrow is church, day of rest / playing with little kids. 

Pray for me and Ben to be used by God to make a difference in the older guys lives that we are meeting with every week.  Overall there are roughly 10 guys in high school and we really want to make a lasting impact on them.  Only God can do this.  No human effort will make them look more like Jesus. 

But we love it here.  Harvesters is a great place.  I want all my friends to be here lol.

Peace,
Nic Treat

Finally done

Aaaaaand we are going to finally finish up tiling this house tomorrow...i.e. we will be doing the finishing touches for the grouting.  We are both ready to start doing another type of work lol. 

I'm just gonna say, we've been here over a couple of weeks, and I still love these kids to death.  Some of them definitely annoy the crap out of me by harassing me non-stop, but most times I'm in love.  Gosh some of them are cute beyond belief.  For example...

Ben and I first met Reuben while some kids were dancing in a circle singing an African tribal song.  We both turned and saw Reuben sitting on another kid's shoulders, bobbing his head up and down to the beat of the drum.  This immediately caused me and Ben to laugh hysterically.  But the great thing was, Reuben had no smile on his face, he was just jammin'.  So we kept laughing, and he kept looking at us like,"why aren't yall jammin'?"  It was hilarious.  All the kids love Reuben.  They play with him like he's a doll sometimes...and he's so chill about it.  Unbelievably cute.

Last Saturday we decided we'd go to the prayer meeting with the older kids (high schoolers).  It was led by one of the high school girls here on the compound, and it was great.  It seemed that nearly everyone there was there to praise God and worship.  It was a refreshing time for sure.  Pastor Pushani prints out these great little pieces of paper with something to pray about, and mine was Japan.  We split into groups and read our paper before praying.  Great time of praying for the nations.  I was exhausted from working all day laying tile and Pastor John, a Godly guy who helps lead at Harvesters, was in our group.  First off, he has a funny voice.  So, he started to read and when he got to Kuwait, he couldn't really figure out how to read "Arabian Peninsula" and he stuttered, which for whatever reason was hilarious.  He was like, "ummmm the arab...peninsula" I started laughing.  I tried so hard to hold it in, play it off as a cough, etc... But I kept laughing.  I felt so bad.  I was staring at the ground.  Ben told me later that he was about to start laughing too.  I was sitting there thinking, how disrespectful, what a terrible time to lose self control, but man, I was so tired, and it was so funny.  Might never forget that moment.  And I still can't help but laugh when I think about it.

-Nic

Update numero dos

Yoyo,


My bad on the absence of blog posts.  We've been fairly busy and internet is a bit slow.  Today we only worked a half day at the house laying some tile.  I should explain, the reason we are laying tile in southern Sudan is because a doctor is coming July 2nd to live here.  The house still has a lot of work to get it finished so me and Ben get to participate.  The doctor happens to have 6 children that are coming also, thus the large house.  Pastor Dennis and some Sudanese laborers are working on a few other buildings which will comprise the clinic.  The main hope of this clinic is to provide c-sections for women.  Many mother's lose their lives in childbirth in southern Sudan, and the baby that is born is then viewed as a curse.  Children will be buried alive with their mothers, or killed in some other terrible way.  So, a lot of the children at Harvesters are here as a result of their mother's dying.  Pastor Dennis told me today that probably half of the kids here (that's 75) would be dead if Harvesters didn't exist. 

We've also taken some time to play with kids.  (I was going to insert a picture here, but my computer isn't picking up the wireless too well here.  I'll try later.)  We are trying to learn names as well, but its sort of impossible as there are roughly 150 kids here.

Pastor Pushani (the lady who is over all of the discipling, church, etc... ) put me and Ben in charge of leading a group of 5 high school guys who live outside of the compound, but used to live here.  They are all cool guys and we really hope to pour into their lives while here.  Their names are John, John, John, Nicholas, and Samuel.  3 Johns.  Crazy.  We are meeting with them tonight and talking from Luke 8.  Pushani gave us the verses to go over.  Please pray for these guys- that we can dig deep into their lives, make a lasting impact, form lifelong friendships, draw them closer to Christ.  Building a house is super cool, but impacting lives is cooler.

-Nic Treat