John in South Sudan

John left for Nimule, South Sudan on August 7th.  Praise God everything went smoothly during his travels to get there. He enjoyed a brief rest in Kampala, Uganda, for a day and had the opportunity to ask questions that will help prepare us for our move there early next year.  Since his arrival in South Sudan, he has had an opportunity to teach a Bible study to the chaplains and unloaded a shipping container that he took part in sending from the U.S. several weeks ago. 

 His main focus in these first few days has been to set up a large conference-size tent.  He's been measuring around the compound to figure out where to put it.  Another issue he's had is that the instructions to the tent didn't make it to Sudan.  Today he writes:

Things were fine today. I measured the FRM compound in a different area and discovered that the tent would not fit there either. We eventually decided to set the tent up at another FRM compound about 2 miles from here. It took 3 other chaplains and me about 30 minutes just to unload the tent materials from the container. It’s a lot of weight. I am fairly certain that the tent’s instructions got lost between its maker in Oklahoma and S. Sudan. We will have to do our best base on the instructional video.

 Driving with the chaplains to the other FRM compound gave me some good discussion time with some of them. One had a Saber player with praise songs in various languages including Luganda (language of Kampala where we will be). It was very neat especially since I understood enough Luganda to know that song’s chorus was “Jesus is good.”

 Tomorrow we plan to put up the tent at the other FRM compound. Please pray that it goes well. I think a few pieces are lost. Hopefully they are non-critical and can be replaced.

Chaplains have been returning from the field to the FRM compound. Wes, Ed, et al are seeing old friends. It is neat to see. Stories about chaplains are very exciting. 

Wes bought a cow and brought it into the FRM compound. It will be dinner tomorrow. The cow got a bit unnerved and ran around wildly in the compound. It was quite a spectacle. I have video footage of it charging me (or so it seemed; I was actually behind a tree). The chaplains eventually go the cow tied up.

After dinner tonight there was a bonfire. Chaplains were singing praising God. It was very neat. The sky is partly cloudy, and lightening occasionally lights up the sky. It’s very cool.

Thank you all for your prayers.  It is sustaining us.

john e.