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January 24, 2009

SIM Sudan Team – Spiritual Life Conference 2009

• We had a fantastic Spiritual Life Conference attended by over 100 people. Our entire team emptied out of Sudan (50 people). There were about 5 flights in one week. We managed to put everyone up in local guesthouses. And 3 new team members made it in time for the Conference. Three buses took us all outside Nairobi to a place called Limuru where there is a conference center. It was a massive logistical exercise but God blessed us with fellowship, great teaching, and comfortable surroundings. Missionaries who live in the most primitive conditions and eat beans every day instead ate from a sumptuous buffet. And during our meetings we heard the Gospel spread out before us like fragrant, life-giving buffet. It was a wonderfully refreshing time.
• Our Kenya resident permit has been approved! Until we move back to Sudan, we are legal to have an office in Kenya. Also, entry and re-entry to Kenya is free.
• We had a great reunion with Laiu & Debbie Fachhai and their son Vanoh. Laiu is our former Director who was the speaker at SLC.
• Jonathan and Thomas seem to have evicted the viruses they picked on the flight from US to Kenya.
• Beverly is finally on Facebook! We’re having a contest to see who has more friends. She has passed me like I am sitting still.
• A funny: Thomas has learned my name. Today he said “Chris is Baba”. He’s only 2 years and 2 months old.

Published at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

Funny Story about meeting a guy named Moses

I urgently needed to get in touch with someone at ACROSS, a partner agency. I was given the number of one of the leaders whose name was Scott. I called Scott and he answered the phone. He seemed slow to understand what I was talking about and I had to keep repeating myself. Must have been a bad connection, I told myself. He said he stayed outside Nairobi, which I thought was odd. Even more strange, rather than let me come to his office he kept saying he would come to me.

The next day our office guard called up to say someone was there. I went out to the gate. “Scott?”, I said. “No, my name is Moses.” After a few minutes I determined that I had called a wrong # and Moses had just come 40km into the city to find out what I was talking about.

Turns out Moses had filled out applications to be a teacher in Sudan a few months ago and when I mentioned the country of Sudan he thought I was asking him to come for an interview. At any rate, we started talking and he turned out to be a born-again believer who taught secondary school. We talked about some projects we were involved in and how to do sustainable development. He really encouraged me, saying thank you for being willing to come all the way around the world to help in Africa. We ended up by praying for each other. He prayed that I would be encouraged in my work and thanked the Lord for his job and prayed for his future wife.

Best wrong number I’ve had in quite a while.

Chris for the Crowders

Published at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)