July 15, 2007

Today in Sudan

Dear Friends,

We've been very busy with a short-term team since coming to Sudan on June 19th! Sorry for the lack of emails, but hopefully you've received either an email or paper copy of our newsletter.

Can we tell you about our day?

It started at 4am with Thomas waking up with smiles and pleas for his morning milk. Praise the Lord (and I mean that quite sincerely) he fell back asleep until 7am. We got up and got moving, and by 8:30am our whole team was loaded into the pickup truck. Traveling with us were 3 bales of blankets donated by Voice of the Martyrs.

Moving carefully down a very slickery track through chin-high grass, we passed through an absolutely deserted Damo village, finally arriving at the Damo church. Almost the whole village was at the church. About 60 people were gathered under the trees, seated on logs supported by forked trees driven into the ground.

After some bantering and confusion about who was getting the blankets, we turned out attention to the Bible lesson. This duty fell to Jake, Jennie, Cam, and JJ our short-term team. With Beverly, Thomas, and me playing Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, we acted out the angelic visitations from Luke 2. Jake played the angel and the others played terrified shepherds, to the delight of the church people. As usual the English teaching was translated into Arabic, then into either Coma or Uduk. It's a bit chaotic, but the drama communicated truth really well, we thought.

There was one significant moment. Since I was a translator I was able to stop and ask key questions to check for understanding. At one point Cam said: "The Spirit prompted Simeon to go to the temple. (Luke 2:27)" I asked the people, "Where is the Spirit? Who is He? Does the Spirit speak to you?" Two of the older women said: "There was a Spirit of God here but we don't know if it is still here." I traded a quick glance with our Uduk church partner Yohann. We sensed an opportunity to teach some truth. He stepped in, asking more questions from the church. About 10 minutes of rapid-fire conversation in Uduk ensued. Finally one man said: "The Spirit of Jesus lives inside us, but I don’t think he talks to us."

It's moments like this that remind us how important is it to ground the Coma church in the Word of God. Please pray with us that we can communicate truth accurately despite the language and cultural barriers.

As the blankets were being distributed, we socialized with the people. I got some precious pictures of little Thomas touching the face of one of the Coma ladies. Jake climbed a tree to get some aerial shots. Jennie and JJ played with the kids. I helped Yohan count blankets. As the rain began to fall, we loaded up about 15 people with many soggy blankets into the LandCruiser and slid down the trail and arrived safely home.

With thanks for your love and prayers,
Chris

Published at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)

May 27, 2007

A Village Visit

Dear Friends,

Hello this is Chris, writing from Sudan. Our email is working now via satellite phone. Sorry we've been out of communication for a while. Beverly and Thomas made a short visit to the US and will return to Kenya in the next few days. I'll rejoin them on the 1st of June. Below is an account of one of our visits to encourage local churches.

In Christ,
Chris
___________________

One Sunday, we went to a little village nearby called Buldit. Kasu and I left at about 7:15am. He was carrying a big piece of plastic sheeting in his backpack as well as the storytelling pictures. We took the road toward Bugaya but then veered off into the bush. I saw he was aiming for a hill in the distance, but I was so sleepy I was just putting one foot in front of the other.

We moved through springtime in Sudan. It seemed like walking in a botanical garden because all the blades of grass were the same height. The really heavy rains were still a few weeks away, but everything had germinated. We passed a little tree festooned with little purple and green things that looked like 2-inch chandeliers. There were a few birds but no animals or insects. It was really quiet and still.

After some time, we reached the first hut. A boy started smiling at us, not just a normal smile but a really big one. Shyly he ducked into the hut. We greeted ladies sitting on the ground at the next hut. Rather, one was sitting awkwardly and the others crouched around her. As we got close we could see the sitting woman was not well. She was shaking slightly. We crouched to listen, but they were speaking Coma, so we could not understand. Kasu asked "Enti ayena?" (Are you sick?). The sitting woman switched to Arabic and told us how her stomach had started hurting badly yesterday, and she had not slept all night. She was sweating and shaking a bit from the pain. Her abdomen was obviously distended. She complained of slight fever and neck pain. It could be anything and probably included malaria, which always comes when their bodies become slightly weak. We agreed to pray. I tried my best to pray in Arabic.

Moving on, we found the recently built church, a little covering from the sun made of poles and grass. Benches were made of logs supported by forked poles. One young man was there already. The plastic in Kasu's pack was a gift to help rain-proof the church.

After about one hour, about 20 people had gathered. The service started. Kasu tried to get them to sing some songs he knows in Arabic, but they did not seem to know them. So we moved to the Bible teaching. Kasu taught first, doing rather well in Arabic. Then I taught about Jacob and Esau and about Jacob's dream. In spite of the fact that I could not remember the words for "ladder" or "dream," we got through it. I was able to weave in the gospel by saying how Jacob was dreaming of a way to reach God.

The lady who had been sick showed up and sat off to the side. Suddenly she announced: "I want to sing." And she started singing - then all the people joined in with her.

Afterwards, we went out to all shake hands. We thought it would be good to pray over the sick lady, so we asked her to sit down on the plastic. I asked if there were elders but they didn't have any. So, I just picked 4 of the older men out of the crowd and asked them to come and lay hands on her. I prayed then the oldest man blurted out: "I must pray." So he prayed for her in his own language. That was beautiful. Afterwards I told them that the Bible says when someone is sick we must call the elders and pray for the sick person.

So, the Buldit church is springing back to life. I say back to life because it has been dormant ever since the wartime when Northern soldiers raided the village burning the church and any Christian-looking literature they found.

Thank you for prayers and support dear friends. It is a joy and pleasure to represent you here. We are privileged to witness a spiritual springtime in Sudan.

Serving In Mission Together,

Chris and Beverly Crowder

Published at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)