Water…Refugees…Resource Center

We left Kampala just over a week ago, knowing that our water tank in Adjumani was empty, but that we had some water in our rain-water catchment cistern. We thought if the people there can survive, so can we! After a typical, long, bumpy, hot journey, we arrived to a warm welcome from our friends and the news that water had come that day and our tank was nearly full! We were overjoyed and felt God had really provided. So we have lived the highlife this past week and then yesterday the water stopped again. As I write this, I just finished fetching water out of our cistern with a bucket on a string and filled 6 jerry cans (20L) for the next couple of days. We are praying that whatever the issue, that it get fixed and our water will come back. Fortunately, we came prepared for the worst from Kampala bearing 100 extra liters of diesel and bottled water.

This past week our friend Franko, a Sudanese refugee that had been living in Adjumani for the past 15 years, came to us requesting help for him, his 4 friends (pictured above) and their families to be repatriated back to their home village, Panykwara. These men grew up and attended school together in Adjumani and have recently helped plant a church near their home village in Magwe, Sudan. The UNHCR is repatriating people, but our friends feared they wouldn’t be repatriated for a couple of months, missing the opportunity to collect grass for their huts and also to prepare the ground for their garden. Our community decided to help the group and send Franco on his way, overjoyed to be moving home for the first time in 15 years. A couple days later, we got word that the 5 young men had gathered their families and were heading up north. To what? Nothing really. Since the war, most of Southern Sudan has been deserted, and the land has returned back into bush. I was imagining them sleeping outside, on the ground for a couple nights until they were able to build a temporary structure, but exhilarated to be home, finally, starting a new life in their unfamiliar homeland.

This week we are preparing for another journey up to Sudan. We depart Saturday with hopes of helping Franko and the group continue settling in and to meet with and encourage church members in the area. We are also hoping to begin some community workshops and meet again with the local officials to see what kind of land is available for the resource center. We prepared a preliminary plot plan to help give them an idea of what the resource center will look like and about how much land it will require.
On a personal note, we’re excited and thankful for the arrival of the newest member of our community – Esther Miller from Albany, Oregon. She brings years of experience in the African culture, having served as a missionary in Malawi for 13 years. Already, she’s brought a lot of laughter, joy and insight to our group.

We’ve also received a lot of joy from the Christmas cards and pictures that have just now arrived at our post office. We send our wishes for a happy new year too, in Africa time of course.