Pictures!

I'll try to go back and put pictures with each day - but here they are for now! Direct link to album:  https://picasaweb.google.com/118052595923745102199/SSudanFB?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCP_v7IXNgMXfDQ&feat=directlink

Day 12 - Amsterdam to America

Monday, March 25th
We landed in Amsterdam at 530am local time (730am Africa time and 1130pm Alabama time).  After breakfast at McDonalds and Starbucks, Shayna and I got pedicures at the XpresSpa in the airport.  So nice to clean up our feet after the dirt of South Sudan!  We sat around Starbucks for several hours and played games, journaled, discussed the week and used the Internet. 
After a while we moved to a restaurant to have lunch.  Debby did the final devotional there which was on Shared Poverty.  We discussed that there is more to poverty than just material poverty.  Because of the fall, every life and relationship was affected - we share in this universal poverty of spiritual intimacy, being, community, and stewardship.  Even if we are considered "materially rich," we are equally devastated by these aspects of poverty.  If all we do is provide generous amounts of material goods for people in need, we can actually do more long-term harm than good.  We actually need to serve the poor more than the poor need our material goods.  She referenced 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 and Matthew 25:31-46. "And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."  It was a great time of discussion and reflection for us all.

We left Amsterdam at 230pm and made the 9hour flight to Detroit.  A quick layover with a trip through customs and we boarded the plane to Birmingham.  We landed ~9pm and were greeted by many friends and families. 

I know it is going to take several days, weeks and possibly months for us to process all that we have experienced in South Sudan.  You cannot take this journey and not be changed.  It is challenging to jump back into reality as if nothing has happened.  So, bear with us as we adjust back to life in America with our hearts longing to be back in Africa.  I am so thankful the Lord called me to be a part of this team and for all that He has shown me thus far.  Lord willing, I plan to return to S Sudan next March to serve the Moru people again.

A few comments about future plans and Four Corners work in South Sudan:
-Debby shared with me some of the long-term plans for the work in South Sudan.  They hope to take 3+ teams a year with 4 main focuses:  Medical/Dental/Acute Care, Community Health (prevention, education), Evangelism and Discipleship/Pastoral Training.
-There is a huge need for pastoral training in South Sudan and we are praying for men to go and train the church leaders there.
-Several years ago, Somali was the country that had recorded the highest stats for maternal mortality, infant mortality and less than 5yr old mortality. Since S Sudan has recently become an independent nation, the data for Western Equitoria State (one of the 10 states of S Sudan & where we were working) has shown rates for infant mortaily and under 5yr old mortality DOUBLE that of Somali. Their maternal mortality rate is almost double. The age of average death is much younger. All of this goes to show the need for health assessment and education for these people.
-Previous trips to the Moru people have focused not only on evangelism but education on malaria and oral rehydration solutions. This trip showed evidence that the education has payed off and the villages were overall healthier than before. However, there is a long way to go!

Day 11 - Rest and Recover in Uganda

Sunday, March 24th
It was so nice to wake up in the Lake Victoria View Guesthouse again.  We took our time this morning and had breakfast around 9 - most people enjoyed the banana or pineapple pancakes which were excellent.  We loaded up the bus and drove a few miles to our "resort" day room hotel at Liako Lake Victoria.  We had about 10 hours there to rest, relax and eat.  It was a very refreshing time and will make the transition home easier.  Most of us sat out by the pool and a few people ventured into the pool via the high-dive platform.  We had lunch overlooking the beautiful grounds, drank a few cappuccino's, sent emails, Face-timed with friends and family, took nice hot showers and finished the day with a dinner on the patio.  Several of us got our journals out and went day by day through them, trying to capture all the details we could remember.  It was great to look back over all God had done through us this week. 
We left for the airport about 830pm.  The only adventure here was when we all had to unload the bus and walk through a security scanner prior to entering the airport grounds.  A little more shopping for souvenirs in the airport, then we were on our way at 1130pm - An 8 hour flight to Amsterdam.

Day 10 - Back to Uganda

Saturday, March 23rd
We arose with the sun again in Mundri.  All 10 of us girls stayed in the same room.  I didn't have the best night, as I was nauseous, etc, but thankful for the rest.  I had hope that things would turn around soon.
The group had breakfast and got all of our bags together to make the trip back to Entebbe, Uganda.  Jack shared his sermon that he had prepared for the previous Sunday in Mundri (when we didn't make it to S Sudan in time).  He talked about Elijah in 1 Kings; peak and valleys in our walk and being mindful not to revert back to our old ways when we return home.  He also talked about obedience and to not fear those that are trying to persecute you for what God has called you to do.  There is only one true God; His words are true and He judges righteously.  He reminded us that sometimes after our greatest victories, we have our greatest defeat, but God will see us through it.
We went out to the dirt airstrip in Mundri which actually crosses Highway 1.  There were about 100 people there waiting to see all the excitement.  Jefferies brought his youngest son and Paul brought his son and grandson to see the planes.  They wanted to children to see the planes with their own eyes as most had not seen an airplane.  We took any pictures with the men and said our goodbyes.  It was sad to leave them, but we all plan to return.
So now I am writing aboard the MAF plane as we fly over S Sudan back to Uganda.  It is amazing how vast this land is.  The little huts/tukuls they live in get lost among the landscape.  It is hard to imagine how they really survive out here.  The conditions are so rough and we Americans had such a hard time handling them for our short stay.  We landed in Entebbe and paid another $50 each to get through customs.  Our driver stopped at a bakery in Entebbe because we wanted snacks and had not had lunch.  We took the sodas and bakery items to our guesthouse - Lake Victoria View - where we had stayed the first Fri night.  After the snack, most of us walked about 1 1/2 miles to a shop to buy souvenirs for our supporters.  I was so drained of energy at this point that I almost didn't make it back, for a lot of it was uphill.
The ladies at Victoria View had prepared a "program" dinner for us - they moved the tables outside and we had a sunset dinner by the grille.  They fixed chicken, fish, rice, potatoes, peas, carrots, chapati, fruit, salad (which no one ate for fear of illness) and the best pumpkin soup we have ever had.  Seriously, we went on and on about this soup - hope to re-create this back in America.  This was the first meal I had enjoyed since my minor illness and I was very thankful to be able to eat again!
After dinner, we took hot showers, got on the internet to communicate with friends and family and had a late night of bananagrams and UNO.

Day 9 - Lanyi Clinic

Friday, March 22nd
This morning's devotional was led by Dr. Brobst and it was on Psalm 23.  He talked about the many promises of God in Psalm 23 - how God is always with you in the valley, even if its months or years.  He will give you peace and never leave you, He will provide for you. We can trust Him and His plan and we can stand on His word even in the worst of times.  We don't have to understand His plan, but we just have to be obeidient.It was just what we needed to hear today.
Before we left the Buagyi compound we gave a few things to the family that had been staying there all week.  The kids, John and Vicki got bubbles and the older daughter Maria and mom, Joyce, we gave a bible and some extra small bags we had. 
Today's clinic was in Lanyi which was about half the distance back to Mundri on highway 1. It took us a while to get all the bags loaded and when we arrived we had to get the school rooms ready for use.  Coffee had said the people were supposed to come early and prepare the rooms, but they did not - so we didn't get going until 1030 or so.  The backdrop of clinic was beautiful - it was a very large rock/mountain in the distance with grassy fields before it.  Debby stayed behind again today because she wasn't back to full speed and was also dealing with cold-like symptoms.  She went with our extra luggage ahead to Mundri for the day.  While Emily wasn't back to full strength, she was feeling much better and joined us for clinic again.
I started feeling bad that morning, but kept blaming it on this or that.  Late morning, I discovered that I also had the "GI bug"...not fun.  Leigh came down with it about the same time I did.  We were both very nauseated and had to take many trips to the bathroom.  I sat down on the pharmacy bench and helped make liquid antibiotics, split tablets, or direct others to help Shayna because I was simply too weak.  I really appreciated everyone's concern, encouragement and willingness to step in to help.  Shanyna worked very hard that day to account for my slack!
We had used all of day 5's ibuprofen on Thursday, so we all contributed our personal supply and made small bags of it to give out.  It sustained us through clinic which was amazing.  We had 2 bottles of malaria medicine left, but felt like we met most of the needs today.  We saw 240 patients.
Jon spent a lot of time talking with a woman who had accepted Christ in 2006 and wanted to be baptized.  Unfortunately, there was no water anywhere close to the village.  They almost drove the 20 miles to Mundri to the river, but the water would have probably made Jon sick.  Jefferies assured us that he would follow up with the local pastor to ensure she gets baptized.
We sang several songs with those left after clinic and took a big group picture.  We left Lanyi about 430 and returned to the Brookhills compound in Mundri.  I, personally, was so happy to be back where the facilities actually had a toilet seat! We also had showers from a true shower head, but still had to conserve our water use.  It was very refreshing.
Some people took a quick walk through Mundri and then ate dinner - I think they had chicken, rice and lentil beans, but I didn't feel up to eating.  We held a very impromtu clinic for some of the men and workers families.  We thought it would be about 10 people, but ended up being 50! It was a little challenging finidng all the supplies and medicines.  I was so weak, but I sat with a bucket in my lap and made liquid antibiotics and helped label the medicines.  Shanyna did most of the work with a few helpers.  We had to get creative with some of the medicines as we had run out of a few things during the week.  I'm glad we could provide a little care for them after all they had done for us this week. 
We determined that we saw 1153 patients this week, which was amazing!! It far exceeded our expectations and we are thankful to God.

Day 8 - Wiroh Clinic

Thursday, March 21st
Today we traveled to Wiroh, which took about 1 hour - 20 minutes on highway 1 and then the rest on off-road paths that were very bumpy and rocky.  It was definitely off the beaten path! The men had left with our supplies at 5am so they could make the round trip and then come back to get us.
Emily and Debby stayed behind today due to their GI illnesses.  Patrick was not 100% but he came and filled in as one of the practitioners so that we could still see as many people as possible.  Today was even hotter than yesterday - we think it go to around 110 F? Jefferies told us that the "village" of Wiroh was made up of ~5000 people with only 2 lead pastors.  So we you think that we only see 200-250, we are just touching the surface.  Jefferies tells the communities to send their sickest, so that is what we hope happens.  He told this community that we would see less people today because of our long road trip and being down 2 people - but we still saw 230 people!!  Praise to God for giving us strength to do this.  The people were aggressive at times and even swarmed the triage area when they could sense that we were getting close to shutting down for the day.
Sarah Moses was a sweet lady in the community who stepped up and helped us translate in the pharmacy after she was seen by the doctors.  She sent her two young children (probably 3yr & 6yr old) home (1 1/2 hours away) by themselves to stay and help us!  What a servant.  We also had many spiders and wasps in the pharmacy area today and the locals just laughed at us when we tried to swat them away.  Thankfully, they stepped in and killed most of them for us.
As in previous days, we had just enough malaria medicine to treat those who needed it.  Today the last boy needed 18 pills of it and that is exactly what we had left.  He had been next door in triage all day getting IV fluids and cooling down from his temp of 105 F. While sometimes we ran out of ibuprofen or tylenol, we always seemed to make do with what we had.  We ran out of water bottles for us to drink about half-way through the afternoon.  This caused a little panic among us, but we were sustained.  We saved the last bottle to mix up liquid antibotics for the children and the supply held out.
We returned to the Buagyi compound to find Debby & Emily feeling better.  They had taken care of each other and some of the ladies in our compound, including our cook Esther, had looked after them throughout the day.  It had been a long and hot day for all of us and we were definitely growing weary.  But our team was wonderful and really looked after one another and encouraged one another at just the right time.
Tonight was our last night at Buagyi, so we packed up everything before we went to bed.  We also "enjoyed" our last bucket shower...  Our 5 nights here went by so fast!

Day 7 - Buagyi clinic

Wednesday, March 20th

Today our clinic was in Buagyi, just down the road from where we are staying.  After some worship music this morning, I led the morning devotion on longing for heaven and being satisfied with our purpose to make disciples here on earth - as this is not our home.  I shared from Philippians 3:20-4:1, 2 Cor 4:16-5:10, Ephesians 2:10, Psalm 63:1-5 and isaiah 55:2; also the song "Blessings" by Laura Story.

After devo, we walked over to the clinic, which was also inside a school building.  Each day we have gotten more efficient with our set-up and clinic flow.  We saw 250 people during our 7 hrs of clinic today! It was the hottest day yet and we worked hard to stay cool while we saw all of the patients.  We ran out of a few medicines, but since we were so close to the compound, we had someone go back and retrieve the meds for future clinic days.  We are praying our supplies will be enough for future days.  We gave out several bibles today and Jonathan used the Children's bible and the ten commandments game in his sharing. Jonathan also had the chance to share the gospel with a man who believed that Jesus and Mohamed were the same.  As we left clinic, the kids were telling us thank you over and over.

On the way back to the compound, a few of us stopped at the local pharmacy that Bennett manages.  It was interesting to see what they kept in stock, etc.  He was quite a knowledgable man and was happy to show off his work.

Shower, dinner with rice, beans, and a little bit of chicken. We again sat under the mango tree all night and discussed the day, the people we met, the interesting cases we saw, etc.

Emily came down with a GI bug today and had to get some IV fluids.  It was hard to see her not feel well.  As soon as Jefferies heard about Emily, he and the other men surrounded her mattress on the porch and prayed over her with confidence that she was here to do Gods work and would recover.  It was such a beautiful picture.

Patrick and Debby also started not feeling well today, so we are all praying for strength for our team, so that we can continued to be used by God for his purposes!

Day 6 - Witto Clinic

Tuesday, March 19th

Today breakfast had a special treat of spaghetti noodles to accompany our standard rolls and eggs.   Shayna did her devo this morning on on Psalm 60. Clinic was in Witto which was close to Matta.  They actually had a school building where we set up clinic.  Vision in one room, registration and triage in another, and the practitioners/pharmacy in the 3rd.  Jonathan floated around and talked with different people all day.  After clinic got started, I went out to where Jonathan was and shared "the story" with many of those waiting to be seen.  It is a flip book where the words are facing me and the pictures face them.  It starts by telling a story about a happy and healthy village in S Sudan.  It then turns to when they had to flee their villages because of the civil war, but then of their people being rescued and able to return home many, many years later. It transitions over to the story of Adam and eve in the garden and eating from the fruit and fleeing.  It talks about God as the rescuer, sending Jesus to restore us.  It then shares 5-6 gospel points with scripture. We try to make it interactive, but it's hard sometimes thru the translators.  My translator was so eager to practice his English during the presentation, that it took quite a while.  At the end, he wanted me to write down all the verse for him and he was so happy that I did.  While these people were very happy to see us, they were also a little more aggressive than the people in Matta.  They all wanted to be seen, but we couldn't see them all.  We saw about 200 today, which we felt was a great accomplishment through Gods strength.  The most interesting case was of cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Emily and Lauren gave their translator a bible - he waited patiently all day while everyone else was being seen and only asked to be seen at the very end.  

Back at the compound we had showers and you guessed it - rice and beans for dinner. We also washed a few clothes in small buckets.  Debby and Shayna talked to the local "pharmacist," Bennett, who lived in the compound where we stayed.  We stayed up til 10 or so just talking under the mango tree and telling the many stories of our day.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 5 - Matta Clinic

Monday, March 18, 2013
We awoke with the sun around 645 and got ready for our first clinic in Matta.  The air was cooler from the rain that had fallen all night.  Our breakfast always consisted of rolls and eggs.  We also had coffee/tea and some used honey or peanut butter.  Leigh did a devotional on Abraham and reviewed the verses:  Gen 12:1-4, Gal 3:7-14, Matt 28:19-20, Gen 22: 16-18 and Romans 15:22-29.  She talked about belief, obedience and blessing.  We also enjoyed some worship time under the mango tree - which will be the topic of another blog post.
Each day the men would take our clinic bags full of supplies and medicines to the village ahead of us and then come back and get us because otherwise we wouldn't all fit.  It was about 30 minutes to Matta.  Everyone said how friendly of a village they were and that was so true.  They greeted us with smiles and singing!  They are the poorest village we saw, so they only had 1 "building" - which was the church.  We set up triage under the mango trees, vision outside with the eye chart propped on the land cruiser and physician/pharmacy in the church.  Everyday, John (our team evangelist) and Paul (the archbishop of the WHOLE world) would start with a greeting, etc. John would speak several phrases in Moru - which the people always chuckled at.  He would share that we come in Jesus' name, share John 3:16 and open in prayer.  Paul would lead everyone in a few songs that always had many hand motions.  This was especially popular with the kids.  Jefferies would explain the clinic flow and we would get to work.  We saw 140 people in Matta.  They sang and danced all day for us.  We saw many cases of Malaria today.  Sahyna and I had a good system set up in the pharmacy and we worked very well together.  Jessica Giadrosich handled the registration.  Debby, Jack, Leslie and Laura did triage.  Dr. Brobst, Emily and Lauren were the practitioners with Shayna and I in the pharmacy taking their orders.  Leigh and Wendy served as our pharmacy teachers and worked with interpreters to explain to the people how to take the medicine.  Patirck floated around and helped everyone.  He made sure we were all well taken care of by ensuring we were drinking enough water and eating and taking breaks.  Everyone looked out for each other wich was such a blessing and enabled us to serve as a team better. 
After we finished clinic, the people served us food - it was about 430 and we weren't really hungry because we had eaten Clif bars and crackers all day.  But we didn't want to be rude and they were so willing to give it to us, even though they had so little.  We ate the rice, beans and bread, but were told not to eat the hard boiled eggs or fresh honey. Our helpers patiently waited for us to eat and then they ate the leftovers. On our way back to Buagyi, Paul sang songs the whole way - his favorites are "Jesus number one" and " Araboya (thankyou) Jesus.". When we got back to the compound, we sat under the mango tree & reviewed our day & how to make clinic run even better the next day. We also had our rice & beans dinner
Some of us girls did not want to venture into the lovely showers, so we took turns washing each others hair outside- which was quite refreshing. We were all thankful for a great 1st day of clinic. Everyone worked so well together - we have a great team!

Day 4 - Travel to Mundri, S Sudan

Sunday, March 17, 2013
We awoke early today to prepare for our flight to Mundri, South Sudan.  We flew out of Kijansi which is in between Entebbe and Kampala, Uganda.  We loaded up in 2 -12 seater planes with all our luggage.  We are using Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) which exists simply to help people reach the hard to reach places with the gospel.  We are so thankful they agreed to fly on Sunday.  The pilots prayed over our flight and mission before take-off. 
The view from the plane is beautiful.  Uganda is so green and lush right now.  As we got into S. Sudan, we could see the White Nile river and things became more barren.  We had to stop in Arua, Uganda before officially leaving the country. Our first flight to Arua was ~1 1/2 hours, then only 45 min to Mundri.  Once on the ground in Mundri we were greeted by many people that had come to see us.  Our main field partner there is Jefferies.  Some of his co-laborers are Paul (the archbishop of the WHOLE world), Coffee, Steven and Repent - will have to give details on all of them soon.  All the children there wanted to shake our hand - they were so friendly and happy to see us.  I gave the men some letters that my friends, Bethany and Louanne (who have been to S Sudan previously) had written them.  They were so happy to receive them.  We then traveled by 2 land cruisers back to the Mundri Compound which we also call the BrookHills coumpound because that is who had it built originally.  Now Jefferies organization owns and runs the compound.  This is where we were supposed to stay saturday night.  There is a large room with 10 beds for the girls and that is where we rested a bit before going on to buaygi.  Church was still going on at a nearby building and so we joined some of the kids outside and took pictures and played soccer with them.  They fed us rice, lentil beans (mush), chicken and rolls.  We sat out under the mango tree and visited with the men and played banana-grams.  Some of the World Harvest Missionary women stopped by to say hello too. 
We finally loaded up all of our stuff into the land cruisers and left about 5pm for Buagyi.  IT took about 1 hour to drive there on the dirt road they call Highway 1.  When we arrived at Buagyi we all settled 2 by 2 into rooms that were just large enough for 2 twicn beds and a little walking space between them.  It was quite hot in the small rooms so it took us a while to get settled in. 
They fed us again at Buagyi in which we had our usual - rice, beans and a roll.  The Lowry's seasoning some brought from home was helpful.  We all sat out under the mango tree and made our plans for the 1st clinic on Monday.  Wendy also shared a great devotional on Psalm 63:3.  We also got letters from home which was a very encouraging way to start the week in Buagyi.  About 1/2 way thru the devotional, it started raining, which was a suprise but very refreshing.  We moved into a larger room and prayed over the Moru men that God has raised up to serve their people alongside Jefferies. 
After that some of us ventured to the showers.  I was just going to wipe down with my wipes, but Lauren and I decided to go ahead and try out this African shower thing.  IT was definitely a challenge to figure it all out.  But this time it is dark and the shower and latrine stalls have no light and are located at the end of our row of rooms. There are separate stalls for men and women.  We basically used a small bucket full of the "clean" well water and a plastic water bottle.  The shower stall is just a small concrete room in which you had to watch for lizards, big spiders and wasps all while trying to douse yourself in soap/water and not get the water in your mouth for fear of giardia or whatever else lurks in this "clean" water. Our quick dry towels came in handy, but soon we were sweaty again from the heat.  We got a little more settled in a our rooms and went to bed excited for our day to come - all snug under our mosquito nets.