For those of you who were not aware, Jan and I had the privilege of spending a couple of weeks in Africa earlier this month. Our team from First Evangelical Free Church of Austin went to work with a tribe in Southern Sudan in implementing a development program called Community Health Evangelism. In an attempt to help you visualize what the CHE ministry looks like in Southern Sudan in the village of Nagishot, Jan and I will periodically post stories here. Here's our first post…
First of all, we arrived on a Saturday in a single propeller plane landing on a grass landing strip. About 30 Didinga people were there to greet us after landing. Immediately our bags were in their hands (which we were very thankful for given the length of the hike) and we began the hour-long muddy hike to get to the church compound which would call home for the next 7 days. Despite all of the mud along the way, we both realized that we were hiking in one of the most beautiful places we had ever seen…the Didinga Hills! The church compound where we stayed consists of four or five mud huts, one other building constructed of mud with a metal roof, a house for a missionary couple living in the village, and of course the stinky latrine. The church compound is fenced in with tree branches and is for the church pastor and his family and some orphans they have under their care. We set up our tents and soon after were led on a tour of the compound by Pastor William.
On Sunday we attended church in a small structure consisting of logs for benches (us Americans had a heck of a time sitting on these for extended periods of time), walls made of tree branches, and a grass roof. The place was packed that morning and the worship was amazing! There were probably 100 people crammed into the church building. Brandon noticed that they consisted of mostly younger people and we learned that is due to the fact that 75% of the Didinga people are under the age of 16 and most of those have lost their parents due to war. Despite this statistic, they have genuine community with each other and really care for and take care of one another. For a community who is experiencing a shortage of food and have very little (sometimes no shoes and maybe one set of clothes) they displayed to us what joy in the Lord really looks like. We saw that throughout our trip and were struck by the fact that we often do not choose joy when we have been so blessed.
Monday through Thursday we did the CHE training along with children's ministry and community lessons. The community lessons covered the topics of clean water, sanitation, and diarrhea treatment and prevention. Everyone on our team rotated teaching these lessons and it went very well. Sometimes people ask what can really be done in only a week on a mission trip. What is wonderful about the CHE program is that it is designed to equip a community with structure and education in all areas of their lives including physical, intellectual, and spiritual needs. This training was the beginning of a development program that our church will continue investing in for the next 3-5 years by sending teams every 4-6 months to further train and support the community. The program will be completely "owned" by the Didinga people. One of the lessons Jan taught was about seeing the community through God's eyes. The lesson was designed to facilitate discussion among those in the training (about 40 people who are mostly believers and even a few of the area village chiefs) to talk about what God desires for his people. This was accomplished first by reading scripture and then discussing their needs and existing resources they see in their community. Then they discussed what they felt were the most important needs and how they could begin to tackle them with the resources they have available. These things ranged from needing more Biblical knowledge to needing a road with improved water crossings so they can access another village which is 4 hours away. Brandon taught a lesson on different methods to obtain clean water to the community. He also taught a lesson on why it is important to plan and how they can plan a successful CHE program in Nagishot.
One of our prayer requests was that God would raise up champions, trainers and a committee for the CHE program. We believe that the church pastor and perhaps some of the chiefs will be the champions for the program which is great since the community respects and follows their leading. The pastor selected 3 people out of the training to become trainers. These three people were very excited and willing to take on the responsibility of continuing to train their community in some of the very same lessons we taught which include both spiritual and physical things. So that is an answer to prayer. We still ask that you would pray for the community to select individuals to be on a committee. I compare the role of a CHE committee to that of a city council who makes decisions on behalf of the community and encourages the trainers in the direction they should go with the program.
One of our team members who designs highways for Texas did a special lesson on how they can improve their so called road and build longer lasting water crossings. Their first response after hearing the analysis and potential solution was to ask us to come and build it for them. This is the mentality of the people there sadly, but this is also one of the reasons we are working to help them implement a CHE program. They have the resources to do this themselves and our prayer is that they will realize they can and will do it. As the saying goes, "Give a man a fish; he'll eat for day. Teach a man to fish; he'll eat for life."
Here are our pictures from Nagishot if you would like to look at them: http://picasaweb.google.com/brandon.r.wilson/SudanMissionTrip2007