June 17, 2013

Life is much slower over here! I preached at the 9am Yambio service, and then we took a motorcycle out to Baguga for worship. I went with one of the students from the last class who is now ordained, Rev. Ezra Elisama. It was good to work with him. The service starts at 11am; when we got there around 10;45, no one was there. First a little girl about 7 years old came with a baby, then 3 boys about 5-7yrs old, and then 3 adults rolled in around 1145. Ezra decided it was time to start the service! They built a shelter since the last time I was there. The large, beautiful tree with an open area to sit (where they used to worship) is almost grown in with ground cover now. In fact, the jungle is noticably movign closer and closer to the church. The school is no longer open. The good news is that Jesus said, where "2 or 3 are gathered in my Name, I am there amongst them"! We certainly had that experience in the jungle of South Sudan yesterday! On Saturday we went to the local prison. It's pretty stark, of course. The outside guards all had AK-47s, but they were all leaning back on their chairs nearly napping! 2 students led worship, in English and then translated into Arabic. About 25 came to worship. If you have ever watched the TV show Hogan's Heroes, it was laid out like that. Each barrack was fenced off at night and open during the day. The 25 that came were very welcoming and friendly. It was a good experience. Class is going well, we are moving right along, and the students seem interested and engaged. The first test was encourgaging, and I will be giving them multiple quizzes this week. Nothing outstanding has happened; everything is going pretty smoothly (except the rough start with the internet connections!) Thank you for your prayers.