flashlightneeded

thank you so much for all the emails. i sat in tears today overwhelmed by so many friends offering up prayers on my behalf. i feel so unworthy of your praises and your prayers but i thank you for fueling the fire that is in me.

my new base...
one would think a ten meter walk to shut off a generator wouldn't be too dangerous. i didn't think so anyways. so about 11 o'clock a few nights ago i started out the door to turn off the power as i had many times before. "it's a short walk," i thought, "i'll just feel my way along the wall." about half way i stumped my toe on a rock and got mad so i went back in to get the, you guessed it, mini-maglight. i turned off the generator and had a good night's sleep. doesn't sound dangerous huh. well i didn't think so either, until the next day when our guards killed two cobras on our compound. i promise you i will never walk outside at night without a flashlight again. cobras and mambas are on the prowl and i don't want to find one with my bare feet. on the more positive side i saw a monkey that day too, that was cool.

so anyways i have basically been riding around on extremely muddy roads, which is a lot of fun in our landcruisers as long as you're the one driving and not riding in the back baking in the sun. just kidding, fortunately that is part of my job, but i have been doing a lot of work on top of that. we are officially starting 8 new churches this upcoming week. which means for every church i have to go make a speech about the church's responsibility of gathering the natural material, and explain to them what SP is going to supply them with--hammers, shovels, picks, wheelbarrows, etc. usually the pastor and local leaders give speeches and then we have a feast. the last church we started greeted our truck with dancing and singing. we died laughing and jumped in and danced with them. so everyday i have to give two speeches and have two feasts. these churches are over a two or three hours drive from our base so it makes for a long day, but seeing them excited and getting them so encouraged to work is more than worth it.

i am extremely excited about tomorrow. i finally get to make it out to see my good friends, the people of wadupe. one of our engineers told them i was coming back to sudan but he didn't know when i would be back, so they have no clue i'm here. it will be so nice to surprise them at their church service tomorrow. pray that all goes well and we have a great reunion.