Roughin it in Malwal Kon

We arrived in Malwal Kon on Wednesday April 25th in the middle of a wind storm. As our plane landed on the dry dirt airstrip the wings were tilting right and left. Our welcome committee was holding their breath as the wheels hit the ground. When we got out of the plane I was surprised the the gusts of wind and dust. I definitely felt like I had arrived in another country.


The round structure in the back ground is called a Tukul. The missionary families that we stayed with live in these local mud houses. I was amazed at their rough living style.

Scott Myhre is taking a turn at the boar hole. Many local people travel a good distance on foot to get water from dispersed boar holes.
At first glance you might think those are monkeys in the tree, but no, look a little closer and you will see that they are children. They are trying to collect the fruit from this tree and having a little fun in the process.

Eating out in Aweil town about an hour away from Malwal Kon. We got bread with various mystery dipping sauces.

Walking to visit some of the neighbors.

In Aweil town you will see lots of donkeys and horses pulling carts Acacia Masso is ready to move to Sudan just for this reason. She recently wrote a research paper on donkeys.

These ladies have made natural peanut butter from ground nuts. The whole process seems very labor intensive.

There are more Sudan pictures to come, so stay tuned...

Jars of Clay

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkenss," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.
2 Corinthians 4:6-11

Education Crisis

I want to share with you a small snippet of an article that was shared with me by one of my team mates. The article is titled “Education Crisis in Southern Sudan,” and it is written by Tim Brown who is a UNHCR Education Officer in Yei, Southern Sudan.


“John Garang spoke of his ambition to ensure universal primary education in south Sudan within six years. However, the legacy of 21 years of conflict and underfunding is daunting. Fewer than 200 of the 1,600 schools in southern Sudan have permanent buildings.[i] Most classrooms have only a board and chalk. According to UNICEF just one in five children of primary school age is enrolled,[ii] dropout rates are high – especially for girls – and only one schoolchild in eight continues past grade four. Half of the region’s teachers have received no professional training and most have themselves completed only about four years of primary education. According to the USAID-funded Sudan Basic Education Program,[iii] a mere 2,500 children – in a region larger than most countries in the world and with a population estimated to be 7.5 million – complete primary school each year. Only 1% of girls complete primary education and only one schoolchild in four is a girl. The lack of female teachers – just 6% of the teaching force – reinforces this gender imbalance. Ninety per cent of women are estimated to be illiterate.”
[i] The south Sudan statistics quoted in this paragraph do not cover the garrison towns formerly controlled by Khartoum.
[ii] www.womenwarpeace.org/sudan/docs/baseline.pdf
[iii] www.careusa.org/careswork/projects/SDN093.asp

When I read this paragraph my heart breaks. To think that only 2,500 children in Southern Sudan finish only primary education, meaning the number for completing secondary education is even lower. The Lord tells us that “children are a gift” (Psalm 123:3) and that we are called to “train them up” (Prov. 22:6). If we train them through the Lord at a young age, the knowledge of Him and desires to live by glorifying the Lord in all we do will be engrained deep within. Even as I watch the children that I am surrounded by here in Bundibugyo, it is painful to think about their lack of a good education. They attend schools where the teachers do not show up, where they just sit in class and copy notes from a board, and where they are set up to fail. Sometimes Hope feels lost here, especially hope in Christ. I do believe that there are some teachers in this district who do care about the success of their students. The Lord has blessed Christ School with teachers that care. But these teachers are a rare gem.

Now, you may be asking yourself, why is Kim telling me all of this? I want to plead with you to partner and commit with me to pray BOLDLY for the education in East Africa, and more specifically in the rural areas of Uganda and in Southern Sudan. Pray that the Lord would provide permanent buildings for schools to meet. Pray for teachers who desire to see change and are willing to undergo any necessary training. Pray for more female teachers. Pray for people to care. Pray for more girls to be encouraged to go to school and make it to university. Pray for the Secondary students in levels 4 and 6 who take exams at the end of the school year, where passing is crucial for them to be promoted. Pray that the necessary funds would be provided for building projects and school resources and supplies. Pray that this number of 2,500 would increase rapidly and in a miraculous way. Pray that hope would be found in Christ. Pray that when changes do happen and numbers do increase that God would be given all the glory. Pray that people would see that this kind of change is not possible without the hands of our Father. The prayer needs could continue, so I just ask for bold prayers. I believe that prayer can move mountains and this is a big mountain to move. A mountain though, that is not too big for God.

World Harvest Mission continues praying, seeking, and trying to develop a vision for how they can assist with this education crisis. Christ School is an answer to that prayer in Bundibugyo. Another way the Lord has answered this prayer is by connecting our East Africa director to people and organizations who are starting to conduct teacher training seminars. Our East Africa director is partnering with some of these organizations to help put on a training seminar in Goli, Southern Sudan. This seminar will be taking place during the week of April 17-24. As soon as our team found out about this training, because of knowing my heart for improving education, they came to me and asked if I was interested in attending. Of course my immediate response was yes. I wasn’t sure though if it was going to be possible for me to go because of my commitments in Bundi. But the Lord is good and He is making it clear that He desires for me to attend. Please pray for my heart as I begin to prepare for this trip. I am not exactly sure what my role will be when I get there, but pray that I am willing to fill whatever role the Lord desires for me to fill.

I have been praying that God would provide an opportunity for me to visit Southern Sudan and that He would show me the desire that He has for me in that place. A huge reason why I decided to extend my time in Uganda is because of my growing desire for improving primary education. I stand in awe of how the Lord is already providing this opportunity to go to Guli and observe teachers who care about being trained on how to develop education. I would also like to travel, when time allows, to primary schools around Uganda. This would allow me to see what kind of programs are out there and which ones encourage and assist students in succeeding and thinking BIG. When I started the process of joining World Harvest and committing for two years to serve and teach in Bundibugyo, I never imagined that I would be given this desire.

As I was writing this, a song by Jeremy Camp came on called “Take a Little Time.” In the chorus he says:

“Take just a little time to give your hands. To see the world, and take just a little time to try and understand, That there is more going on than what these eyes can see.”

Later on he adds:
I know it all seems complicated, there is nothing more that could be stated. Now is the time to kneel, reaching out for what is real. Many times I’ve hesitated, how much I feel, my heart is aching now.”

So, please reach out for our real and true God, “take just a little time” to kneel, lift your hands, look to the Father, and pray BOLDLY for this education crisis.

Better Late Than Never

Every Tuesday afternoon I play basketball with some of the girls from Christ School. It is fun to be able to take them away from the stresses of school and through the ball around.

I invited my cell group over to my home for some Mac'n Cheese after our hike to some waterfalls.
Michelle with some of the neighborhood kids who like to come and visit
This is the church and community center that World Harvest planted many years back and continues to grow.
Giving and recieving is a big part of friendship here. The chicken that I am holding was a gift given to welcome my mother to Bundibugyio.
You never know when you are going to run into a herd of cattle in the middle of the road
Carol, Michelle, and I with some our the neighbor kids out on our front porch
Here I am with my beautiful roomies; Carol, Stephanie, and Amy

Random August Pics

The picture above is of the road going out of Bundibugyo. You will notice how windy it is because it goes around the mountains. It is the only way in and out of this district.

This is the market in Bundibugyo town. I am standing with Pat and Joyce.
These are some of my P7 students. It is late in the afternoon and many of them have already left for the day. This is the second to last week of the school term.

This is one of the beauties of Uganda. Murchison Falls is one of the most amazing waterfalls.

Here I am pointing to our small country of Uganda on the big world globe.

Some of us brave couragious women took on the Nile river. It was quite the adventure. I am the second one on the right.

Summer Fun

This is just a glimps of our summer, but it is the best that I could do. The first few pictures are at Christ School Chapel. Here we are singing and dancing.
These are some of the Christ School students singing praises.

These two pics are from our hike over the Rwenzori Mts. We hiked from the Bundibugyio side to the Fort Portal side. It was an 8 hour hike and pretty challenging, but well worth it.
Below is a picture of all the interns with some of the singles from the team at the equator.
This is where Bethany and I waited for public at one point during our trip to Lira. We waited here for quite awhile before a vehicle finally past that could squize us in. I will never forget our different modes of transport on that trip.
This is part of the Rachele Rehabilitation center. This is one of the new little boys that came two days before our visit. He was still a little unsure about things and is choosing to eat by himself. Before we left Bethany and I got him to smile by taking his picture. He really enjoyed seeing it on the digital camera. There was one more pic of the center that I tried to put on here, but I don't know if it made it. I am still praising God for that experience. Please continue to keep these children in your prayers.

Together With Family and Friends

Each Day at the retreat different teams got to share pray requests and then others would gather around the team and we would have a time of prayer.

This is a really random picture, but I just had to throw is in because I think it is funny.

At the Acropolis, standing on Mars Hill. I can't even describe how amazing this was.

Me with my roomie. Monica works at the sending center and she helped put the entire retreat together. It was a blessing to get to room with her.

New friends. Two of these girls serve in Spain and the third serves in London.

Our team photo at the reatreat.

Our main mode of transportation on our travels. We spent two nights on a ferry.

Touring the old city of Dubrovnik.

Pigeons in Venice. Part of my family originated in Venice and there is even a palace there that was originally owned by a Stampalia and is now a museum. This made the trip here even more memorable.

A Weekend of Bliss

The awesome singles went to Bushara Island for a weekend away. This island is located in southern Uganda near the Rwanda border. When we arrived at the island there was an orphangage visiting for the day and they did a dance performance. The last song that they performed was a simple song in English with funny motions, so they asked everyone to participate. It was a lot of fun.

On of the days we traveled by boat to another island where we were going to go to a well known market but instead we were led to a pygmi village where another dance performance took place. It was a day of the unexpected but a great adventure.
Below is a picture of the old pygmi man that led the way on our long hike to his village. Keep in mind we had no idea where we were going. How could you not follow such a cute old man though?

Many islanders use these dugout canoes to get from one island to the other. Let me tell you they are nothing like our canoes in America. Also, when they say dugout canoes they mean it.
On our way early in the morning to meet our matatu for our 11 hours back home to Bundibugyo.
I couldn't leave this picture out. This is of an island called punishment island. Many years ago they sent unwed pregnant women here to basically die. Pretty sad. I am glad they no longer practice that way of living.
I hope you enjoyed.