Church of the Brethren Sudan Initiative

We know, we know... we weren't supposed to make it to Nairobi until tomorrow! But, truth be told, we almost didn't even make it out of Sudan at all today!

We never did get any word last night as to if we had a flight for today, so we got up, packed... checked email again, tried to make satellite phone calls back to Loki and Nairobi... no success. So we readied things, and listened for a plane!

This is, unfortunately, very typical for this part of Africa. Communications are simply difficult at best, and non-existent at worst. However, it has been amazing how many satellite phones we have seen, and little shops in markets advertise satellite phone recharge units... so things are much better than they had been, and we have been very pleased at how often communications have actually worked out very well.

The UN-WFP flight never came. Instead, a very small Cessna 206 landed, and we figured it wasn't coming for us... but we were surprised when we went up to the pilot and he said, "I'm looking for three passengers!" As it turns out, storms were covering most of the south part of Sudan, and so most all airstrips were rained out. This pilot had been chartered by our partner to come for us on faith alone, and he had flown for over three hours through constant rain, not knowing if there was any chance he would even be able to land--or rather, he could have landed, but wouldn't have been able to take off again. But the airstrip there in Leer where we were waiting had not had significant rain since the day before, and so was dry enough that the pilot had no problem--nothing to spare, but even with all our gear we had sufficient dry runway to be on our way, after helping the pilot refuel his wing tanks from gerry cans he had brought along.

We found it touching that since he was flying up without passengers, he had loaded up with a cargo of Nuer Bibles and New Testaments, which translation had been done by Lester and Ester Boleyn (of the Church of the Brethren) along with Tut Wan (a Nuer), and with which Enten had played a part... a sort of fitting farewell to leave behind as we lifted off, leaving the soil of Sudan, to fly back to Kenya--first to Loki, and then on to Nairobi.

We had planned to stay in Loki overnight, in order to meet a dear friend and former NSCC co-worker of Phil and Louie's, Gladys Mananu, who is now working with SCC in Narus, just across the border from Loki and into Sudan a little. But we found out that she had come to Loki, but had to leave just 30 minutes before we touched down--how disappointing! So we went ahead and took the flight to Nairobi, in order to get settled, and allow Enten a day to decompress before he starts his trans-continental return flights.

SCC arranged to pick us at the airport, and we have accommodations on the All Africa Conference of Churches compound for a few nights. The culture shock has already hit, as we came from rural and rustic Sudan to the traffic jam getting across Nairobi, and the relatively modern facilities here--they seem so luxurious in comparison to what we have been living with for a number of weeks.

Tomorrow we will do some errands, meet with SCC folks, and take several hours to wrap up our assessment notes. And then Thursday Enten will start his journey home, while Phil and Louie stay in Nairobi for another few days to wrap up loose ends and meet with more (N)SCC people.

We are weary, but safe and sound. And very deeply touched by our contacts with our Sudanese brothers and sisters. We are amazed that we were able to make all the connections we did, from travel connections to people connections--truly it has been a miraculous trip. Thank you all for your prayers. Know that even as we pray for the Sudanese people, they also are keeping us in their prayers, and praying for those families that are planning to return to be with them in their country. The needs are overwhelming, but we think that the Church of the Brethren can make a difference in sharing God's love here, and we bring back much hope for the future from the creative and energetic people that we have met who also wish to address their own problems, and look forward to partnering with others in that endeavor.

Love and peace,
Enten and Phil and Louie