After that I got to visit the beautiful home of Commissioner Bullen in Mundri. His compound is behind a wall, like the nice homes in Nairobi and Kampala -- and Cairo for that matter -- and what looks like a tukul houses a beautiful living room with tiled floors, painted walls, and comfortable Western furniture. Bishop Bismarck stopped by there to say hello to us too.
Before that, Marc, Susan, and I went to church at Lui Parish. They are my old friends there now, and it was like a homecoming for me. They send greetings to everyone in Missouri, especially Emily and Jim at St. Tim's and the rest of the congregation of course. Marc preached an excellent sermon on Advent hope, and Susan laid hands, along with the Moru priests, on a woman suffering from dermagraphia, which means that a number had appeared on her skin to indicate rather literally that her number was up; only healing in the church could save her life. Susan also presented a parish nursing kit to Repent, the pastor, who is also a nurse at the hospital. Stephen Small, the priest at one of Lui Parish's satellites, gave me a map of Lui Parish with all the churches and preaching stations listed. I'm looking forward to scanning it and hoping it can go on the St. Tim's website or at least on a bulletin board there.Warren preached brilliantly at the English service, which was a lot more fun with actual English people there. David and Heather Sharland, the CMS missionaries, are in town and seem happy to have Anne P and Warren with us. Deb, Dan, Anne P, and Sam went to Lozoh Parish for church but ended up at a preaching station with Noel Knight, the priest in charge, who is usually away at school. I'm sure one or all of them will write about their experience. Most of the team went to the Moru service at the cathedral, where Wayne preached and our people were blown away by the music. Dan observed at our team planning day that Moru theology is actually contained in their music, and people seemed to feel after attending church that he was absolutely right.
Today we visited the Mothers' Union teak farm. You can see Mama Jenifa telling us about it in yet another blurry BlackBerry photo. Then here's a photo of teak seeds growing at the top of a tree.
After that, we went to the site of the new diocesan center, where SUDRA had Sumadhura drill a well last May (see earlier blog entries). Wayne blessed the site and sort of laid the cornerstone. The engineer who was coming to do it properly was delayed in Nairobi or Juba, so they'll do it again later, but the symbolic act has occurred. Luckily he had his trusty archdeacon to hold his hat and stick :)
For those of you reading my blog looking for news of friends: Sam is doing great. His master gardener persona is working just as hard as his school administrator self. Deb G is happy to see old friends and very busy with the parish nursing project. Susan is wearing many hats -- as you have probably been able to tell already. Dan is in his element, and Ev is pretty much ready to move here and teach elementary school. Marc has taken tons of photos and video and is spending today with some missioners working on agriculture from World Harvest Mission in Mundri and, we hope, with Robin Denney, the ag missioner on ++Daniel's staff from TEC. Anne K is sorting artworks after a very moving and productive art project. Anne P and Warren are basking in the glory of a management conference well delivered and pitching in everywhere as if they were born to come to Sudan. The team is truly a team, looking out for each other and stepping in where they're needed before even being asked. We've had a few digestive disturbances and some mild respiratory distress; the dust, smoke, and insects seem worse than ever before. But the weather is gorgeous -- as I sit in the diocesan office, a cool breeze is wafting in, and at night we need covers and long sleeves.
We celebrated Advent 1 with a tiny Advent wreath and the collect of the day at compline.
Lu karu ami!
