Finding My Role

Warning: Long blog post. Sorry about that.

So first of all, I have a new number in Mundri. Forgot to say that before but you can now reach me at 011-249-925-608-779

Anyways....many people before I left were asking me what my specific goals are while I am here in Mundri. They understood that the eventual goal is to develop an orphanage centre but obviously in just a few months of being in a village in the outskirts of Southern Sudan, this process takes its sweet time. At the time, I would feel bad that I couldn’t really give people a concrete answer and I tried to avoid the conversation sometimes. But alas, I have begun to figure out what exactly my role will be here in Mundri. So this is to all you people who are confused what I came here to do...

First of all, meet Paul. Paul is a retired pastor who used to walk 3 days (each way) to do evangelism in some of the neighbouring communities. Wow. Anyways, he has a vision to develop a school that includes all clans of Greater Mundri (approximately 13). This school would teach children in the local language so that children would re-learn to be literate in the local dialect. This skill has been greatly decreased because the Northern Sudan influence brought mostly Arabic into the schools. Paul has had this vision since 1995, but no real means of being able to begin to see it take shape.

Afro-Canadian Evangelical Mission’s vision all along was to have our projects and our goals be the same as those of the community. After hearing about Paul’s vision, we wondered how we could combine the visions. Could we make the school targeted towards orphans then? So we met with several various local leaders and chiefs in our immediate area of Mundri to see how they felt about this. The idea was met with great excitement because it seems that although other NGO’s are here and doing great work, no one has really been able to approach the issue of orphans.

Orphan in this side of the world means someone who has lost a parent. As poverty is so severe in Southern Sudan, when one parent is lost, the means to survive under only one parent’s care is extremely difficult; especially if he/she is expected to provided education for his/her child.

All that to say, people really want to see development in the area of orphans. Our visions are merging. Now what will I be doing...

I will be working to document and survey the various regions of Greater Mundri and gather statistics and document stories through video and pictures in order to develop a project proposal to take to donors in Sudan and Canada to see this project take shape.

So this will take time but on the less busy days, I have found a primary school to volunteer in. Now I don’t really know, but I might actually be teaching my own class. Class sizes are huge here in Sudan. They range from 60-150 kids! So I am a little overwhelmed at that but hey, what’s life without it’s challenges right?

Oh and I think we have found a motorcycle that we are able to borrow for some of our transportation! Sweet deal.

Prayer List:

1) There is a NGO base with excellent facilities that is going to be unoccupied at the end of the month. The government will then have control who this is given to. Pray that if God wills it, we can somehow obtain this. It is a shot in the dark, but God is a great God. Never know.

2) Continued support from the community as they begin to adopt and take ownership of the project.

3a) That ice cream will fall from heaven just like manna.

3b) Just kidding. Okay that when I preach on Sunday, I won’t pee myself from nervousness. Yup, I am preaching. I was informed this last Sunday that I would be preaching in the English service of a church nearby. Hmm, okay sure...why not?

“So what am I preaching on?”

“Oh, I will give you the readings on Friday or Saturday.”

Good, at least it’s one day to prepare right? Gulp.