makarios in the sudan (aka the trip when anne’s ability to speak dadinga came in handy)

Anne, Garrett, and I had the opportunity to go to southern Sudan a few weeks ago to see how we could help a local couple start a school.  Here’s the scoop:

We were so encouraged to see William and Eunice (Sudanese couple) working in the Dadinga tribe, doing whatever they can to spread the gospel and help meet the needs of the people.  They are not supported by any church or individuals, so they get most of their income from the grain mill they brought in (they were educated in Uganda).  So far they have started a church, a pre-school, and are beginning to start an elementary school.

Let me set the stage a bit.  Nagishot is in the middle of nowheresville, south Sudan.  For those of you who were worried about our safety, we were as far from Darfur as Austin is from Chicago.  There are no roads into Nagishot and it is high up in the mountains, so no one bothers to go there, particularly soldiers.  We were safe!

There is pretty much NOTHING in Nagishot but mud huts, cows (necessary for getting a wife), goats, and chickens.  No stores, restaurants, vehicles, etc.  We camped in tents and were happy to have a nice outhouse to use.  We filtered river water and cooked over an open fire.  Okay, we didn’t really cook – they cooked for us, but sometimes I helped peel potatoes.

The majority of the Dadinga people have not been educated, but recognize the value of an education and the development that it could bring.  At a parent meeting, one father said, “We are in a pit and cannot pull ourselves out.  If we send our children to school today, tomorrow they can pull us out of the pit.”

William and Eunice started building the school about a year ago, with the help of a few friends from Austin (there’s a good story about how they even became friends with people in Austin, but I’ll save that for later).  The vision was to provide a boarding school for 400 kids from the surround five villages where there are no schools.  In addition to providing a Christian education, they also want to see the children of these warring tribes raised as peacable leaders for the country.

As soon as they started building, about 100 families in walking distance started sending their children.  They didn’t have any completed buildings, supplies, or teachers.  The village voted on who should be teachers – 5 young men who have had some elementary schooling, but nothing more.  They teach class either in a partically constructed stick room or outside under a tree.  The rainy season comes in March and they’ll have to stop until October.

We spent a lot of time as a team assessing the needs, the culture, the values, and the vision.  We knew right away that there were at least two ways we could help – with school supplies and by helping them find sponsors for their students.  We took pictures of all the kids for sponsorship, and got as much information on them as we could.

Sponsor me!

Garrett was able to help with plans for the school building, figuring out quantities of brick and other supplies needed, and did a number of handy-man projects.  Anne and I did a lot of information collection with William and Eunice, and she was able to help them make plans for teacher training.  Garrett and Anne are both open to returning to build and train, as the Lord opens doors.

Garrett and William

Most of what I’ll be able to do from here on out will be from Austin – getting together volunteers, collecting supplies, and getting the word out about the need.  I LOVE the fact that there is a local couple working on this and that there is already buy-in and involvement from the village.  They are not expecting any kind of outside help, but recognize that there are some things they simply can’t do without it (they can only get uniforms and school supplies from a missionary plane that would fly in from Kenya, for example).

A few groups will be going to Nagishot from Austin over the next year, so we’ll send supplies with them.  There is also a young couple from the Austin Stone planning to move there this spring.  They are the original contact to the village.  They will be able to help with the school, but their background is not in education, and they plan to focus more on evangelism and discipleship.  We are thrilled to be able to partner with them to be the body of Christ and together, help address the needs in this community.  What a privilge!

A few of the less-substantive highlights:

Anne taught some village chiefs how to play frisbee.

Garrett, at 6’5” was reffered to by some as “the giraffe.”

When we were dropped off at a grass landing strip in a nearby village, we were approached by two men, one with a gun.  They motioned at our bags and we throught we were going to get robbed.  Turns out they were airport security and wanted to see our visas.  What?  There was no airport, no buildings, just a strip of flat land.  We found out later what they wanted (it was just Garrett, Anne, and I, and our Dadinga is limited to hello, good, and thank you), but we offered them gum and they were happy.  If customs were that easy in the states, I would have brought the twins a long time ago.

A cow was slaughtered for us and we ate the meat from it all week.  There was no refrigeration.  We are happy to not be sick.

Thank you for your prayers!