Clinic, History, and LIZARDS!

Hello All! It's Phyllis (Vernon's sister) again writing on behalf of the team. I spoke to them on the phone this morning, and their internet connection is down. They will not be able to use it anymore while they are there (including e-mail), so they will call every couple of days to provide updates so I can post them on the blog. So keep checking back for more!

Friends
The planning meetings are pretty much over for this visit, so the team has been able to spend even more time focusing on building relationships for the last few days. They have been able to just do some hanging out with the people in Yei, which has been a lot of fun. There has been lots of eating together, talking, and soccer playing. They are grateful for the opportunities to spend time getting to know some of the people.

Clinic
Tomorrow they will begin work on a permanent medical clinic right outside of Yei. There is a building that has been acquired for this purpose, so for the next few days, the team will work on cleaning it and transforming it to be optimally useful for a medical clinic. Once it is clean, they will be able to paint it white. Now, here's the fun part! Amber has been praying for ways that she can use her gifts and talents in a way that is helpful for the Sudanese people (we all know that her smile and love for the people is a gift in itself). Anyway, she is so excited to be able to use her artistic talents to paint scriptures, names of God, and other such things on the walls of the clinic.

Another young woman named Robyn has been spending time with them for a couple of days. She is a YWAM missionary that Mike knows, and she's free from her YWAM responsibilities for a few days. It just so happens that she is an artist, so she may end up painting a mural on one of the walls at the clinic. These types of things are very exciting for the Sudanese people. They love color all around, so Amber and Robyn will really be blessing them as they paint! Amber was VERY excited about doing this!

Megan is also very happy to see this medical clinic going in. It will be so great not to have to work out of tents to treat larger groups of people in the future. Once it is painted, they will be able to begin acquiring supplies.

History
Over the course of time, many people have asked what is happening in Sudan and why things are the way they are. With Mike's videographic talents and ability to narrate and describe things so vividly and accurately, a project has begun. The team is spending some time visiting historical landmarks in Sudan. For example, the other day they went to a mass grave site that was started in 1955. They will use these video clips along with quite a bit of narration to create a documentary-like video describing the history of Southern Sudan and the current state of affairs there. This will be so helpful for people in other places to understand what is happening and what the needs of the country are. What a great idea! I personally can't wait to see it!

Lizards and Volcanoes
Of course, this post would not be complete without a few fun Titus stories. I'll start with the lizard story. Yesterday, Mike looked out at the river and suddenly yelled out, "Did you guys see that?!" No one else saw what he was talking about, but he described it as something like a ginormous crocodile-like lizard. Well, they just went on their way because it didn't seem to surface again. When they came back, they noticed a large group of men at the river's edge shouting and acting very excited. They went to see what the commotion was all about, and it turns out that these men caught two very large lizard-like creatures and were very excited about it.

Later in the evening, they went to eat dinner with a family, and it just so happened that it was the home of one of the men who caught a lizard. When Amber and Titus arrived, they found the group of people out in back skinning the lizard. Titus was so excited that he wanted to go touch it. He kept asking Amber if he could get closer. She, of course, did not think this was a great idea, so she attempted to distract him by suggesting that they go find Daddy to show him what was happening. So Vernon came along. When he heard Titus asking to touch the lizard, he seemed to think that this was perfectly fine. So, with Vernon and Amber and most of the locals keeping a good distance between their own bodies and the lizard, Titus was allowed to go touch it. He went directly to the lizard with no fear and picked it up by the tail. Now, this was a large lizard, so Mike had to help him pick it up. Once he had his arm fully extended in the air, Mike was able to let go. The lizard's head was still laying on the ground while Titus was dangling it by its tail shaking it around with great delight! (Keep in mind that the lizard is not alive at this point, so he is in no immediate danger.) He finally had enough and decided to put the lizard down. As soon as his hand separated from the lizard's tail, Amber was running at him with Purell instructing him not to touch anything or put his hands in his mouth until he was properly sanitized! Hilarious! At the end of the recounting of this story, Amber giggled and added, "Only in Africa!"

One more quick story... On the way to Morobo the other day, Titus was looking out the window as they were driving along. There is an altitude increase between Yei and Morobo, so things get more hilly and seemingly mountainous. Titus looked out and said, "Oh my, Mom. There's a volcano!" Amber didn't know that he knew this word and asked where he learned it. He responded, "On Diego. There's volcanoes on Diego!" So the rest of the car ride, they were able to talk about volcanoes. (Quick geography lesson from Amber--there are no plate boundaries beneath Sudan, so these are not actual volcanoes. They are simply large rock formations that jut out of the ground and look a bit like mountains or volcanoes.)

In the end, it sounds like things are going quite well. Megan said that the places that they are staying in are VERY nice and that Bishop Taban is taking care of them so well that they are living very luxuriously compared to the rest of the Sudanese population. They are so grateful for his work there and feel very blessed to be a part of what's happening.

Hopefully we'll hear from them in a couple of days, at which time I'll update some more. Please continue to pray for them individually and as a team. Praise God that Titus has become increasingly comfortable and that Amber is getting opportunities to minister and use her gifts as well. And pray that they will not have problems with their video equipment so that they will be successful in their attempts to develop a helpful resource for so many of us who have never had the opportunity to visit Sudan.

Amber said that they can really tell that people are praying for them, so please continue to do so!