Sudan: Post-Trip Summary

** I just realized that I never posted my final summary from my trip to Sudan (the one that went out to my supporters and donors.) So, here it is:

“So how was Sudan?”

The one word response: good.
The three word response: challenging but joyful.
Any answer longer than that, and it starts getting exponentially harder to describe.

On August 1st, I and eleven others headed out from Austin and began making our journey to Africa. After changing flights in D.C., London, Nairobi, & Lokichoggio (Kenya), we boarded the small plane that would take us over the Kenyan border and into the hills of Southern Sudan. Our destination was Nagishot -- which is not so much a village as a county of rural residents, home to a tribe called the Didinga. Our purpose in going was to experience the Didinga culture, meet local pastor William Laku and his wife Eunice, and to see and support the boarding school that they are establishing.

Life in Nagishot is extremely primitive. There is no running water or electricity, and only one road (which is accessible by car only during the dry season). The nearest market is a 36 mile hike away. The Didinga language is only now beginning to be developed into a written form as more outsiders have tried to develop means of translation. In some ways it is beautifully simplistic. No processed food or traffic reports. Campfires every night and breathtaking scenery every morning. Views of monkeys playing in treetops instead of rising condominiums. Recreation meant dancing and playing soccer instead of merely watching ESPN or playing Wiis.

And yet it is a very difficult life too. Practically all residents are subsistence farmers, growing mostly corn, wheat, and sugarcane to survive. Women spend their entire days either in the field or over an open fire – creating food for their families to eat. (After helping plant wheat and carry jugs of water from the river, we had a whole new appreciation for each meal we ate!) Healthcare is extremely basic. Almost everyone has lost a family member to the civil wars, and many have spent almost their entire life in refugee camps. For those who aren’t Christians, the dominant belief system revolves around appeasing the local gods – making sacrifices when the rains don’t come or placing curses on others when they are wronged. It is an oppressive and hopeless faith, and many become addicted to a local alcoholic brew that is created to provide distraction through drunkenness. It was into this dichotomy of beauty and pain that we entered, joining for thirteen days into the work, celebrations, and culture of the Didinga people.

Besides being students of the local way-of-life, we primarily strived to encourage the work being done by the Laku family and the local church to build a much needed boarding school. The name of the school will be “City on a Hill”, based on the Biblical passage in Matthew 5:14-16 which states that the church is the light of the world that cannot be hidden, leading others to praise God as they see the good deeds that Christians display. In our brief time with the church in Nagishot, it was remarkable to see how fully they are already embodying those verses, and inspiring to think how much MORE they desire to be a light to their community. The hope is that the school will not only provide education for the Didinga children, but that it will house and teach children from other surrounding tribes as well. Though historically there has been tension and violence between these rivaling tribes, William and Eunice believe that if leaders of the next generation can live together as children -- playing and learning and building friendships with each other -- then the tribes can form more peaceful relationships in the years to come. It was inspiring to hear the Lakus share about their plans first hand with us and to see that despite many obstacles, they are forging ahead with building. In our time with them we prayed daily for the school, helped transport bricks, carried timber from the forest for the desks, and visited with the children and potential local teachers.

While the dream for the school came from the vision of the Lakus, and while the hope is that the school will eventually be self-sustained without foreign aid, there is a great need for outside help in order to see the school established. Fifty years of civil war have left the Sudanese with few resources and little civil structure, in a land that was greatly underdeveloped to begin with. Our American team of young adults is committed to partnering with the Didinga and assisting their dream as much as we can -- believing it is both a responsibility and a joy to share the blessings we’ve been given, and knowing also that we have much to learn from the beautiful Didinga people. Currently, the relationship between our two communities is simply that of friendship – particularly between the Lakus and our team leaders, Jonathan and Lauren Ramirez (who will be moving to Sudan this winter with a long-term commitment to ministering with the Lakus.) But as we look to being more involved financially and logistically, our team is in the process of establishing a non-profit organization or a NGO through which to funnel resources and information. We are already receiving counsel from faculty at the University of Texas and from other professionals who are providing consultation for the project. It is so exciting to be a part of these early steps, believing fully that God has begun an incredible work!!

The process for seeing this vision become reality will be a long journey, but I invite you to join with us in partnering with the church in Nagishot. If you’d like to get email updates about the progress of the project, then email me at ERLing82@gmail.com, and I’ll be sure to let you know about developments as things begin coming together over these next months. Until we establish an official organization, we will be raising funds through Austin Stone Community Church. If you would like to contribute financially to helping found the City on a Hill School, see the enclosed form for details. Many of us are also considering returning to Sudan for longer stints – becoming teachers, dorm “parents”, mentors, and project assistants alongside the local Didinga who are heading up the school. Please be praying for our team as we consider how best we as individuals can continue to advocate for and contribute to the incredible work that is underway.

Lastly, a huge THANK YOU for all of your prayers and support that made my own journey to Sudan possible. Whether I ever return to Nagishot or not, it was an incredible experience to enter into the lives of the Didinga tribe for the weeks that I did. I felt honored to share with others the rich blessings you all have given to me, and I left with many challenging questions and beautiful memories still stirring in my heart.

Blessings and grace to each of you,
With much love,
emily

City On A Hill

So, apologies on the fact that the Sudan essays have been slow in coming. It's much easier to blog about the Austin music scene than it is to try and gather all my thoughts about our trip to Sudan and formulate them into a few condensed commentaries.

But, for my first one...

I was thinking that if you only read one thing about my trip, then what I want to share about the most is our introduction to the boarding school that William and Eunice Laku are going to open, called City On A Hill. After almost 50 years of civil war, Northern and Southern Sudan signed a peace treaty in 2005, and since then refugees have been returning to reestablish their homelands and villages. One of the greatest needs has been for education – schools for the thousands of Sudanese children who will be the next generation of leaders for their country. Currently there are not enough government schools to meet the population of children, and the government schools that do exist are painfully under-resourced. Although primary education is compulsory for all children, in practice Southern Sudanese children have the least access to primary school in the world. According to the Government of Southern Sudan's Minister of Education, less than 25 percent of an estimated 2.2 million school-age children are enrolled in primary school. A 2006 UNICEF report found only 2,163 primary schools existed to serve a region with a population of approximately 7.5 million. And of those schools that do exist, less than 20% are housed in permanent structures, only 31% of all learning spaces have a toilet or latrine, and only 26% have any chairs or desks. There is also a severe shortage of teachers, with an adult illiteracy rate of more than 75 percent according to 2004 estimates. We saw some of this turmoil first hand as during the time that we were in Nagishot, the government school nearby had been temporarily closed down because there was not enough food available to feed any lunches to the students. So students were waiting at home for the radio news that would announce that they could again return to classes. (We heard when we were leaving that the announcement had come, and that the school would reopen the following week.)

And so in part to provide education to the youth in Nagishot, the Lakus have a vision for building the City on a Hill school -- and despite significant obstacles, they are already pushing ahead to get the project underway. There is no road to get materials to the site (right now almost all supplies are delivered via plane) and no well to provide water (currently water has to be drawn from a creek and then carried in jerrycans up to homes and buildings.) And yet, the Didinga have already started building classrooms and a latrine and a prayer chapel – all with faith that as they start doing what they can, then the rest of the supplies and resources will come.

I said "in part to provide education" – because education alone is not the only reason the Lakus are building the school. They also hope that City On A Hill will be a transforming agent of peace, bringing unity and hope to their land. This will happen because not only will the school be established for Didinga children, it will also be open to kids from the neighboring tribes. These tribes have a history of fighting with each other, particularly when the wars displaced indigenous communities and forced various groups to relocate onto land already occupied by other tribes. In a sad struggle that pitted refugees against their fellow countrymen, violence then ensued as tribesman fought to secure land needed for farming and cattle. The Lakus want to change this aggressive history by bringing children from rivaling tribes to live together at the boarding school --- not merely learning English and math together, but also playing together, learning each others' cultures, and building friendships together. They would also hear the Gospel together – hopefully gaining an understanding that as much as Christ died to reconcile us to God, He also died to reconcile us to each other. Perhaps then the future leaders of Sudan will be united in taking on the challenges of their country as brothers, no longer divided by needless hatred and alienation.

While we were in Nagishot, our team contributed in small but tangible ways to assisting the school. We hauled bricks from the kiln to the building site (with no roads, this meant literally walking on foot via narrow, muddy paths), we carried fresh-cut lumber from the forest to be cut & shaped into desks, and we spent hours prayer walking around the campus, interceding for all the many needs. All of us who went on the short-term trip were also invited to return again to be a part of the long-term work that will be needed to see the school come to completion. Perhaps as teachers, or nurses, or dorm guardians – we've been welcomed to join with the Didinga community in this incredible work. I'm not sure yet that I'll ever be going back for a longer stint, but I do know with certainty that this project holds so much promise and that I want to be supportive of the school regardless of whether I'm in Sudan or America. As things continue to develop, there will likely be many ways that those of you reading this can be involved in the creation of City on a Hill too. Currently some of my teammates are working on establishing a non-profit or NGO to manage the state-side operations of fundraising and providing supplies. There are also plans for developing curriculum and serving in numerous capacities on the front-lines in Sudan. If you think that this effort is something you'd be interested in learning more about, then let me know and I'll keep you updated as more details develop.

Return to the ATX

Just a quick update:

My team and I arrived safely home to Austin last Monday night, super tired from days of traveling, but with wonderful memories from an incredible trip to Sudan. Thanks for all the prayers and well-wishes from all of you while I was gone – it definitely meant the world to know that I had support from so many of you here at home. And of course now that I’m back, the question comes “How was Sudan?” Man, so much to tell. I guess the easy part first…. if a picture is worth a thousand words, then check out my visual report here for all my personal pictures that I’ve uploaded. You can also check this out, which is where many of my team members have posted their photo albums.

Now the hard part… trying to put all of the experience into words. My hope is take some of my favorite memories and write separate essays about them soon. There is so much to tell, and I want to do it justice as much as possible. I’d hoped to already get some posted, but I ended up spending most of this week back home in Lorena with my fam, and then this weekend was pleasantly consumed with a two-day celebration for my friends Phillip and Constance’s marriage. (Which, has totally confirmed in my mind that eloping in a foreign country and then later throwing a big party back at home DEFINITELY beats a traditional wedding.).. So, anyways, back to work at Halcyon as of this week while I start up the new job hunt… and I’ll get those essays up as soon as I can. Love y'all...

Thanks!

The 24 hour countdown is about to be underway. Which is a little scary seeing how much I still have left to do, haha. But, if there is anything I've mastered over the years, it's procrastinating on packing by cramming in as much possible social time as I can, and still managing to get where I need to be on time.... or, at least shortly thereafter :) Good thing I'll have lots of time to sleep on the plane rides, 'cause I don't think I'll be getting any before then.

Before I leave though... just wanted to say a HUGE thanks to all of you for all the support and encouragement you've given. It definitely means the world to know that I have such an incredible community of folks back here who are wishing for the best for me and my team. Whether you gave money to help with my fundraising, or helped hook me up with supplies, or toasted a drink with me, or committed to praying for us, or even just asked about the trip and offered encouraging words --- I'm truly grateful for all the care and love. In whatever way we may be able to support the work of the Didinga people to see their homeland restored... it will be in large part because you all made it possible for us to go. So thanks for joining in the task at hand, and for believing in my dreams with me.

Looking forward to sharing about it all once I'm back home in a few weeks! Much love y'all...

Recommended Reading

For a really wonderfully written account of the affects of the wars in Sudan, I'd recommend reading "What is the What" by Dave Eggers. It's based on the story of one of the "Lost Boys", and is incredibly touching.

Also, here's a small collection of news articles about Sudan, for those of you who would like to know more about the circumstances we're getting into...

The latest on Darfur: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7534353.stm (A lot of you have mentioned concern about us getting into all of that... but we're going to be in South Sudan, not near Darfur, so we'll actually be in one of the safest parts of the country.)

A Q & A with some basics about Sudan: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3211002.stm

Brief update from back in March on the refugees returning home: http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-03/2008-03-28-voa47.cfm?CFID=19554324&CFTOKEN=49901161

Lots of information, particularly about the ICC's case against Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir: http://www.sudantribune.com/

Gates of Hell

So obviously when people find out I’m going to Sudan, they are often curious about why I want to do such a thing. And usually I refrain from mentioning anything spiritual… since 1) a lot of people are leery about the idea of “missionary” work, and 2) given my own hesitations about evangelism, I’m not exactly leading the pack on “reaching the nations for Jesus” zeal. However, the truth is, a lot of my motivations are spiritually grounded – though I could spend hours writing on why that is and how my religious convictions have developed and been re-shaped over the past years. No time for that now, but I did want to share some thoughts that are relevant to answering the questions of “Why Sudan?” and “Why go some place so dangerous and broken?” The following is an excerpt from “Jesus for President” by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw – two guys who grew up in a similar religious culture as I did, and who are now bringing some valuable perspective to re-thinking some of those truths we learned as kids in the Bible Belt. (Sorry if the train of thought is kinda fractured.. but I’m gonna skip around some for the sake of brevity.)

“There’s a lot of bad theology out there. Some folks tell us we shouldn’t worry about caring for creation since it’s all going to burn soon anyway. Other folks have a fatalistic view that the world stinks, so we just need to prepare people to die. But we are convinced that Jesus came not to prepare us to die but to teach us how to live. The kingdom of God is not just something we hope for when we die but something we live ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’ And we’re not willing simply to promise the world that there is life after death when the world is asking, ‘Is there life before death?’ We are thankful for heaven, but we are not willing to stand by and watch people live through hell to get there…

We remember as children hearing hellfire and damnation sermons… we all went forward to repent of all the evil things we had done over the first decade of our lives, motivated by the fear of being ‘left behind.’ The preacher literally scared the hell out of us… But have you ever noticed that Jesus didn’t spend much time on hell? Really there are only a couple of times when he spoke of weeping and gnashing of teeth, of hell and God’s judgment, and both had to do with the walls we create between ourselves and our suffering neighbors. [Commentary on the passage in Matthew 25, and the parable of Lazarus and the rich man]… God is in the business of rescuing people from the hells they experience on earth. And God is asking us to love people out of those hells. Hell is not just something that comes after death, but it is something many are living in this very moment: 1.2 billion people groan for a drop of water each day; more than thirty thousand kids starve to death each day; and thirty-eight million folks are dying of AIDS. It seems ludicrous to think of preaching to them about hell when we would do better sitting at the well asking them for a little water. We see Jesus spending far more energy loving the hell out of people, and lifting people out of the hells in which they are trapped, than trying to scare them into heaven. And one of the most beautiful things we get to see in community here in Kensington is people who have been loved out of the hells they find themselves in – domestic violence, addiction, sex trafficking, loneliness.

C.S. Lewis understood hell not as a place where God locks people out of heaven but as a dungeon that we lock ourselves into… With this new perspective, we gain new insight when we look at the parable of Lazarus or hear the brilliant words with which Jesus reassured Peter that ‘the gates of hell will not prevail against you.’ As adolescents, we understood that to mean that the demons and fiery darts of the Devil will not hit us. But lately we’ve done a little more thinking and praying, and we have a bit more insight on gates. Gates are not offensive weapons. Gates are defensive – walls and fences we build to keep people out. God is not saying the gates of hell will not prevail as they come at us. God is saying that we are in the business of storming the gates of hell, and the gates will not prevail as we crash through them with grace.

People sometimes ask if we are scared of the inner city. We say that we are more scared of the suburbs. Jesus warns that we can fear those things which can hurt our bodies or those things which can destroy our souls, but we should be far more fearful of the latter. Those are the subtle demons of suburbia. As Shane’s mother says, ‘Perhaps there is no more dangerous place for a Christian to be than in safety and comfort, detached from the suffering of others.’ We’re scared of apathy and complacency, of detaching ourselves from the suffering. Just as we are building walls to keep people out of our comfortable, insulated existence, we are trapping ourselves in a hell of isolation, loneliness, and fear… Let’s pray that God would give us the strength to storm the gates of hell and tear down the walls we have created between us and those whose suffering would disrupt our comfort.”

There’s no question that the people of Sudan have already lived through hell on earth. After 50 years of civil war, of death and fear and sorrow and hate – there is no doubt that many of the Sudanese have been trapped in a cycle of horror that would rival any nightmare we could imagine of fire and brimstone. And so if I believe that Christ calls us to love our neighbors and to pursue His Kingdom, there’s no way I can believe He merely wills us to share with the Sudanese about some promise of heaven-after-you-die. Would I hope that they would want to pursue a relationship with Jesus? Of course – because I don’t think anyone can ever truly experience Life Abundant apart from Grace. But surely loving our neighbors also means joining the fight against all the things that would steal life from them – including war, poverty, hatred and fear. And I think it’s hard, if not impossible, to fight against those things from a distance. Obviously not everyone is called to go to the front-lines of tragedies – to the war-zones or hospitals or inner-cities or nursing homes. But I DO think we are called to do our part to join in what God is doing to bring love and healing and hope and grace to those places. I think it’s a gift the Lord gives us actually – an invitation to play some small part in seeing redemption happen, in seeing restoration take place. And in fact I think it’s impossible for us to ever experience grace and healing in our own lives if we refuse to find commonality in the suffering of others.

And so am I going to Sudan to “share God with people”? Yes. But that’s because I think God isn’t just in the business of “life after death” – I’m pretty convinced He’s in the business of bringing life before death too. And Sudan could definitely use more folks striving to see more life there. More peace there. More joy there. To me, it’d be totally worth risking a little danger, if in the end we get to conquer some of death’s grip on a weary land and replace it with life and hope.

Final Preparations

Only a few more days till departure! We had our last team meeting yesterday, and all the final details are falling in place. We’ve all got our malaria pills that we’ll start taking this week. I got the rest of my vaccines last week (besides shots for Hepatitis A & B and Yellow Fever, I ended up going with ones for Meningitis and Typhoid Fever -- so, hopefully I’m good to go for protection from the most risky ones.) I drove home and got final hugs from my grandma and dad – who are both a little worried about their baby girl going to a war-torn African country, but who are thankfully still supportive of me following my dreams. There are still lots of last-minute things to do in the coming days – securing travelers’ insurance, buying a new sleeping bag, getting extra camera batteries, etc. But, all in all, I’m feeling ready to go, and ready to get this long-awaited adventure underway.

Counting Down...

So in just over a week, it's going to finally be time to take off for Sudan. Still lots to do before we get on the plane -- but I'm ready for the wait to be over and to actually be on our way!

Today I had the great joy of welcoming home one of my dearest friends who has spent the past two years living in Egypt. As I chilled with him and two of my other favorite "brothers", Kelly shared about his experiences working with Sudanese refugees whom he got to teach in Cairo. (First off, I freakin love the fact that I have friends who can sit and discuss African politics with me. I'm continuously amazed at how God has woven our hearts together with such similar interests and parallel journeys.) Hearing about the lives of the Lost Boys who have resettled there in Cairo, it made me even more excited to go to Sudan and engage some in this incredible event of tragedy and restoration. And when I say "excited", I mean that in a "what the hell am I getting myself into?" kinda way that stirs both joyful hope and sober contemplation. I know this trip will be life-changing, but I can't predict in what ways. It won't be a "Omigosh, I can't believe people live in this kind of poverty!" moment -- that was Haiti in 2003. I have a feeling that visiting Sudan is going to break my heart and yet inspire my soul. But who knows how those two situations will come about.

For a sneak peak though of some of what we'll be involved in, I'm passing along this message that was sent to our team from our leader. Check out the school project that we're going to helping out with!

"This video was taken by tom thomas from FEFC. We have been communicating with one another about the school concept and he has been kind enough to take this video for us while he was there just last week doing some teacher training.
You will see the site of the City on a Hill school and it's starter rooms being constructed.
William Laku (the pastor) is the man guiding the tour of the compound. Exciting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THvp3VpQ0Jg

You will have to copy/paste that into your web browser as embedding has been disabled by tom."

Provision

So, I have a confession to make. Of all the so-called crazy adventures that I've been on, this whole trip to Sudan has been the one I've been the least confident about going on. Looking back on previous times in my life when I made the decisions to 1) go on a trip to Haiti, 2) move in with strangers to a house in innner-city Atlanta, and 3) sign up to volunteer for a year in post-Katrina New Orleans -- I always made those choices having had a pretty sure conviction that that was the step God was leading me to take. In lots of different ways, it had truly seemed that the Lord gave me pretty tangible confirmation in each of those circumstances that He was in fact opening a door for me to walk through. Which of course gave me a lot of peace once I was in those places, knowing that even if things were difficult, I was where I was supposed to be.

But this time, things have been different. When I first heard about the trip, I immediately WANTED to go, but I had no reason to think I actually SHOULD go. I'm pretty sure that I'd want to go on almost any opportunity that presented itself to travel to another country, so it's not like desire itself was much of a confirmation factor to me. But once I found out that my AmeriCorps project was going to end 4 months earlier than it was originally supposed to, then I actually seriously started thinking about going since I no longer had a job commitment keeping me in Austin this summer. And yet, as I pondered and prayed about whether I should sign up or not, I never received any major "signs" directing me to go or not go. No convenient Bible verses during my devotion time that read "Go to Africa." No seemingly Divinely orchestrated conversation with a stranger that mentioned Sudan. I didn't know if I should really be going or not, or if this was just an example of my desire for periodic adrenaline rushes or new and exciting adventures. Eventually it was commit-or-miss-the-boat time though, and I finally just said "yes" - feeling like it was a good work to be a part of, and that if I really wasn't "supposed" to go, then God would have made that known.

But then came the question of how to pay for the trip. My AmeriCorps job for the past year had pretty much just provided a living stipend, not an actual salary... so the savings I'd been able to put away had been pretty slim. Even if I emptied my bank account, I wasn't going to have enough to pay for all the expenses on my own. The rest of the team was raising support (the Christian term for fundraising), but I really wasn't so hot on that idea. After having done that so much already in the past few years, I felt like it was time to stop asking people to fund the work I was doing... particularly when I couldn't say definitely that God had "called me to go" on this trip. I truly do believe in the members of the Church taking care of each others' needs and each contributing their part to the work of the Kingdom, so I think I would have been much more alright in doing traditional support raising if I'd had more "spiritual direction" for wanting to go. But truth is, I'm probably less confident in evangelism now than I've ever been… and my reasons for wanting to go were much more personal than ministry-oriented. (Well, actually, that gets into the whole idea of WHAT ministry is, which is an area where my beliefs have changed a lot in the past few years. In a different way, my heart is completely ministry-oriented in why I want to go, but not religiously-oriented.) But nonetheless, plane tickets weren't going to buy themselves, so I had to figure out how to cover my expenses. In the end, I decided to not do fundraising in the way that I had before… with the exception being a few folks who I knew would want to give if they knew I was going, so I felt o.k. letting them know what was up. Instead, I simply told folks that I was on a team going to Sudan, and trusted that somehow God would indeed provide the money if this was supposed to happen.

And… incredibly-but-not-really-surprising-because-God-is-gracious-like-that… all the money was provided. And it definitely happened in ways that I would never have guessed. Almost a third of the money was given by people in my church small group – folks who I didn't even know 7 months ago, but who have loved me so much as we've learned about Sudan together these past months, and who really believed in me being on the team. Almost another third came from a handful of generous people who I see less than once a year, and yet who wanted to be a part of this work. I was able to cover for another third on my own by picking up some extra shifts at my job. And the rest came from some good friends who, while young and themselves not well off, are passionate about fostering goodness and Life – and thus gave what they could to support our trip.

Looking back on it, my faith and my heart are so encouraged to see how God has been more than faithful to extend His provision to me through the generosity of others, particularly during a time in life when I've done my share of spiritual questioning. It increases my confidence in the grandness and goodness of the Lord – that He's not going to stop caring for me just because I'm taking less traditional roads to Him lately… and that while my skepticism of organized religion may be well-founded, I'm not a fool for trusting that Christ is indeed Truth and Life. Doubtful of cultural Christendom?, perhaps. But my soul has been made too alive for me to ever renounce the reality of Jesus Himself, and the amazing Restoration that I continue to see played out every day.

Spiritually, I remain in a place where the questions continue to come, and where I long for greater wisdom and am eager to learn so much more than I know. But tonight, I've experienced Provision, and am thus grateful to the Provider.

And it makes me all the more excited to see what else lies ahead once we actually get to Sudan. :)

Preparations

Last night our Sudan team had another great evening of getting together to prepare for our trip. It's exciting to see so many things coming together! We turned in our passport photos for our official documents for access into Sudan, along with the money we've raised so far from our generous sponsors. We got our official pack lists of what we'll need to be planning to take with us. Things to remember: Take little to no denim (takes too long to air dry and weighs too much in your backpack.) Weather will be like Colorado: warm in the day, cool at night.. so gonna need some long sleeves and cargo pants to go with the shorts and tees. There won't be any electricity, so forget charging my cell phone or digital camera once we get into "the bush." Talking about all the details is making it all feel much more real. Glad I still have two months to get everything ready to go!

It was really encouraging to be able to pray for each other and for our fellow team members who weren't able to make the meeting. Even though I only know a few of the other folks going (and even them I've only known for a few months now), everyone seems like such kindred spirits - and already we're starting to feel a lot of unity among all the team.

After our discussion and prayer time, we all watched the film "God Grew Tired of Us". I'd definitely recommend it for anyone who is interested in learning more about the Lost Boys of Sudan (watch the trailer here. ) I think one of the things that is going to be challenging about this trip is wrapping my mind around the reality of what the Sudanese have faced during the civil wars. I've read tons of BBC reports and intellectually know the history... but it's one thing to read texts about horrors and tragedies. It's a completely other thing to experience it. I know already my heart is going to totally break while I'm there, but I'm hoping that the empathy won't just paralyze me with sadness or cynicism. I'm hopeful that as we all struggle to grasp the magnitude of the challenges facing the Didinga, that we'll be able to take part in doing as much as we can to join with the Sudanese in taking steps towards peace and restoration.

Itinerary

We've known that our trip was going to take place the first two weeks of August, but we were unsure of exact dates because we had to wait and see which days would be the least expensive for our flights. And we WERE going to have to wait to book our flights until we had enough fundraising done to purchase everyone's tickets -- but thankfully Austin Stone Community Church has offered to finance our trip for us -- thus allowing us to go ahead and buy plane tickets and then pay back the church as our support money comes in. SO... two days ago, flights were booked and we got our official itineraries! Note that there has been a slight change in plans from what I original said: instead of staying in Nairobi for two nights for our post-Sudan debrief, we'll just be there one night on the way back, followed by a night in London for our debrief. I'm a little bummed we'll have less time in Nairobi, but excited to hopefully see at least a small bit of London! Below are travel plans from Austin to Nairobi. From there we'll be taking a smaller, charter flight from Kenya into Sudan.

DEPARTURE:
- Leave Austin, Friday August 1, 11:32am... arrive at Washington/Dulles 3:48pm
- Leave DC 6:26pm... arrive at London/Heathrow Sat. Aug. 2nd, 6:55am
- Leave London 10:20am... arrive in Nairobi 8:50pm

RETURN:
- Leave Nairobi, Sunday August 17th, 11:35am... arrive at London/Heathrow 6:30pm
- Leave London, Monday August 18th, 10:50am... arrive at Washington/Dulles 2:18pm
- Leave DC 6:55pm... arrive in Austin 9:14pm

Add it up folks, and that's gonna be just 3 minutes shy of 40 hours of flying! Plus our charter flight to and from Sudan. Looks like I'm gonna need at least a couple good books to pass the time.

Sudan video

This video was partially filmed in Didinga territory, and it features William and Eunice Laku - the couple we'll be going to work with in Southern Sudan.

WATCH

Sudan Overview

Although I plan on writing about a variety of things on this blog, the main reason that I've started it is to let y'all know about my trip to Sudan that I'll be going on in August. So, first up, here's an overview about what we'll be up to:

SETTING THE STAGE

- Sudan has officially been an independent nation since 1956, when the people declared themselves free from the British-Egyptian rule that had governed for most of the prior century. Immediately however, the country was thrust into a civil war as rivaling factions disputed over the many strong cultural differences between the northern and southern regions of Sudan. A brief peace was brokered from 1972 to 1983, only for the Second Sudanese Civil War to again ravish the country. In January 2005, a comprehensive peace agreement was reached between the north and south, which essentially granted Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum on independence to be held in 2011. While the horrific conflict in Darfur continues to persist in western Sudan, the South is striving to reestablish some semblance of stable life. Over 250,000 refugees have returned from camps in Uganda, Ethiopia, & Kenya. Though eager to begin recovery, most people have incredibly limited resources with which to rebuild their lives. This is the scene we will be entering into.

THE HOPE:
- The leaders for our trip, Jonathan & Lauren Ramirez, have already spent time in Sudan, having worked with a couple named William & Eunice Laku among the Didinga tribe of southeastern Sudan. William & Eunice became Christians while in refugee camps (some of the first among the Didinga people), and have returned now to their homeland to be ambassadors of a Christian faith and of peace. One of the visions this couple has for their land is a dream to start a multi-tribal boarding school, called "City on a Hill", which would strive to bring the youth of surrounding tribes to learn together in a unified environment. The hope is that if these children of war can be educated together, hear the Gospel, and build healthy relationships with each other, then these future leaders can guide their country into a time of peace and life that hasn't been seen in generations. The Lakus have invited the Ramirezes to join them in this endeavor, not building a school FOR them, but rather developing a school WITH them. And so our team is going to learn more about the culture and to support this great vision, considering as we go the ways that each of us can be a part of this long-term effort, and how our community back here in the States can be a part of what the Lord is already doing among the Sudanese people.

LOGISTICS:
- Our trip will take place the first two weeks of August, and will include a team of 15 people. We will arrive first in Nairobi, Kenya for a night, then fly to Lokichogio -- then fly again into Sudan to our destination of Nagishot. We'll spend 10 days among the Didinga tribe, joining William and Eunice in their ministry and learning as much as we can about the culture, the current circumstances in the region, and the development for the boarding school. After leaving we'll spend two nights in Nairobi for a time of debriefing, then depart on our flight back to Austin. I hope to do some extensive writing both before and after the trip, and will most likely post those pieces on a blog that would be available online for you all to read.

WAYS YOU CAN BE INVOLVED:
- Be in the know. I'll be sending out more details and updates from our team as we get ready for the trip, as well as follow-up reports once we get home. These will include specific prayer requests and opportunities for you to further support the City on a Hill school as plans continue to develop. If you'd like to receive these email updates, then send me a reply at ERLing82@gmail.com, and I'll get those to you. If you'd prefer to receive a follow-up letter once we return in August, then send back your physical postal address, and I'll mail you a trip summary and photos once we return home. From all my previous travels, I have definitely come to believe in the blessing that comes from having a support team of people praying for the task at hand, so know that I truly appreciate those of you can commit to praying for our team and the Didinga tribe!

- Provide a financial gift. The approximate total cost per each team member will be $2,700. For my share of those expenses, I'll be covering one-third through my own savings. I'll be doing fundraising this summer to provide for the remaining cost, approximately $1800. If you'd like to contribute to that goal, you can make checks payable to Austin Stone Community Church. The church is a 501c-3 non-profit organization, and thus all gifts will be tax deductible. If you are interested in helping out in this way, let me know, and I'll give you details on where to send your gift. Providing tangibly for our expenses will enable us to provide tangibly for the Didinga people – so thank you for participating in the task with us!

Many thanks to all of you for your interest in supporting this exciting endeavor – and for your care and support to me personally, to our team, and to the people in Sudan who we will be working with. Blessings and love to each of you!

Sincerely,
emily