Day Six.
They sat on a simple, wood-framed bed holding hands and snuggling. I had never seen a married couple, in fact any couple, in Sudan hold hands and snuggle. It is not cultural. As I watched their cuteness, I reflected on their story as shared by Sabet and Suzy.
Mary and Joseph were happily married, or as happily married as a couple can be in the conditions and culture of South Sudan. Then Joseph’s brother died, leaving behind a wife. It is Sudanese culture that when a brother dies, the surviving brother takes the surviving wife to be his own. Joseph followed cultural norms and took his brother’s wife as his own, and the two of them produced a child. Mary, overcome with grief and sadness that her husband had not only taken another wife, but actually had relations with her, drank a bottle of hair dye in an attempt to kill herself.
God was watching over Mary, however, and she was taken to IDAT’s clinic where she was treated and healed. Then Suzy and Sabet began to counsel her; why would she attempt suicide, what had happened that made her feel that all hope was lost? As the story unfolded, Suzy and Sabet knew that this was their opportunity to share the Gospel and to pray over this couple.
God has worked miracles in their marriage. They are together and stronger than ever. They attend church and Sabet has mentored Joseph in what it means to be a godly husband, a husband who honors his wife. As we sat at their home on Sunday evening, Mary cooked the food while Joseph served us drinks; as we ate dinner, both Mary and Joseph served us and made us welcome; as we prayed over them, Mary and Joseph sat with their arms locked and their fingers intertwined. They stand today as an example of God’s grace and love, and as an example to the other Dinka couples of what a marriage looks like when God is at its center.
Snapshot of Sunday:
-Rainy morning
-Church
-Sunday school with the children
-Lazy afternoon of relaxing and chatting
-Dinner with Mary and Joseph at their home
-Early bedtime…my favorite!
Snippets from church…
Kerrie, Elizabeth, Ashley, and I took all of the children from church to do a Sunday school program. I told the Story of the Creation of the World, and Kerrie walked through the story with the children. We had the children pretend to be each things as God created them in the story: the sun and moon, the trees, the birds and fish, the animals, and man.
It was a large group of children, and they were crazy! We had a LOT of fun, though!!
After the story was finished, we went outside and played games as the morning sun came out and proved to be hot!
We began with the hokey pokey, and this kid was having a blast!
Perhaps this little man picked up the robot from somewhere! =)
Hmmmm…
Meet the two Amirs! If you remember, I was given the Dinka name Amir, and this girl is also called Amir. We are both named after a white cow with reddish streaks…
Check out his concentration!
This boy, Santino, is SO sweet! He is posing here with Ushi, a Rhodesian Ridgeback…
Beautiful Amir…
This kid ALWAYS had his tongue out!
Meet Matoch. He was shot in the face one year ago when a neighboring village launched a cattle raid near Tonj. He was taken to the clinic, where he was then mid-evaced to Nairobi. They completed a skin graft and reconstructive surgery, but he needs more surgery now because scar tissue has closed up his right nostril. He will be leaving Tonj again very soon to go back to the doctor in Nairobi to have it fixed again. What a strong, sweet child…
Agum and I…
Jed…
Jed said, “Silly picture!” So I did cattle corns, and he did…nothing…
Sunday evening we headed just a short drive over to Mary and Joseph’s house…
Bringing the cattle back into town from the pasture…
They burn cow dung in the camps so that it repels flies and mosquitoes…
This woman had never seen herself before Kerrie and I took photographs of her and then showed her the playback…
Me attempting to make kissera, which I messed up!
Bare buns!
Our dinner was kissera with chicken, and it was actually quite good!
