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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Nasir, South Sudan
The first thing I noticed when I stepped down out of our small, prop plane was the crushing heat, but soon I dismissed it from my mind as I recognized face after face in the crowd that had gathered to stare at the khawaja who’d just landed in the village. John Chuol was there, William Deng was there, Gadet was there, and then the March mission team was there (although they were there to load up and leave just as we were unloading to stay). It was a happy, healthy reunion in the middle of that dirt airstrip, in the village of Nasir, in the Republic of South Sudan.
It was a homecoming of a new kind. This was my third time in Nasir, but this time I was looking at the people and the village through a new lens…seeing everything as if for the first time, because this time Nasir will become my home for real. Despite the heat, I had chills as I thought about how God grabbed my heart three years ago and started me on this journey that would lead me to Nasir for a couple of years or more. I was humbled. I was overjoyed. I was a little scared.
Snapshot of Wednesday:
-Packing up once again, this time to fly into South Sudan
-Flying from Arua to Juba to Nasir
-Reunion at the airstrip
-Reunion with Nyaret and Nyabol at the compound
-Setting up camp
-Walking to the radio tower
-Rice and beans and devotional time
I’ll start with a few pictures from the morning…
I got to “co-pilot” our first leg into Juba. It was AWESOME to see things from that perspective!
As we flew into Juba, we could see all of the UN helicopters and humanitarian aid planes at the airport…
Jared and Keisha…
Christina…
Laura…
Welcome home! This is the compound where our houses are currently being built. It may not look like much now, but we see a lot of potential and know that it’s fertile ground.
We actually camped in tents on this trip, as the two remaining tukuls were already being used.
William Deng, a Nasir Bible School graduate from 2011, greeted us at the airstrip. He had walked all the way from Torpuot (5 miles away) to welcome us back to South Sudan, and he brought us a goat to slaughter for supper. This is only the second slaughter I’ve seen first-hand, but it is not something that bothers me at all. This time, Yen got everything set up and then Blake was given the honor of cutting the goat’s throat…
Our houses on the compound are not built yet, but they are in the process. All of the foundations have all been dug and poured, and one house is going up. At the time that we were there, some of the building supplies (such as this cement) were already there, while the rest were in transport down the Sobat River from Malakal. I’m SO EXCITED that when we return to Nasir, we’ll have little houses to move into!!
