Immeasurably More: November 2013

I can hear the crunch of the dirt under the feet of someone walking outside my house. The light from a flashlight outside reflects off the ceiling of our tin roof. Laura calls out, “Who’s there?”. “Security guard” answers the heavily Nuer accented voice of our night guard. We had been in Nasir for about a week, and every night looked similar to this. Many strange noises awakened us throughout the night… loud thunks from things dropping on the tin roof, the squeaking of window shutters, the sounds of the wind blowing against the house, and many other unexplained noises. It seemed as though everything sounded like someone was trying to break in.

Laura and I had been sleeping inside the tent in our living room for almost a week. Part of this was due to the fact that our mattresses had some mold on them from the rain leaking into the house over the summer, and partially because when the sun went down we were both terrified to be inside our house. I literally dreaded night time. Each night, after dinner with the team, we would be in our tent ready to go to bed by 7:30 because we were too scared to stay out of the safety net of our tent.

Despair crept in. I was growing weary with lack of sleep, and the terror of night that gripped me with fear kept me from do anything in my house after dark. There was no way I would be able to do this for two years. Every morning I would wake, happy that it was light, but not wanting to get out of the tent, just longing for something familiar.

As I prayed for the Lord to strengthen and protect me, I became aware of the spiritual attack I was experiencing. During this time, Psalm 91 became very real to me. Together as a team, we began to war in prayer over what Laura and I were experiencing. By God’s grace and the power in Jesus name, He delivered us from the schemes of the enemy. Many blessings were prayed over our house, and the intense fear was gone. The difference was like night and day. Thankfully, after treating our mattresses, Laura and I were able to move out of the tent a few days later and into our own rooms, free of fear and mold.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the LORD, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;” Psalm 91:1-11

Our livingroom/bedroom the first week

Somehow, MAF was able to squeeze us into their schedule and got us a flight into Nasir on Friday Oct 4^th, just a few days after our original flight. It was pretty risky as it had recently rained in Nasir so there was a possibility that the mud would be bad. Since July, after a huge fiasco of a plane getting stuck in the mud on the runway for three weeks resulting in a bent propeller, MAF has been very cautious when flying into Nasir, always checking with someone on the ground regarding the airstrip status. I was so thankful for the willingness of the pilots to risk the sticky mud to get us there. We were still on rain watch though, and we wouldn’t know until the morning of the flight if we would be able to go or not.

At 5 am on Friday morning, I heard the honk of the bus that had come to take the team to the airstrip. As we made our way through the weigh station at the airstrip, we were all praying that we wouldn’t get news that it had rained again in Nasir. After a short delay due to a gauge on the plane needing to be replaced, we were finally airborn!! The closer our plane got to Nasir, the more nervous, anxious and excited I got. As I peered out the window I watched as the Nile River snaked along the land as we followed it. The land below looked very different than it had in March. Everything was very green now because of all the rain, where in March there was almost no green at all. After a short stop in Arua to do customs and in Juba to refuel, the Nile turned into the Sobat, which meant that Nasir was close! I began to see mud huts pop up on the ground below and the Nasir market became clear. As we did a fly over the airstrip and turned around to land, I could see the roofs of our houses on our compound. With a jolt, our wheels went down and our plane halted to a stop. Out of the window I could see Kerry (who came on another plane ahead of us) give us the thumbs up. WE MADE IT! The door of the plane opened, and I could hear Kerry’s strong southern accent say “Welcome home yall!” We were greeted by many Nuer men and children as we got off the plane. Kerry had arranged with Gatdet (our Nuer liaison)to get donkey carts to bring our stuff to the compound, and we had a lot of stuff, which made it hard to not make a scene.

We began the trek to our compound. The airstrip was dry, but we had to weave around to avoid big muddy sinkholes of water and hop over green-silted “creeks” of stagnant water. After almost 45 min of walking and greeting women and children along the way, we made it to the fence of our compound. There were a handful of Nuer on our compound that had been guarding it since it since the construction was finished. The compound was overgrown with grass about to my waist and there was a lot of trash. Kerry took us to each of our houses and unlocked the door. The house set aside for Laura and I was the house that the interns and the short term team had stayed in. As the door to my house was opened, we peered in to see it full of stuff. A tent in the living room, a table with graham crackers half eaten, lots of chairs, furniture for all three houses, mosquito nets, clothes, trunks, shows, bags, and many many other items. The team in July had to be evacuated by the UN because the mud was so bad, so they had left in a hurry and much of their belongings were still in the house. It was very overwhelming. We had been told that things were in pretty bad shape, but I wasn’t prepared for this. Kerry had two hours to help but then his plane was leaving, so he went with Blaise and Jared to town to exchange money, get SIM cards and pick up the motorcycle from the airstrip, leaving us to wait for all the donkey carts to come and to begin cleaning the houses out. Where to start?

Laura and I started to clear our house out and move furniture to the other houses. We began to take the tent down, but discovered a small zoo under it. There was a mouse, a nest of baby mice, a huge centipede, a few scorpions, and a lot of beetles. Let’s just say my machete came in handy here. There was so much to do that Laura and I opted to just sleep in the tent for the night instead of messing with mosquito nets. The rest of the day was spent moving stuff, killing bugs, cleaning and watching for donkey carts. As the first donkey cart finally arrived with some of our luggage, we were ecstatic. Whenever we had received over half of our luggage, there was about two hours with no sight of donkey carts. We began to worry that somehow our stuff had “disappeared”. Finally a steady stream of donkey carts showed up. Somehow, after at least ten donkey carts, we ended up receiving all of our luggage, not missing a thing. This was pretty much a miracle.

The sun was beginning to set, but there was still no sign of Blaise and Jared. What had happened to them?? They didn’t know the way around yet, and we had heard that white people being out after dark wasn’t the best idea, so we were beginning to worry. We hadn’t been able to find our water filters yet, so Laura and I pulled our camping stove out in the middle of the compound and attempted to boil water so that we had something to drink. It felt like it took hours for the water to boil as we picked the dive bombing bugs out of it. As we sat there waiting for the water to boil, I looked up and saw the most beautiful night sky I have ever seen. It was nice to just have to look up and be reminded of God’s vastness and goodness despite the craziness of the day.

Suddenly, we heard the honking of a horn coming from a distance. Since there are probably under 20 vehicles in Nasir, most likely that was the guys with the motorcycle! Soon we saw the headlight and in came Jared and Blaise with the bike, completely covered from head to toe in mud. They had attempted to ride the bike from the airstrip to the compound, but they didn’t make it far before they hit mud. They had to push the bike the rest of the way, weaving around the vats of mud slough, which is probably close to a mile. By this time everyone was completely beat, so Laura and I went to our house and climbed into our tent, to try to fall asleep despite the unfamiliar and mysterious noises of a brand new place.