The Praise of Nations

Every Sunday afternoon, we have team church. This is a time where we spend time in worship, praying, and discussing a passage from the Bible. Sometimes we have other Khawajas (Nuer/Arabic word for foreigner) join us.

This day, Jared was sick, so it was just Keisha, Laura and me. We had recently learned that fighting had spread to Nasir, so we decided that we would spend the time worshipping and in intercessory prayer for Nasir. Like most days of team church, we sat outside in our plastic chairs in a small circle.

As we were alternating between singing and praying, two of our young friends, Nyatet and Molan, wandered onto the compound and sat down with us. Neither of them speaks much English, but they soon realized what we were doing. Many of the people in Gambella have relatives in Nasir, and these girls were no different. Immediately they began to pray with us. Soon after, another one of our friends, Mary, joined us as well.

The time of prayer continued as we would sing a song and pray in English, and then they would sing and pray in Nuer. This was such a beautiful time as we praised God and warred together for Nasir in two completely different languages.

I was reminded that God’s love and worship supersedes language and culture. It was a beautiful glimpse of what heaven will be like; people from every tribe, tongue, and nation praising God together. 

"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:“Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”--Revelation 7:9-11 NIV

Provision

Moving to four different countries in nine months has taught me so much. Living in a town full of refugees, Aid workers, and people I don’t know, who don’t speak my language, or understand my culture has taught me even more. 

One of the lessons I have learned (which I previously thought I knew) is that whatever God intends to happen will come to fruition. There is absolutely nothing I can do but be faithful to what He is asking of me. Being here has made me realize that God doesn’t NEED me to do anything for Him. His purposes will be fulfilled with or without me. I am so extremely privileged that he has ALLOWED me to be here. If by his grace He uses me in the lives of others for His glory, praise be to Him.

Let me share a few stories of God’s provision for our team...

Every friend I have here has literally walked up to us or stumbled onto our compound. We haven’t searched out anybody. From day one when Laura and I went to buy phone SIM cards, we have met person after person who God has brought to us as an answer to our prayers, to become our friends, and to help us as we do life here.

Brooke getting her hair braided by Nyatet and Molan

Our friend Nyatet enjoying the swing Jared made

Me visiting with my friend Nyatuok

Two of my little buddies, Buay and Kir

Since the conflict began in South Sudan we haven’t been able to contact any of our workers in Nasir due to cell towers being shut off. Because of this, we have some compound workers that we hadn’t been able to pay since December. With no way of contacting them to let them know we hadn’t forgotten about them, we began to pray for a way to communicate as well as a way to get them money. We prayed for almost four months. Then one day here in Ethiopia, Jared was getting off a Bajaj (public transport motorized rickshaw), and there stood James, one of our guards from Nasir! He had come with one of our radio workers for medical care. If that isn’t a divine appointment I don’t know what is. We were able to pay our workers through people going back to Nasir, and since then we have run into more of our friends from Nasir. James is even continuing his work here with us in Ethiopia as our night guard. God is good.

Meeting with some of our friends from Nasir, John, Nyakang, and James

God has provided abundantly for all of our housing. We started out in the nightclub hotel. We prayed for a better housing solution, and soon we were able to transition to the mudhuts. As the rainy season approached, we realized that with the kids the mudhuts weren’t the best option, so we began to pray again. Shortly after we started praying, one of our friends informed us of a brand new house in the Nuer area of town. It works out perfectly for our needs.

Our new home

Rats!

I have been living in a mudhut for the past month. The roof is made of grass, but the ceiling is a plastic tarp used to keep bats out and used as extra protection from the rain. When moving into the huts, we had been warned to make sure everything was locked up in containers because of rats. These rats were said to be on the prowl.  They would crawl across the ceiling and come into the huts, chewing through bottles of shampoo, lotion, or anything they could get their teeth on.

The first few nights, we had no rat problems. But then, one night while in the storage hut, I saw a rat crawl down and back up the side of the wall like Spiderman. This gave me the heebie-jeebies. After observing this, I began to be awakened by the scurrying of feet across the tarp. Countless times, I would lie in bed listening to the scurrying, fearing that the rat would fall out of the ceiling onto me.  I reasoned that this was an irrational fear because the rat just wanted food or something to chew on. Also, it was probably more afraid of me than I was of it. 

I then realized that there was a hole in the tarp from a rope extending from the roof, which was used as a clothes hanger. The rat was crawling down the rope into the hut. I cannot even count how many times I woke up because of the rat knocking things over. I would quickly flip on my headlamp to see him scamper up the rope back into the ceiling. After a many nights of being woken multiple times, I began to sleep with earplugs.

Since it was dry season and mosquitoes were rare, I was sleeping without a mosquito net. 

Then it happened.

One night, I was awakened because I felt something on my side. I sat up rapidly, flipped on my light to see the rat jump off the bed and scurry up the rope into the ceiling. BLAH! BLEH! EW! ICK! GROSS! I immediately put up my mosquito net (to keep the rats out, not the mosquitoes). 

Let’s just say, I didn’t get much sleep that night. I did however spend a good amount of time plotting the demise of the rat, and I also named him. His name is Mr. Peebody. In my mind, I cooked up many creative plans of how to get rid of him. Luckily, it was an easy fix as I was able to patch the hole in the tarp with some screen. I'm happy to report that Mr. Peebody hasn’t ventured down since that fretful night. 

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