Juba, Sudan

Hotel room

So we are here in Juba (Capital of the South Sudan) for the week and we finished our first conference yesterday. Juba is very hot, dusty, dirty and very expensive; apparently the heavy presence of the UN and other dignitaries has driven up the costs of everything. The rooms of the hotel we’re staying in are literally large tool sheds and we have A/C in our rooms! In Nimule, every night I stand under the shower with my night clothes on and go to bed soaking wet because it’s so hot and we have no electricity for a fan. Instead of waking up every night sweating I’ve been waking up freezing!



Restaurant at our hotel

Juba isn’t the Ends of the Earth but you can see it from where we are.

The culture here is much different from the culture in Nimule so it took me a little while to adjust to that while I was teaching. There were so many distractions throughout the entire day of teaching and the translators were struggling with proper translation. I was growing very frustrated but I decided to find the Lord in the situation.
Guess what? I found Him! As I was sitting in the dirt in 100+ degree weather, sweat dripping down me, drinking warm bottled water, I kept hearing in my head, "it's not about you and you need to die to yourself!" I was starting to grow resentful and prideful. We left Nimule, where I would much rather be, and came all the way out here to teach them the Word of God and they didn’t seem to be thankful for that. As if I was entitled to some sort of grand thanksgiving. I was frustrated that the ladies weren’t listening to the teaching and get angry that they don’t understand how precious the Bible is.

Then I felt the Lord was telling me that He brought us to Juba to teach His Word and to love on the women...that’s it. I can not control the reaction of the people all I can do is control my reaction towards them and my reaction should always be in love. As long as I’m faithful to do that I know He will be pleased. I have to trust that God's Word doesn't return void and if only one lady learned something thats enough for God. This church is so lacking in spiritual maturity and they desperately need to be grounded in the Word but as usual the laborers are few so they continue on being deceived.

Today is our day off and tonight we are having dinner with the Commanding General of the SPLA (the South Sudanese Army)…how cool is that?! The next 2 days we’re holding another conference at the Army barracks here in Juba. Please pray for us. Pray that the hearts of the people will be softened to God and that they would be hungry to learn the Bible. God Bless!!!