Tuesday 16 September 2008

September 2008

Dear Friends

Warm greetings to you from Yei in Southern Sudan. How are you I hope all is going well with you?

First of all I want to say many thanks to you for your prayers and your support. After leaving England in May we arrived in Nairobi Kenya. During our time in Nairobi we mainly spent time packing our personal belongs from our flat into small boxes in order to transport to Sudan. However, we found that the time packing luggage and moving to southern Sudan turned out to be tiring and frustration began to enter in. For example Across was supposed to help with the logistics and movements of the luggage from Nairobi to Yei, but they were very slow in organising transportation. We, therefore had to organise an alternative means of moving our luggage from Nairobi.

The Bible says the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective weapon against the enemy and it clears dark paths.
So we began to pray for strength and wisdom and as a result of God's help, everything worked out well.

Since we arrived in Yei from Nairobi we have so far been trying to sort-out our house, unpacking items from Nairobi, putting them in one corner of the house and changing their location to make the house look better. This is the Year of Beginnings for us, new wife and new house and hopefully a new car. The youth of Yei welcomed us back warmly and plus they were very happy to see us in town again. The young people in Yei are hungry for Development, Sports activities and above all the Word of God.

Currently in Yei it is the rainy season and the rains are mainly falling heavily during the evening hours, giving us a cool weather, something to thank God for, because Sudan can really get hot with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius and above. When you take a walk to town, you will see potholes everywhere and all the roads are muddy. The good side of the story is that lots of shops are coming up and hotels are also increasing in number, but the only problem is that most of the goods being used in Yei come from Uganda.

There has been so far three years of peace in Sudan after the 21 years of fierce war between the Northern Government and the SPLA. As you walk around you can see a glimmer of hope amongst the local people, a sense that God has not forgotten them.
Since my arrival to Yei so far I have managed to conduct several meetings with the F.A (Football Association) and the county authorities regarding the Fly Sports football League. The league will resume in September 2008 and we are looking forward to register around fifteen teams for the Super League and thirty teams for the Kids League.

I have also begun preaching at the local churches and on 17th of August, ten young people became born again and Baptised in the Holy Spirit at one of the branches of the Sudan Pentecostal church. Grace has started her radio work and it is going well although she is still going through the orientation process, she has also started looking for the local people to work with and empower through discussions and also involving them in the recording of the programs. However she is adjusting well to the new beginnings and surroundings.