First Post From Honduras, My First Public Try at Poetry

Today in Honduras our team went to an orphanage type home run by the city. Crazy thing is that all the children in this building are neglected of Honduras they were left in hospitals or they are in waiting for what the courts are going to do with them. This was a place full of despair and hopelessness. So this afternoon my whole team agreed that we were all shaken up by this experience and we are all motivated to want to do our part in serving the orphans of this world.

So as a result of this experience I decided to try my hand at a free verse poem about what I am thinking. For those of you that know me well you that I have a growing interest in poetry. I therefore hope to put more up later. But here goes one of my first ones:

Those Neglected

In the world,

The places of wealth,

The places of the poor.

People are always neglected,

For reasons unseen,

And for things that are ub-seen.

Countries around the world,

Are filled with the poor and the orphan.

There place in life is lost in translation.

But the Job of those who claim Christ King,

Is to love the ones the world deems unclean.

For as Christ says to serve them is to serve me.

So our love should be clearly seen.

The dilemma now rises what to do?

For we know in our heart what is true.

Seeing the hurt of those in need,

We plead to the One of all things good,

Who brings to live those in the darkest of pools.

O, Lord change our hearts,

Help us to love the ones the world hates.

May the work we pursue not be in vain,

But may it be solely for your name.

Thanks, enjoy

Yesterday at Church and Other Happenings

Yesterday for church I went to my friend Kenneth’s church where he is the pastor there, he is one of the guys I work with here at Seed Effect. He is a really great man and I wanted to go worship with him this week at his church. His church is about 15 minutes or so from where I live. The best thing is that the church meets under two big Mango trees, and they are on the side of hill. So as I sat there it was a quite beautiful site. Another great thing was that yesterday morning we had a nice fog which came in and made it nice and cool for church, it was funny watching the Sudanese think it was freezing. Another cool thing that happened which is a God thing is that my friends sermon was on the passage of scripture that I read that morning from my bible reading plan. I told him that and we both thought it was pretty awesome to see how the Lord worked in that.

After church I did what a normal person does on a Sunday afternoon, I took a long nap. It was really good I definitely needed it. Once I got up I went to the church compound to go play soccer with the secondary school team that I have been playing with. I was going to play in one of there games last week but when we got to the field to play the other school was busy and I think they forgot that we were coming. The best part about that was as we were warming up all the little Sudanese kids came up around me and thought that I was Wane Rooney. For all that don’t know he plays on the England Soccer team, and he is a really good striker. Now me on the other hand am no were near as good as him, but I appreciated the complement and it could be said that I was the reason why the other team didn’t want to play. We have a game this week and I think I will be able to play in it as long as the other team a shows up to play.

Another interesting thing going on here is we are trying to spread our internet to all near by areas, our only problem is that we need some high ground to get our signal to were we need it. We have tried the UN and the local Cell Phone tower but neither of them want to give us the time of day so we have to figure out other means. So it makes for fun experiments for us as we plan and look around for options as to how we get our signal out there.

Kajo Keji Baptist Theolocical Seminary Graduation

So I was able to be apart of the second graduation of the Bible School here in Kajo Keji, Sudan. The experience was priceless, and this graduation was nothing like that of anything I have seen in the US. The whole ceremony began with the graduates marching down the road into the church singing “When Saints go Marching in.” This was probability my favorite part of the whole program. But throughout the ceremony there where people yelling and screaming, my favorite was them women making some loud yell noise. I don’t really know how to explain it, you could say it sounds kinda wild like a tribal yell. Kinda of like Xena the warrior princes yell, I am trying to be rude but that’s what it sounds like.

All in all though the whole ceremony was great, it was encouraging to see men of God being trained and sent out. The best thing is that the people graduating are not just from Sudan, but from Uganda and the Congo and other areas. So the impact of this Bible School is great and I am glad I am able to support them in there work. I will try to post a video about it later, so you can watch the graduates enter and sing their song.

WAR Driving

Yesterday, me, Thomas and Stephen WAR driving around the local hillsides. Now you are probably wondering what WAR driving is. Well what we defined it as was driving around and stealing peoples wireless internet. So, your probably like how does one do such a thing in Africa?

Well it works when we are the ones with the high speed internet and that there is pretty much no other internet around anywhere else. So, in order for us to steal our own internet we took a Land Cruiser, a large piece of PVC pipe, and an awesome antenna, and went driving on the wonderful roads of Sudan. Now with our set up we would drive a ways from our internet signal and then set our makeshift tower and see if we could get a signal. We got full signal at about 2 miles away, and we began skyping people it was great. Then we went farther and where a little less than 4 miles away and we got a week signal, but we were still able to get enough signal to surf the web and to Skype.

So as you can tell it was a lot of fun for some white guys from America. Who were bored one afternoon.

On another note my work on finding a power solution for the people I am working for is going very well. I am almost done determining all of the load for the main compound and once I get that done I will have everything I need in order to determine the number of solar panels and other equipment needed in order to provide power for the people who live/work here. So I am excited about making progress, and if I finish my main project there will be some other smaller systems I can look at designing as well.

My first Sunday in Sudan

So, yesterday was my first Sunday and it was a great experience. To be honest I did not really know what to expect but it was good. The only thing which was tough was that the pastor speaks in English and they have a translator for the local language, which made it hard for me to follow the pastor in what he said. But overall it was a great. The people were definitely getting into the worship which was fun to watch and be apart of. Then at the end of the service they had a time of pray for people that wanted it, and the pastor got me and my friend Thomas to come down to the front to help pray with people, which a neat opportunity.

After church me and 4 of the other Americans here and our faithful dog Miesha went on a hike up to a hill that is tallest point in our area. This mountain was actually an old fortification from back during the wars. So as we walked around we found fox holes, trenches, bullet casings and cows grazing. We could also see for miles in every direction which was cool, nice beautiful blue skies and green hills and trees all around.

Once we got back from hiking 4 of us went over to Stephens house and hung out with him. He works for Water Harvest International, which is a organization that works on drilling water wells to provide clean water for people to drink. He has been living here for about 2 years, so he has a nice home with running water and a working toilet. So we stayed at his house last night and watched some movies and TV shows on his projector screen that he had, as we waited for the World Cup final to start. We streamed the game via our awesome internet, the bad thing was that we had to watch it in Spanish, we did have English for a little bit on iraqgoal.com which we all thought was pretty funny. So all in all my Sunday was full of new experiences with new friends.

My First time to Africa, and a Day of Firsts

I have made to Africa finally after a long flight, I am glad to finally be here. When I got to Kampala, Uganda I met a couple who I stayed with for about a day an half. They took great care of me while I was in Uganda, and it was encouraging to hear their story about how the Lord was working in there lives. They have just recently in the past few years began to work full time with the Navigators ministry in Uganda, they work with young married couples.

Then on July 7 began my day of first began, which I got into because I wanted to save some money. So instead of flying to Kajo Keji, Sudan, I took a 10 hr. bus ride on the dirt roads of northern Uganda. The bus ride started at 6:30, so this one of my firsts riding a bus in Africa. Then about five hours into the trip another first arose, getting sick on a bus in Africa. It was not fun at all, it was definitely a very scary moment, but I made it through and the Lord protected me. Part of the reason I got sick was do to the fact that I sat at the back of the bus and not at the front, note to self if I ever ride on a bus again sit in the front. After I start feeling better my next first occurs because part of the bus ride has us crossing the Nile River, which was pretty awesome. Then after that I finally made it to Kajo Keji, which was a big relief. I was glad to finally make it to Sudan and to not be moving any more.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Going to Africa

Sorry I have not posted anything recently but I have been working on a trip for the last half of my summer, and here’s what the Lord has bought to me.

So, I was talking to good friend of mine Josh, who is a missions minister at Prestonwood, a few months ago and told him I wanted to go abroad for a few weeks this summer doing  some sort of engineering and missions work. I first told him I would like to try and work in Brazil and do water well digging down there. So we began planning that trip and then April rolls around and I get a phone call and the guy I had been talking to about Brazil told me the trip wasn’t going to work out. When I heard that it tore me up on the inside, and I got really confused because I thought that’s where the Lord wanted me to go. The Lord showed me that I was not trusting in Him for my trip but that I was trusting in my self and what I could do.

So after I get a good kick in the rear I get my focus back on the Lord and ask Him to provide the trip he wants me to go on. I call my friend Josh up again and tell him what happened, and then I ask him if he knows of any other opportunities that I could pursue for this summer. The first thing he can think of is the Sudan in Africa. I know nothing about this place. Josh and I begin talking to some people at E3 Sudan and Seed Effect. I sent them my resume and then I had my first interview a few weeks later at the beginning of June after I got back from Honduras.

Now throughout this process I praying to the Lord asking for the strength to trust in His promise of provision and just to trust in Him for what he has planned for me. So over the past few weeks I have been having meetings getting everything ready to go, and now I am leaving on July 4th to go to Sudan.

I will be there for 6 weeks and my role while I am there is to do a power evaluation of the compound where E3 and Seed Effect are at in Kajo Keji, Southern Sudan. After I make my evaluation my goal will then be to come up with the best route for how they should meet there power needs.

The one thing about this trip that I am really having to trust the Lord on is Him providing the funds for me to go over there and since it is remote Africa the price is costly. My trip is going to be $5,000, but I am not scared about how the Lord will provide. He has already began to provide from some place I would not have imagined and because of that it encourages me to trust the Lord even more. If you would like to support me on this trip you can go here http://www.e3partners.org/minnietrip and click on the donate button. Also your prayers would be greatly appreciated.

Continue to look back here for updates about my wanderings in Africa, enjoy