Referendum Update

The registration period for the January vote began on the 15th of November and will last for 2 weeks - probably longer since the first problems have already been reported. It seems that a big migration has started now: Southerners are coming down from Khartoum and the Arab traders in town are packing up to go to Khartoum. The general feeling is that it is not safe for either of them to be in the other's territory come January. There was a shootout in the army camp on the outskirts of Melut last Monday night, which made people very nervous. The reaction of one of our staff members was telling: she was in the market when she heard gunshots. She ran home immediately and found her five children hiding under the bed, praying. So far, however, the security situation is acceptable in Sudan with only intermittent reports of violence and we praise God for that. Things at college are going really well, and I am following my normal teaching routine and work in the library.

Armadillo Security Training

I've had a lot of fun and learned loads last week at the Armadillo Security Training arranged through Medair, our neighbour here in Melut. It was a 3-day training in which we talked about all the (in)security issues that might come up in a place like Sudan, e.g. how to behave at checkpoints with armed soldiers, when caught in gunfire or when ambushed. This became more poignant with the recent shootout in town. The pictures are from the practical sessions when we enacted security scenarios.

Home Assignment

I will be coming to England on teh 28th of January. I will spend 5 weeks in England after which I will be travelling to Germany in March to see my family and my German supporters. I very much look forward to seeing you all at home :-)!

The 2nd Semester

The 2nd semester commenced well, and we are now 5 weeks into the term. I am teaching a course called Introduction to Pastoral Ministry and one on Bible Memorisation, in which we look at techniques for preparing bible studies in an illiterate culture. In addition to my teaching schedule, I have now officially taken up the role as the college librarian. We moved the library to the main building a few weeks ago (lots of heavy lifting with about 5,000 books!) and I have been sorting books ever since. The main building has power, which means that the students are now able to use the library in the evenings as well. Over the next few weeks, my task will be to catalogue about 1,000 new books alongside teaching my courses.

Visit from Wendy Atkins

It was such a pleasure to welcome Wendy Atkins in Melut two weeks ago. She is a missionary with AIM usually working in the Central African Republic as an ethnomusicologist, which is the study of the use of music in tribal communities. Wendy and I got talking at the AIM Central Region conference in January about teaching worship and music at GTC and she volunteered to come to Sudan. After some difficulties with flights, she arrived safely on the 7th of September and was here for 2 weeks. I was more than delighted to welcome her here because our students love music so much. It was great to see how they learned to compose worship songs in their own tribal languages and how they grew in their understanding of what biblical worship is.

The Referendum

Up until now, the referendum has not been postponed and it is still set for the 9th of January. On this day, Southern Sudan will vote on whether to split from the north and thereby form its own country. We are thankful that Sudan has been peaceful so far, but it seems we now receive more and more news of army movements and of tanks being put in position at strategic places. It seems that Sudan is getting ready for something but nobody quite knows what that something is. In this climate of uncertainty, it is very difficult to plan ahead for the next academic year. We hope that we can finish this term without interruption and plan to start teaching again at the end of February. Please pray for the months leading up to the referendum, for peace, stability and political wisdom on both sides. Please pray that we can indeed finish this term without interruptions.

Time flies by...

Sometimes, time seems to stand still and at other times it simply flies by and we don't know why it went so quickly. Well, these last 6 weeks have literally flown by, packed with lots of teaching, moving into my new house and other excitements. I arrived back in Melut on the 29th of June and started teaching two days later. It's been a pleasure to get to know the new students and see them grow in knowledge and ask many questions in class. Since I missed part of the semester due to my stay in the UK, my lectures were squeezed into 5 1/2 weeks where I normally would have 12! Hence, my teaching schedule was very busy but it suited me fine - I like being busy rather than sitting around doing nothing. We now have three weeks off and will resume lectures again on the 30th of August. I still have lots of preparation to do for the second semester and would be grateful for your prayers for that.

My new home
I was able to move into my new house 3 weeks after arriving back in Melut and have settled in nicely by now. It must have been God's timing because the day after I moved the wall of my former hut caved in! Thanks again to all of you who gave towards this project!

In the middle of the storm
Rainy season is in full blow by now and has made everything look lovely and green outside. Unfortunately, it also means that we have lots of violent storms here and one was outright malicious the other week. It lifted our GTC water tank off its metal structure (it had been sitting there for 25 years!), peeled back the Donker's roof, blew in one of my windows and badly damaged the front door because metal pieces were flying around. We've since repaired the damage, but I don't think I will ever forget that storm. Please pray for God's protection during rainy season - also from snakes and scorpions which love this season and always hide in the high grass.

Computer break-down
Unfortunately, I have to announce the death of my computer. It had already gone for repairs in March and I thought it might give me another year or so, but it died again two weeks ago and this time there is no resurrecting it. When things like this happen, I'm always glad to be part of such a well-connected mission as the Africa Inland Mission, seeing that I live in the 'bush' in Sudan where there are no computer shops that I can quickly go to for help. AIM has a purchasing department in Nairobi and they helped me buy a new one so I could keep working here. MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) then flew it in for me - in a sense an inter-agency effort :-)!
While I'm glad that this was possible, the expense for this laptop (400 Pounds) was not really planned. Hence, I bought the laptop going way into my overdraft. I know it is not very appealing to help with the cost of a laptop, but I'd be really grateful if some of you could give towards this computer. You can do this by sending a cheque to Elim HQ.

Looking into the Future
Please keep praying for the immediate future of Sudan. The referendum has been set for the 9th of January, which is the day that Southern Sudan will vote for its independence from the north and form a new country. Many people already expected violence around the elections in March, which actually went really well - praise God! However, the outlook is not so rosy for the referendum. Hence, we already had a UN security meeting and an evacuation drill since I've been back Please pray for the months leading up to the referendum, for peace and stability and political wisdom on both sides.

Back in Africa...

My time in the UK has been a very fruitful and blessed time, thanks to all of you who made it so special for me. I'm now back in Africa where I belong, after a good flight and the blessing of having all my luggage arrive in one piece with me - you can't take these things for granted :-)! I'm in Nairobi at the moment and will be flying into Sudan on Monday, the 28th of June, staying over in Juba for one night of lay-over and then travelling to Melut on Tuesday the 29th. Please pray for safe travel and for the first few days and weeks of settling back into Sudanese life.

Building on a Solid Foundation

Although I have not been in Melut during the building stages, my fellow missionaries have kept me up-to-date on the progress of the house via emails and pictures. The house is now just about finished and at the beginning I thought I could just move in when I get there next week. However, there seems to be a problem with the windows as the builders have been waiting for them for over 3 weeks now and nobody seems to know when they will come and what the hold-up is. Since I can't move into a house with no windows, I'll move back into my mudhut next week and will have to move during term time, which I hoped to avoid. It would be great if you could pray for the windows to come soon and for the house to be finished so that I can move in.

I'm looking forward to getting to know the new students and to getting stuck in my teaching routine. Please pray for wisdom and guidance when preparing my classes and for good relationships with my students. I have quite a busy schedule ahead of me until the 2nd week of August - please pray for strength and good humour in all of it. I have also heard from my colleagues that life at GTC is very busy at the moment because our cook just had a baby and our laundry lady has gone back to her village, which leaves us very shorthanded. Despite looking for additional help, nobody has come forward, so it would be great if you could pray for two trustworthy ladies to come to GTC.

Please keep praying for peace and stability in Sudan and that we will be able to do our work without interruptions.

Sudan Elections

Originally, I wanted to wait until I could say something definitive about the Sudan elections, but as was to be expected, everything took a little longer than planned, so I decided to share what I know for now. The whole Sudan team came out in the first week of April has been spread out over Uganda and Kenya ever since. There was a lot of confusion about whether or not the elections would go forward as planned and some of the major parties pulled out at the last minute claiming that the elections had been rigged. Even a few days before the 11th we were not sure if they would actually go ahead - but in the end they did. There have been no reports of violence yet, which is certainly an answer to prayer. However, we always suspected that is would be more likely for violence to break out around the time of the announcement of the results. They were due to come out on the 20th but have not been announced yet. At any rate, the confusion and accusations around these elections have already put them into a bad light and have not set a good precedent for the vote on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for January 2011, which is what people are concerned about. So please keep Sudan in your prayers at this difficult time.

Time in the UK

My trip to the UK was postponed for a few days due to the ash cloud, but I am now scheduled to arrive in Manchester on the 26th of April. I would very much appreciate your prayers for this trip, as flights are still being canceled due to an overload at Heathrow. Also, please pray that all my luggage will arrive with me :-). I will have a new mobile phone number in England and will send it out after I get there. The following is an outline of my speaking engagements in the UK and any important other meetings. Feel free to catch me at any of those locations or to contact me for a separate meeting. For the duration of my time in England, I will stay with friends in Nantwich.

3-6 May: Regents Theological College, Malvern
30 May: Speaking at Elim Longton
5-10 June: Elim Conference
12 June: AIM Conference in Liverpool
13 June: Speaking at Elim Bewbush
19 June: Speaking at AIM's 'Into Africa'

Developments at GTC

When I got back to Melut in the middle of January, I was greeted by a large team of Australians doing building work on the Donker's house - the missionary family who moved here in January. They were here for 4 weeks and we had a really good and blessed time together. Chris and Bev Rupke from FAR (Fellowship of African Relief), who are building on our compound now, have already become part of the GTC team and it feels like having a family in Melut now.

Once I got back to Melut, we had an academic meeting soon after and it was decided that we would postpone the start of the academic year until the beginning of May. On the one hand, this is because of elections in April and the disturbance this would cause to the teaching schedule, on the other hand, it was because only 8 students passed the entrance exams so far and we decided to wait until some more would qualify to reach our target of 26 students. Please do pray for this as we don't want to go ahead with just a handful of students, but English requirements and tuition fees seem to discourage many from even trying to come. Since I didn’t have to teach, I dedicated my time to my other role at GTC: librarian. When GTC moved from Khartoum to Melut 3 years ago, the books were simply put on the shelves without organising them, which meant that anybody looking for a book had to look through the whole library first!! The library also hadn’t been cleaned in 3 years – in a whole, there is plenty of work for me to do here even if I’m not teaching :-).

I would like to express my deep gratitude now to all of you who gave towards my house. All that I asked and prayed for has been given now and even more!!! I'm amazed and thankful for your generosity and your support. Right now, most of the contractors are busy with the FAR houses and offices, but my house will be started around the middle of March, once the first FAR house is completed.

Sudan Elections and Visit to the UK
On the 11th of April, we will have the first presidential elections in Sudan in 20 years. The elections are very important for next year’s decision on the separation of the country and for the future of Sudan in general. However, it is very difficult to organise elections in a country with 80% illiteracy, hardly any infrastructure and no means of mass communication other than the radio. Yet these elections are historic and will set the scene for a peaceful implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which was signed in 2005. Yet, many issues cause people to fear that elections will not be peaceful. Omar al-Bashir, the current president of Sudan, was charged with war crimes in Darfur last year by the International Criminal Court and a second count of genocide was added a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, he decided to stand for elections again. The elections will also bring the north/south difficulties to the forefront again. I can only urge you to pray for Sudan during this time of need and upheaval.

Because violence is very likely around elections, AIM has decided to mandate a precautionary leave for a few weeks for the whole Sudan team around elections until we can assess the situation and move back in. Since I had planned to be in the UK in June anyway, we all agreed that I would simply extend my stay for another month, which now means that I will be coming to the UK from the 22nd of April to the 21st of June. I will be at Elim Conference and look forward to connect with many of you there. While this is not my official furlough, I’ll take some speaking appointments. Unfortunately, all my Sundays are already booked, but if you would like me to come and speak during the week, please contact either myself or Elim Missions at Kathy.Cooper@ELIMHQ.NET


Prayer Requests
- for peaceful Sudan elections on the 11th of April and the time around it
- for more students for GTC
- that the building of my house will commence well
- that the time in the UK will be blessed and fruitful

New Year's Greetings

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and a good start into the New Year. I don’t know about you, but I still find it very strange to put ‘10’ for the year down... Well, I’ve had a wonderful time with my family at home – after being gone for a year, family time is always special. When I arrived in Germany it was -19C, and I praise God that he kept me healthy and cheerful despite the cold. I got back to Sudan on the 12th, and we have dry season here at the moment – the thermometer showed 43.1C!!!

Central Region Conference
We’ve had Central Region Conference in Uganda, which is an annual AIM conference for the 6 countries that Central Region is made up of: Uganda, Central African Rep., Congo, South Sudan, Chad, and Rwanda. It’s always a special time when all these missionaries meet up together to fellowship, worship and natter . I had been asked to organise and lead the worship for this conference, which was a great privilege and also a lot of fun! The conference was held at Jinja, where the source of the Nile is. We’ve had a speaker from the States talking about burn out and staying healthy in the long-haul. I was sitting there praising God, because I could not tick a single point on his list of indicators of burn out! After having had a busy and challenging year with lots of changes and moving around, I can truly say that God is our counsellor and the one that keeps me healthy.

Building on a Solid Foundation
After having been out of Sudan for a few weeks over Christmas, I’m now excited to go back to Melut on the 18th of January – the first term will start on the 3rd of February. I still have to prepare some course materials and ask for your prayers for that. The same day I arrive, a big building team will also arrive from Pioneers Australia. FAR has already started their building projects on the compound and the contractors stay in tents at the moment. Because of lack of accommodation, the Australian team will have to stay in tents as well, so please pray for strength for the builders and that they’ll be able to acclimatise quickly and stay healthy. We will start the new term and an intake of 26 students and I ask your prayers for them. I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to the Elim Nantwich church, which gave a large sum towards the building of my own house in Melut. THANK YOU!! £1,000 still has to be raised and I’d be grateful for anybody who would like to give towards this project.