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.