nairobi

we ended up staying in nairobi for almost a week, so we had to find some fun things to do...one of those things was a trip to the baby elephant orphanage outside of the city. it was fun, but really only about 20 minutes of fun. still fun, though.

here we are in one of the slums. i cant remember what this area is called, but i know its not kibera. african leadership is funding a school to be built there, so we went to check on the progress. the little kids were in "school" until they saw us pull up...we were a welcomed distraction.

we spent our sunday morning at Benson Mutisya's church. it was their christmas service, and we ate a birthday cake for jesus in place of communion bread. that was exciting. then benson and his wife susan had us over to their home for lunch with their family. we had a blast. this picture was taken right outside of their house.

here we are at a wine bar...as usual, dave embarrassed us because he just wouldnt stop guzzling the pinot.

next post: egypt...stay tuned.

abuk

so, im going to wrap up our time in sudan with these last few pictures...i have to tell you about the little girl i wanted to stuff in my suitcase and bring home with us. her name is abuk. she was brought to the compound a couple of days before we arrived, starving to death. she is 4 years old and weighed less than 15 pounds. well, God was looking out for this little orphan because one of the guys on our team is the director of nutrigenomics for harvard and wake forrest. he is trying to redevelop the cure for malnutrition in impoverished areas. so, he quickly began feeding her and nursing her back to health. when she arrived, she couldnt sit up on her own or lift her arms. by the time we left, she could sit up and she even reached up to ask for food. it was quite an accomplishment...her story brought each of us to tears.

here we are with abuk...she felt like a sack of bones sitting in my lap.

these are some of the men in the village of waliel. they gathered together to tell us their story and beg us to help them. we were overwhelmed, to say the least.

the same village (waliel) celebrating at our arrival. the women found a strange enjoyment out of screaming in our ears. dave would look at them, smiling, and say "if you do that one more time im going to hit you in the mouth."

here we are getting ready to leave. we have on t-shirts for the new mocha club campaign, "i need africa more than africa needs me"...it seemed appropriate.

now you have a little glimpse of our time in sudan. theres obviously much more to it- this blog is not my emotional outlet and i dont intend for it to bear my soul. i do, however, want to share enough of myself so that you will feel connected in some way to these people and this place.

dave had a show at samford last night- he called me to tell me that he lost it during the show. as he was in the middle of his mocha club speech, he started to weep. on stage. in front of hundreds of people. it all hit him at once and he couldnt keep his composure. thats how this has affected us. deeply. emotionally. passionately. i just hope that, despite my inadequacies, you can see how the LORD has used africa to stir our hearts and affect our lives.

im still going to post a few more pics of kenya and egypt, so check back soon!

clean water

while we were in sudan, we traveled to 3 different villages...they each got progressively worse in terms of need. the first village (jach) was well-stocked. they have water, food, cooking utensils, mosquito nets, even beer, which, yes, we did enjoy although it was warm beer. they dont have ice or refrigerators. but hey, you take what you can get, right?

the second village- i cant remember the name- just recently got wells. technically, they are referred to as bore holes, not wells, but you get the idea. the people there were very excited to show us their "running" water. and the third village, waliel, has no clean water. they either have to walk many miles away to bring back clean water or drink from man-made wells (see below.)

i wanted to devote one post entirely to the subject of clean water for several reasons. this is a major issue for these people. clean water not only keeps people alive, but it also keeps them healthy. dirty water leads to disease, sickness, and a much lower quality (and quantity) of life. many of these people have HIV/AIDS and dirty water contributes to the transmission of the virus within the community.

basically, clean water is the primary need. it was unbelievable to see that some people dont have it. this really affected us. can you imagine living without water? the people of waliel are suffering, and thats why dave has decided that through mocha club (yes, here it is again...) he is going to start raising money to build wells for them. there are lots of obstacles as you can imagine, but anything is possible with enough money and support. (if you want more info, feel free to email me!)

this is a picture of a man-made well. can you believe that? no wonder it causes sickness...

heres one of the wells. in their culture, the women do all of the work. the men fight. so, most hours of the day, the women and young girls take turns pumping water. they use those plastic containers to catch it. a lot of the women come from miles away to fill up their buckets.

i decided to jump in and take a turn- all of the kids thought it was funny that i wanted to help.

this woman was doing bucket duty, switching them out as they filled up.
barrett was tasting the water.

again, a new face...

man, that last background was really great for about 5 minutes, then i couldnt handle it anymore.
red and blue? okay, i get that. something in me will always be drawn to those 2 colors together. but red and blue and white polka dots? no mam. what was i thinking?

i guess i look at other people's blogs with all the cutesy backgrounds and i think "thats so cute. i should totally do that." but then again, im not cutesy. nope. never have been, never will be. its okay. im perfectly fine with the fact if i polled all of you to see what 2 colors you would associate with me, it would probably be black and gray, or some other neutral variation. and if i asked you to associate me with a pattern, it would definitely never be polka dots. probably more like pinstripes. i dont know. but not polka dots.

wow. this is interesting. im just thinking of what colors and patterns i would use to describe my friends. this blog has taken a severe left turn...

anyways, we're back to the basics for now. maybe ill get crazy again soon, but plain and simple is the current verdict. i thought i would go with light neutrals with a POP of aqua rather than boring black and gray. that would be a hard blog to read.

...am i THAT boring...?

sudan part I

i decided that it will be easier to just post pics and describe them as i go...these first few pictures show the set-up- how we got there, where we stayed, what the grounds looked like, etc...

we flew in this tiny plane, referred to as "the caravan", from nairobi to sudan (jach, to be exact.)
it took over 6 hours to get there and we had to stop and refuel twice in order to make it.
once we got to sudan, rachel and i were talking to one of the guys from the PPF and he said, "the caravan is the best plane to come in because it is the easiest way to get out in case of emergency." we looked at each other, bewildered, and mouthed "emergency?"

here we are all stuffed in the plane. luckily, i was well equipped with my meclizine, so i didnt get sick...it was a small miracle. but barrett did.

dave took this picture as we were getting off the plane in jach. when you land in remote villages, all the people start running toward the runway when they see a plane coming. so, by the time we stepped out of the plane, there was quite a gathering of people waiting to greet us. it was awesome...and a little overwhelming.

this was where we slept. every morning as the sun came up, we would have some crackers, some instant coffee, and a devotional as a group. one of the africans would preach and we would sing together...good memories.

this one is pretty self-explanatory. join the mocha club.

here i am in their "hospital." it basically consists of a consultation room (a small room with one table and 2 chairs), and a pharmacy (above.) the meds are either fetched from other towns several hundred miles away or they are donated and flown into the area as cargo. as you can see, its not much. and this is the only medical clinic for over 11,000 people living in this area. crazy.

and lastly, i thought i would show the team (i know there's at least one guy missing from this picture, but you will see him later.) the white guy on the far right is brad, the founder of persecution project. he has some crazy stories.
all of the black dudes shown are ex-soldiers from the war who now work for either african leadership or ppf. the guy between rachel and me is mamud. he still has 17 bullets left in his body. what?!?

new face :)

i was just parusing through some websites and found this site that beth (my sister-in-law) suggested for cute blog backgrounds...never thought about it before, but guess what?!? after i saw the red and blue, i couldnt resist. so, hope yall will welcome the new look.

go rebs.

the mocha club

so sorry you've had to stare at that same christmas ornament for 3 weeks now...(libby)...now you'll have something new to look at :)

there has already been lots of activity in 2009- a really fun wedding (brooke and justin rosolino), an amazing marriage conference with dan allender through porter's call, a thrilling long weekend in MS visiting grandparents, and several really fun game nights...pics to come...

but the time has come for me to pick up where i left off...africa...i've been dreading this post. i am actually still dreading it, even as i write. i guess its because i dont know what to say. its so weird to share part of your heart with the "internet"...i mean, how much do i expose? how do i sum up in a few words what those 2 weeks were like? part of me doesnt want to try because im afraid that i will just do a massive injustice. but on the other hand, i feel strongly that God has put africa in my life so that i will learn how to speak up rather than shy away...

in order to give you the full story, i have to introduce you to the MOCHA CLUB.

the mocha club is the reason we went to africa. and its how the Lord uses dave (and by default, me) to do work for HIS kingdom. i must take this opportunity to urge each of you to join the mocha club. some of you have probably never heard of the mocha club, and some of you are very familiar...either way, please- ALL OF YOU- sign up.
heres the plug: you pledge $7 a month (roughly the cost of 2 mochas) to the mocha club and that money goes directly to a project of your choice. it would be FABULOUS if you joined under dave (go to the artists drop down menu and select his name) not because it benefits either of us in any way, but because it directly benefits the people we met and grew to love in sudan. dave is raising money specifically to build wells in areas of sudan where there is absolutely no water...(you will see pics later.)

i cant go on without one more plea...please give to mocha club. $7 a month. its crazy how far that small amount goes in africa. i invite you to share in our lives in this way. it will bless me. but more importantly, it will bless our brothers and sisters half a world away.

ive been thinking and praying a ton about what purpose the Lord had in taking me to sudan...other than the obvious, to support dave and to experience that with him. but what is MY role in all of this? its pretty clear for dave- he talks about africa and raises money for mocha club at each of his shows...but i dont.

brooke fraser wrote a song after she got back from rwanda called albertine. (another plug?) here are some of her words:
"Now that I have seen
I am responsible.
Faith without deeds is dead..."
im still working out the "deeds"...but at this point, i know that i cant be silent. there are needs there that we can help fill. im sure of that.

so, ill give you the basic background and then the next post, ill start with the pics.
mocha club wanted to send us to africa in order to show us some of the projects dave has funded, and also to show us some new projects for him to start supporting.
the projects in sudan are managed by a non-profit out of virginia called the persecution project foundation. we teamed up with them in sudan because they are much more familiar with the area- they showed us around. we spent 3 days on the southern border of darfur. we traveled to 3 different villages to see what projects had been done and what the needs are. the last village we visited is in dire straights- they have no water, no food, no medicine. 7000 people. it was bad. and emotional. dave decided that, beginning this year, he would raise money to dig wells for those people.
we also spent almost a week in nairobi checking up on some projects there and getting some time with rachel and barrett.
then dave, barrett, and i flew to cairo for a couple of days- just to see the sights.

so, thats the rough introduction. ill be posting pictures every day or so, so stay tuned. im looking forward to this. i just needed to get started :)