Gaining Insight. Experiencing God. Growing in Understanding.
Over the past months, images of young men with anger in their hearts and guns in their hands replaced the front-page pictures of jubilant Southern Sudanese waving the flag of a new nation. Heartbreaking stories of lives lost reach us from north, east and west of South Sudan. In January, Presbyterian Pastor, John Tubuwa (bottom [...]
Posted on April 5th, 2012 by Nancy
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The sun burns bright in the midday sky as we stand under the arms of mango trees. Hands waving and hips twisting, we join our voices with the chorus of children standing before us. My almond brown shoes shuffle behind the small bare feet dancing around me. The children giggle with delight as my wife [...]
Posted on April 4th, 2012 by Shelvis
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After struggling to get our ten heavy bags out of the airport and into the car, I paused, pondering in my mind: how am I already dirty and sunburned? Only minutes after arriving in Juba, South Sudan I found myself covered in a layer of dark-orange dust with my forearms scratched by the sun’s strong [...]
Posted on December 13th, 2011 by Nancy
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Throughout this Christmas season, an old song held new meaning for me: “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” Since returning to the US, I have not stopped thinking about my friends who remain in the Sudan. The celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace shared space in [...]
Posted on January 1st, 2011 by Nancy
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Loved Ones from our Home in the US: Since 2008, you have witnessed the images, sounds, and sweetest moments of our time abroad. You remind us that our lives in East Africa are indelibly linked with the friends and family who love us, miss us and support us back “home.” Your heartfelt thoughts, care packages, [...]
Posted on November 12th, 2010 by Shelvis
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Pushing a plane out of the mud in Boma, Sudan The irony of the moment did not escape me. In prior months, if our activities did not go according to plan, my jovial co-workers often teased me by asking: “do you want to cry now?” Sometimes the question came after receiving news that rain canceled a long awaited trip, or, when the electric generator [...]
Posted on October 31st, 2010 by Nancy
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(To view a short VIDEO of my favorite day click here) I take many things for granted. If you asked me what things I take for granted, I could give you a list, yet there are some things I take so much for granted I would not even think to put them on the list. On [...]
Posted on September 16th, 2010 by Nancy
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“I am a little afraid about what may happen next week,” he says, pressing the chalk into the groves of the blackboard tray. Then my Kiswahili teacher slumps down into the coffee colored chair. He soberly stares at the back wall, while I struggle to understand the rich sentiment behind his words. He is concerned about the [...]
Posted on August 1st, 2010 by Shelvis
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Boma, Sudan The Ghana game hurt. Ouch. We watched the match at a friend’s home in Nairobi. When it was all over, I looked at Shelvis and said, “I have a headache,” to which Shelvis responded, “My stomach hurts.” Perhaps we were watching with too much intensity, but we knew that Ghana was the “last [...]
Posted on July 7th, 2010 by Nancy
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The last three months have been a bit challenging for my family. In March, I returned to the US for -what I thought would be- a week of speaking engagements; however, things turned out quite differently. While in the States, my mother’s doctors discovered a cancerous mass in her body. In March 2006, she was [...]
Posted on June 30th, 2010 by Shelvis
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