Prayers and Support for Refugees from South Sudan

By Sara and Anthony:

There is still widespread violence in South Sudan, which is deeply affecting many communities there.  It has also impacted the work of World Renew in Uganda because many refugees have fled from South Sudan into Uganda. (World Renew also works in South Sudan and you can read more about that here).  Joseph Mutebi, our friend who is a Program Consultant in Uganda, shared the following information and pictures with us. He has been working with the refugees who are now in northern Uganda.

The Ugandan government has graciously provided several sites for the South Sudanese refugees to set up temporary canvas dwellings, including a site in Bidibidi (in northern Uganda). That site is supposed to accommodate 100,000 people. With so many people living in a camp like that, there is a huge need for, among other things, clean water and sanitation facilities.  Below you can see people carrying branches and trees to use for building temporary living structures.

World Renew is working through an organization called Here is Life (HIL) to help care for these refugees. At this point, they have mainly been helping to build temporary pit latrines and bathing shelters. So far, 170 pit latrines, which include a bathing structure, have been completed (which is enough for about 3,000 people - each one has more than one "seat").  But they plan to build another 700 latrines to have enough for everyone.  Here are some pictures of people digging latrines:

It's a huge task, to try to assist so many people who have fled their homes and country.  Please pray for peace in South Sudan!  The world pays attention for at most a few weeks, and then the news goes on to other things, but in the meantime people are suffering, and there is desperate need for more support to those working in these camps. Please consider supporting World Renew's efforts as they try to help with the refugees who are in Uganda.  You can do that on this page.  Although the relief mentioned above has been to meet physical needs, World Renew would also like to start addressing the high level of trauma they have seen among the refugees, which is another urgent need.  This would mean starting some activities for trauma healing, both in the Bidibidi camp and also in another refugee camp called Rhino Camp.  Your support would help provide the necessary materials for this.

Even here at Berea College, we can see the effect of the conflict; we have one theology student from South Sudan. His name is William. His home was completely destroyed during the recent fighting in South Sudan and he and his family had to flee to Uganda. Now his family is staying in one of the refugee camps while he is here at school (someone in South Sudan is financially supporting him with his school fees). He tells us that there is not enough food for everyone in the camps, so his family and most others are starting to grow very thin.  Please pray for them, but overall keep praying for South Sudan.

World Renew Team Meeting

By Sara:

We recently had a week at a World Renew East Africa team meeting here in Kenya, somewhere a little north of Nairobi. Fellow colleagues from Uganda, Tanzania, and South Sudan were there with those of us from Kenya. This was the first time we were able to see our friends from Uganda since we left there in January. We love these people so much!





Even though it was a long, tiring week of meetings, we really appreciated the opportunity to hear about the work that is going on in these countries and to together think through what we're doing well and what we can improve. Anthony and I had the opportunity to share with the group about Timothy Leadership Training and When Helping Hurts and how they can be (and have been - in Uganda) beneficial in the work of World Renew.



There was also a day when we went to visit some of the farmers that World Renew is working with in that area. There is one lady (wearing pink in the photo below) who is brand new to trying conservation agriculture, but she was very enthusiastic about it. She's done a beautiful job of preparing the land to be ready to plant immediately when it starts raining.



Then another lady who has taken up conservation agriculture and is teaching her neighbors about what she does and how it has helped her family. Below is the area where she has planted tomatoes - it hasn't rained since she transplanted them, but they are thriving and the mulch is keeping the soil moist.



But back to the World Renew meetings. We want to mention the situation in South Sudan because you may not be hearing about it in the news any more.  There is still unrest in the country, but one way World Renew is still doing work there is through a radio program for farmers which they're able to broadcast to farmers who are in rural areas. This is a situation that is also affecting Uganda because many refugees from South Sudan are living in camps in northwestern Uganda. Please pray for peace and for wisdom and creativity for the people who are trying to help the refugees. They want to do as much as possible with the little money they have and also want to do more than just give relief. They want to help the refugees be involved in the work in the camps and find meaningful things to do while they are there.

Photos From Life

By Sara:

Here are some interesting pictures from our life lately.

First, our colleague at Berea College, Charles, who teaches the computer classes.  He is also our neighbor and our friend and is coming over to our house one evening each week to help us learn and practice Swahili.  One week, it was his birthday, so I baked cupcakes and we put a candle in one for him!

Recently, one tree that was along our fence fell onto Charles' house on a really windy day, so the college decided to cut a bunch of them down to protect the houses (and keep their residents from having heart attacks if a tree fell on their house while they were inside sleeping!).  The pictures of the fallen tree aren't that clear, but maybe you can pick out what happened in the picture below.

There was also a bee hive on the top of one of the trees that they wanted to cut down.  When that happened, someone climbed up the tree, tied a rope to it so people could pull it down in the right direction.  Then, when they cut it, everyone ran like mad to escape the bees.  Later, another guy who has a bee suit, checked to see if there was honey and then set the comb on fire so the bees would go away.  The good news is that no one was hurt in the process!  Here's the bee hive:

And a video of trees being cut down (we've been hearing lots of chain saw noises outside nearly every day):  

Then, here's the inside of the college kitchen so you can see the equipment that the cooks have to work with (excluding the oven I shared before which is outside):

A public toilet that has stairs leading up to it, like a throne!

And finally, check out the fancy pizza you can get at fast food restaurants in Kenya:

Cake Baking With Modular Students

By Sara:

As you know, Anthony has been teaching students this August, who come for one-month long courses.  This is a modular term.  The principal (and the students) hoped that I would be able to teach them something during their short time here, so we hurriedly put together an afternoon where they could learn the cake-steaming method.  We collected all the students on a Saturday, borrowed a charcoal stove and large pots from the kitchen, and made a banana cake.

Everyone had to be involved in measuring ingredients and mixing things together so they could learn through experience.

After we mixed everything together, we agreed to come back in *exactly* 20 minutes to see if the cake was ready.  I told them that they needed to be on time to make sure they got to taste it...but not all of them made it back in time.  I actually felt bad because the maybe 10 or so students who were there on time ate most of the cake and some of the students who went off and didn't come back right away didn't get to taste any.  But hopefully they'll practice making cakes at home and get to enjoy their own.  At least the students who actually got cake really enjoyed this one as you can see below!