Grace Episcopal Church

Information may not be reliable

We are finally back in the USA for the upcoming month before we return to Sudan on Nov. 15th While I was in Sudan I composed several long letters to you all about what was happening that I was never able to send because of the terrible internet connections. Over the next several weeks I will proceed to send them out every few days so that you can get some idea of what has been going on in our lives. I will try to attach them to an email in the hope that most of you will be able to open the attachement. If your not interested or just don't have the time at present to read my musings you can, of course,just ignore the attachment.
Fr. Bob and Karen

So good to hear from you. I am sorry to hear about Steve's knee problem. I know he must have been in some real pain if he had to miss church.
Things continue to go very well here. The construction of the new Diocesan office is coming right along. We used our new truck in the last tow days to haul 6 loads of huge stones that act as a kind of foundation for the floor. The stones are put between the cement block walls that have built up from the foundation trenches in the various rooms of the structure. Then we have brought in sand to fill in between the stones. Today they will actually lay the floor of cement and rock gravel. Yesterday I went to Yambio and got 50 bags of cement, binding wire, 26 steel rods, nails, etc for a later point the construction. We continue to make cement blocks each day and are now up to 170 a day.
Our seven guests from Flame International have just left so we no longer have to scurry around to prepare tea for them twice a day and to serve the evening meal. Two more guests arrived towards the end of the Flame group to stay for two nights so we had 11 for dinner that was thankfully prepared by a special cooking crew and brought to our house. The only challenge was to find clean plates, silverware, napkins, etc. These last two guests were very helpful to us to say the very least. One was a woman named Robin who is a missionary of our church that specializes in agricultural technical assistance to subsistance farmers. She lives in Juba and flew in Yambio with a man named Buck who is from Virginia and wanted to visit Ezo the Diocese to our West. On the way back they came to stay with us. Robin brought choclate in the form of little candy bars which had not melted into a gooey mass as I would have expected. It was wonderful to share these treats with the everyone. She had asked if there was anything they could bring us and I had imeadiatly answered that we needed children;s bibles with lots of pictures. They came with four differnt bibles for different groups that the church school leaders here at the Cathedral had requested. The leaders speak English fairly well and can tell the stories in Zande using the pictures. I was so delighted. Buck also gave us a map of southern Sudan he had purchased in Nairobi, a stole for us to give away, and two solar powered lamps that give light for eight full hours once they are charged. They are perfect for our guest tukals or houses where we just have candles and flash lights now. Tell your husband that a flashlight is called a torch here after the english way of misnaming things. Here we have lorries instead of trucks, boots instead of trunks, football instead of soccer, etc.
Buck also gave me two hundred dollars to fill the trucks deisel tank which was on empty when we got them to the airport.
What they really helped us with was technical help. It turned out that Robin, being under 30, was a technical genius from our limited view point. She was of great help to Karen who was having tremendous problems with her Rosetta program. Robin was using this same type of program to learn to speak Arabic.
She also gave me all kinds of help in learning to import photos to the power point program and to jazz it up with color and graphics. It is really looking good as a result of her help. Buck gave me all kinds of help on how to present the info in the power point presentation. He was a former venture captalist that left his job at age 45 and "now loves to go to work." He is the only full time mission officier of any US Diocese (Virginia) and travels all over the world (courtesy of his wealthy friends who cover all his costs) trying to make connections between mission projects and various church groups. Both of our visitors were very very impressed with what we are doing here and lavished us with praise even as they helped us to see how we might tweak this or that aspect of our work. Robin really opened my eyes to all that can be done to help local farmers (everyone) to improve their yeilds.
You asked some wonderful questions Renee that I don't think about but which I am sure people back at Grace are very interested in and I should be addressing. First of all we see no wild animals of almost any sort. There are no elephants, giraffes, or even monkeys to be seen. I am sure they are there back in the bush/jungle somewhere but they stay away from people. The jungle here is quite thick and most of the people live close to the few roads and do their farming near their homes. The other day I was touring the big industrial complex here in Nzara that was closed in the 1990's because of the war and we were told we could no go into one building becuae of the fear of snakes but we have yet to see one. Even the birds are seemly always up in the very tall treesa and are very difficult to see. We hear the call of many more birds at home in Galena and see them much more readily at our feeders than we do here. The rivers do have crocs but we never see any. The one sign of the presence of wild animals we sometimes see is that someone comes to our house with some strange looking piece of dried meat that they tell us is the hind quarter of an antelope or whatever.
You asked about the crops in the peoples gardens. Mostly they grow maize or corn (its what we would call field corn in the US and not at all like the good sweet corn we have at home), ground nuts, millet, cassava (a root plant that tastes like hard potato), tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet potates (not like ours). The maize, millet, and cassava is pounded into flour or if you can afford it ground at a local mill. Every church we have been at the women rquest a small ginding mill because the alternate hand process is such back breaking work. I have been able to buy five peanut grinding machines which ar far less expensive.
Yes they do eat meat but not very much of it. It is usally goat or beef. Chicken is very expensive and we have to slaughter it ourselves and pluck it, etc. We have only had two chickens in the time we have been here and chicken is seen often on our table at home. The beef is very tough and stringy and must be boiled or fried for long periods of time and usually in a tomato paste or sauce to help break down the tough fibers. We look for heart meat which no one else wants and which we like very much.
There are lots of wonderful fruits here. We've had some great pinapple and two days ago had a papaya. The oranges which are everywhere are often bitter. We are told that the good oranges ripen in Decemeber and January. We have passion fruit juice every once in awhile. I like eating peeled sugar care but Karen doesn't like it. We eat a lot of bannanas. Karen frys the big ones and we eat two or three of the small ones which are truly wonderful with most meals.
They do not grow rice here but they eat a lot of it as we do. It is one of our nightly staples because we are not fond of cassava, millet or maize dishes. There is frequently a lot of grit in these flours. Peanuts which we roast and salt in our own kitchen are another stable. We have eggs (hard boiled or scrambled with tomatoes or mushrooms) and fried bread. A boy comes to our house with freshly baked bread every morning and there is a local bread made with millet flour and deep fried in small balls which we like. We do have string beans right now from our own garden but normally we have something called "greens" which are the leaves of various plants that are cooked together and often flavored with peanuts.
Overall we eat very well but the diet is so different and better for us that we are both losing weight. I have gone down four buckle sizes. There is no cheese, ice cream, sweets (there is one type of shortbread type cookie made with palm oil rather than butter) and far less meat than we are used to eating. Fast food like pizza, Big Macs or KFC are non-existant. We do have an occasional COLD pop or soda when we are in town and it is always sugared. They never have diet beverages. They have beer but we have not had any because clergy here do not drink and wine is just not available.
We are hoping to get our refrigerator operational one of these days so that we can have cold water and keep certain foods somewhat longer. It was so heavily damaged in the trip here because of the rough roads that it needs to be rebuilt and we have found one person who can do that for us at great cost.
You asked about the weather. It is very hot but there is often a breeze except in the late afternoon. We have two fans that provide some relief but the generator that operates them does not come on until 6:30 PM. Every once in awhile a heavy rain comes and cools things down a bit. Every evening things cool down so that we need to have a sheet over us and for Karen a very light blanket. We sweat a lot.
Well that is probably more than anyone needs to read so I will end it there. Hope I answered your questions. Were looking forward to seeing evryone in a few weeks. Please share this with the church secretary so that she can share it with others.
Yours In Christ Jesus,

I have been praying for Bills FULL recovery every day since I found out about the surgery. Please give him our best. Now I'll begin praying for patience for him. I have seen a few cases of people trying to try too much too soon and spoiling the results of the operation. It is very warm here right now so I am looking forward to some cool Fall temperatures when we return next week.
We have two American visitors with us right now to add to the 7 from Australia and the UK who have been eating the evening meal and having tea twice a day in our house for the last 7 days. That makes 11 we had around two tables on our porch last night. The meals are being prepared by a crew of young women in the cooking tukal not far from our house. We try to find ways of supplementing the food which is often of the same character day after day. Yesterday we added papaya and sugar cane pieces and last night some pinnapple. One of our guests added the gift of pitted dates and another actuallybrought small chocalate bars all the way of Juba and they were still relatively firm.
The two Americans, one of whom is a young women missionary from California who is an agricultural specialist, brought the gift of three childrens Bibles with lots of pictures forthe church school here to use. She had asked if there was anything she could bring us from Juba where she lives and that was the first thing that popped into my mind. The leader of the church school, with 126 children, has no teaching tools whatsoever and had requested them at a meeting we held last Sunday with the Cathedral congregational representatives. They will be so delighted. At that same meeting which followed our three hour second servic(783 in attendance) the mothers union had requested some cooking pots and a peanut grinder. On Monday I was able to buy those two things and the women were as delighted as the children will be. One of our great joys is to be able to use some of our personal funds to take care of small needs that we see and to help people with personal problems. There is always someone who needs some medicine for a sick child, or to travel or for some minutes on their cell phone. They never ask for help but I just become aware that there is a concern and am able to deal with it in a limited way.
The other American visitor was a great help to me in giving feedback on a power point presentation I am preparing for the Iowa Diocesan Convention. He is a mission officier for the Diocese of Virginia. He was a God sent in every sense of those words. This is the first such presentation I have ever done and Ireally don't know what I am doing or how to present all the thoughts in my head.
Well I have to go now in order to get to morning devotions. They are in Zande but I have translated the service for myself and know the order of the prayers. I bring my Bible and read from the same section they are reading from. I sing the hymn of the day in Zande without knowing what I am singing.
Our other guests have come from Flame International which is a British based evangelical Anglican organization. They spent yesterday in the big Army camp nearby speaking of the need for repentance from the violence they have often caused and forgivness for themselves. One after another of the men and women got up and told of murders (not military actions) that they had participated in during the Civil War and after that weighed so heavily on their souls. The two leaders of the group are retired military officiers ( a general and a colonel)from the British Army. When they were here during this last week one boy, named Adam, who I had been praying for was healed in a very dramatic way. He no longer uses his crutches. Many others reported physical and emotional healings.
Karen is not teaching right now because of the presense of this group that uses the cathedral where she has been teaching. She has been doing household and sewing jobs.

Thank you again for the news of home. I can't believe that Ruby is one year. It seems like yesterday..... I told Karen right away about how well Linda, the new worship center leader, is doing. She was greatly pleased.
Let me tell you about my helicopter visit to the IDP camp which was in conjunction with a land convoy of military trucks. The trucks took 2 and 1/2 hours to get there and we took 8 minutes. It is only 30 miles from our front door. We brought 146 cartons of medicine with us and a medical officier to help the people. There was a group of 5 or 6 maintance men who the County Commissioner sent (after the bishop made him aware of who bad the situation was) to repair the three bore hole wells all of which were not opertional. All three wells are now in working order delivering good water. We brought two footballs (soccer) and four volleyballs and two nets for the youth. The youth when I asked about whether they had a footbal l field told me that it was overgrown because they no longer had any footballs to play with. They told us it would be cleared once again before the end of the day. We had 899 persons in the cramped chapel and at the windows to watch The Jesus Film based on Luke's gospel. I have bought some large pots and a ground nut (peanut) grinder that the Mothers Union requested. Now the problem is how to get these to them. They will use them to cook communal meals with food from their small gardens. Ground nuts are the principal source of protein for many here but they are very difficult to break up to add to food. We shell, roast and salt them in our own kitchen to supplement our own diet.
We are now having seven guests every night for dinner. They eat at our house but the food is cooked by those preparing meals for the 60 persons currently attending a workshop that these seven are running. They are from Flame International and come from the UK and Australia. They are training peer councelors for those affected by deaths, LRA violence, domestic violence, etc. They will be visiting the two large military camps here in Nzara next week as well as the police barracks. They are headed by a former general in the UK army and there are other military officiers and police in their group. Most of their training comes right out of scripture as they speak of the need for repentance before healing can come, forgivness, and turning oneself over to God for your life's direction. They are having a powerful affect. There has been a great deal of healing.
I'm busy these days supervising the making of concrete blocks for our new very modest diocesan office building. We have made 280 blocks so far and by the end of the next two days we should have dublicated that number. We are hoping to be able to produce three hundred in a single day. The hand operated two chambered machines we are using require a small wooden platform. These are placed into each chamber on which the cement block, once it is compacted and taken out of the chamber, will sit until it drys. Our problem is we can't find the wood (1x12s) that we need to make 300 platforms. The parmount tribal chief was the only one making such lumber and we have bought him out. His saw mill is closed for repairs. Currently we only have half that number we need.
Last Tuesday we had 50 persons from the various parishes (many rode their bikes or walked over 30 kilometers) to get here by 10:00 AM. They first cleared the land of vegitation and then in about one hour dug all the trenchs for the foundations. Cement was placed in the trenches on Wednesday and they have been drying since that time. On Monday they will begin to lay blocks up to the floor level and on Tuesday they will hand mix the cement for the floor. At the end of the week they will begin laying blocks for the walls. We have been hauling stone gravel and sand for the workmen every day in our diocesan truck. I can't wait for the building to be done because that will mean we can get reliable internet connections and some office equipment.
Karen's classes have been suspended because the Flame group is using the cathedral space where she normally teaches. She is working on some home improvement projects, writing and doing some sewing of a banner and some stoles for the Iowa convention when Nzara will be made a companion Diocese to Iowa.
You mentioned wanting to hear about projects that people there in Galena might be interested in being part of it they could. Two things that come to mind right away are eyeglasses and football (soccer) uniforms. We are trying to gather together 2000 sets of eye glasses. They can be eyeglasses that have been used and are just sitting in drawers in peoples dressers or some of those cheap magnifications glasses that you can buy in the drugstore for three bucks or whatever. The lay leaders and congregational members here can't read their Zande bibles or hymnals and can't afford glasses to remedy that situation. We would take a couple hundred glasses to each parish and people who need them would try on a pair until they found one set that helped them see somewhat better. We are asking 20 persons to each roundup 100 sets of eye glasses. You or someone else could be the first of those 20 persons.
The second project of football uniforms is a little harder to explain. As you know we have distributed 20 footballs (soccer) to ten parishes thus far. The reception has been overwhelming. Last Sunday we delivered two footballs to a sub parish that is located on the road we took to get to another parish where I was to preach. I had visited there previously and now delivered the two balls and two very large pots and a peanut grinding machine they had asked for on that visit. We passed that sub parish at about 9:00 AM and when we came by it again in the late afternoon at 4:00 (just 7 hours later) they had allready inflated their two balls, erected goal posts, cleared a field with machetes, and found a referee to blow the whistle. They were having a very spirited game when we stopped for tea and homemade breads. This sub-parish now has 48 youth who are signed up for four different teams. It is the same story everywhere but in the other places there are many more than 48 youth who want to play in an inter-parish leaque and are willing to walk or bike great distances in order to play games.
Now one does not need to have uniforms to play football. For time immemorial young men have played games where the skins and the shirts play off against one another. Our plan is to give one set of soccer uniforms (24) to each parish (two teams plus two extra uniforms) that would dress the best of how many ever players they have. To have uniforms would be a great esteem builder and be an incentive for those on the B teams to try and get on the A teams. Young men who have absolutely nothing of this world would be given the gift of a good and natural pride through the gift of something simple like a uniform. All the boys, by the way, play without shoes on their bare feet. We have checked on prices and $1,580 will buy 240 youth their prized uniforms. All of this is not to say we have forgotten the girls and women in favor of young men. We have several projects exclusively for girls and women that we will be working on in Iowa. We are taking what ever eye glasses we can collect back with us in November and money for uniforms can be sent to Grace Church and Mr. Barry will put the money in the Nzara Development Fund at the US Bank on Perry St. Thanks for asking how you can help.
Please pass this message on to Terri at the church to be sent out and please tell everyone that we miss them and are praying for them and especially for Marcia and Rob in thier grief and that Ruth, Georgia, Bill and Theresa will recover fully.
Karen will be in church on Sunday on Oct. 17th and I will be in Iowa with Bishop Samuel and not see you all until the first Sunday in November.