Small beginnings

A few weeks ago, before Coronavirus took over our thoughts here in South Sudan, I joined a meeting of women to talk about community development. Women gathered in a circle after the church service, many of them holding young children on their laps. I started the discussion by reflecting on John 10:10, where Jesus expressed his intention to give us ‘life, and life to the full.” What does that mean? That means that God cares about all aspects of our lives – our eternal souls, certainly, but also our bodies, relationships, work, and minds. If one part of our lives is unhealthy – such as a conflict with a family member, that will have an impact on the other parts of our lives. So how can we improve and promote health in all areas of life?

My colleague Elijah passed around a weaving that was in process. He asked the women to tell what they thought it was, or what they noticed. Several women suggested that it was a basket, or would become a woven bag for carrying things. Some said that they knew how to do this type of weaving. When something is at the beginning, there are many possibilities. Something looks small and insignificant at the beginning, but with slow progress can become something big, beautiful, and of great use. With that perspective we asked the women what some of their dreams are for their group. What impact could they have? Some of their top dreams included:

• Adult education (many of them had not gone very far in school, or could not read/write)
• Employment for women (perhaps through a store for selling handcrafts, or a farm)
• Strengthen them spiritually (including prayer, Bible study
• Trauma healing training
• Health awareness (e.g. about diseases, including cancer)

We then looked at each of these top goals or hopes they had for projects. What would be required in material or human resources for each? What resources did they have available? And finally we asked them to vote for which of these should be tackled first. Voting was a challenge, because all of these projects had value and felt like a priority to the women. But finally they decided that creating employment would be a task to tackle first, especially through trying to open a shop or have a cooperative that could sell some of the beautiful bead-work that the Anyuak tribe is known for.

They thought about some ways that they could save to get some capital for opening a shop. We talked about the planning and training that might be needed before they opened. The women, most of whom live in the neighborhood and do not have consistent work, are eager to collaborate. We talked about the need to continue to meet, to learn and plan together. Please pray for God’s wisdom and provision for these women in Lologo. And now that Coronavirus has made meetings risky, pray for wisdom in how we proceed!