Listening and learning

We are grateful to be reconnecting with colleagues and friends in Juba! There are several people who have come to our home this month and shared their joys and struggles of the last year. These conversations have been a valuable window into our friends’ lives and the common struggles of life in South Sudan. Here is a snippet of what we have heard…

We sat with Pastor Awadiya, who has planted a new church on the outskirts of Juba. She has worked with the community to get a primary health clinic started and a clean water source, and also to equip a new primary school. She described how God has opened doors and given her the strength to overcome obstacles to meet these significant needs. She is known and respected throughout the community now, and many people have been drawn to the church as a result of seeing her hard work to meet the needs of the community.

Pastor Awadiya in our home

We also enjoyed a visit from Pastor Toma, who lives in the rural region of Pochalla. He shared the encouraging ways that different churches are working together in Pochalla on initiatives related to trauma healing, evangelism, and education, and regularly worshipping together. He has felt the challenge of addressing educational needs in his community for several years now. Most public, government-run schools teach only sporadically because the teachers are paid a salary (about $5 per month) that does not make it worth it for them to teach. There was not another option of a school in his neighborhood, and he realized his children were not being educated. So Toma asked one organization to donate chalkboards, and the government contributed some textbooks, and with the help of some volunteer teachers they started teaching children under the trees.

Teaching students in Pochalla

Pastor Toma teaching in the school

In this first year they already have 250 students in the primary grades, which shows the demand in his neighborhood. But convincing the parents to support the teachers and the school has not been easy, because many of them were not able to go to school themselves and do not comprehend its value. Toma described the closing ceremony of the school year, with government representatives, parents, and students present. As the top students in each class were recognized, the parents started to appreciate that maybe their children were learning something worthwhile. We prayed with Toma for God’s provision of uniforms, a building, and support for the school.

The closing ceremony of the new school in Pochalla

Daniel, one of Bob’s students at NTC came over and we enjoyed seeing pictures of his visit with his family in a refugee camp in Sudan. He described the 5-day journey just to reach the camp from Juba, which included a flight, several buses, and a border crossing. You may have heard us describe Daniel’s harrowing escape from Malakal with his wife and young children during the crisis of 2013. Daniel has persevered in his studies and is finishing a few classes this semester that will allow him to complete the degree he started eight years ago. Even in the few months of his visit in the refugee camp to see his family, Daniel was active in discipling youth in the church and teaching in one of the schools in the camp. He shared the burden that he has for his people and how he looks forward to serve in the church full-time, even with the challenges in the refugee camp.

Daniel, on the left, with the Media Team at NTC in 2019

We are so inspired by these friends of ours, and excited by the ways that we see God at work in them and through them. It truly is a privilege to get to connect with them and learn from them here in South Sudan. We pray that God continues to help us keep our ears and hearts open to the people around us.

“I have seen you”

Recently on a Sunday afternoon I was sitting at the edge of our couch, dusting one of our two statues representing the pastoralist Turkana people of Northern Kenya. I heard a voice in the hall followed by an exclamation of surprise, then a knock at the door. When I opened our door, shock, disbelief, and joy were felt on each side of the threshold. “Susan!” I exclaimed. “Bob!” Susan cried out. Kristi joined the circle and we reveled in each other’s presence. Several times during that chance encounter Susan said, “Rabuna fi,” “the Lord is here.” Susan, a former cleaner in our building, happened by the building that day and saw me from the hallway. We were so blessed to experience her presence and her friendship again. Susan saw us and then acknowledged the presence of the Lord. It was a holy moment.

Dusting statue of a Turkana pastoralist

Kristi with Susan (middle) and other woman also
named Susan, August 2017

In The Primal Vision, a seminal work on African Christianity, John V Taylor describes the delight and wonder of human relationships in Africa. As he describes the agreeable and amusing account of twelve-year-old Nantume paying him a visit while ironing a shirt in his hut, the reader is mesmerized by the glory and beauty of human interaction and connection. Taylor describes Nantume's curiosity in the hut, coupled with her sense of feeling at home as she leans her body into the wall, "as relaxed as a young antelope asleep in the sun.” Taylor describes how in Africa one can enjoy the presence of another without pressure or feeling hurried or troubled, whether in conversation or in silence. 

I confess that I often struggle with this concept. I feel like I need a purpose when I visit someone. I also feel like there should be conversation when perhaps silence and just being present to one another is the more agreeable option. Taylor describes how in Africa a visitor is never an interruption. In the introduction to Taylor’s book, theologian J.N.K. Mugambi depicts how the interaction between Nantume and Taylor is about presence. Nantume closes her visit with the words “I have seen you.” The primal vision, as Bishop Taylor describes it, is a world of being present to one another, of seeing one another. It is the universe understood in the language of “I and Thou.” While such an encounter between Nantume and Bishop Taylor sounds simple, Mugambi describes it as the core of the Gospel, that even as God encounters us in Jesus Christ, Christian mission should be first and foremost about acknowledging the presence and integrity of others, of 'seeing the other’ as modeled by Jesus in his life on earth (Taylor, 2001).

Recently I enjoyed a long phone conversation with a friend and colleague. Over the course of the call my friend mentioned how he had observed Kristi and I during a recent Zoom call. It was obvious that my friend was present to the moment and present to us, even over Zoom. He then asked an important follow up question from his observation which allowed our relationship to take a deeper turn towards mutual understanding and appreciation. At the end of our conversation, I felt like my friend could have said “I have seen you.” Another colleague, John, described for us an experience he had in Ghana. Being present to the moment and the people around him, he was able to deeply connect with a young woman who was troubled. John spent time with this young woman and spoke words of life, hope, encouragement, and strength to her. At the end of their meeting, truly, John could have said “I have seen you.”

The beauty and glory of the Gospel is that Jesus sees people. In fact, during his pubic ministry here on earth, Jesus chose to see the very persons whom others had overlooked or chose not to see. He saw the ostracized Samaritan woman at the well. He saw Zacchaeus up in a tree. He saw a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath. He connected with each of these persons, offering them in their personhoods dignity and value. 

Jesus sees the Samaritan woman at mid-day
Artist, Jesus Mafa (Cameroon) 

Jesus, unhindered and unhandicapped by self pre-occupation, worry, and the emotional trauma which seemingly perpetually beleaguer us, lived in the moment and was fully present to those around him. I confess that too often I fail to fully live in the moment and be present to others. I pray for growth in this area. I pray that after each meeting with someone, planned or unplanned, I can say, “I have seen you.” May that be so for all of us who attach ourselves to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.