Last week a co-worker and I arrived at the airport at 6am for a long day of flying up to Sudan. We expected to make it back to Nairobi after dark but as we taxied the Cessna Caravan from our hangar to pick up our passengers, we noticed one of the engine gages was not working properly. Our great maintenance staff fixed the problem back at the hangar. We finally departed around 10 am, knowing we would likely be spending the night somewhere in Sudan. Once again I was grateful to know that I had extra toiletries and a clean pair of underwear in my flight bag for such an occasion as this!!!
The rest of the flight remained quite uneventful but it had rained a lot in Sudan. We stopped for the night in a place called Duk Payuel. A Sudanese man named John Dau built a small hospital there. John founded of the Duk Lost Boys organization and authored the book, “God grew tired of us”. A documentary by the same name filmed him and two other “lost boys”.
At any rate, as we approached we observed that over 90% of the terrain was covered in water. The week before, the villagers built a small barrier around the airstrip so that it stayed mostly dry. After landing and offloading all of our cargo, we walked a quarter mile to the hospital compound through water that was anywhere from ankle to knee deep with a 50lb bag of grain on our backs! I took off my boots and started tying them to my back pack when several Sudanese guys and offered me their shoes. I think every adult male I saw wore original CROCS! I grew up on the mission field and spent most my first 18 years of life choosing not to wear shoes, so I politely passed on the first pare of bright pink XXL crocs that were offered to me. In hindsight, I really regret that decision because that would have been a sweet photo op! Anyway, I finally gave in and ended up in the beauties you see in these pictures.
A lot of snails lived in the water, so they really wanted us to keep from cutting our feet.
At one point my foot sunk deep into some mud while I was in the deepest part of the “path”. I nearly fell in with the sack of grain on my back!
So after safely arriving at the compound and being shown our tent and beds (we had just brought in 6 new mattresses that we were now able to use!!!) our hosts informed us that wireless internet was available! So I pulled out my phone and used my Skype application to call Abbie and let her know I wouldn’t be home that night. I also opened my laptop and took care of a few emails. Then it was off to the shower, a nice hot meal, and retiring to a bed in a tent, listening to frogs and fish splashing through the night!
As we waded out to the plane in the morning and gazed on the sun rising over the marsh, I couldn’t help but think how cool it is to be a part of what God is doing in Sudan! What’s really great though is that He doesn’t need us to accomplish His purposes but rather He allows us to be a part of His work. Subsequently, all of you who pray for us and support us are also part of what God is doing here and we hope that these stories and pictures help you become excited about it as well. It really was a great experience and I truly hope that you can come out and join me on one of these adventures some day!
For more pictues from this adventure click here.
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