No More Rain

It has been less than a month since the last rain but it is astonishing how quickly the landscape and atmosphere of this place changes. Within two weeks of the last rain, roads which have been impassable for months due to mud opened up and vehicles from the north began to slowly trickle into town with supplies for the small shops here. This was a sign to us that we can also begin to travel out of town and it has changed the range of our work considerably. The drying of the roads has also meant the driving of our water tanks which have collected rain water throughout the rainy season. We now have to rely on boreholes and water collected from holes dug in the sandy bottom of a nearby riverbed. Our vehicles are no longer getting stuck every few days but instead are constantly at work collecting water, getting supplies and facilitating travel to different areas. It has become quite a task to keep track of the whereabouts of all our staff!
I have had the chance to travel out of town three times in the last few weeks. The first chance came when one of our workers, Mahmoud, explained that his mother was giving birth and needed to be brought to the hospital. We grabbed the doctor and piled into the truck to see what we could do. The road was dry, but still the worst road I have ever seen. For miles in every direction there were deep tracks left in the earth where tractors and bigger vehicles had tried to pass through the mud during the rains. If it had been wet we would have easily spent a month trying to dig ourselves out of the mud, but as it was we spent four hours weaving our way through the hardened mess to reach the village where Mahmoud’s mother was giving birth. She was giving birth to twins and the second child was blocked from coming out by the placenta of the first. We put her on a mattress in the back of the truck and bounced our way back to town where she had a c-section and another healthy little girl.
My second chance to leave town was much less dramatic than the first but still very important for the spread of the Kingdom in this area. I had the opportunity to take a group of church leaders to a town south of here for some training. It was exciting to see the enthusiasm of many of the men and encouraging to listen to the teachers’ desire to spread the Kingdom. The training is still ongoing and we will go to pick up the trainees this week. We hope to continue it further in the future as it is so important for the growth of the Christians in this area.
With the dry season in full swing now it is easy to become disheartened by the enormity of the work to be done and the harshness of this place. The tall grass has turned brown and much of it has been burned, which leaves the ground black and soot floating through the air. Last week a huge fire burned around our compound and we spent most of the afternoon watching it to make sure it didn’t get too close to our grass fences. Every day now the heat is very intense and at the end of the day I am quite wiped out. Pray that my teammates and I will find strength for each new day and that we will be a great source of encouragement for one another.