Competition

Denominationalism. It's interesting how the Christian community has traditionally had so many divisions and distinctions. I wouldn't want anyone to associate me with a church that speaks in tongues or preaches about miracle healings or any of that nonsense. People might think I'm crazy. Those people who baptize children are wrong; I better make sure people know that I believe the "right" stuff about God. At least for me, there have been many different reasons why I've wanted to distinguish which denomination I beong to over the years. I'd like to think I've gotten beyond all that separation (for the most part anyway).

It seems sometimes that different denominations are more concerned with having more followers than another or trying to convince more people that they have more of the nuances of Christianity right than another church than in helping non-believers to know the Truth of Jesus Christ. Africa is no different (maybe worse than the USA) in this respect. I hear about churches wanting to start new churches right across from existing ones of other denominations or in the same communities as already existing churches. Communities where people in general are already "Christian" at least by name. Nominalism is rampant. But, there are so many communities that still have no church and people walk for miles to reach a church. Yet the efforts to form churches is not there. As you could imagine, building new, lasting church buildings could easily cause some denominational animosity and friction when most churches meet in grass-thatched, mud-walled buildings. We don't discriminate based on how you practice faith, but there are some factors that affect which churches we are able to partner with that results in partnering with one or two denominations much more often than others. And the sizes of church building vary somewhat, providing more opportunity for jealousy or fighting. I've seen this other places and especially seen it in society in general which, like most of the negative aspects of society as a whole, means it is likely just as large a problem for the church.

It is with this line of thinking that I was surprised and encouraged yesterday. Attending a church opening celebration for a church that was recently finished, I witnessed a service that included and incorporated members of all the other denominations in the area. The speakers from this denomination as well as those from the others and even a representative from the local government spoke of unity. Many people commented on it being the first time they had been in a service like this with leaders from all different denominations present, and the leaders of the church were thanked for including and incorporating everyone. And, traveling with two leaders of different (competing) denominations for the two hour ride to and from the celebration, I heard them talking together and laughing a lot of the way. It is encouraging to meet men of God who are truly concerned about God's kingdom.

Another Day

This will be a quick post after a couple weeks of silence. Here's a couple of the sweeter pictures I have taken. This church was finished last month and is having it's opening celebration in a couple days. Beautiful place. Unfortunately, climbing the mountains in the background could lead to some problems with the authorities due to local folklore (unless there really is mercury that someone back in the day decided to bury at the top. . . who would want to steal mercury anyway?)

Also, notice at the side of the page that I have added a poll to the site. I am hoping/planning to change the question each week in an attempt to make sure I at least do something each week on the site and to encourage me to add more posts also. So, be sure to check back for next weeks question to be posted next Thursdayish.

Semi-Annual Gala

So we had our first ever semi-annual gala recently for the staff. The clever name for it kept our staff in suspense as I don't think any of them had any idea what a gala is. And apparently I didn't have any idea either, or else we gave our staff an incorrect impression of what a gala is. Anything with the name of a gala makes me picture fancy clothes, ballroom dancing, formal speeches, and the like. While our head carpenter from Uganda named Belmos did bust out a tie and some of our staff dressed smart (the way to say when someone looks nice here), most of us had on t-shirts and shorts, some of which had been washed in the previous week. Belmos is a great guy who loves to talk about his wife and family and keeps trying to convince me to find a Ugandan wife. He laughs a lot and always has an interesting story to tell. On top of that, we keep him around because he can put together some incredibly nice doors, windows, tables, or anything else you would want to be made of wood. And since most of the wood we work with is mahogany, these things look immaculate.

Back to the gala: Well, after bringing back about 70 field staff from various church sites (a real logistical nightmare) we started in the morning a little late with devotions and a big thanks to the staff before the big soccer tourney. The carpenters beat the masons and the welders beat the mechanics and drivers in the first round with the welders winning the next round. Then, once we had tired them out through having them play two games (had to get an advantage somehow), the administrative/ex-pat staff took on the welders for the championship which we won 3-0 thanks to a hat trick by our Ugandan finance officer, Andrew. Quite a fun lead in to the main event for the day. . . the 7-8 goat roast. When you're feeding probably 125-150 people it requires quite a lot of food. The clothes line (steel post not the line itself) actually provided a nice place to hang the goats for butchering. And now we're trying to figure out where we would be able to butcher a cow for some other reason we haven't yet figured out, but would like the excuse.

It was a pretty fun day, and our staff we were able to laugh and play alongside our staff that have worked so hard to help us accomplish what we have. Good times. Of course getting staff back out to sites following the celebration was not so fun, but it was worth it. By the 2nd semi-annual gala (maybe we'll actually have another one in the next year) I'm sure our staff will probably have doubled or more and I'll wish we only had 60-70 people to worry about getting back.

One of those days

So we had our biggest transport truck get stuck overnight for the first time with an entire crew over the weekend. I was actually traveling down the same road the day before while the truck was headed to pick up the crew and their materials to take to a different site. I met the truck between two spots where there were other big transport trucks stuck in the road. Thankfully the Land Cruiser I was in is a really nice 4-wheel drive truck that got me through the mess with only a bit of tricky maneuvering that included pulling one van-taxi out of a place where it was stuck blocking me from passing. Our truck eventually made it through the mess with a lot of patience and a little help from the D-8 Caterpillar bulldozer that is being used to help fix the road. It's just too bad they hadn't finished things before the rains came, and they're still leaving it a dirt road that would be and is being ruined by the rains. And when they spread the soil for compacting and it rains before running it over with their roller it just makes a big slick muddy mess.

Well, the road did improve through no more rain overnight and a day of sun, but the 25-30 trucks that were backed up in either direction didn't really allow the road to heal up all the way before our truck got loaded up and hit the road. The biggest problem with the fact that a 3 to 4 hour journey gets turned into a 9 hour journey is that around 15 people were in the truck. You see, here in Sudan, there are no McDonald's or Wendy's to stop at for lunch. Which leaves Taco Bell as the only choice. While this would be no problem for me, the Sudanese don't like Mexican for some reason. Anyways, it takes hours to prepare beans, and since rice or posho/ugali and beans are what we provide to our crews for meals, stopping to eat is quite a process. And we don't encourage open fires in the back of the truck, so cooking while traveling doesn't work nearly as well as it did for me and the crew from Bear Lake when we were cooking sloppy joes in the crockpot plugged into the cigarette adapter of the van on our way to Teen Missions. (Quite a fun and memorable trip.) On top of that, there aren't really lodges on the side of the road at the places where trucks get stuck, so you just keep digging out instead of stopping and waiting for things to dry out which results in some worn-out and tired crews and drivers.

Considering the roads won't really be getting better until late September (hopefully), this probably won't be the last time something like this happens when you consider that we are running 4 crews presently with the fifth about to start up again, and they finish building each church in three to four weeks. That means about 6 times of transporting crews between churches each month. With trucks that keep breaking down, given the road conditions they travel on and the difficulty of predicting when the rains are heavy enough to cause the severe problems, the next few months will be a logistical nightmare. And we had just really been getting the logistical issues ironed out (I thought). Oh well, that's what keeps it fun.

Hope all is well wherever you are. Life's a garden. Dig it.

p.s. It's not nearly as big a deal for people here to go through the above scenario as it would be for most of you or I. It's actually pretty normal for people who travel the roads often during rainy season here.