October 18, 2005

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Kampala, Uganda! We are so very thankful to be writing that—it feels wonderful to once again be putting down our roots on African soil. For those of you who haven’t heard, just six weeks before our “hoped for” departure, we were given the green flag to head out to the field. Those six weeks were an absolute blur of activity: we sold our house in Chicago, bought and moved into a house near our parents in Cambria, Wisconsin, and attended a Church World Service-sponsored training workshop on trauma and reconciliation. During most of that time we were both working, and we were speaking every weekend. We were working hard to get 80 percent of our support pledged so that we could head to the field in time for Bethany and Daniel to begin school on August 31. We are so thankful for the pledges from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Reformed Church in America, which made it possible! It was a definite answer to prayer.

We arrived here on August 29. Our first task was to get the kids settled in school. Since we wanted them in a setting with national children we settled on Rainbow International School. Rainbow has a student population of about half Ugandans and half expatriates (half of whom are Africans)—a nice mix. Some of you knew that a major prayer request was for Bethany’s, and particularly Daniel’s, adjustment to school. It was a family decision to make the move back to Africa, but as the time for departure approached Daniel was quite anxious. Our prayers were answered: both of them like the school, the teachers are excellent, and they are making friends. They have been extremely positive about the whole experience, which is definitely quite a contrast from an American high school: uniforms, more exam focused, Ugandan food at lunch, etc. But, they also have longer lunch hours, allowing more time to socialize (a biggie for teenagers) and there some great extra-curricular activities.

After living in Kenya for 11 years, this began to feel normal quite quickly. We so appreciate the friendships we are forming with our colleagues and neighbors. We live in a simple house in a Ugandan neighborhood, and our neighbors and their children stop in daily to visit, which we enjoy!

We began work on September 5 by attending the Sudan Ecumenical Forum conference entitled “In a Spirit of Power, of Love and Self-Discipline” (II Timothy 1:7). Del and I joined representatives from church organizations from 21 countries concerned about Sudan. The New Sudan Council of Churches and RECONCILE led the meeting. As a part of what they referred to as their “co-mandate of evangelism and social witness,” the focus of this conference was to “sharpen the focus of the church to build a just and peaceful society in Sudan” after 25 years of a brutal civil war. The Sudanese were especially concerned about the death of newly appointed President John Garang on August 9. They are determined to do their best in maintaining the peace so that there is not a repeat of what happened after the 1972 Addis Ababa Peace Agreement, which disintegrated quickly. We learned of numerous unreported human rights violations in Khartoum in the turmoil after Garang’s death. While the stories were sobering, the spirit of hope and trust in God in the midst of such pain was encouraging, as was the time spent in Bible study and prayer—the Sudanese have a very vibrant, evangelical faith!

Three main priorities were identified to assist the Sudanese churches in their quest to maintain peace:

• Promotion of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Many Sudanese are unaware of the agreement, and after living under military rule for decades they don’t understand their rights and obligations as citizens. In this unique situation the churches believe it is their responsibility to provide civic education.
• Provision of adequate response to human needs. This includes support to meet the desperate needs of thousands of returnees (The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) contributed to this appeal) as well as strategies and training to reduce poverty.
• Promote reconciliation and trauma healing. Virtually the entire population of southern Sudan has been traumatized. Because of the government of Sudan’s divide and conquer strategies, ethnic groups have been fighting one another for decades.

What was very encouraging to us was that the focus of RECONCILE responds to each of these needs spoken so clearly by the churches! We will be facilitating programs in the areas of reconciliation, trauma healing, and civic education, and Del will be involved in poverty reduction in his agricultural work. Thanks again for your prayers and support which have enabled us to work side by side with the Sudanese churches!

In Christ,

Del, Debbie and family