Yesterday, July 9^th, 2011, was the day that South Sudan finally gained its freedom and independence from the North.  Hallelujah!  It has been five years coming.  We stayed up with the children until after midnight and we worshipped and prayed and rejoiced for over two hours until we gathered round our flagpole.  Our flagpole is a beautiful palm tree, which sits in the middle of our compound.

I had a large South Sudan flag made for me when I was in Aweil just for this occasion and 15 minutes before midnight, the children gathered round and took hold of every available edge of this new flag and prayed for this nation and its leaders.  It was a humble thing to see.  And then at the stroke of midnight we sang the new national anthem and raised the flag on a long piece of two inch PVC pipe, against the backdrop of the starry night sky.  The moon was exactly a half moon with the southern sphere showing.  We thought it was very prophetic.  One nation becoming two….

This morning we awoke to learn that one of our mother goats was giving birth this very morning.  We have a new little life on this first day of the new nation!  The children call her Rose (Republic of South Sudan independence).  More like Rossi but it’s close enough.  I guess we know that this particular goat will never be eaten.  Today we had goat and sheep and rice and greens and candy and soda for our feast.  I am stuffed and tired but happy for this new nation.  Praying for sustained peace.

As I was jogging this week, I was looking at the ground directly in front of me, as I always do.  There are these small stumps that stick up slightly and if you aren’t looking, you can trip or stub your toe.  I have broken my toe and rebroken it a few times on these.  Very painful.  And I have almost fallen down numerous times while running and not looking.  I thought about how it is when we look too far down the path on our walk with God, that we tend to miss what He is doing right in front of us.

Sometimes we think that the thing we are currently doing is in the way of what we want to do.  I look at every single part of my journey now as just that, an important part of the journey.  Nothing is unimportant.  Everything about our lives, and what we are currently doing, is part of the big picture.  If we don’t keep our focus in front of us, we just might miss a thing or two.