First thing I want to say, my “Juba” Arabic works just fine here in upper Africa!  I have been told time and time again that no one would understand me, yet everywhere I have been this week, everyone understands me.  It’s been opening doors for me because here is a foreigner who can speak their language and they love it, so nice!

This last week has been a crazy fun week for me.  The highlight of my week was the night before I left Yei actually.  There gathered about 20 of our young adults/older kids and all the missionaries to anoint me and bless me and prophesy over me and ordain me as an Iris Ministries pastor.  My hair was so full of oil that I had to wash it twice the next day – haha!  The children and missionaries blessed me so greatly by speaking destiny words over me and what God is going to do in Aweil.

It is going to be a very big work in the spirit realm, breaking chains of bondage and bringing freedom and the wonderful fire of God to the north.  All of this is in keeping with Kim Clement’s fire prophesy of last year for Sudan.  I also received a word from the Lord that there is a triangle of fire and when these three bases are set into place, major revival is going to go north.  Yei, Aweil and Nuba Mountains are the South, West and East of South Sudan.  The three places will carry the fire to the north.  I believe this with all my heart.  I am so very excited to be a part of what God wants to do here.

The next day I journeyed to Juba, South Sudan to stay the night to catch my flight to Cairo the next day.  While in Juba I was able to visit baby Zoe in the hospital.  For those who are on my Facebook friend list, you have seen the incredibl;e pictures of her and that she is still alive.  She is four weeks old and only weighs 4.4 pounds.  When she was found on the streets with her mother, she weighed even less.  Her cheeks were sunken in, and where ever you gently pressed her skin it would leave an indention.  Her eyes are so huge that you can see the sockets.  The mother’s milk had dried up and the baby hadn’t eaten anything in at least a week!  If you look at me Facebook pictures and loom back to my first visit to Juba early last year, you will see a picture of twins lying on a filthy piece of foam with a pile of feces between them.  These are the siblings of baby Zoe.  There is also another set of twin toddlers slightly older than these.  The mother scavenges trash to keep them all alive.  She is a bit mentally handicapped and I am sure is taken advantage of.

I was able to hold Zoe and I kissed her little face so much and caress her head and feed her a bottle.  She actually smiled at me and everyone was surprised.  The mother doesn’t nurture her much and just leaves her to lay on the bed all day.  I pray for the mother and her babies because I know she must be overwhelmed by it all and being on her own.  So many stories like this are found on the streets of Juba.  Michele, the founder of Iris Sudan, is still dreaming of and working toward setting up a restoration house and micro enterprise training program for these ladies.  So much to do, so little are the workers.  When the Lord says to pray for the workers, we must pray for more to come with God ideas and God plans to bring His kingdom to such as these, Amen.

I then left the next morning for Cairo, a city in the middle of the desert and on the very edge of the Sahara.  My eyes remain full to overflowing as I just cannot take it all in, there is so much to see!  I won’t give you a travelog of my site seeing but I do want to tell you about a place here called Garbage City.  It is in the heart of the ciry almost right across the highway from the very famous and astoundingly large Mohammed Ali Mosque and Citadel.  Probably one of the coolest military museums I have seen.

Garbage City is the home and neighborhood to 80,000 Christians who used to be Muslim.  The city brings its garbage here and it gets sorted by paper, plastic, etc…  The streets are piled high with all this trash in an almost neat sort of way.  Unlike the rest of the city, not a single woman has a scarf to cover her head.  There is pure freedom here and you can see the joy on their faces.  Everyone waved to me and smiled as we drove through the extremely narrow alleyways.  In the rest of the city of Cairo the women never make eye contact with me and almost put their nose in the air disdainfully sometimes.  Most of the people, Muslim, Christian, are very nice here.  I guess the women are either afraid to look at us foreign women or feel that they shouldn’t look at us?  But here in Garbage City, the poorest of the city live here and there is freedom.

At the top are these beautiful caves with biblical scenes sculpted into the mountain.  There is a very large cave which looks like it can seat 2,000 and it is the oldest church in the Middle East I am told.  They still meet here every Thursday evening and many, many Muslims come to get exorcised from demons.  I had the chance to pray for the director of the ministry and bless him.  It is documented in the Catholic Church that a man called St Peter (who has one eye) witnessed to the Muslims and one of the leaders said that if the Bible is true and one says that this mountain will move and it does move then I will believe.  I gathered from the director that there is scientific proof that this mountain did in fact move three kilometers (about a mile and some change)!!

I also visited the Coptic Churches and cemetery.  The Muslim cemetery stretches along the highway for literally miles, all being tombs that are the size of small houses for their families I guess.  Just miles and miles of tombs on both sides of the highway.  There is so much more, so much to tell but I want to keep it short and send a special update on just my adventure.  That way if you don’t care to read it, you won’t miss the GOD stuff.  God bless you and thank you for your prayers.