This week has been crazy busy. I feel like I say this every week…. The “latter” rains are seriously here in our part of the country. Literally it has been raining so much this week, which is a bit unusual for this time of year. I checked out Israel’s history about rain because of the scripture in Zechariah 10:1 where God says to ask for the spring rains. I always thought that spring rains were sort of automatic and that they were actually the “early” rains. According to God the rains in the latter part of the year in Israel are the main or early rains. They are the heaviest and for planting crops. He said to ask for the latter rains, the spring rains, because it would bring a second planting and harvesting season, an abundant blessing. The Israelites believed that if the spring or latter rains didn’t come then God was not happy with them. So they always asked for the latter rains. Of course, those of us who follow the signs of the times, we know that asking for the latter rain is asking for the abundant blessing of Holy Spirit.

The maize (corn) is ready for picking and the children are happy. You can find them at every available fire roasting little ears of maize throughout the day. All of our children plant crops because they love the time of eating them! Haha! They understand seed, time and harvest and boy do they love the harvest. They plant and they wait. They don’t go dig around to see if their seed is growing. They have full faith that the rains will come and the harvest will follow. I love that all throughout the year here in the southern part of South Sudan there is always something to harvest. The children always have something to “snack” on. Again, it makes me think of where Jesus says we are to bear fruit all year long, in and out of season. We teach our children that they have something to offer the kingdom every day, that what is stored up in their hearts is rich grain that can be shared for the harvest to come. All of our older children take turns preaching on Sundays to help them with their planting.

This week I had the pleasure of being one of the speakers at the Church of God Women’s Conference in Southern and Eastern Equatoria State. People came from various villages, some as far as 150 miles away just to hear the Word of God. It was a two day conference and I had the great honor of leading off for both days. I love the Church of God here and the Bishop and his wife. Very, very nice people and very hungry for revival. They are always having conferences and feeding the sheep. The head pastor for the Yei area is our very own, Pastor Idi, who is our social worker here ate the Children’s Village. He is probably the most humble man I personally know. He is the one we helped to reroof his house when it burned down a couple of months ago. God bless the Church of God in South Sudan.

I have been very frustrated this week and last with our internet situation. This is the first time that I can ever remember where we didn’t have internet for over two weeks now. It’s always been bad but never this bad. My cell phone gets a strong signal and I have no problem. I use the same company for my computer modem and no service whatsoever with no help as to why because this company doesn’t have an office in Yei so we can’t ever solve any problems from here. All three of us (missionaries) have modems and none of ours gets any service. I remember having to take a two day journey to Juba many times to fix these problems before and most of the time they couldn’t solve the problem even there, just telling us to buy a new modem. I am seriously investigating getting a dish installed even if I have to use my own money. Today I stood atop my water tower, sat on top of our tipper truck, roamed the entire base and finally found the sweet spot for today, the Prayer Hut. LOL – God has a great sense of humor. I do have friends in town who allow me to use theirs but it’s a one hour round trip which isn’t worth it to me except once a week when I go on Mondays.

Our most exciting news this week is we finally got mosquito nets for everyone! Our friends from the USA at the United Methodist Church organization here decided to give of their own funds to buy all of our nets, well most of them. These are the really good nets that are chemically treated. Our friends came out and gave us all training on malaria and nets and all that we can do to extend the life of our nets etc… Everyone was tucked in nicely last night and I was one happy mama!

Tomorrow, Monday, we are headed back out to disciple the SPLA guys again. They want us to teach the entire battalion as they again have morning formation. I am just amazed at this door of opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and His love for these guys. May God bless them and the armies of the world that seek HIM first in all things.

God bless you, each one of you, and make His face to shine upon you and give you peace, His peace as you go about your week. We love you and are so glad that you love us and care for us!!

Carolyn