The Day They Sent Me to Prison

Paul and one of the oranges from his orange trees

I wasn’t arrested, don’t worry mom. It has been some time since I have updated a blog, so thought I would at least start it with some hearts beating. That being said, I did actually go to prison today. Not for doing anything bad, but rather I had the opportunity to preach there this morning. At rather short notice, as in last night at about 7pm, Paul asked me if I would come with him to the prison and preach. Clarifying, I asked if he meant that he wanted me to just come and visit. Sure enough, he said what he meant to. He wanted me to preach at the prison. This had me a bit nervous for three reasons. First off, preaching is always a bit of a nerve racking but exciting thing. I mean I have the awesome privilege of sharing God’s word with people that He loves passionately; however, I also have the huge responsibility of sharing the word of God. Definitely don’t want to screw it up and misrepresent scripture and the amazing God it speaks of (Cue the intense prayer). Thankfully, God provided me with some words to speak as well as a translator in Paul so that the words I spoke (hopefully the Spirit speaking through me) could be understood by those hearing it. So that was this morning. I got to share how God saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt through the final plague of the death of every first born son and how God passed over the Israelites because they had the blood of a sacrificed goat or lamb smeared on their doorposts. This then lead to me discussing Romans 6 and how we are slaves to sin, but God saves us from this slavery in a similar fashion to his saving of the Israelites from the Egyptians: through the blood of a firstborn which causes the punishment of our sons to be passed over to Jesus. Finally, I mentioned the beauty of the fact that God led the Israelites from slavery into new life, and he also leads us from slavery from sin which leads to death into a new life of righteous living now and forever. Thank God for His wonderful word!

Second adventure of today: roof top acrobatics. Not quite that extreme, but recently I bought a solar panel to provide me with some lighting inside my tukul and well a solar panel doesn’t do much good sitting inside your house, so today was the day to get it onto the roof. A slightly more difficult task than anticipated. After buying some scrap wood from some carpenters and a saw and some nails I proceeded in making a mounting for the panel. First attempt was a fail. Final result was a piece of wood with nails in it. Brilliant design if you ask me. First failed attempt took about 1 hour to construct, the piece of wood all of 1 minute to cut the wood. Next came the joy of getting it onto the roof. Let me first describe the roof. It is tin roofing sheets, which I really do not think is designed to hold the weight of your average Canadian kawaja. Not to worry about, at least right away. First I had to get up there. Jump onto a barely and try to scramble up... didn’t seem feasible, at least that is what everyone else said. So, we took a bamboo bed thing and turned it on its side to form a ladder. Brilliant I thought, and it wasn’t even my idea. Tried to get up, but between almost every “rung” breaking under my weight and once reaching the top having no way to pull my body up onto the roof without slicing my hands on the roofing we went in search of another solution. Monday returned with a wonderful 4 rung ladder that actually reached the roof. Each rung was at a different distance interval. My final step up was a gap of about 3.5 feet. Finally I was up on the roof, hammer, nails, wonderfully designed wooden mount and solar panel. Unfortunately trying to nail through wood on a really unstable and bouncy tin roof does not work so well, so back down we go following a few nails and the wood itself. I however did not slide down the opposite side of the roof and fall to the ground. Once back on the ground we put through some nails and then repeated the previous exercise. So now I am proud to say I have a solar panel on my roof. Hopefully when the rain returns we don’t regret this undertaking.

I suppose I should also mention what is going on with work. Ulterior motive alert!! I am currently attempting at organizing a Mundri Under 15 football league. So many kids here love football, but don’t get the chance to play in any sort of organized game until they reach the age of 16+. So, since I love football, I thought maybe I could help. I also love Jesus (more than football... don’t worry), so I thought as many have done in the past why don’t we combine the two into a football evangelism type of dealio. Currently I have a bunch of young men who are going to help me with coaching and organizing the league. Praise the Lord for this provision. This project has already gone through some revamping based on my seeming inability to get things right on the first try, but hey that is how we learn. Plus God sure teaches stuff about how to release work to Him because He has got it all under control. Besides, he is the one that brought me here, so why would I question what He has brought me here to do. It usually seems to be quite different than my first plan. Ok back on track! So anyways, the big problems facing us at this point is the provision of balls, jerseys, and other practice materials such as whistles, cones, and first aid kids. We also want to organize a tournament in March sometime before I leave and this will require a small budget for things like awards and other various things. Here comes the ulterior motive part... please give! If you at all feel inclined to donate to helping with this project, or the building of our office (which we are also currently in the process of undertaking), or any other such ACEM undertakings, please email Adam Knowlson aknowlson@gmail.com. If you don’t mind not getting a tax receipt, it will help us get money here faster and that would be real nifty.

Anyways, I suppose that is it for now. Time to read some of 1984 with my fancy little lights!

Much Love,

Thomas Gaster

·        *I will try to write more regularly, but internet has gone down so I only get it maybe once a week when I go up to visit ECS Office.

Holidays in Review... Mundri Style

 Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, and everything else in between. As of today I have made it through the bulk of holiday celebrations. Although there is still tons of dancing happening outside as I write this as quickly as possible (so I can dance more, and pack for Juba). Luckily there is apparently another big celebration January 9 for the remembrance of peace or John Garang, not 100% sure.

Crying Contest on St. Stephen's Day

So it all sort of started Christmas Eve (and at this point I got lazy of writing and went to pack for Juba. Of which 5 days here and I finally sit down to write it again). The festivities started at around 4:00PM when I headed up to the ECS Diocese Compound where I was going to celebrate a Norwegian White Christmas with the World Harvest Mission Team. So I donned all white, which in Mundri never stays white long during dry season, plus on my white t-shirt there is apparently some form of orange stain... real classy Thomas. The other part of the meal was that all the food was white, or off white...ish. So we had homemade perogies, yummy chicken, sauerkraut, and etc. Fantastic food once again provided by the WHM team, and with little contribution from me other than my amazing dish washing skills. So after eating we had some rice pudding and exchanged presents, which I know Christmas gift giving isn't a competition but I got my butt handed to me. Due to my lack of funds and creativity all I came up with was colouring a picture in a Peanut's Christmas Colouring Book for each member of the team. Kinda cool I thought, until I started seeing their gifts for me too. I got a tarp for my ceiling, and a shirt, and a cross necklace, and candy, and man so many cool cool things. Then they were all exchanging these amazingly creative crafty things. Caleb the other young man whose story of ending up in Mundri is similar to mine carved these incredible plaques for 2 of the girls on the team, and then carved out the entire Masso family (Michael Masso is the team leader). I was left in the dust when it came to gift giving. Then we also took part in some caroling. We went around to a bunch of the neighbours and sang Christmas Carols for them. Lit the candles and sang some songs. Great fun, we even had a chance to sing for some guys whose car was broken down on the road at night. What a simple but really fun way to be a blessing to people. After doing more dishes, we finally headed out to Midnight Christmas Eve Holy Communion service out at Miri Kalanga. This was a fun little adventure as we sang Noel in Moru, not quite the same effect as English, but maybe more fun. Downside however was that I was super bagged so kind of slept through most of the service, was awake for communion though. Thank Jesus for coming!

Bring on Christmas Day! Well it did not start super early, but when it did start it involved jumping on the bike and heading into the bush. About an hour of biking through thick grass overgrown paths and going literally into the middle of nowhere (at least it seemed), we came across a church. Not really any different than any other church, in fact not at all in the fact that Paul and I sat down and guess what happened. They offered me food. Then we went in for service, with two preachers (Paul being one). While I did not understand Paul's message I certainly needed his attitude of celebration. Just as I was praying about a heart to celebrate the birth of our Lord, Paul starts getting everyone up to dance and sing. Then he led everyone out of the church and around, dancing and singing and just celebrating. Our God humbled himself and entered our world. Let us dance and shout and celebrate. After service there was once again more food. Overall between the Christmas holidays, and for that matter my entire time here in Africa it seems people never want to stop feeding me. I might be gaining some weight here. After eating I decided I wanted to teach some of the kids at the church some songs, so we sang Pharaoh Pharaoh, and many other camp/ Sunday school songs (anyone from camp this last summer would be proud as I busted out Stand Up and Shout It). After church we rode our bikes back home. While I know some of you may never have the chance to, riding your bike through the African wilderness is one of the most freeing and life giving experiences. The beauty and magnificence of your situation blows your mind. Upon coming home I went to watch a football match (my team didn't make the final). Tons of people were out, most people were home visiting for the holidays so I did not know many people. After the game I visited some families before heading home for sleep.

Boxing Day/St. Stephen's Day now. Well the big surprise is that for one more day I was attending church. This time to celebrate St. Stephen's Day which is a day to remember the persecuted church... I think. This time round I attended prayers at Mundri Parish. Which I am most thankful for. At this church there was a sense of joy. First off the preacher was the most ridiculous man I have ever seen. He was so into his message dancing around, yelling, making people laugh (even me just because it was so ridiculous). The other thing was randomly throughout his preaching people would start singing songs, which even resulted in Paul getting up and hoisting a chair over his head (I wish I asked him why). After service there was more food followed by some games. Different races and relays and other sorts of competitions. I took part in one game where you had to remember a bunch of items, I won 2 pounds for second place. Apparently I am losing steam here, so moving on to the rest of the holidays.

In between Christmas and New Years, I was determined to do some work, these efforts were thwarted by the WHM team again, who convinced me to take some time off and come down to the river with them and swim and kayak. So after making some candle holders our of baby lotion containers and nails I headed down to the river. My goodness that was fantastic. To go swimming, and just immerse yourself in cold water. After cooling down a bit, Caleb and I started trying to fish. We sucked terribly and caught no fish, while some little boy walked away with 4 or 5. Anyways, the fishing thing has caught my fancy as now I have been fishing again and I think I might make it a habit. It is a great way to cool down, and also spend time with friends.

Finally we come to New Years Eve. First off I want to say New Years Eve is not a big deal at all in Mundri like it is back home. I think I was asleep by 10pm, at least in bed by then. After fishing I went with Tata to the house of Boya where once again I was given food. While here there was a wave of screaming that passed through town. Starting at one end to the other, ululation and shouting and jumping and cheering was heard. I joined in because hey it is New Years Eve. Apparently there was a celebration of sorts happening at the church somewhere, but I missed the memo. New Years Day, Sunday involved a variety of churches once again. I attended Miri Kalanga for prayers this time, and it was actually a really good experience. For the first time I heard some songs sung in Dinka and it struck me as something really fascinating. Earlier in the week I listened to a sermon by Tim Keller about culture and about how every culture will have something to bring in worship and in honour of our King, and while I heard this other tribe sing and watched the Moru people joining in with their worship it struck me. We will all one day be in front of our Lord singing our praises, not in one tongue, but in many tongues as we worship together. Praising him who has come to redeem the world to Himself. Not to make everyone the same, but to bring everyone to Himself and together. Once again there was a football match to be watched. Following the football match however began the dancing. Which is where I started this blog a whole week ago. There were three different drum circles that formed after the match. Each circle involved a different sort of dancing. Baywa, Paul's son and his friends helped me by teaching the three types of dances. One was a shuffle, essentially you just move your feet quickly as you move around the circle. The second was a bit like a leg kicking exercise. Just bounce and kick your legs, pretty simple. The third was a tamed down version of the twist. I don't know if I really mastered these dances at all since people were just laughing at me, but either way it was good times. Also, at one point during the day my friend Michael took me to a random house who were also dancing and made me join in with them. To me it is simply proof that you have to let go of any fears of looking like a fool because no matter what you do, you will look like a fool anyways. Plus for me, when I am the most foolish I seem to have the most fun.

Finally, let me briefly tell you about Juba. We came to get money and distribute projects around to donors and NGO's and etc. These ventures had some successes and more frustrations, but that is beside the point. Let me tell you about two things I saw that I did not expect: The Nile River!!!, and a man with 12 fingers and 12 toes (good guy). Tonight is my last night in the "big" city, and I am ready to return home to Mundri. It feels a little strange to call Juba a big city, since it is really just a big town (with paved streets, air conditioning, and soft serve ice cream), and also be calling Mundri home, but it is. Ok, clearly my sentences are turning into run-ons and I really do not care now. Hopefully you have made it this far in the blog. There are some new pictures up on facebook just check the link.

Love you all,
Thomas

Prayer Requests:
- For me to trust God in everything He is doing through me, in me, and around me
- Peace in the nation, and in me