Exciting times

God is doing great things here in Sudan. We are so excited to be part of the work that He is doing. In the last 2 months there have been 42 new baptized believers. The Toposa people are now eager to hear God's Word and are responding to Him.
We just had a team from Calvary in Beaumont, Texas out to help with Bible storying. They were GREAT! They went out with us in the mornings and again in at night sharing the Bible stories using the story cloth. The Toposa attended the sessions every day and on the last day were given the opportunity to respond to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. There were 31 who responded to God's call.
Shannon and I have been out several times this week to follow up with the new believers. One village was listening to the solar powered New Testament that we had given them when we arrived. What a great joy to see them listening to God's word!
Please continue to keep the Toposa people in your prayers.

New Update

Sorry for the delay in my update. Too funny that living over here in the bush can take up so much of my time. Cooking everything by scratch, doing laundry, homeschool and all of the visitors throughout the day seem to keep me quite busy.
We are doing great! It has really been warm these last few months. Temps have been over 110 degrees in the shade, making it very difficult to fall asleep at night. It rained a couple of weeks ago which really cooled us off. The garden could not survive the heat so we will start again once the rains come.
Shannon has found a new language tutor. He drives to Riwoto every morning for his lessons and then practices in the village in the afternoons. It has been funny to see the Toposa react to how well he is catching on. We are grateful to have finally found a dependable language helper. The boys are also doing well with the language. They are with the kids all afternoons so they are definitely being exposed. I am not doing as well. I can greet and say basic words but no sentences. Hopefully, once homeschool finishes up, I will be able to join Shannon with his lessons.
The boys now have 7 goats. They have been a lot of fun and a lot of trouble. We have had to talk Shannon out of killing them several times. They have eaten all of our flowers and all of our transplanted trees. We have now fenced around the surviving trees so hopefully they can grow. Benton keeps waiting for one of the goats to have a baby. He researched the gestation of a goat and was so disappointed to find out that it was five months. One is really looking pregnant, so maybe one day we will wake up to a new kid.
We have 4 of our best couple friends coming to visit us next week. We are so excited! We will be doing discipleship training and the girls and I will be meeting with the ladies and children. The Toposa ladies are excited to meet my friends. Please pray for safe travel from the US to Sudan for our friends.
I have a few pics of some things we have been doing. Davis playing in the river after the rain, Me and some girls wearing our Toposa skirts(they made me one), Toposa women in their ceremonial dress.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Pray that we will show Christ's love in all that we do. Pray that we will have positive attitudes in the tough times, knowing that our Father is always with us. The elections are coming up in April which could cause fighting again. Please pray that all will go smoothly during this time. Southern Sudan has not had fair elections since 1986.

Family Fun

We have enjoyed having Mom and Dad over to visit us. We picked them up in Nairobi on Nov. 22nd and have been busy catching up. Before arriving in Sudan we went to the Lake Nakuru Game Park in Kenya. The animals were amazing! We were able to see lions, rhinos, leopards, hippos, giraffes and many more wildlife. Walker had a blast seeing the baboons but his favorite was the hippo.
November 26th, we headed off to Sudan in our little puddle jumper. Mom and Dad, I mean Mom, loved the scenery. Dad slept the whole flight. After arriving in Kapoeta, Sudan it didn't take long for the crowd to gather around us as we were unloading all of our luggage. Mom and Dad could not believe all of the people.
We have all been working in the garden, fixing up the house, and enjoying just being together again. We haven't seen any snakes, yet, but have tricked my parents several times. The heat has not been too bad, thankfully the wind has been blowing so that we have a cool breeze at bedtime. The strange African sounds kept Dad up most of the night at first. He is now used to the singing and chanting.
Mom and I took several ladies to Kapoeta last Friday to shop. We arrived there and had to come back home due to a military march that had closed the town down. We will attempt the trip tomorrow! The ladies call her MaeMae, too.
Dad has been helping out with homeschool. It has been nice having a break in the mornings from that! Dad is going to be leading a Bible story this week in a new church plant. He has met many men and lots and lots of children. He has even braved tasting local berries that are found around the compound.
We are thankful for Shannon's good health report while in Nairobi. He has now gained 15lbs and has his energy back. Thank you for all of your prayers!
We want to thank our friends at Norris Ferry Church in Shreveport, La for all of the goodies and sweet notes you sent us. It has been fun having American goodies to enjoy.

We are now connected

After 2 long months, we finally have internet! We are so glad to be able to talk to friends and family again.
We had a group of ten friends from our home church, Calvary Baptist in Beaumont, TX come to visit us for a week. We had a great time laughing and catching up with everyone. We went out every morning in the villages and did Bible stories and at night we were back in villages or at the river sharing God's word. The best part of the trip was being able to sit and visit with good friends again and not having to play charades to let them know what we were saying. Shannon and I have been struggling with some issues the last few weeks and it was great to have friends to share and pray with over these issues.
Here are a few pictures of our recent visitors. Here is a list of prayer requests: home school for Benton, language learning, rain, isolation issues, God's wisdom on what or how to deal with the constant begging that is in front of us all day long. Thank you, we love and miss you all!
Picture one is of the Calvary team, Picture two is a 7 foot cobra killed in our back yard, and the last picture is of a 12 foot python killed by the locals near our compound.

New Security Guards

We have found our new security guards for the compound. Watch out Sudan here are the Lewis boys! Yes, Davis is holding a AK47 that belongs to a guard here at Mango camp. He makes nightly rounds with John, the night guard. John let him hold the gun for the picture. They are loving all of the weapons that are over here in Sudan.
We always have several kids wanting to ride in the truck with us. This is a picture of a typical ride home with all the kiddos in the back.
Walker has found a new hobby. He has been watching the workers break-up rock with their hammers and has decided he can do it too.

Our first visit

This weekend we had a great surprise. We were contacted earlier in the week by a couple, Philip and Linda Byler, who live in Torit, Sudan who serve with African Inland Mission. They found our blog site and contacted us. Torit is about a 4 hour drive away from Kapoeta. They were heading to a nearby town and wanted to know if we could meet up with them. They arrived Saturday around lunch and spent the day with us. It was fun getting to know them and sharing with them. God knew that I needed a smiling face and someone to talk to.
Benton was given the opportunity to slaughter his first goat on Saturday. The day guard, Marco, had given him a Toposa knife. The knife was too dull to cut the goat's throat. Benton was bummed but looks forward to his next goat slaughtering.
Walker continues to be everyones friend and never meets a stranger. In the picture, he is playing in the dirt with a few of his new friends.
No pictures of Davis this time, every time I had the camera out he was off playing, hunting or making something. They killed a bat this week with their slingshots. They were so proud.
Shannon is using chronological Bible stories on Sundays under a tree outside of the compound. We are having around 30 people attend each Sunday. So far, there have been 5 pray to receive Christ. A few of the Toposa have even led in re-telling the stories. This is very encouraging!
Language is going great for Shannon. I am having a harder time trying to juggle homeschooling, language and the other Mommy duties. Please pray for me to be disciplined and devoted to learning a new language.

Getting closer

We are about 2 weeks away from being in the house. We can't wait! Last night Benton and Davis spent the night at the compound. They stayed in the tent with a few of the men working on the house. They had a blast staying up late and being served their morning chai. We are blessed to have a group of christian men from Uganda working on the construction of the house. They have been so nice and caring to our family. They have joined us for church each Sunday. We will be sad to see them leave.
The boys have decided that they need an outdoor kitchen for themselves. Here is a picture of them constructing the mud walls. Sunto and Lomkwam are two of their friends that have been helping. They always have some new project going on. Walker is always watching or destroying what they make.
We were able to get away for two days to Loki, Kenya. It is about a 3 hour drive from Kapoeta. We stayed at a place that had air-conditioning. It was nice to have the temperature under 90 degrees. We even found a place that had milkshakes.
Thank you to all of our friends and family that have kept in touch with us. We have really appreciated your words of encouragement. Please continue to pray for us and the Toposa people. We love you all!