Toposaland

As many of you know I recently took a little trip to Africa! I haven’t told you very much about the trip so I thought I would give a little run down! 

I’ll start with the basics.

 I was on a team of six adults, four men and two women, from Norris Ferry Community Church in Shreveport. (This is the church that my Shreveport siblings attend) 

Here's a picture of our team before we boarded our first flight in Shreveport! 

Norris Ferry partners with IMB missionaries Shannon and Carrie Lewis, who are working to reach the Toposa of South Sudan. Norris Ferry has committed to reaching the Karkamuge region of Toposaland, and they are currently the only people working in that area. 

I had originally planned to go with Norris Ferry to South Sudan back in October, but was not able to join them. I was a little disappointed that it hadn’t worked out, but I knew they were coming again in February so I was hoping to join them then. 

Everything seemed to be going along perfectly for me to join the NFCC team in February...and then South Sudan decided to get all unsettled! The unrest in South Sudan in December and early January kind of put the trip on hold for a bit. But the Lord was faithful and things seemed to just fall into place for us to be able to go...peace talks started, airlines were flying again, our visas were approved, the Lord was so good! 

I really didn’t have any idea of what I was getting myself into (that seems to happen to me a lot...particularly when it comes to overseas travel). I hadn’t met any of the other members of the team until two days before we left; I wasn’t really sure what our itinerary would look like once we would arrive; I didn’t know what we would be doing once we got on sight, other than telling Bible stories; I wasn’t even sure of how to tell my Bible stories. So all-in-all you could say I was taking a bit of a leap of faith. 

So on Tuesday morning, February 4, 2014, we left for Africa. It took us three days to get to South Sudan, 5 plane rides and two hour long car rides...and we weren’t even to Karkamuge yet! (I think I can make a guess as to why the Toposa are “unreached”)

On Friday February 7th, we loaded up the Land Cruiser and made our way to Karkamuge. We had been briefed on what to do when we got there, and basically we were to smile and shake everyone’s crusty, smelly hand as many times as it was offered to us. So that’s what we did. Some people would come and want to shake your hand once and then just stare at you for a while...some would want to shake your hand 15 times and then stare at you for a while. The overarching pattern was: shake, then stare, and maybe giggle a little too. 

Several people have asked me what we did while we were in Karkamuge, and you know that answer is rather simple: we shook hands and told Bible stories to naked people. That pretty much says it all. 

We had a fairly consistent schedule during our weekend in Karkamuge (We were in Karkamuge from Friday afternoon to Tuesday morning). In the mornings we would wake up from a somewhat restful night’s sleep to a delicious breakfast that Carrie had prepared. Around midmorning we would load up and make our way to a certain water well (I’m sure it has a name, but I’m also sure I wouldn’t be able to pronounce it). The water wells were in a constant state of activity, so we always had a good crowd there. We started with a few songs and prayer and then told our stories. We started from Genesis and told all the way to Acts by the time we left! After we finished there for the day we would head back to camp to refuel on water and grab a snack. In the early afternoon, we would go to this one village (again, I’m sure it has a name) where a local believer, Cecilia lived. We shared the same stories we had earlier that day with the people that lived there. The crowd here consisted more of women and children, but they were usually attentive and eager to learn. After we left this village we would return to camp to rest up. The afternoons got very hot, which meant not many people would be out and about, so we decided to follow their example. Each night we had a delicious meal, usually consisting of Ugali (like super thick grits) and a sauce. I mean we were definitely roughing it, but you couldn’t tell by the way we ate! 

Each night was a little different, but it usually consisted of shaking smelly hands, Bible stories and naked people. (but you know at night you couldn’t really tell if they were naked or not, so that was preferable) 

I had a great time on this trip! It was so exciting to be sharing stories of Jesus with people who had genuinely never heard of Him before, and some of whom probably never will again. 

Now this was no easy trip, travel was hard, several of the airplane rides were positively nauseating, the people smelled funny, everyone stares at you ALL THE TIME, there’s just SO MUCH genitalia, it’s hot, you’re sleeping on the ground, you have to go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground, and THEY SPIT NONSTOP, I mean just hucking lugies 24/7 from the oldest to the youngest. 

But it was worth it. 

If we hadn’t been willing to endure all the smells, hand shakes, nudity, difficulty and discomfort, we would be short a few brothers and sisters in glory. 

So praise the Lord for our Toposa brothers and sisters....and for Wet Wipes. 

This is the plane we took to fly into and out of South Sudan.

This is at our morning water well location.

The Toposa love to sing, and this song was one of their favorites!

Some of the Toposa listening to our stories at our second location.

These are some of the men and women who decided to trust in Jesus at the end of our time there!

On the left is a granary where they store all their food and grains. On the right is a typical Toposa house, and below is an animal pen.

 

Our first night in South Sudan, Mary got some custom Toposa earrings! 

Our first day in Karkamuge some of the kids found this in the river bed...good sign or no?

But every night ended with a beautiful African sunset.