Update from Ethiopia

Selam!! De'na wot!? (Hello, how are you all? In Amharic).

We arrived in Ethiopia's capital city Addis Ababa yesterday. After some negotiations (no, we won't pay bribes to get humanitarian aid through customs...) we got through unscathed.

We were met at the airport by the staff from our two guest houses, which are an easy 3 block walk in a safe neighborhood, from one another. We freshened up, and went to the new embassy for South Sudan. It is a beautiful building, with fantastic gardens. Deputy Ambassador David Deng is very supportive of our work, and offered assistance for security if we needed it. He may also accompany us as far as Gambella, Ethiopia. We'll discuss that more later today at lunch.

In the afternoon, we did some tourist visits including the Ethiopian Orthodox Church that Hailie Selassie attended, which was modeled after Moses' temple.

This morning, some of the guys are going shopping for equipment, but the most of us will stay home—foreigners shopping just raises prices. Gach will work with our guide and right-hand-man Abraham, who has been a tremendous resource for us for the past several months.

In the meantime, the rest of us will re-pack our cargo containers to go by truck to South Sudan, while we wait for our flight on Friday. We'll go to lunch with the deputy ambassador of South Sudan, and then some tourist visits just outside of Addis for the rest of today.

Andrew, the last member of our team arrives this morning around 8:30 at the airport.

We appreciate your prayers for safety and health. So far, everyone is feeling OK—we have a couple of people with colds, but otherwise jet-lag is our major concern.

Friday we fly to Gambella, and Saturday we arrive in Malual.

Wishing you the best,

The team,

Gach, Jane, Bob, Kathlyn, Nyareu, Kong, Peter, Colleen, Judy, Jessica, Andrew and Reuben.

Mission team departs

On Saturday, the mission team is on the way to South Sudan. We covet your prayers and support. Thank you to everyone for your support, your labor, rides to the airport, donations of aid to the community in Malual and your prayers. Thanks for spreading the word about our project on Facebook pages, with letters to friends, or inviting friends to join KLC. Approximately half of the funds raised came from outside the KLC “family.”

Going with the team is 600 pounds of humanitarian supplies. The tools and equipment to build the latrines and water filters, plus 175 little dresses and 75 shorts for children, hundreds of pencils and erasers, several pounds of undergarments (requested by the women of South Sudan). Three grain mills, twenty-two soccer balls, soccer jerseys, fifty pairs of reading glasses, dozens of children’s books, maps globes, and school materials along with dozens of pairs of shoes.

Because there are no roads in the area, we cannot send equipment by freight—everything had to be packed into checked suitcases for the airlines, and we’ll truck them ourselves.

If you’d like to pray along with the team members, the office has a list of team members, and a calendar of flights and activities—stop in for a copy!

How to follow along

We appreciate all those desiring updates from the field. Telecommunication is very difficult in South Sudan as it can only be done by mobile phone. We will call in to Jenny Morton and she’ll be posting updates for us in the following places. Team members will post while we’re in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, at the beginning and end of our trip.

To follow along, you can use any of the methods below.

1. Our Facebook page. This gets updated very regularly—sometimes several times a day with snippets of information, news, trivia, motivational quotes and news from the team. This is also the first place photos go! Find us at www.facebook.com/klcsouthsudan. You must join Facebook to see updates (free).
2. The Blog: www.klcsouthsudan.blogspot.com. Photos and news get posted here on a regular basis. You can also see a news ticker with news from South Sudan from twitter on the right hand side. You can also find the local time there.

3. The Mailchimp account. If you forget to check Facebook or the blog, you can get the latest news delivered to your email box! http://eepurl.com/fxi_c
4. Check the bulletin board at the church. Just outside the restrooms at the church is a bulletin board with all the information about the team’s latest activities.

Important Dates

The team leaves Seattle on Saturday the 25^th, and arrives in Addis on the 27^th. After a few days to acclimate to the time change, the team flies to Gambella, Ethiopia on March 2, and will travel to Malual on March3, and should arrive late that day. On March 17, the team will travel back to Gambella, and most of the team leaves Addis on March 20^th arriving in Seattle on the 21^st. Some get back the 24^th and 30, and five more are staying through April.

South Sudan Mission Team Prepares for Departure!

The 2012 team: Jane, Bob, Peter, Judy, Koang, Reuben, Jessica, Coleen, James (traveling later this year), Nyareu, Andrew. Not pictured: Kathlyn, Gach, Jacob and JJ.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 500 is nearing departure!

Next week, 10 team members will leave from Seattle, one more from Kentucky and will join the three team members already in South Sudan.

We covet your prayers for traveling safety and health.

For those who have asked about our flight schedule: The team leaves Seattle on Feb 25th in the evening, and flies until arriving in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia’s capitol city) on March 27th. We’ll stay in guest houses and acclimate until March 2 when we fly to Gambella, Ethiopia, a city on the western border of Ethiopia. We’ll spend one night in Gambella, and then drive the next day to Malual, in South Sudan, a half-day’s drive. If you have specific concerns, the KLC office has a copy of hte

There are several ways to follow along with the team’s adventures.

1. Our facebook page: www.facebook.com/klcsouthsudan.

2. Our Mailchimp mailing list: http://eepurl.com/fxi_c (you can subscribe at that link)

3. Our blog www.klcsouthsudan.blogspot.com

South Sudan in the News

Many people have expressed concern for the safety of those traveling. Rest assured, we are serving in community with the local people, who are friends and relatives of team members. This affords some protection, as we are not strangers to this place. Also, this particular area of South Sudan has been very peaceful. However, if you would still like to catch local news broadcasts (in English) the Internet is a great place to do that. Voice of America offers a Sudan In Focus podcast. http://tinyurl.com/Sudan-in-Focus

Meet the team

The blog has brief biographies of each team member. As we travel, we hope to send updates from the perspective of each traveler. Meet them all at http://www.klcsouthsudan.blogspot.com/p/mission-team.html

Our Mission and the Pibor Conflict

We've heard concerns from many friends for the safety of our mission team. The Pibor Conflict, which has resulted in 5,000 civillian casualties in South Sudan, has many of our friends concerned. Please pray for the people of the Pibor region during this difficult time. Kent Lutheran's team will be working in a Nuer region of South Sudan, with the Gajaak Nuer clan in Upper Nile State. The aggressors in the Pibor Conflict were the Lou Nuer, a different clan, in the Jonglei State. The tribal war in Jonglei between the Lou Nuer and Murle tribes is about grazing terrority and power, and predates the country's civil war. In fact, the conflict dates to the 1920s according to Peter Manyang, our team's resident newshound, who originally comes from Jonglei State. He assures us that the Lou Nuer and Murle borders do not cross state lines. Remember, in independence, the state and local governments stayed intact, and transferred only national allegiance, so state governments are aware of these regional conflicts. Crossing a state border would be catastrophic for any aggressor. Also, Peter reports that by 4x4, the Pibor Region is a four-day drive from our mission site in Upper Nile, and the Lou Nuer are not using vehicles. (Click the map above to enlarge). For safety-purposes, our team is registering with the US State Departments' STEP program, including latitude and longitute of our camp, and radio signals. We'll also be close enough to cross the National border to Ethiopia if any conflict were to arise, our team could evacuate in under one day. Even with these assurances of safety, we covet your prayers for health, safety and peace in South Sudan.

Water Filter Sponsorship

The water/mission team departs in just 71 days!

In our approximately 25 days in the village, we hope to install 50 water filters. This is a VERY ambitious goal, as we'll be training right alongside installation/construction. We also have other projects going at the same time. But the water filters have been identified as "most critical" right now, as they truly are a life/death project.

Fifty water filters are in our budget, but really, not enough to serve the people in this community, the way we want to, so we are asking you to consider sponsoring one for yourself, or as a gift this holiday season.

Sponsorship of a water filter costs $35 and will cover construction and wages to the local builders (not to our team). The sponsored water filter will be installed in a home, school or clinic on your behalf.

For a home, these filters serve the purposes of approximately 20 people for all water uses (dish-washing, bathing, etc) or for drinking water only, such as a school, it would serve approximately 70. The life expectancy of a concrete biosand filter is a whopping 30 years, and there are no maintenance costs at all through the life of the filter. Free pure water for 30 years. Now that is return on investment!

Would you be willing to sponsor the construction of a filter? This would allow us to continue our program beyond the first 50 filters. For your sponsorship, you would get a color card about the project sent to you (or if you choose, a recipient of your choice) and after the water filter is installed, we will send you some information about the person/people it served.

Your sponsorship would be tax-deductible (Kent Lutheran Church is managing this South Sudan water project, and it is a registered 501(c)3 in the United States.)

For more information about sponsorship, email Jessica Ward jessc098@gmail.com.

Sponsorship must be completed and registered before February 10 in order to get an update when the filter is installed.

Join Us: Fundraising Dinner Auction

Please join us, Sunday November 13, for a dinner auction benefiting our project in South Sudan.

You can still get tickets through online registration here.

We are also looking for donations of silent auction items. Please contact Jessica if you are willing to donate an auction item.

New Fundraiser Items

New fundraiser items have arrived! See our album on Facebook. Order while you can--this order is very limited, and items are going out for sale at two different churches on September 11.

Thank you for your support!