Why I love what I do….
Months after evacuating the staff from this remote village, near the S Sudan/Ethiopia border, we were able to bring two teachers and a pastor back into Mewun. They evacuated earlier just ahead of the depraved campaign of widespread destruction carried out by a rogue SPLA commander. Here they are being welcomed back by the kids of the community.

A couple weeks ago I brought a friend, John, into Mewun who grew up in the area. He lost his parents when a neighboring, much larger tribe, raided their cattle amidst a tragic battle that took many lives.

After that catastrophe, John, who was away at a boarding school elsewhere in South Sudan, met with the remaining leaders from his tribe, and encouraged them to give up keeping animals and instead grow crops.

Arriving in Mewun always feels like landing in a place that the war forgot. And the air is cool, gently slipping by lush green trees and grass covered slopes as far as you can see. The people come to meet the airplane with enthusiasm, big smiles, few clothes, and never a hand out asking for whatever they can get.

The intrusion from the rebels around six months ago almost changed Mewun. They burned and destroyed much of the area, and then the UN and other relief groups were poised to rush in and hand out relief and aid, a one-two punch that first weakens a society than throws them into a cycle of dependency replacing their own ability to care and produce for each other.

In Mewun, I’m happy to say, the people seem very much the same. And now they have their pastor and their teachers back. The Savior’s light flickers and continues to grow in this remote corner. John will be hear for a few months, then hopes to return to Bible school in Uganda, and onward to his dream of translating the Bible for his own people. That, he believes, will give them the direction for how his people should live and what they should believe.