"Surprise" Photos and Sad News from Didinga

The promised photos:

Surprise!!!

Making my Entrance

Lily and Auntie Kim

And some sad news from Didinga...
Hector, the Didinga man who had moved onto the Miller's compound and started the new church in the Hills, has reported that his brother-in-law was accused of being a rain-maker, was bound, beaten and thrown down a valley to his eventual death. As the rains have still not come to Eastern Africa or the Hills of Didinga, the community has taken their anger and fear of imminent starvation out on those they believe are responsible for rain production. In this case, the rainmakers.

Hector's brother-in-law leaves behind a wife and 6 kids. Hector and his wife have taken in 2 of the children.

Also, our dear friend Lino (learn more about Lino at the end of this blog) was stabbed last week three times while guarding the Miller's old compound and new Napep church location. The extent of his injuries are not clear at this time.

Nagishot's, Pastor William, has asked the authorities (well, this part of the story is a bit unclear to me, as I never once heard of or saw any "authorities" in Didinga...) to arrest the young boy who stabbed Lino. William has promised that if the boy is not arrested, he will remove Hector from Napep and will close the new church.

After talking to Tianne, my old Didinga hutmat, she pointed out what now seems to be obvious...
God's timing is perfect. The rains have not returned to Didinga. People are still angry, continuing to take out their frustrations on the innocent - Hector's brother-in-law and Lino.

Attempting to not be overly dramatic, I think we all knew that it was only through prayer that David, Dario and the girls were not harmed that infamous trial and evacuation day in June. However, it wasn't until Tianne said it that I finally realized the probable trouble our team would have stepped back into if we would have returned to the Hills.

After the evacuation, Deborah, our team leader's wife, must have reminded us fifty times a day that, "The Hills are in a spiritual balance. We must pray for them to turn from the dark and into the Light."

I think that she is right... Let us pray.

Here is bit my teammate Elly wrote about our good friend, Lino:
"Lino Chunny, of whom I've mentioned before as a reformed thief, had been attending our Sunday church. (Ironically, all the men who attended had stolen from us on at least one occasion.) Lino had been to church before when he was studying in Torit, but when David preached a sermon on the prodigal son, it finally began to penetrate Lino's heart. My team member Shawn did some follow up a few weeks later and asked Lino what he thought repentance meant. Lino replied, 'Let's say God is standing by that bush. Now I have turned like this, I am not looking at God but am facing and walking the other way. Repentance is turning around walking back to that bush where God is.'"

One Cold Didinga Evening
Janette, Dominique Roundface, Lino, Me, Tianne,
and Little Regina w/ Baby Thabon on Back

During the last weeks we were in Didinga, Lino wold ask us regularly to help him sing this children's song. It's a song he learned at the church in Nagishot this past Easter. It goes: 'I am happy today, so happy. In Jesus name I am happy, because He has taken away my sins today. I am happy, so happy today.' On another occasion, he told a teammate that he would go to bed each night praying that God would keep him from doing wrong and that God would grant him another day as good as the one he had just had. His happiness was so childlike, pure and contagious. The week before we left, this cross appeared on a newly made hut in Lino's compound. We never got to ask him about it but, my hutmate Kim took this photo as a reminder of what we left behind. One joyful soul for Christ."