“A Lesson Under The Stars”

Since my being in Nzara, South Sudan, one of the first things I have noticed is the unbelievable view of the sky at night. Thinking about it, yes, it seems logical that the stars will be more prevalent in a place with little or no lighting interfering with the view of the stars. For me, thinking about the logistics and seeing the actual results are nearly different concepts. Because as I attempt to count the amount of visible stars, I can not fathom the surplus of stars I am leaving out.

Growing up, I was always fascinated by the stars, about space about the how we all live on a planet that is in retrospect quite small when thinking about the limitless universe. As I gaze into the vast night sky hypnotized by the surplus and utter beauty of the stars, I began to wounder, “what do the Zande's make of these stars? Do they know anything about astronomy? Do they know how fortunate they are to have such a remarkable view of the sky every night?” To seek these answers I consulted Emmanuel Ramadan, a young man I have befriended since my stay and he and I have become quite close. As I asked him these questions, he gazed up at the stars and said, “We Sudanese don't know much about the stars, because there is no one to teach us. We just see them and don't pay much attention to them.” When I heard this my jaw almost hit the ground. I couldn't fathom having such a spectacular and limitless view of of the night sky and not thinking much of it, or not being confused or curious about it. But then I reminded myself, that within the American school system students progress through elementary years having to learn about stars, constellations, the solar system, galaxies, space, etc, as a part of the teaching curriculum. With each year building on the previous information taught, until when reaching high school level, students ultimately decided whether studying astronomy is something they want to continue to engage in. I quickly grounded my thoughts and realized that unfortunately students here do not have such options. Emmanuel, noticed my expression and my silence as I wrapped myself in momentary thought, and interjected with, “what can you tell me about the stars brother?” I thought that to be a great inquiry, and the beginning of a unexpected lesson.

As Emmanuel and I lay under the star gazing into the vast depths f space, I filled his mind with stories of constellations, and how in the 12^th century Vikings would use the stars as they navigated through the waters, how English settlers also did the same thing before the time of maps. While telling him these stories of old, I could see his eyes widening as if he was now realizing that is more to these brights dots in the sky then he imagined. I told Emmanuel about the solar system, how earth is not the only planet, and how, in the big scheme of things, earth isn't even a large planet. Thus, led into the inevitable question from Emmanuel asking, “you say that Earth isn't the only plant in this solar system. Are you meaning to say that they are people living in these other planets?” Upon hearing his question I let it sit. Not answering right away, because now I know he is thinking, thinking about the vastness of the universe, whether there are other forms of life and how small Earth really is in retrospect. This is what I wanted. I wanted him to begin thinking about the universe, to think about other planets, to think about stars and to think about the possibility of other forms of life. Thinking about these things enhances his imagination and also broadens his mind, which was my hope before we began our discussion. Now I was prepared to answer Emmanuel's question. I was going to tell him my thoughts and have him decide ultimately decide for himself what he would believe. However, much to my relief, I noticed someone approaching us as we lay beneath the stars. It was Modi, a young adult who works within the Bishop's compound cooking, cleaning, and helping out in exchange for having her school fees paid by Bishop Samuel. When she reached us her first question was, “gini pai mo na amanga ha,” meaning “what are you two doing?” To my surprise, Emmanuel was energetic to respond, telling her the about mind boggling and vast concept of space, as well as he could regurgitate the information I had shared with him over the past hour. He told her of the stars, of different constellation, and of his joyfulness for learning such things. Now with Modi eager to learn something she joined Emmanuel and me.

We laid beneath the star talking about stars, space and galaxies for another good hour. Now I noticed that time had seemingly fleeted by, and I had teaching to do the following morning. I decided to close this lesson and gathering of friends, with one last story. The story of Ursa Major, the big dipper.

I told them the Iroquois Indian's version of the big dipper. How within that culture the belief is that the constellation really symbolizes a man hunting a bear that turns out to be mis mother, and how Zeus turned the hunter in to a bear and placed them both in the sky to prevent the son from hunting his mother. The two pupils laughed at this story as it is seemingly bizarre to them.

This spontaneous lesson was outstandingly productive. I was able to relay information to Emmanuel and Modi in such a way that allowed their imaginations take it in and run with it. Over the two hour spans we laid beneath the majestic night sky watching shooting stars, spotting satellites and learning about space made. This was a great use of time and a great lesson, as now both Modi and Emmanuel are able to point out certain constellations and relay the story behind them. By being able to do this both students are broadening their minds by being able to look in to the night sky and see excitement, wonderment and amazing sights, rather then their original conception of the stars.

One trait about the Zande culture I respect is when someone hear or learn something of importance or amusing they will take the story to each one of their friends. I can rest assured that even though there were only two friends with me as I taught about space, the teachings will spread far beyond my perimeters.

"Share Your Vision"

“Bishop Peni?”

“Yes George.”

“I have noticed that people here don't typically wear eye glasses. Is that because the Zandi people have strong eyesight?” ( if this is the case the rest of the west needs to take stock of live styles here I thought.)

“Well no, actually a large number of this community is in great need of eyeglasses to better their vision so they can do basic things, such as, read their bible, but they do not have money to buy them.”

After having that conversation with Bishop Samuel Peni I felt a large amount of sympathy for the villagers in this predicament. The part that struck me the most was the fact that they don't have the capabilities to read their own bible. I knew I had to try to do something. It didn't seem that the solutions were here. It seemed that I had to find a solution elsewhere.

I got in touch with a great friend and former teacher of mine, Katie Ernst. She is a marvelous middle school teacher at Stilwell Middle School, and also a University of Northern Iowa alumni. I knew consulting with her would not only relieve the sting in my heart for these villagers, but also put a plan into action to help solve this problem. Mrs. Ernst is an amazing individual and truly one of the best teachers I ever had. Her love for “kids” first, coupled with an “over-the-top” knowledge f all aspects of English was very significant in my development. My parents demanded that I read a hour each night, starting when I joined the family in the 5^th grade. This paid great dividends in the 7^th grade when the academic demand was to read 30 minutes everyday. Mrs. Ernst was surprised and pleased because of my elongated reading period. She helped with a broader range of reading suggestions that were beyond what I might imagine. To this day, one of the things I do as the 24 hour period of times expires is to read. However, now reading is not always the last thing of the day as often times I find no light source available.

Mrs Ernst and her middle class launched a “Vision Campaign” to collect reading glasses to be sent to Nzara in South Sudan. This was a student-led campaign, in which the students created and designed ways to market the idea of donating glasses for this cause. The students did this by creating posters, with catchy slogans to grab the attention of others, also by spreading awareness amongst their family and friends to get the maximum amount of glasses donated as possible. With a astounding turn out of 989 eyeglasses donated Mrs Ernst stated, “It was a wonderful sight to watch my kids want to help people in a place they didn't even know existed.”

After the eyeglasses were all accounted for the sorting process began. The middle schoolers carefully scrutinized each pair of eyeglasses to determine, whether each pair was normal, damaged, trifocal or sunglasses. When all was said and done, a total of 41 pairs of eyeglasses were removed for various reasons, leaving the only task left, which was to pack the eyeglasses and have them sent to South Sudan.

Over 900 eyeglasses were packed into 1 suitcase weighting 65 lbs and was sent with missionaries from St. Timothy's Episcopal Church and PreSchool as they traveled to South Sudan.

Upon their arrival to Nzara we were over joyed to hear of their journey receive, and then quickly heard of the distasteful news that the eyeglass suitcase had been held up in Juba.

As time went on there was a certain amount of anxiety as the glasses did not arrival with the travelers, days became weeks as we all awaited their arrival. Many questions filled our minds, “where are they? Did they get stolen? Will we actually receive them. Had I made promise that would not be kept?”

Finally, on Thursday March 1^st 2012, our long lost suitcase had finally found its new home. In the midst of the eyeglasses finally arriving in Nzara there was an annual Synod being held in Nzara with all the clergy from various churches of the Diocese of Nzara. This was an opportunity for us to present these clergy with eyeglasses to take back to their churches to help better the lives of their people. One of the things that I learned is that church is frequently the agency whereby personal lives are changed and therefore acts as the social welfare institution in West Equatorial State in South Sudan.

The eyeglasses donated from the “Vision Campaign” were divided into bags of 25 and were set out so that the clergy would be able to receive a bag of eyeglasses to be distributed in their various diocese.

For me all of this was a reminder that one experience of awareness for serval folks always has the potential to teach beyond our imagination.

Uganda National Prayer Service

On November 25, 2011 the Rt. Rev. Wilberforce sat amongst the Diocesan Council of Namirembe Diocese and Uganda's prominent political leaders, and came to the consensus that nation of Uganda is due for repentance before God for wrong doings and atrocities committed by Ugandan Leaders. Thus, they concluded that January 15^th, 2012 a National Prayer Service will be held in St. Paul's Cathedral Namirembe.

Ugandans from all over the country gathered as a nation in St. Paul's Cathedral in our Father's presence to pray for this country, to seek his grace, and to ask for forgiveness for sins they committed against their people.

Uganda is comprised of many ethic groups that have come together in forming their nation, and has experienced many violent wars such as the Inter-Clan and Inter-Tribal, dating back before 1894. The religious wars had run rapid across Uganda from 1894- 1964, and since Independence in 1962 Uganda has faced military coups and liberation wars up to this present day.

Many Ugandans over the years have been subjected to atrocities and there have been violations of human rights: The corrupt justice system has sent Ugandans to prison without trial; a number of people have faced death for political motives; some have been displaced from their homes while others have been forcefully evicted from them; some have been forced to leave Uganda to become refugees in other countries, and others are put into concentration camps.

The unequal distribution of the country's resources among the different regions and ethnic groups has led to social violence. Respect for the law as depleted causing some societies to form vigilante groups to protect their own.

All these countless acts has lead to endless tears in Uganda and has seriously ruined the economy of Uganda. Thus, this special has been create where, church leaders, government leaders, Ugandan citizens to come together to ask for a second chance, and to start anew.

On this day, Bishop Samuel Peni and I decided to witness this historic and repenting occasion. There were over 3,000 Ugandans in attendance, ready to come before the Lord seeking forgiveness.

The First reading- 2Chronicles 7:12- 15,

The Second reading- Epistles- Romans 12:6-16,

The Gospel reading- John 2:1-11

National Repentance

Leader: “There is an urgent need to repent as a nation for the wrongs and atrocities we have committed and for the things we have failed to so and for the things we have not done properly.

The kinds of sins we have committed include:

Bloodshed                     Madness

Bribery                          Insincerity

Lying                            Intrigue

Corruption                    Extenuation

Murder                          Incrimination

Maneuverings               Intimidation 

Mischievous                  Hypocrisy 

Sabotage                        Hostility

Injustice                         Selfishness

Nepotism                       Greed

Embezzlement               Importunate

Complacency                Inconsideration

Complaisance                Immorality

Ungodliness

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, If we confess our sins God is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God So loved the world that he have His only son Jesus Christ to save us from our sins, to be our advocate in heaven, and to bring us to eternal life.

Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith, firmly resolved to keep God's commandments and to live in love and peace with all men. God Bless, and God watch over Uganda."

Ugandan National Anthem:

Oh Uganda!

May God uphold thee,

We lay our future in thy hand,

United, free, For liberty 

Together we'll always stand.

Oh Uganda!

The land of freedom.

Our love and labour we give,

And with neighbors all,

At our country's call

In peace and friendship we'll live.

Oh Uganda!

The land that feed us,

By sun and fertile soil grown.

For our own dear land,

We'll always stand:

The Pear of Africa's Crown.

Computer Education in Nzara

 Alison Tepe's Basic Computer Training Course

On November 24^th 2011, 17 computer students celebrated their graduation from Alison Tepe's Basic Computer Training Course. The program consist of 2 months of arduous computer training that gives the student a basic understanding of how to perform actions using a computer.

The training includes:

•     Introduction to computers

•      Microsoft Word processing

•     Microsoft Excel

•      Microsoft Power Point

The program course also included internet, unfortunately internet had not reached Nzara at that time.

The graduation ceremony took place outside the Cathedral Compound with 27 people in attendance, 17 of which, were graduates.

The graduation began with a prayer lead by Bishop Samuel Peni, and then proceeded into an open forum. This gave the graduates a chance to address two of Nzara's towns elders, Bishop Samuel Peni & the Commissioner of Nzara County, with insights from the computer training program.

The first speaker began by stating, “Learning is the key to success, without which nothing can materialize.” Then proceeded to thank Bishop Samuel Peni for sending Alison Tepe to Kampala to undergo a 6 month computer training course and bringing him back to Nzara to lead his own computer training course to help introduce and educate the people of Nzara about the use of computers.

He went on discussing the previous situation, of how those who wanted to learn basic computer skills would have to travel to Yambio daily to attend class, and how he and many others could not afford to abandon their daily duties to attend those computer classes.

 

He concluded by saying, “This computer training program has taught me a lot, I, and the others are the pioneers of this course, and our hope is that it continues and only gets better.”

When Alison got up to speak he addressed the challenges he came across while leading this course.

“When this program started there were 17 students and only 2 computers at the time, it was my hope that the number of students would increase as well as the number of computer. One of my wishes came true when the class received 2 more computers to be used for their training.

 However, being a single teacher teaching 17 students basic computer skills with only 4 computers has been very challenging as well as trying to teach some students who I don't share a common language with. My hope for the continuation of this program is that another teacher is provided or an assistant, to help the students receive the best training possible.”

Following Alison was Bishop Peni. “When I first came to this diocese I wrote a project for an outside source to provide computers for us, thankfully the ECS Church of Salisbury was nice enough to donate computers to us, on the condition that we had a qualified teacher leading the computer course. From there I sent Alsion to Kampala to undergo his training.

I would like to thank all of you for persevering through to the end of this program. As you know, you all are the first to go through this course and receive your computer training certificate in Nzara. Understand that beginnings always have challenges, and I am glad you have persevered through them, to the end, and to this moment.

Regarding the shortage of computers, we are hoping that Bob North brings with him 10 laptops for us to utilize for the benefit of this program.

Looking ahead, we are hoping to soon have internet in Nzara, and we encourage all of you to come back and receive training on how to use the internet.”

The Commissioner spoke briefly, thanking Bishop Peni for setting up this program, and congratulated the graduates on their success.

“The word of today is commitment. With commitment you go through many challenges, regardless of the difficulty level of the challenge, if you are committed you will see it through, just as you all have done.

As I look around I notice that my daughter is the only female who participated and has graduated from this computer training course. Whenever you go to a workshop or participate in a training program, I want to encourage you to bring your wives with you, and to start putting them first.

We Sudanese have started with a hard and rough background, but now we are in the right gear, keep up the good work, and congratulations on your success thus far.”

Gbamu

Gbamu: A mud-made storage structure constructed to store and preserve harvested food from previous seasons.

Bishop of Port Sudan, posing next to the Gbmau 

With the rainy season coming to a close the time for harvesting crops from one's garden was upon the people of Nzara. Youth volunteers from the Cathedral all gathered on the morning of November 16^th in anticipation of harvesting rice from Bishop Peni's garden.

Upon their return, they brought with them twelve 150 pound bags of harvested rice, and placed them in the kitchen hut, adjacent to the house.

With half the space of the kitchen hut full with bags of rice, cooking and preparing dinner became a more difficult task for the young lady's staying in the Bishops compound.

With this situation Bishop Samuel Peni had an interesting decision to pounder- whether or not to build a Gbamu.

Bishop Peni decided to have his very own Gbamu, thus the construction began.

The setting-up of the Gbamu was a fascinating scene to watch. The Gbamu is held up by four 6 foot wooden poles to prevent animals and rodents from gaining access to the structure. The assembling of the Gbamu requires 2-3 men gathering mud, mixing it with dried grass in order to form mud bricks, while 3-4 men stand on the actual structure manipulating the mud to correspond with the shape needed in order to continually build the wall up.

Though watching the construction of the Gbamu was interesting, I'd have to say participating in the putting-up of the structure was what I found the most enjoyable.

Nzara's First Secondary School

July 15, 2011 marked the opening of Nzara's first Secondary School. Not only is this school the first secondary school within the town of Nzara, but the first government-funded school in Nzara. To celebrate the success of the finalization and opening of this new school, representatives from the Ministry of Education in Juba, among them- the Minister himself, Mr. Edel Senderai,  made their way to Nzara. A meeting was held in the newly constructed school, with the Ministry of Education leaders, prominent leaders of Nzara County and the secondary students that will soon be filling the classrooms with an appetite to learn.

The meeting opened with a prayer, and was led in English. Then, the Headmaster of the Secondary School spoke, expressing his gratitude for the support and funding the Ministry of Education has provided.

The Headmaster's speech was followed by a young male secondary student, in senior four. He spoke of: the hardships of receiving a quality education without the essentials of proper academic textbooks. The worries the incoming students as they enter a school with no tables and chairs. The universal hopes of he and his peers to be taught by qualified teachers. The future hope of another secondary school across Yabua Bridge, and how currently prospective students would travel from 1 km to 9 km to attend the Nzara Secondary School, and how the further distances challenges a students motivation to attend class with the only transport of footing. And in conclusion thanking the Minister and his colleagues for their support and help thus far in building the Secondary School.

As I listen to the speeches, the echoing mention of one thing was acknowledge by all speakers, that there is a problem. The problem is money and resources.

As the Minister, Mr. Sendrai, spoke, he addressed the challenges presented in the prior speeches. In regards to challenge of tables and chairs for the new school, the Ministers defended the claim that, “It takes a village to raise a child, therefore the villagers need also to provide for their children.” He sighted, that there was no extra money to go towards tables and chairs. The Minister also apologized for the fact that they as a Ministry have not acquired sufficient funds to provides secondary level textbooks for the school.

Mr. Sendrai, The Minister of Education, addressing
the audience.

Later in the Minister's speech he came to the issue of quality teachers. Mr. Senderai revealed that there are a total of 1800 teachers, but only 400 have qualifications. He went on to say, “the remaining 1400 teachers without qualifications will be dismissed.”

Upon hearing that those teachers would be dismissed silent disagreement filled the room.

It was now time to say a final prayer for the event of Opening Day of Nzara's first Secondary School. Leading the prayer was Bishop Peni of Nzara Diocese. As he prayed, he reminisced of the past days when he was a Development Officer in the Diocese of Yambio and was a pioneer of the construction of this new schools in Western Equtoria.

Before the occasion came to a end, Bishop Peni spoke. Speaking directly to the Minister he began by saying, "You are inheriting what i helped to create."

Then addressing the issue of having qualified teachers. Bishop Peni mentioned that in times of war he asked for people to volunteer to become teachers. Teachers, though perhaps not of a particular subject, but rather in the sense of passing on knowledge. That being said, Bishop Peni advised the Minister of Education not to dismiss the voluntary teachers, but rather send the teachers without proper qualifications to a college to be trained.  And in future years to come,  the Ministry of Education will have a greater number of qualified teachers.

The conclusion of Bishop Peni's prayer was followed the Minister cutting the red ribbon, and Nzara Secondary School is now officially open.

Bishop Samuel Peni, Leading us in prayer.

Visitors From Afar

For the last two weeks of August the Zande villagers were feverishly preparing for a week of uninterrupted celebrations, that the first week of September had in store. The Youth Convention, was to be held in the first week of September brought youth from all over Nzara, and other neighboring villages to the Nzara Cathedral to participate in celebrations of greater magnitude then they have ever before experienced. These youth took part in a week long program coordinated by the Flame International Organization from England, and also a personal friend of mine from the USA, Timothy Smith. Flame International was founded by Jan Ransom, and is a Christian ministry with a passion to reach out with God's love to broken and hurting people, particularly those in the poorest countries of the world, and to see nations healed and walking in forgiveness and reconciliation.

However, for all this to happen a surplus of arduous tasks needed to be completed prior to the arrival of our guest such as, general cleaning of the land, and also five new houses needed to be build to accommodate our visitors. It was indeed a time of great anxist, but with the help of all the youth who volunteered their assistance the houses were complete and everything was only uphill from there.

Timothy Smith is a recent graduate of Yale University and is a family friend of mine whom I met many years back through my Mother's church, St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in West Des Moines IA, he arrived a few days before the Flame International group and stayed a few days longer as well. While here Timothy will have the opportunity to witness for himself life in Nzara and what that means. Inspired by everything he saw and observed Timothy was determined to contribute. Once he returned to America, Timothy would raise enough money for the medical clinic in Nzara to hire a midwife and give her a salary for three years.

The Youth Convention was a gathering of great magnitude in fellowship fore not only had villagers from far and near come to part take in this event, but never before in Nzara has there been so many foreigners come together at one time to help better life of the Zande's. And for that, the Sudanese were extraordinarily gratified.

As part of the program lead by Flame International each morning began with a teaching from the Gospel. To surpass the language barrier there was a translator to assist in the teachings. Not only was each lesson taught very well, but to insure the audience understood everything that was taught, the Flame International group also had skits that correlated with each teaching. And after each teaching each member of the Flame organization went around the room and prayed with each individual present. Looking around at the unfolding events I could see the self-defense barriers protecting the Sudanese's emotions melt away like butter and they began to open up. The Flame group had succeeded in gaining the trust of the participates and could now address bigger issues and then start the healing process. Each morning a new lesson was taught to the youth followed by a skit and prayers, and leading in to small group time. Within these groups the Flame leaders main target was have the youth share their past traumas to the group, and then each member of the group would say a prayer for the individual sharing. The aim was for the youth to open up to the group, telling them all the horrible things that has happened in their lives, so then as a group, we could help them began their own healing process.

Within the group I choose to be apart of, I realized all my group members were from foreign villages and I was not familiar with any of them. In view of the fact, that as a group we all were not very acquainted with each other, I knew it would take some time to get to the comfortability level we needed with each other to the point of sharing our saddest stories, and time was something we did not have much of, thus I shared my story. I used myself as an example to show the process our group leader, Frank outlined. I shared my story of growing up in a broken home, going through foster care and being adopted into the Cole-Duvall's family. I spoke of the hardships I endured, traumas I experienced and how I found God. With the feeling that we, as leaders, are here to help the youth, pray for them and help them on their healing process, they began to open up.

The magnitude of the stories shared were enough to make even the Tin-Man feel compassion. The horrors these young men have faced thus far in their lives seemed like more trauma than one person would ever experience in the course of their life.

After going around the circle and hearing these stories there was one common denominator, and that was past involvement with a witchdoctor. Whether it was the individual whom had the experience with the witchdoctor or one of their family members, any involvement with a witchdoctor may bring temporary contentment but also brings long-term suffering.

When we had completed our first session in small groups, we as team leaders gathered together to discuss the success of each group. One of the Flame leaders, Frank stated, “I can't imagine what these youth have gone through in their lives, I feel blessed for having the only trauma of my grandfather passing when I was young.”

Each Evening there was a sporting activity set up for the male participants of the Youth Convention as well as arts and crafts for the females. The younger male leaders of Flame Nick, Pete and frank as well as Timothy and myself taught the youth games such as, ultimate frisbee, rounders, rounders, basketball, and participating in relay races. Because ultimate frisbee was a sport I enjoyed through high school and participated in a ultimate frisbee club organized by fellow peers that met every wednesday after school, I was very interested in assisting in teaching the youth how to play this game.

With the intent of teaching these youth how to play ultimate frisbee we, as the sport leaders, knew it would be to difficult explaining the physics of throwing a frisbee, so instead we designed a more demanding method of learning basic throws of the frisbee. This method was a basic drill with two lines of men facing each other roughly 20 yards apart. The idea was for the youth to throw the frisbee to each other and if they failed to catch it or throw it properly then they would have to run a 50 yard suicide. For to early stages of learning the frisbee throws, it seems as if we had began teaching the youth of to how because they all failed to throw properly at first and consequently had to do their 50 yard suicide sprint. However, when they seemed to grasp the concept of throwing to a certain degree, we spread them wider. Because in a game of Ultimate frisbee longer throws occur frequently, and we wanted the youth to become accustom to throwing longer distances. It was very interesting to see how different participants figured out the right angels and the right amount of force, in the Zande language the moment of figuring something of importance out one will boldly say “Iowa.” To see these youth going through trial and error for being fluent in the throws, allowed me to gather that: the Sudanese are very clever people, once one takes time to observe.

One they got the youth got the hand of throwing we were able to put them into a heavily structured game of Ultimate frisbee, with sport leaders coaching the youth on what to do once they have received the frisbee from a fellow teammate. But soon they were on they own and just about playing as if frisbee is second nature to them.

Games such has basketball and grounders are a lot more complicated so teaching the participants this game was a tad challenging, but nonetheless we taught the youth and they very much appreciated it. The other option available for those whom did not want to participant in sports, which seemed to be the majority of the females, enjoyed arts and crafts lead by the remaining Flame International members, Jan, Sarah, Gariff, Charite, and Karenza. Things that were being taught within this group were of the arts. Gary left the crowd in awe as he sketched a draft of a mango tree just in the distance onto a notepad. Among having art lessons available to the participants there was also sculpting lessons happening simultaneously.

That coming Sunday was a very interesting one with the goal of spreading the message of forgiveness and salvation to as many people as possible. For this to happen we, as leaders, split up into paris of two's and traveled to different churches to spread this message. At each church the Flame International member preached these messages to the people along with a skit to ensure understanding.

Pete Douglas and I traveled to the church of Nakiri, which was only two kilometers from the Nzara Cathedral. Once there we were warmly welcomed with rings of flowers made by the people of the church. Once Pete began preaching the Word-of-God and then the skit caught everyones attention, Pete invited every member of the congregation to come up and receive prayer. With that, Pete invited me to the front of the church where he and I listened to what each person requested prayer for and prayed for more than one hundred church members individually. Praying for the people in the manner in which we did was something I had never before done and I am very glad I had the opportunity to do so. Having each person stand before me recite their problem and ask for prayer was a powerful experience I could never forget. Lines of people flowed outside the church to the outskirts of the streets. For the hours that passed of Pete and I praying for these people, the only thing we thought of was, how we could ask Jesus to help each person. That has been one of the most powerful experiences I have had while in Africa, and I am glad to have had it.

One the day the Flame International missioners departed from Zara was a sad day for the youth of The Youth Convention; but nonetheless they were more then grateful for the time Flame spent here, for not only had they taught the youth many things, they also help heal them. And that above all was the main goal of this organization and they achieved it.