Goodbyes in Gumbo

      Hello Everyone! I hope you are all having a joyful and peaceful Advent and are getting pumped for Christmas! This past weekend our family here in Gumbo got a little smaller as we said goodbye to two dear friends, SLM Tom Kelly, and the great mustached man from India, Robin one of our fellow volunteers. It was very sad to see them go but I am very thankful for the time I was able to spend serving with these two selfless and holy men. Since Mike and I arrived in Gumbo at the end of August Tom and Robin have helped us get acclimated to life here and have been our closest friends. If you compared our life here thus far to a bicycle Tom was our training wheels and Robin was our father who fixed everything we broke along the way including school bells, doors, fence gates (it’s a long story… but I drove a motorbike into it.), and the list goes on and on unfortunately (Mike and I are apparently really good at breaking stuff around the compound, its one of our many gifts).

The Boys

          Now we have no dad and no training wheels so its time to see how we do on our own which will be exciting yet I am sure will entail some falls here and there but such is life. It is also getting to that point on mission where we have been here for some time but there is still plenty of time left on the clock. It has been difficult to get over that hump and stay focused on mission especially as we have entered the holiday season during which home has been on my mind often. Yet the Lord has really blessed me and helped me to refocus on why I came here and on trying to be the best missionary that I can possibly be. This has changed my feelings of impatience and exhaustion into feelings of peace and joy in the fact that there are still many days ahead of me with many opportunities to serve God’s people here in South Sudan. I look forward to the many adventures to come.

            At the secondary school we have one exam left and then the school year is finished. The exam results have been much better than last term’s so I am glad to announce that most of our students will be promoted to the next grade in January, thanks be to God! The first few weeks following Christmas will be mostly spent in preparation for the 2014 Academic Year. The secondary school will be welcoming many new students, as we will have Senior 1, Senior 2, and Senior 3 next year opposed to just Senior 1 and 2. This means I will have to put my African name-memorizing cap back on as we welcome the new students and will be getting back into the routine of teaching everyday. But for now I am excited about having a short break from the classroom and celebrating Christmas and New Years with the community here and the people of Gumbo. May God bless you all during this time of great joy!

For Robin's departure from Gumbo I decided to grow a sweet stache in his honor...I will never be able to compete with him, and thankfully this bad boy is coming off very soon.