First off, a quick update on the new nation of South Sudan. Since the country announced its independence on July 9th, the country has been floating along a wave of patriotism and relative peace until recently. Tribal violence that was quiet during the celebrations is now in full force between the Nuer and Murle tribes North of Juba near the border of North and South Sudan. Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands displaced. Besides that, North Sudan is still bombing helpless villagers in the Nuba mountains. To cap it all off, the South has decided to turn off the oil flowing to the North since the Northern Government is refusing to negotiate a fair agreement of oil revenue sharing. Since oil is the South's main source of revenue, the government will start to have problems paying employees and soldiers. All the fighting and violence is far from where I am now based in Juba and I do not have any security concerns.

I would also like to apologize for my lack of communications with you all. One reason why I have been so quiet is that I haven't been feeling like my job is as exciting as it used to be at least from an outside perspective. Now that leaders have been raised up on the drilling crews to take over, my job has become more macro than micro. I am now longer camping in villages every week operating a drilling rig... Although sometimes I wish I could go back to those simpler days. Instead, the Radler Foundation has entrusted me with the responsibility of building our new headquarters in the Capital city of Juba as well as hiring and training a new drilling crew.

Up until this last week, my days were filled with trying to get land, meeting with the local chief, and meeting with government officials. These types of things are not very exciting compared to telling of the reactions of a village when they get clean water for the first time in their lives and then being able to relate that to the Gospel. The latter brought so much joy to my life, while my current activities have brought mostly stress. That is not to say that God has not been faithful and that my current responsibilities have not come with victory. I have been feeling that God has made it impossible for me not to rely completely on Him. We were having such issues getting the land to build on as well as getting tax exemption for very expensive pieces of equipment and vehicles. We were only successful after we were brought to our knees and relied completely on God to help us. It might sound strange to some that a missionary would struggle with relying on the Lord, but it is easy for people serving in ministry to forget that our first vocation is walking with God and ministry second.

While I can't say all the stress has gone away, I know that it will slowly dissipate as I continue to try to walk with God more closely and turn over my worries and problems to him. Just before I began to write this update, I had so much anxiety because of all the tasks that needed to be done, and I had also learned today that I has going to have to leave soon the place where I have been comfortably squatting. Goodbye toilets, A/C, and high-speed internet. Hello tent. As I wrote the above paragraphs, I was reminded to give this most unfortunate set of circumstances over to the Lord. Now I feel calm with just a tad bit of bummed.

The good news is that last week construction on the land began and the WHI drill crew came up from our base in Kajo Keji and drilled us a very good well. We also give thanks that all our tax exemption requests were approved and we have begun to bring vehicles and equipment up from Uganda. God has also been providing for us in terms of relationships. The day after I sent in a prayer request to the foundation to pray for connections within the government, I "coincidentally" met the Economic Adviser to the President who ended up not only being a wonderful man of faith, but also instrumental to getting approval of our tax exemption requests.

On a more personal note, my fiance' Ester and I are both getting more and more excited as our wedding day approaches. We will be getting married in Ester's home town of Bergamo, Italy on March 24th. After our honeymoon, we will move back to Sudan together and live there until we come back to the US together in August. Ester is excited and nervous about living in South Sudan. I am so thankful for the woman that God has chosen to be my wife.

Lastly, I want to continue to thank everyone for your financial and prayer support. I know there are some amazing prayer warriors supporting me, and I can tell you that I feel and cherish those prayers. I also want to thank those who signed up at SVCC to receive updates about my work in South Sudan. I am humbled by your interest and please hold me accountable to share my experience and ministry.

If you are interested, I've posted some pictures of the construction of our new headquarters:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43972710@N08/sets/72157629181424653/

Thank You,
Stephen

July 16

I realized today that I don't always have to wait for something big or major to happen for me to update my blog, but instead I can just share with you my day or and special moments I had.

The crew worked non stop and worked harder than I've ever seen anybody work. I'm also inspired bless to see the commitment of these men I have the pleasure to work with. What's even more, even on the last of the seven wells, they were laughing and joking as much as they were on the first.

The first well they drilled was to be shared by a community and a new police station. In a place like Sudan, it is very nice to have the police on our side in case of times of trouble. The well was difficult, and water was not struck until 54 meters. This is unusually deep to get water and most drilling companies would have given up at around 45 meters. One of the police officers noticed this and told the crew, "You guys must of strong hearts, because anybody else would have gone home."

This week, I had given the crew the week off since they had worked so hard for the past two weeks. We are starting a construction project at our compound trying to expand so we can accommodate visitors as well as house people coming to start the new mobile clinic program the Radler Foundation is starting. For the past few days, we've been transporting local materials like stones, sand, bricks, and grass on dump trucks. These materials will be used to build two small grass roofed houses and a meeting room.

In light of the recently completed well near the police station, I decided to have a meeting with the Police Commissioner for the county and the man in charge of the Traffic Police to explain to them who we are and to share with them our happiness that the well had been a success. It was nice to see these "big men" so thankful and expressing that thankfulness to God. We had a nice meeting where both sides expresses a strong desire to have a close partnership and assist each other where needed. The part that I liked the most was when we all bowed our heads and Asiki gave thanks to God. While we are praying, I just couldn't stop thinking about how cool it was that we were praying together with such powerful men. Could you imagine going for a meeting with the police commissioner of your town and ending it with prayer? Seems strange for us Westerners.

Well, I just wanted to share that little story with you.

To Date: 61 wells
This Season: 47 wells
Left to go: 8

A powerful Moment

Last week I had the honor of teaming up with e3 to drill water while they provided medical care, evangelism, and veterinarian services to the people of Terakeka. Terakeka is a very tribal area about two hours drive North of Juba. It is very common to see men and woman, old and young walking around naked. The main tribe of the area is Mundari, and they have some pretty interesting customs including painting themselves with cow dung, and scarring themselves for decoration or family markings. Camping and living with these people for a week was truly an awesome experience and the people turned out to be truly beautiful and loving. The well we drilled for them is the highest yield well we have drilled and there is more water there then they can ever use.

The most powerful moment for me came on the last evening, and I want to share the story with you. On the last evening, we had finished our work were staying in the Harvesters Orphanage compound for the night before heading back home the next morning. The whole group was together, both WHI and e3 team members. Mike Congrove, the e3 Country Director, had set chairs up in a big circle in an open area of the compound. After a time of fellowship, Mike got up and started seating select people into the circle. All of the people he brought into the center were people that were serving God in Sudan in different capacities. Some of the people included Lance and Kim who run the orphanage in Terakeka, the founder of Harvesters, and the e3 missionaries in Terakeka. After bringing these people into the center, he selected elders to come and stand in front of these people. Some of the elders included Mr. Radler, Mark Waddell, David Kaya, Pastor Mulli from Yei, and some excutive e3 people that were also on the trip. Mike then had the elders wash the feet of the seated people while Glenn Cambell described the last few days of Jesus. The rest of us that were seated outside the circle were instructed to pray and praise God. Glenn would describe how Jesus was tortured and beaten and then would say, "Do you know who He was thinking of? I think He was thinking of..." and then say the name of one of the people seated in the middle of the circle.

Just sitting there praying I knew this was a powerful moment, but it was about to get even more so. As I sit there praying, Mike came up and grabbed my shoulder and said, "Stephen, you are supposed to be in the circle too." My first reaction was, "No!" but then Mike said, "You know you can't say no to me." and made me bring my chair and sit in the circle. Of all the elders washing feet, the man that was washing my feet was Pastor Mulli.

Now, before I continue I just want to say a few things about Mulli. There are few people I respect more on this earth than Pastor Mulli. He was one of the first chaplins in the SPLA during the war and he has served God faithfully under the harsest of conditions. He's a big man and looks like somebody that you would want on your side in a fight, but he's probably the most gental and loving man I have ever met. God knew what he was doing when he choose Mulli to wash my feet because He knew nothing could have humbled me more.

Knowing the man Mulli is and what he has gone through during his live and how faithfully he has served God only made it more difficult for me to watch him kneel in the dirt before me and wash my feet. Everything in me wanted to stop him but then God brought to my mind when Simon Peter wouldn't allow Jesus to wash his feet and Jesus replied, "Unless you let me wash your feet, you have no place with me." It then hit me that this was just a small glimse at what the Apostles must of felt like when Jesus washed their feet. That the God of heaven and earth would humble himself as a servant and wash the dirty, undeserving feet of his followers. In human terms it doesn't make any sense that the King of Kings would do that. One needs to look at it in terms of pure love before the meaning becomes more clear.

When the full realization of what Jesus had done for me hit me I couldn't help but break down and cry. I have never felt so humbled in all my life and it broke me. What an beautiful and awesome God we serve!

Next week I will be headed to Morobo county in West Sudan. We'll be drilling six wells in Morobo for churches donated by Salinas Valley Community Church and also another two wells in the Yei area for Pastor Mulli's church and one of the Harvesters new Hospital.

Difficulties and Blessings

It seems that I want to title all my posts "Difficulties and Blessings". There are so many challenges trying to operate a drilling company is South Sudan but God has a way of coming to our aid exactly at the right time. This past month is not exception.

Since about mid February we've been having issues with our compressor which is a major component of our drilling program. We've actually have been having small problems with it since we started using it (hence all the prayer requests for the equipment) but all those small problems came together into one big problem. In the beginning our brand new compressor would overheat once during drilling and shut off. The crew might have to wait 30-60 minutes but then it would work fine again. About three weeks ago it started to overheat after only about 15 minutes of use. Since the crew would have to wait about an hour between those 15 minutes of use, the problem was causing long delays. It was decided that we would go do to Kampala to get it fixed. Thankfully, after basically taking apart the entire machine, it turned out to be a wrong adjustment from the factory. This was truly a huge blessing for us as the fix did not require any new parts. If it did require parts, then we would still be stuck as it takes time since parts have to be ordered from Belgium.

The crew is now in Gulu, Uganda again drilling for an awesome Christian organization called Villages of Hope Africa (VOHA). We will be drilling six wells and sharing the Gospel with everyone we meet. Cole is also with them now documenting the entire event with his spectacular God-given ability to take beautiful photographs. Cole's apprentice, Godfrey, is also doing an amazing job and I am seriously impressed by learning speed and creativity. Cole has posted some of Godfrey's pictures on his blog: www.cgormanphotography.com

I am not in Gulu now but still in Kampala working out the details for buying another motorcycle. This is also very exciting as I found a great used motorcycle that was imported from the UK. The motorcycles generally sold around Kampala are very small and expensive but I found a larger motorcycle that is a perfect fit for the challenges and demands of WHI.

All the paperwork should be done by tomorrow and then I will ride the motorcycle back to Sudan with a short stop in Gulu to check up on the crew. My time in Gulu will be short as I need to get back to Sudan to take a trip up to Terekeka to find some churches and communities in need of water so a few wells can be put in when a e3 and Radler Foundation team comes in May.

I am excited but also dreading riding a motorcycle up to Sudan from Kampala. The trip is a total of 340 miles and only the first 200 miles will be on good roads (until Gulu). After Gulu, the road turns to dirt and will probably be a bit rough due to the recent rains. I will be taking my time and will ride carefully but still your prayers for safety are appreciated.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support. I am also sorry for taking long periods between updates. Please know that your prayers and kind comments are more highly valued then I can express in words.

Love You All,
Stephen

Hello Everybody,
The end of January and the beginning of February have been filled with busyness, joy, and sometimes frustration.
Since I last wrote, I have gotten a dog, named Misha. She was owned by the westerners at Samaritan's Purse but after they left she was abandoned and left to fend for herself. I decided to take her in and have never regretted my decision. She is so much fun to have around and is the most loving and thankful dog I have ever met. I think she knows how lucky she is.
I also had a team from the Radler Foundation come for a week. Besides the pranks they played on me, they were a lot of fun to have around. The brought me lots of treats and also a new coworker. My new roommate's name is Cole Gorman, and he is going to be in charge of our marketing and donor reporting programs here in Sudan. He's generally a cool guy to have around (when he isn't dressing like a girl- check out the full story at: www.cgormanphotography.blogspot.com) and it's nice to have some company. Right before Cole came, I started to get really nervous and wondered how he and I would get along. My house is pretty small and there really isn't much privacy. Thankfully, Cole turned out to be a very laid back guy with a passion for the Lord. He is doing a awesome job training certain crew members in photography and journalism so they will be able to continue his efforts when he leaves in April. I'm even picking up some pointers from him.
Right after the Radler Foundation team left, the Febuary e3 team came and I was happy that I recognized many of the people on the team from either last year or from the year before. It was strange to think that my first time to Sudan was on that trip two years ago and at the time I had no idea I would ever come back.
We have also drilled five more wells! Unfortunately, we have been having some trouble with our equipment. Our big air compressor that blows the dirt out of the hole as we drill is overheating and shutting down constantly. The crew has to wait at least an hour before they are able to turn it on again only to drill 15 minutes before it shuts down. I took the compressor down to Kampala on Sunday (a 9 hour drive, 340 miles) but the mechanics were unable to tell me what is wrong with it. I actually went to two different mechanics. We have located a third and he seems more competent than the other people we have tried. He will have to order parts from Europe which will take about a week. Since we won't drilling for the next couple of weeks but I will keep the crew busy finding other sites to drill when we are up and running again.
As for me I am doing well but am very stressed out about these equipment problems. I am thankful that I, and everybody else on the crew, are in good health. I miss my beautiful girlfriend Ester, but am thankful for new friends here.
Also, two friends of mine, Devin and Jensen Kile, will be coming to visit me at the end of the month which should be a lot of fun. I'm hoping we can get our equipment up and running soon so they are able to see some drilling while they are here.
My major prayer request right now is that we can get our equipment up and running so we can continue our work. The only problem with getting outside funding and donations are the commitments that come with them. We have lots of wells to drill and cannot afford too much downtime. Please pray that the mechanic will be able to diagnose the problem and get it fixed as soon as possible.
Please continue to pray for me, for wisdom and leadership and I deal with these problems and with the crew. Pray also that I don't let other things distract me from my true mission here; to share Christ with the Sudanese people. It is very easy to focus on the humanitarian aspects of this work and forget why I am really here.

Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers! I love you all.

December-January Update

What a great couple of months it has been. We finished the six wells in Uganda and just finished three more in Sudan. The area where we drilled these last three borehole is one of the areas most in need within Kajo Keji County. This sub-county consists of four villages spead far apart and until recently, there was only one borehole. Now, each village has a borehole.

The second borehole proved to be difficult. On our first attempt we drilled all the way down to 100m (around 300ft) and only found a little water. The second attempt we found more water although it is less than most of the borehole we drill. The community was very greatful. When we were drilling the second attempt, all the village elders were sitting around worried and discussing moving the entire village if no water was found.

All three of the villages in the Kigwo area are small, but I believe the population will go way up now because clean water is available. The villagers said they used to have to compete with animals and insects wherever water would pool up. During the dry season, baboons would slap the children when they tried to fetch water from the water hole.

While we were drilling, I went on a hike and climbed the ridge that separates Central and Eastern Equitorial States and looked down at the Nile that cuts through Sudan on it's way to Egypt. While hiking, I had a close encounter with a big wild bor! It was maybe 20ft away when it ran from the bush and down the hill. It was pretty amazing to see and it looked like the pig from The Lion King complete with tusks.

All in all, this past week was success and we had many new confessions of faith, including crew member Amu Bosco. It was such a blessing to have him come up to me with that excitment in his face that only the Holy Spirit can give and tell me he accept Jesus. I'm so happy and looking forward to watching and helping him grow in his faith.

In other news, there is a team of 10 people from the Radler Foundation coming to visit on the 26th of this month.

I am excited to say that we have been getting so much funding and interest that we are having a harder time finding drilling locations than funding right now. I am so greatful for people's generosity and God's blessing for this project. I firmly our success is largely due in part to the dedicated prayer support of so many people. Please continue to keep me, my crew, our equipment, and the people we serve in your prayers.

Lastly, this update wouldn't be complete without telling you about my Christmas. This year I spent Christmas in Bergamo, Italy with my girlfriend Ester and her family. Those two weeks were great and we got to spend time in Bergamo, Milan, La Spezia, and La Cinque Terre. Of course, I also ejoyed eating my weight in delicious Italian food. Yum! No firm plans are set yet, but I'm hoping to have Ester come visit me sometime in April.

First Month

I’m sitting in a café in Gulu Uganda thinking about all that has happened this past month and feeling amazed and a little nauseous at the same time. I’m sure after reading this first sentence you already have a least two questions: Why are you in Gulu Uganda and why are you feeling nauseous? Well, lets start with a little background.
Just a week after coming back to Africa we were back to drilling. Things are a different this time. We’ve hired five new employees which include two professionally trained builders for our new installation crew, a new assistant driller, a sanitation coordinator, and a ministry coordinator. These new guys combined with our existing four man drill crew (excluding me). With this small army we headed out to Jalimo area to drill three boreholes donated by three churches that had witnessed first hand the need for clean water when they went on a e3 short-term mission trip in August.
The next seven days were a whirlwind. Within those seven days, my crew drilled and completed all three boreholes, collected impressive sanitation data, and shared their faith with hundreds of people. This was all accomplished despite having some equipment malfunction delays.
Our next big contract was drilling six wells for a organization called Villages of Hope Africa (VOHA). VOHA is a US Christian organization working in Gulu, Uganda which helps new villages get their feet under them by giving them farming tools and loaning them seeds for various types of crops. They have also drilled some boreholes in the past using a different company. The way WHI and VOHA came to meet can only be described as a match made in heaven.
To make a long story short, two of VOHA’s main guys, David and Gregg, were in Uganda trying to find a driller that would drill for a lower cost then there previously contracted company that charged them about $15,000 per well. After spending some time looking and not finding anybody that would drill on the cheap, then went back to Entebbe to fly back. When they went to the airport their flight was cancelled so they went back to the hotel. While they were at the hotel they met Will and Evan Radler who where on their way back from drilling some wells with me for a week in Sudan. David, being very friendly and outgoing, went up to Evan and asked, “What are you guys doing here?” Evan explained they were working with WHI drilling water wells in Sudan. You can guess the rest of the story.

That leads me to the present moment. I’m sitting in this little café writing this update after spending a week and a half in Gulu. Within that time, we have drilled five of the six boreholes and are working on the last as I write. Our time here has been both rewarding a challenging. This has been one of our more difficult drilling locations because of community mentality as well as geologic challenges. The community in Gulu is harder to work with because they expect everything to be provided for them. This comes about because of years of living in refugee camps and also because of the hundreds of NGO’s that have aided in this dependence mentality. What I mean by “difficult” is that it is hard to get the communities to contribute to their well through labor and food, which we traditionally require. There have been some exceptions, some communities have been very generous, but in general they are pretty tough. The crew has worked unbelievably hard and have pushed through are within reach of the end.

For the most part, I spend my time with the crew, working and camping in the villages. That was until I got sick. When I first got here I came down with a cold that annoyed me more then hindered me. Near the end of the first week, I started feeling very sick. I had a pounding headache, fatigue, stomach pain, and felt nauseous. I thought I might have malaria but the symptoms felt different then the last five times I have had it. I took the meds anyways just in case but my conditions didn’t improve. I had one of my guys take me into town on Saturday morning and spent that day and night in serious pain trying to sleep and unable to move. Not so much sleep as a passed out. The next day I felt a little better but went to the clinic and got tested. It turned out I had Typhoid Fever! Wow. That's a new one. I had gotten inoculated against that but had heard that you can still get it. The treatment is simple and I have spent the last four days recovering. At this time, I feel much better except for some nausea in my stomach, which might be from the medication. I’m just ready to feel well again and be on our way back to Sudan.
My favorite experience of Gulu came yesterday when went I went with David (the VOHA director from the US) and his wife Dana to where the crew had just finished drilling the fifth site. The community was there waiting for us with singing and dancing. They had us seat as guests of honor and had a performance planned with instruments like drums, and hollowed gourds that they beat with pieces of metal. They also had traditional dancing girls in colorful multi-layered skirts. The end result was beautiful and exciting (pictures soon to come). The best part was that the community gave thanks to God before they thanked us.

Well, that's it until next time when I write you from Sudan. Keep praying for WHI, for our crew, and of course, for my health.

Thanks!