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/
Thank You,
Stephen
