JAAAASTEEEEEN!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh

What to say, what to say?

I know I don't post very much serious stuff on here... I am sorry. I just have a hard time talking about serious stuff to a computer. And when my mind is thinking in a serious way I am usually doing something besides posting a blog. But I know you guys want to know, so I will try to tell you a little bit:

So I have started a discipleship program for the students here. I am training 10 students from each of the 7 schools around here for a month, and then they are each going to start their own group of 5-10 people. So at the end of Nov, I hope to have 70 small groups going. In these groups people read a passage from the bible together, then they discuss it until they know what it means, then they find some way to apply it to their life. I have tried it out on a couple small groups of 3 people so far, and it has worked really well.

I have also been going around to each of the schools and speaking at their church groups about the importance of letting our minds be shaped by the word of God. I have learned a (really bad) Nigerian accent (which really isn't Nigerian at all, it's like... a mix of Arnold Schwarzenegger and an English man... Don't ask me to do it for you), and that has allowed most people here to understand what I say. Unfortunately I have to picture myself being a Nigerian to speak with it, and that makes me adopt the mannerisms of one too... Which means I preach like a black person. Anyway, at the schools, I give them a simple three step process, complete with hand motions! (Thanks to Daniel King, who advised me to do that)

1: READ (Put hands like you're holding a bible)
2: UNDAA STANDI!!![Understand] (Put fingers to head)
3: DOOEEET!!!!!!! [Do it] (Punch the air)

I have had kids come up to me and scream the three steps in my face and give me a huge smile a whole week after I spoke at their school.

The only problem is with Bibles... People here don't have them, and can't afford them. Thankfully I have all you guys back there to help out. I posted a note on facebook about it and God has already provided so much! Check the note out here for more information.

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I want to dedicate this section to my best friend here, Daniel.






This kid is like... Me. He is weird, and runs around the compound making strange sounds, and his love language is violence just like me. He steals and breaks my stuff every time I leave my room, enjoys throwing expensive things on the ground, kicking me really hard, spitting on me, and putting huge grasshoppers on me when i'm not looking. Whenever I come back from somewhere and see him in the yard he yells "JAASTEEEN!!!" and throws whatever is in his hand at my head (with deadly accuracy), typically a stick or an orange. I wouldn't have it any other way. At the end of the day he comes and hugs me for like ten minutes straight saying "Jaaasteeen.... Jaaasteeen.... Jaaasteen..." over and over again. I could hang out with him all day.


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Speaking of "Jaaaasteeen", it has become very popular here for people around the house to say that... it's like in a "oh, you!" kind of way. I don't even get it.

Me: Hey is dinner ready?
Essa: Ya ya!
Me: Awesome! Thanks!
Essa: AAAAAAAHAHAHA... JAAAASteeeeeeeeeen...

Me: Hey have you seen Pastor?
Vicky: Aaaaaaaaaah... Jaaaaaaaaasteeeen...
Me: ?
Vicky: Jaaaaasteeeen...
Me: ?
Vicky: *walks off*

Me: *walks by*
Essa (to her friends): There goes my saaan! (son)
Me: *Smiles*
Essa and friends: Aaaaaaaaaaaahhahahahahahaha.... Jaaaaaasteeeen! *continues saying that for the whole time I am walking up to the gate and out*

Essa: Eat yo foood now!
Me: I'm gonna eat when I get back
Essa: AHAHAHAHAA JAAAAASTEEEEN!!!!
Justin: What?
Essa: Walks off mubling "jaaaasteeen, Jaaaasteeen, Jaaaasteeen..."

Me: Have you seen my camera?
Deborah: JAAAASTEEEEN!
Me: Hi, have you seen my camera?
Deborah: JAAAASTEEEEN!!
Me: Hi... Have you seen my camera?
Deborah: JAAAASTEEEEEN!
Etc....


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Today I was reading my bible on my bed and all of the sudden I heard someone screaming bloody murder outside my window. So I jumped out my window (No, I didn't think about using my door) and went to see what it was. Across the large barbed wire fence that separates this compound from the village next to it, one woman was beating the snot out of another one with a large stick. Like a stick the thickness of her wrist and the length of her thigh. And I don't mean just hitting her with it, I mean beating the snot out of her with it. As hard as she could, frantically. A bunch of people were crowded around, but no one was doing anything about it. Then another woman came with a stick and I thought "Good, she will break it up." But then she just joined the other girl in the beating.

Now this leaves me in an interesting predicament. Normally if I saw anything of this sort I would jump in and stop it right away. But here in Sudan things are different... a couple times I have broken up fights and been told harshly by someone in authority to never do it again, and to let the people settle their own disputes, that the culture here is much different, and they don't take kindly to white people butting into their problems. Now if this was a man beating a woman... There is nothing in the world which would have stopped me from stopping it. But this was a woman and another woman. Usually in this situation I would have disregarded anyones advice and stopped it, but I am trying this new thing called "Listening to older people" which is greatly encouraged in the bible.

But no one was stopping her... no one was doing anything. Before I could decide what to do, she had stopped beating her. Then as I was trying to ask some people what was going on, I saw the girl who had been beaten pick up a garden hoe and rush the other one with it. I started running through the barbed wire, but before I got through, another woman ran and took her OUT. Like tackled her so hard her feet flew up in the air.

After that the girl got up and ran away screaming. I think her fingers were broken.

I don't know if I did the right thing or the wrong thing... Like, the woman was being beaten for a long time, and sometimes on the head. She could have died. Her fingers were twisted different ways...

Do I defend the defenseless, or listen to my elders?

I don't know. This was the first time I had ever made the decision NOT to defend someone before, and now that I have, I don't feel good about it.

What would you do?