A letter from Debbie Blane in South Sudan
November 2012
Dear Friends,
Greetings! This has been quite the month!
On Thanksgiving fellow mission co-workers came to my home bearing gifts of vegetable dishes for us to share together in the afternoon. While they were here I discovered a huge ant-breeding project in my bedroom. I was so very grateful that they were with me and helped me spray the ants and their larvae with poison as well as move trunks out of my bedroom in order to get all of the ants killed.
On Saturday we had an all-day College Day at the Nile Theological College in the annual celebration of the college’s founding in 1991. When I returned home from the day’s events I found that my home had been broken into.
That night when I finally got to bed I saw the first mouse I have seen in the house. It was a rather traumatic day!
I knew that the house really had to be swept thoroughly before I leave for Nairobi for Christmas, so all of these events propelled me into action! When the house was broken into the burglars, who were apparently children, strewed the contents of my bedroom (the ones that were left in the bedroom after the ant incident) all over the floor of the bedroom. The people who helped me make sure the house was empty of thieves after I came home helped me stuff everything into the now empty suitcases. Sunday I spent the day emptying the suitcases, dusting the contents off, repacking everything and getting all of the floors cleared of debris.
Malakal is experiencing a season of lawlessness. There are groups of young men who have no supervision at home roaming the streets and robbing homes. I have now accepted that when I am at the college teaching I will have to have someone “babysitting” the house in order to keep it secure. Padlocks and even locks with keys are not a deterrent for these events.
Please pray for the turning of hearts here in this young country of South Sudan. And please pray for the students who we are training and nurturing at the Nile Theological College, that they may be God’s agents and instruments for change as they prepare to go into the church and into society in the next few years.
Thank you for your prayers and for your financial support.
Blessings,
Rev. Debbie
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 94
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 103
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