Jan. 9

Sudan is heading to make a great history. This is going to be great for us as South Sudanese. I was able to go and register at referendum center so that i will be able to vote in upcoming referendum. This vote is going made history and will open doors for the people of South Sudan for the rest of their life. I want give praises to God who have made this to happen in Our Country. And He always keeps his promises. I have lost all of my brothers and my father as well in this constant war between Muslim and Christian and final it is our turn to be free so that we will glorify God. Can not wait for the voting day!!!!!!!!!

Dresses for Sudan!

Thank you so much Carol Brown and the Branches small group for working on these dresses for my village in Sudan. This will be a very good blessing for the children.

Ms Carol wants me to speak in the small group at BH and I am so excited!

I talked to Bill (my husband) and we would like for you and Boudan (sp?) to come speak to our class on Oct. 10th. If you could be there no later than 10:55 in modular 17. We told the class about it this morning and they are so excited about meeting you all.

Please let me know if this if O.K. I'll have all the dresses there that day, but we will take them by your house that afternoon. I want the class to see how many dresses were made by these women.

Now, the second group that is going November first week...Are they going to the same village? Just wondering about having any made by that trip.

If you think dresses have a way to get to Sudan throughout the year, we will continue to sew even after this group goes. Carol

OPEN

God has open the Red Sea

Greeting!

Greetings from Bullen Timo, Sudanese, in the Threesixty house. May Your ways be known among the nations Oh Lord and let Your glory shine forever and ever. You alone are highly exalted and glorified. Magnify Yourself to the nations through Your church whom You purchased by Your blood. God, You alone are the Creator of All and You alone are Lord of all.

Threesixty Ministry is glorifying God by making disciples of young men and transforming their lives so they will go into the nations and reproduce more disciples throughout the globe for the glory of God. By the grace of God, I was selected to be one of the students in this ministry. Since August 2009, I have been impacted in so many ways. I have learned and lived out the American family life, college education life, keeping finance track and my spiritual walk with the Lord. This journey with my Savior, life skills and school will have a great effect on generations throughout my homeland of Mundri, Sudan and the rest of the world.

Family life in Sudan was much different because I did not grow up with a father, mother, brothers and sisters. Instead, I was raised deep in the jungle by my Grandfather, to whom I am so thankful. Sudanese man did not cook and men and women eat separately. However, Threesixty has allowed me to witness a Mom and Dad family together and this has been a great change and experience for me. I have learned how to prepare meals for the family, which makes me aware of how much time and effort a woman spends to prepare a meal and take care of a house.

Education is very important in Sudan and America. An education is what God called me to do in America and He will help me complete my knowledge and wisdom with a college degree. In Sudan, going to school and getting an education is very limited. I learned my math under a tree in the dirt. Since God allowed me to join this program, my classes have been my biggest responsibility. My English language skills are improving every day and I have gained thousands of words during this time. I believe with all my heart God is going to use my education in business to impart hope to the nations of the world.

My spiritual walk with the Lord has been going good. During this past year, I have experienced having a mentor. He encourages me in my hard times, prays with me and we study the Word of God together. In our Christian journey we need someone to walk with us in the daily life and I am so thankful for what Threesixty has done in my life. I have experienced things that I have never dreamed of in my life; God has blessed my life through men and woman who stand by my side to help me in this expedition.

It is my prayers request that everything I do on a daily basis will reflect the glory of Christ to the people around me, so that many people will be drawn to God. I have a heart for people who have lost their families and those going through tough time in life, especially young people, widows and orphans . It is my hope that God will use my life to bring people who are hearting and hungry across the globe to experience His everlasting love. Thank you Threesixty for impacting my life with an education, life skills and guiding my spiritual walk, so that I may be His hands and feet to the rest of the world.

BEACH Site

My First look at the beach with white sand and crashing waves. Kayla Bell is with me here.

This FOOT

This foot was given to me by God. It has carried me in the jungle and many roads. It has so many scars and it is so little. Thank you Jesus for my feet.

Leaves for Dinner!

Make Way Partners has been working in Sudan for a long time. MWP is working with a tribe called the Dinka's. My tribe (Moru) and Dinka's don't get along very well in the jungle, but we all suffer the same things and we Worship the same GOD! Here is a story that was so true of life in the jungle. The leaves come from a certain tree and are very bitter and I have eaten them when my belly was so hungry. I want God to use me to change starving children and widows for His GLORY in Mundri, Sudan, Africa!

You can read more here on page 3: THE LEAVES

Sudan’s Grocery Bag

Inside the safety of our fence, orphans greet us with huge smiles and great hugs. We see them dance and play throughout the day. We hear them drumming and singing praise songs late into the night. We smell their food as it is cooked on open fires three times a day. From “within the fence,” it is difficult to imagine the harsh reality for orphans “outside the fence.”

The first prayer walk with this team brought reality pretty close to home.

As we walked, I noticed a torn, dirty plastic bag on the ground. I asked the team if they knew what it was. In many ways it was an unfair question because to eyes in bodies that are accustomed to full bellies, it looked like a torn, dirty plastic bag of rubbish. But, from what spilled out of it and from having seen it so many times before, I knew exactly what it was.

I said, “It’s someone’s grocery bag.”

The scenario probably went something like this: a woman, more than likely a widow, with a number of children went out to the bush hoping to find some food. She would have had a jar or can in one or both of her hands, hoping against hope that even in this record-breaking drought she could find a well that still had sufficient water in it that she would be able to draw up enough of its reserve to boil whatever food she found. She would also have a baby strapped on her back by a sheet and a large cloth balanced on top of her head to bind up and carry home whatever food she hoped to find.

Like most of the widows and orphans in Sudan, her only food-find for the day was---once again---leaves. So, she gathered what she could stuff in her small, plastic bag which had obviously been used this way many times before. The only food her grocery store stocked today was a sack of leaves. They would provide no nutrition for her young children, but she would boil them in water hoping to comfort her babies by bloating their bellies with leaves. At least they would feel full.

She would deal with the dysentery the leaves caused tomorrow; today she would focus on the only comfort she could provide – a sack of leaves.

She then took the dirty cloth from atop her head and placed the torn bag---now stuffed full of the fruit of her day’s labor---inside it. Next she tied the four corners of the cloth together and balanced it once again atop her head.

Imagine the several-mile walk back home after her long day of searching the wild countryside for food and water. Imagine her worry. Imagine her emotionally “checking out,” not paying attention to all the details so that she might not hurt so deeply for her children. Imagine her bending over to take her hungry, crying baby off her back to nurse him with what little milk her malnourished breast would offer.

Now, imagine with all the distraction, perhaps the knot she made with the four corners of her cloth was not tight enough, or perhaps a hole wore through it as the sticks and thorny leaves braised it as it bounced along her walk through the bristly bush. All we know for sure is that somehow, her only yield of the day, her only food offering for her children wriggled its way from her sack and fell to the ground.

By Kimberly Smith...MWP.

David Platt... Jesus is...

Sweet Tea!

Sweet Tea is a southern drink that is so goooooood. We are learning to make sweet tea in Alabama and have it at every day.

Surely his marcy will be with me

Who suffers the most?

God has a great plan for man to be the head of families and he has established the first family in the garden of Eden. It is will of God to see the families are glorifying him together. But for the widows they have lost their husbands sometimes they have the kids left behind with them. They are always in shadow of sadness, they have little hope and they are the people who suffer the most. Therefore, we do not need to turn our backs for widows. James 1:27

Psalm 27

David asked about God in the Verse 4 of the 27 chapter. He knows that God is sovereign in all that is happening in his life. Also, he knows that he is fighting not for victory but he is fighting from victory. So throughout the Chapter the name of God appeared in the beginning and it the end so this has given me a great challenge some time when something happen i need to call on God but instead forget to call on him. David know that God will do all things for him whether in good times or in bad times. Romans 8: 35-39 if God for us who can be against us. It is my prayers that we call on him in every thing that we are doing through because his word is true.

Truck

I am thinking and looking very carefully what will be the effective to help people back home in Mundri Sudan in terms of Business. Micro finance will be very good to help our people so that they can help them self. There are so many widows and orphans because of the war and i want help them but the question is what will be the successful tool to help the with. So i think it will be good for me to buy trucks which will do the business around the town them that business will generate the income to provide the money for the micro finance to help the Orphans and the widows to do small business to help them. So this what i am praying for and if all goes well 2011 i will start this business in Mundri Sudan.

Pray for Southern Sudan

South Sudan votes for first time in a generation

By JASON STRAZIUSO (AP)

JUBA, Sudan — The election posters and slogan-filled T-shirts blanketing this town underscore a new excitement in southern Sudan, which will cast ballots in a national election for the first time in more than two decades, when a three-day vote begins Sunday.

Despite the first-in-a-generation election, though, most people are already looking past the weekend ballot to a vote in January considered far more significant: a referendum on independence that could signal the birth of a new African nation, if final negotiations with Khartoum over oil rights and the location of the border are worked out peacefully.

"Southerners are going to vote for independence. We cannot say if they (Khartoum) will accept it," said Peter Yien, a 28-year-old who lives in Akobo, a southeastern town on the border with Ethiopia that is suffering a severe food shortage because of tribal conflict and a lack of rain.

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday that the United States believes the elections are an important step in peace efforts and wants them conducted so they "reflect the will of the Sudanese people."

He said, however, that the U.S. won't hesitate to speak out if the elections appear to be unfair. President Barack Obama's special envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, has been meeting with officials in southern Sudan and in Khartoum, Crowley said.

The roots of a young democracy have taken place this election cycle, at least in the south's capital of Juba, which has seen candidate rallies, voter education drives and political speeches for the first time in years. Daniel Deng, the founder of the Deng Foundation, a voter education group, held a rally this week in Juba to raise voter awareness.

"I will be voting for the first time, and I don't think my mom or dad has ever voted in their lives. We have lived in this country like aliens, forgotten. Now we have a chance to be part of something," Deng said, before quickly adding that the independence vote next year was more important: "Let's get it out of the way and then move forward to the referendum."

Salva Kiir Mayardit, the south's president and Sudan's first vice president, held a final rally in Juba under a still-fiery evening sun Thursday to muted cheers from about 1,000 people. Earlier in the day he said the south was running the "final lap of our journey toward the referendum."

"My key message throughout the campaigns has been the maintenance of peace and stability throughout the country," Mayardit told a news conference. "Since the signing of the CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) the lives of our people have changed tremendously from worse to better, and no amount of intimidation can drag us back to war."

The CPA, a U.S.-backed peace treaty, ended the north-south war in 2005, setting in motion both the elections and the referendum. The last time the south voted in national elections was 1986. The balloting is to elect a president, national parliament and provincial parliaments and governors.

The south's dominant party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, or SPLM, is not running a candidate against Sudan President Omar al-Bashir. Some candidates in the SPLM's northern wing are boycotting the election, but candidates in the south are proceeding. Most here agree that the south is only trying to successfully get through the election and move on to the referendum.

"The language I tend to use in this regard is that elections are the end game in the north and the referendum is the end game in the south," said Zach Vertin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.

"That's not to say there isn't any interest in the election. It's also important within the south. You can see the beginning of democracy here. Southerners and a lot of the parties deserve credit for engaging in the democratic process."

The oil-rich south is a mainly Christian and animist region. The predominantly Muslim north has ruled for decades, and 50 years of civil war between north and south killed 2 million people. The separate conflict in Darfur erupted in 2003, when ethnic African tribes rose up complaining of discrimination by the Arab-led government in Khartoum.

A U.N. report on the outlook for 2010 said that a worst-case scenario for the country would see north-south clashes ignite along the border, triggering inter-tribal conflict. The U.N. report also predicts severe food shortages this year that could affect the referendum. More than 4 million people in southern Sudan will need food aid this year.

The newly born democratic process in Juba has included candidate forums, which attracted a couple hundred people earlier this week. The president has been flying around southern Sudan advertising his platform, which includes giving more rights and educational opportunities to women. Candidate posters are plastered over telephone poles and store fronts.

But the election in the whole of Sudan is beset with problems. Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said this week that signs on the ground were "very disturbing," and said that much was awry with the electoral process. Her comments came after former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi's Umma party announced it will boycott the election. Several of Sudan's biggest opposition parties have withdrawn from the race.

A report from the International Crisis Group last month said Sudan's election would suffer from electoral fraud, including ballot stuffing and voter registration gerrymandering. The report also predicted return to conflict between the north and the south if the vote on independence is not held next year.

Friends standing alongside Yien in the eastern town of Akobo agreed that was possible.

"War? No, not war. We will talk," said Peter Toi, 28.

"We will see," Nyak Pan Deng, 33, quickly interjected. "No one can say war or no war now."

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Dream Home

I hope God will provide me a home like this to use for His Glory!

Mundri Matters

“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;

the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus:

it shall blossom abundantly

and rejoice with joy and singing.”

Isaiah 35:1,2

Education

Once upon a time, the Northern Sudanese used to tell the Southern Sudanese, you black in south do not need to go to school. The best thing for you to do is to get married, have many children, plant your gardens and bee hives and be happy. You do not need to be a policeman, business man, doctor or any other profession. We in the North will be all of that instead of you. The war begin for the North and South as a religious battle between Christians and Muslims. A man who had been to school in America, John Garanga, told the South - we will fight back!

I know with all of my heart that God sent me to America for school and I will accomplish through Christ who has sent me here. There are many opinions about my education, but let me tell you - I have no doubt about my education - there is nothing impossible with God in Control and I will look UP for my provisions and follow Him.

Bullen

Moru Tribe Education

Information about family education in Southern Sudan, particularly in the Moru tribe. Family education is informal education provided by parents and elder members of the Moru tribe to the young people about the society. Elders play an important role in raising and educating children. The responsibility of educating children in the Moru tribe is divided between the father and the mother. The father usually teaches sons in the family in the social activities, duties and responsibilities carried out by men so that when they grow up they would do the same in the society. He shows and teaches his boys how different types of house work are done, for instance how to build houses and how to cultivate, how to cut down tress and how to make hives for bees to produce honey. The father also lectures to his sons about how to select the best girls to be their future wives. He tells his sons to behave well to bring a good reputation to the family. Fathers want their sons to be close to them, so they are able to check on their sons' status in the community. Education in Moru homes takes place in two important arenas. The first is known as "takudri," which is a fireplace for male members of the family where fathers, uncles, and sons gather and sit at dusk. "Takudri" is a fireplace where firewood is brought and fire is lit for the fathers and sons to sit around. It is an important place in Moru houses because it is around the fireplace of "takudri" where fire chat takes place. It is important for the young men to sit with fathers and elderly members of the family around the fireplace to listen to the fire chat and to discussions by elder members of the family. This is where most of family education takes place. Usually these kinds of informal fire chats by elderly people in Moru tribe are considered as best method of family education because they cover many topics.

The second most important place for receiving family education for daughters in Moru tribe is known as "Katidri." Katidri is another fireplace in Moru homes, where firewood is brought and fire lit for cooking food for the members of the family. In Moru tribe the mothers and daughters cook food for the family and the mothers lecture their daughters about women's activities in the society. The mother is responsible to show to her daughters the different kinds of housework such as cooking, gathering crops from the farm, weeding and grinding durra. Mothers are entrusted with the responsibility of bringing up girls in the best possible way. The mothers usually lecture in the evening at around dusk until nine o'clock at night. Men and women eat separately.

In Moru tradition, men and women usually do not eat in one place, because the manner in which the men eat is different than the manner in which women eat. Newly married wives are not permitted to see the mouths of their fathers- in law while eating; it is a kind of respect to their fathers in -law. Newly married men are not allowed to eat in front of the mother in-laws as this is considered rutde. Mothers inform their daughters to be careful when they reach puberty when they start to experience physical changes. The daughters are also advised by their mothers to select the best young men who are hard workers and are well known for cultivating large areas of land, having a good number of hives and are good hunters and whose homes are full of food. The mothers tell their daughters to base their choice of husband not on physical appearance but on the qualities mentioned above because a young men may be handsome but a lazy man in useless. Mothers advise the daughters to obey their husbands and their in-laws and to keep themselves to their husbands and to try to promote love for their husbands because by doing so, they will continue to live with their husbands in peace and harmony without any problems. Family education is essential for young people because it allows them to conduct themselves well in their own society.

Nowadays, there are Moru people who have lived outside the Moru tribe or outside the Sudan for a number of years. Their children do not have any knowledge about Moru traditional practices and Moru family education. It is now difficult for them to fit into Moru community because they have not familiarized themselves with Moru practices. So it is absolutely important to be familiar with traditional practices. It is necessary for parents to give their sons and daughters both types of education, formal education through schooling and informal education or family education because both of them help build a good society.

Sisimayo Faki Henry

Chapter I
The Attack
Nine-year-old Sisimayo Faki Henry gathered firewood with his older brother in the bush near his home in Mundri, a small city in southern Sudan. On most evenings he helped his brother prepare the campfire in the middle of the three houses in the family compound that housed his mother and 9 siblings. His father, an agriculture production expert with a degree from the University of Khartoum, had died two years earlier of natural causes at the age of 35. Until today, the day his father had died had been the worst day of his life. It was the first time he had seen someone close to him die as he stood by helplessly. Given the important role that fathers played in the lives of their sons in the Moru tribe, one of Sudan’s smaller tribes, Sisimayo was vaguely aware, even at this young age, that he would have to work harder than others to get ahead in life. His father would not be there to connect him to potential employers nor to help pay the substantial dowry that was given to the bride’s family by the family of the groom.
After gathering the wood, the brothers swept the area around the compound to rid it of places that could hide poisonous snakes or scorpions, always a danger in this part of Sudan. They lit the fire that burned each night from about 6 to 9 p.m. Living near the equator in the area of Sudan known as Western Equatoria, darkness fell on Mundri at nearly the same time throughout the year. As darkness approached, his family prayed to thank God for the food that had been prepared by Sisimayo’s mother and three older sisters. A deeply religious family, they prayed before each meal.
When the evening meal was finished, Sisimayo sat near the fire and listened as his mother told her nightly story to her children. Like other parents in Mundri, she told her children the myths and legends of the Moru tribe that had been passed down through numerous generations. Many of the stories were comparable to the fables that children in the West hear from their parents. There were good characters and evil villains, and in the end good conquered evil. The stories were used to convey values and expectations for behavior; they served the dual purposes of evening entertainment and education. Common themes were living in harmony and behaving honorably in your dealings with others. Among the Morus and other tribes of southern Sudan, the reputations of individuals and families were of paramount importance. A young man whose integrity was suspect or who came from a family with a questionable history, including a family history of mental illness or crime, would have a difficult time convincing another family that he would be a good husband for their daughter. Sisimayo was schooled in these matters by his mother who knew how to hold her children spellbound with her words; the lessons sounded more like adventure stories than Sunday school lesson but the point of each story was not missed by Sisimayo.
The evening campfire was also the place where the history of the family was learned. Sisimayo could recite the names and accomplishments of several generations of relatives. He also heard tales of family members who brought dishonor on the family. Although missionaries had brought literacy and Christianity to the Moru tribe during the British colonial period, oral history was still an important way in which children learned about their family, tribe, and traditions.
When the fire had burned down to a few red embers, the family ended the day
with their evening prayers. As was their tradition, they prayed that they would be protected during the night. No one suspected that this would be the last time they prayed together as a family. With prayers completed, they each made their way to their respective huts. Sisimayo and his older brother shared one hut, and his three older sisters shared another; his mother and the younger siblings slept together in the largest of the three buildings.
Shortly before dawn, the ground shook as artillery shells fell throughout Mundri. The civil war between Arab Muslim forces of the Khartoum government from the north and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) from the south reached Mundri in 1989. Government forces were launching a counter attack against the SPLA forces that had been encamped around Mundri for the past 3 or 4 months. Sisimayo had been aware of the presence of the SPLA because the school had closed when they arrived. Like most other child, Sisimayo was happy to have time off from school, but his mother had made him stay closer to home than usual during these months. Her nervous demeanor and the bits of conversation among the adults that he heard recently, had made him vaguely aware that they could be in danger.
As the artillery rounds exploded throughout the city, people left their homes and ran for the bush area that rimmed the city. Sisimayo’s family lived in a neighborhood close to the bush, and he and his brother ran for cover in the area where they had gathered firewood the day before. It was the rainy season and the area was thick with tall grasses growing between large trees. He held his brother’s hand as they ran past the homes of neighbors and friends that now were ablaze. As they ran through the smoke and fire, they heard the screams and cries of the wounded. Sisimayo saw people covered in blood and
pleading for help. Many others were already dead and bodies littered the area around their home where he had played soccer with friends the day before.
Although it seemed like an eternity, they reached the bush about five minutes after leaving home. Without shoes and clad only in the t-shirt and shorts that he wore to bed, Sisimayo was running harder than he had ever run in his life. By now his brother was a few paces ahead of him, and he followed his brother through the bush. Artillery shells were falling in the bush where people sought shelter as well as in the city. As he was running through the thick grasses and smoke, Sisimayo suddenly lost visual contact with his brother. Frightened and alone, he ran as fast as he could hoping to catch up to his brother. Unfortunately, he would never see his brother again.
He caught glimpses of other people running through the bush and ran in the same general direction. His lungs burned from the exertion as he ran mile after mile trying to distance himself from the fighting. By now tears were streaming down his face. As he struggled to catch his breath in an opening in the dense vegetation, he crossed paths with a family fleeing the city. Noticing that he was alone and crying, the man instructed Sisimayo to follow them. Relieved to be with someone older, Sisimayo promptly followed the man and his wife who were carrying their two small children.
The man, named James Tabani Jima, and his wife, Mary Dudu James, were in their 20s and lived in one of the many smaller village that surrounded Mundri. Sisimayo had never seen them before. James asked Sisimayo about his family and discovered that he had known his father. Now aware of this small connection between their families, Sisimayo pressed on with this family to the north of Mundri and gradually the sound of fighting in Mundri grew more distant. By now the family had joined with other people
fleeing Mundri and the villages around it, and this stream of people eventually happened upon SPLA soldiers who were gathering up survivors in the area. The soldiers tried to reassure the noncombatants that they were now in a safe area, and that the SPLA forces were engaging the government army which was advancing on Mundri from the east
Exhausted and frightened, Sisimayo sat quietly with the other refugees whose numbers grew by the minute. However, no members of his family showed up, and he did not recognize anyone as being from his neighborhood. He wondered if any of his family had survived, but he would not know the answer to that question for 14 years. He feared that no one else from his family had survived. It was just a few months before his 10th birthday, and he was on his own.

The Moru

The Moru nationality are the second largest ethnic group in Western Equatoria after the Azande and they consists of clans or sections namely Meza (the largest), Gbariba, Kediro, Agyi, Andri, Lakamadi, Nyamusa, Biti and Wira.

The Moru number about eighty to one hundred thousand [SRRC statistics] and are found in Mundri and Maridi Counties.

The main towns are Mundri, Amadi, Lui, Jambo, Maridi(shared), Kotobi and many other smaller settlements.

The Moru speak the Moru language which is Nilo-Saharan language and a common dialect especially in Mundri and Lui areas. Many members of this ethnicity are Christians.