VICKI’S VENTURES -September 2007

My laptop died in Sudan and I just purchased a new one. Thank you for patiently waiting for news! I am in cold and wet Nairobi for a couple of weeks, so be assured I’d enjoy your warm greetings.

It is hard to believe that I have lived in Doro, South Sudan for 5 months now. This transition has had its challenges to adjust to village life but the blessings have been tremendous. I am now living in my tukul-house with mud and stick walls with a grass roof. The inside roof is lined with plastic to protect from scorpions. A cement floor and screened windows makes things more comfortable. It has been the rainy season for the last few months and there is not a lack of snakes. Just the other night I left my tukul at night because I heard cats fighting and when I returned there was a black snake over 2 feet long to welcome me by my door. I called for help and my co-worker Grace was the first one there to kill it before the watchman came. Mosquitoes are quite bad too now and we often are covered with bites. Cooking on a charcoal brazier is better now. Pray for protection from snakes and good health.

The army is still occupying the old SIM hospital but this is part of God’s timing. We are learning we’re not ready yet to run a busy clinic. Our team will grow next year and we will be better prepared for curative care. But we still need lab tech to join our team. This is necessary for us to better diagnose many diseases but especially TB. Pray for a lab technician to join our team.

We three nurses on site ( Amy Winger, Grace Womack, and I) cycle 2 miles to Boin where there is a small clinic to volunteer a couple mornings a week. This way at least we can contribute in a small way to the health needs of the community. We have found some malnourished children. Amy is a pediatric nurse and I had experience with malnourished children in Zambia so we make a good team. In Sudan goats’ milk is readily available so we don’t have to provide food supplements. We treated the children for worms and other diseases as well as gave nutritional advice to the families. The results were remarkable with amazing opportunities for relationship building and helping the families to trust God for healing of their children. Pray for wisdom as we plan for the future.

The community health worker training school will open January 28^th 2008 and I will be one of the teachers. Students will come from areas in Upper Nile, South Sudan where SIM is working. The course runs for 9 months and will be taught in English. Pray for selection of the students, we hope to start with 10 including a few women.

Meanwhile I am having fun learning Mabaan and building relationships in the community. Language learning is self directed but we have a language helper, Butros, an elderly church leader with a servant heart. This is supplemented with language notes from Betty Miller, a retired SIM missionary, who lived at Doro years ago. My progress is slow but I’m grateful for the encouragement from the Mabaan to learn their language. There have been opportunities for health and bible teaching in the Guelwin community where I go to church. We went to Piekaji, a community about 10 miles away; to do health education but there was not enough interest to continue. Pray that I will be God’s vessel to share His Love with the Mabaan people.

Thank you for your faithful support and prayers. For this next year, I’ll need $170/month increase to cover my Nairobi housing costs. The Lord has used many of you to help me in ministry for many years.

Vicki Beattie

Sudan Water Project

Rebuilding Southern Sudan: Safe Drinking Water

Project No. SD98021

September 2007 SIM Sudan Water Project

Dear

What joy your gift brought to our hearts. Your gift along with others from Australia, USA and the UK has allowed us to move ahead with plans to introduce simple water treatment systems in four villages in South Sudan. Thank you for choosing to partner with the Safe Drinking Water project.

Early this month we squeezed two water tanks and other supplies into an AIMAIR plane and flew to Thiangrial in Upper Nile State to begin the process of community discussion and preparation for installing their water treatment system. Whilst Thiangrial is on the banks of the White Nile, women collect water and use it untreated for all household needs including drinking. The black cotton clay soil precludes wells and the sediment and bacteria in the river water cause much sickness and death.

We were joined by 3 representatives of SIM Australia (SIMaid). We called a general meeting of the people of Thiangrial to introduce the treatment system and how it could help them purify the river water. I invited the women to a separate meeting the following day for teaching. And the men came for the same the next day. At these meetings and with the help of a microscope I explained how the water the women carry from the river has many germs and tiny creatures harmful to the health of their families. The women in particular were quick to look down the microscope and shocked by what they saw moving in the water. One asked, “What would we see in clean water?” After comparing the river water to clean bottle water they unanimously agreed Thiangrial needed the water treatment system. One even asked, “How can we clean our water now?” I could only reply by boiling the water or sunlight. I also explained how the moringa tree can be used to clean water and gave them seeds to plant.

In October Jimmy Cox, Daniel Yhor and I will return with the water pump, 3^rd tank, solar panels, and McQuire purification parts to set up the system on the riverbank. A solar powered submersible pump will pump water into the 1st tank for sedimentation overnight. A 2nd tank will receive the water and have the simple solar powered equipment needed to convert common salt to chlorine gas which will kill all germs. After some hours for the chlorine to disperse, the water will be pumped into the 3^rd tank as water ready to drink.

During the 23 years of civil war in South Sudan, Thiangrial was burned four times and their cattle stolen. The last raid was as recent as 2002. The peace accord between South and North Sudan signed in 2005 provide the South with a 6 year window of peace to rebuild. People are slowly returning to areas like Thiangrial, but it is a return to a very basic way of life. Like the Basic Education Learning Centre already in place at Thiangrial for men and women who never finished primary school, the provision of safe-clean drinking water will play a major role in rebuilding South Sudan.

Please join us in praying for God’s guidance and blessing on the establishment and evaluation of this first water purification system.

Barb Hartwig Project Manager