I'm here!

Hello from the Lopit hills!
I sent along by the mail some blogs to Ginger (one of my faithful stateside sidekicks), but I imagine she won’t get those for a few weeks yet. So forgive me that this is out of order and perhaps redundant.
I’m safely here in the Sudan and really loving it. Even now, it feels like home. We spent ten days living in tents on Stephan’s compound and learning how to learn a language. I twas a wonderful time of fellowship with my new team and easing our way into life here. There are so many cultural things to consider—not just with the Lopit people, but within our team, as we represent five countries—USA, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa and Australia.
The people here are beautiful. I think I wrote about them some in the letters I sent home, but they really are striking. Their skin is a beautiful black, their cheekbones defined and their smiles, spilling over with love. There are SO many children here—little ones carrying littiler ones!
At church last Sunday, the chief of the area—Victor—spoke to us about working with the children, asking us to help open their eyes to God an the Gospel. As we’ve talked among ourselves, my teammates and I have realized that some of us do feel a burden for the children and working with the church to bring them up in the Gospel. It’s nice to see how God has prepared us specificaclly for this area in so many ways. Though we have no formal ministry for six months—language learning is our ministry now—we will eventually have to decide as a team where we will focus. So please pray for discernment in our future place in this town—that we would keep our eyes open to the needs and requests of the people, just like this one from the chief.