A few months ago Simon was asked to write up, for MAF, how a day shapes up for him in the Uganda program. He actually wrote up how a week can turn out. This story was to give supporters and MAF enthusiasts a clue as to what happens on the field. The following story was published in the Life and Work magazine of which I had hoped to copy and paste in our blog but was unsuccessful. For those who are on our blog notification list you will have received the Life and Work edition to your personal email account. However, for those not on our blog notification list I found Simon's first copy of it and have posted it for you.....enjoy the read!
Where do you sweat in 50°C temperatures without actually sweating whilst
easily drinking 6 litres a day? Sudan in the dry season! I just recently spent
a week with AidSudan (now Every Village) to install their satellite dishes for live radio
broadcasting.
Meeting Kerry, Kerrie-Jean and Wayne early Monday morning at MAF’s home
base in Kajjansi I first did a detailed pre-flight inspection before loading up
1050 kilos of hardware, tools, food stuff, medicines and bags. Every remaining
kilo was used up by fuel. Weighing just over 4 tons we took off into the calm
morning skies. A quick stop after 1.5 hours flight in Arua (northern Uganda) to
do immigration and refuel and the same again after 2.5 hours flight on the
other side of the border in Wau (South Sudan) brought us to Malualkan after
just another quick 30 minute hop. Steve who works with “Kush for Christ” was
waiting for us on arrival there.
A short ½ hour drive took us to their compound on which the radio mast
and studio are built. We immediately went to work running electricity out to
the dish and connecting the computer and the receiver. Our techie Wayne had
come all the way from Canada to assist AidSudan to get a signal lock on the
satellite to enable live streaming from Texas where AidSudan is headquartered. After
some trial and error things were looking good with the satellite locked on and
receiving a good signal but we still couldn’t get the music streaming. Kerry
phoned Canada to get advice from the company’s help desk and we soon found out
that despite being told that all settings were preset they were not the
settings that were required. So we continued fiddling with settings until we
were all hungrily summoned to dinner. It was a lively dinner catching up with
the Kush for Christ folks and having a laugh and a muck-around with the kids
who were soooo excited to have visitors. After dinner we returned to the site
to start cementing a 1.5 m pad for the dish which had up until now been sitting
on the sandy ground. Just before 10 pm we finally finished mixing and shoveling
cement and after a refreshing shower dropped into bed and a fitful sleep. In
the morning we bolted the sat dish to the pad, reconfigured the settings and when
we had done as much as we could do we repacked everything, loaded the car and
said good-bye to our wonderful hosts.
Before loading up the plane we enjoyed a quick lunch of goat stew and
chapati at the local market. A short flight of 40 minutes found us landing in Tonj.
There “In Deed and Truth” run a hospital and a radio transmitter is soon to
become part of that ministry. Just after we arrived at the hospital we
witnessed an intake of patients with bullet wounds from nearby cattle rustling.
Sadly this is all too common. As the beds were full the doctors were performing
surgery outside on the cement walks. We
then spent the rest of the day assembling the sat dish before heading off to
dinner and an early bed. The next day we did the same as in Malualkon – bolting
the sat dish to a stable base, locking on to the satellite and trying to get
the streamer to work (again without luck). Just before dinner we had everything
set up. At 5 am in the morning we visited the site because of high winds from a
near-by storm. Despite our fear of finding the sat dish gone everything was
where we’d installed it. After a few more hours rest we again were in the
ambulance driving out to the airstrip to load the plane.
We left Kerrie-Jean, a bunch of equipment, medicines and food stuff in
Tonj. Kerrie-Jean is a nurse and is currently spending a month helping out at
the hospital before returning with the next flight back to Uganda. From Tonj we
flew to Rumbek to load up on fuel before continuing to Nasir, the third radio
transmitter site. In Nasir we had to wait some time before two donkey carts
showed up to carry all our equipment. From the airstrip we walked about 45
minutes to the AidSudan compound where we set up our camp. From there it was
another half hour walk to the radio transmitter. We got there only to find that
the preparation work had been done but needed improved. I immediately got to
work bracing the base tower on which the sat dish was to stand and then
proceeded to bolt down the dish while Wayne ran all the cabling into the
generator house and transmitter room. Kerry started measuring out and marking
the boundary of the new compound which is now being built around the radio
station. Night came too soon and by torch light we finished the set-up and were
overjoyed when we even got the first live stream working. Sadly we were missing
a connector to hook everything up to the radio tower for broadcasting but that
will be a small thing to do on the next trip. Completely worn out we walked
back to our camp where our cold dinner of beans and rice was waiting. A quick
wash out of a 20 liter jerry can helped wash away a bit of the dirt and grime
before I crawled under my mosquito net and fell asleep on a mattress sitting on
16 radio receivers boxes we had flown up on a previous trip and are awaiting to
be distributed to the local population through the local church
In the morning the donkey cart showed up on time and before long we were
again sweating whilst loading the plane for the last time. But we were soon able
to cool down at our cruising altitude of 12500 feet for the 3.5 hour flight
back to Entebbe.
Once running these radios will transmit God’s Word and Biblical teaching
in the local Luer language into the heart of the community. Local broadcasting
is already happening in Malualkon and eternity will tell the story of how many
lives will be changed through this work and ministry.
Once again it’s been an amazing privilege to have a window of
opportunity to experience, see and help one of our many partners in their work
in Sudan. Despite all the problems and bad press coming from the newest country
on this planet - South Sudan – God is at
work transforming lives and communities.
Would you commit to pray for South Sudan and for MAF as we partner with
other organisations like AidSudan in order to tell the lost and the needy about
Christ?
Simon
MAF Pilot
(To find out more about the work of MAF across the developing world, please visit
www.maf-uk.org)
