Khartoum International Church

Dear Friends,

Last night I went with new friends to the International Church in Khartoum. The couple is international, he from New Zealand and she from Switzerland. They have three lovely children, it is so nice to be around kids again!

I am coming to see now that probably most major international cities have International Fellowships or Churches -- and this likely includes cities in the United States. I really like the international churches because they are truly international. There were people from Germany, India, Switzerland, New Zealand, the states, etc. there. And the very best part is that this church is not for passport holders only, the Sudanese people are welcome to attend, worship and participate. That is very important to me!

I will still get to some other churches in the area, the services are apparently in English in other churches as well. Perhaps I will ultimately strike a balance of the international community two Sundays a month, and another church the others. It remains to be seen. I need to have a better balance here in Khartoum than I did in Nanjing. In Nanjing the majority of my friends were Chinese and it was a detriment to not be able to feed the part of me that needed my own culture. I don't want to swing the other direction here and have only international friends, I want a balance. I am NOT Sudanese and I need to value and respect that, on the other hand I am not here to insulate myself from my host culture and I need to value and respect that as well.

Springboarding off from these thoughts is the issue of Scripture and culture. In Nanjing I discovered that I did not know if encouraging children is Scriptural or Western. This is something I must find out more about.

Today I learned the lay of the land a wee bit more. Patris came with the water machine men. They took the water machine away to hopefully fix it and then Patris and I walked to the Western Union office and a small grocer. While I am a distance from the college (especially in the heat here in Sudan mind you) at least things are laid out fairly well. Western Union and the grocer are straight ahead about two blocks from my front gate, one to the left and one to the right. The college is to the right, straight down from the grocer. And the pizza places are to the left. I could hardly believe it but the one pizza place where I have been was closed today, but to the rescue there was another one across the street! Who knew? Two pizza places across the street from each other!

After church last night the family took me with them to get take-out. I am in seventh heaven! I found hummous and falafel. When I asked Christine how to get hold of lentils and hummous and falafel she told me that while I can buy them ready made it is really cheap to make them myself. I can get the ingredients in the souk (marketplace). So tomorrow morning she is going to walk me to the souk and introduce me to merchants and help me find the stuff I need. Oh Lord, I am going to have to learn to cook! But it will probably be worth it to be able to eat this good Middle Eastern food!

So now I am waiting for my new bookcase to be delivered -- but I am also learning here in Sudan that the norm is for things NOT to happen when they were supposed to. And I have got the music from Mamma Mia! running through my brain -- it is about driving me crazy! I am probably going to have to watch the movie for the third time in a week just to try and get it out of my mind!
Blessings,
Debbie