Whoa! What a week! We have been very, very busy with training the staff in Child Protection, Rights, and Responsibilities. The training went very well and there was good participation. This is an entirely new concept in South Sudan, so, my fear was that it would not be understood or might even be rejected. But, they proved me wrong and were very receptive to the teaching. Ruth Radley, a missionary from England and a children's ministry specialist, facilitated the teaching. She is quite creative and we played games to illustrate a point. We also invited two other orphanages to this training and each one sent two representatives. They were very pleased with the teaching and we have decided that we want much more of this kind of training. Ruth has agreed to work more with us next year.
While training was going on, there were workers in the kitchen building the stove. It is called a Rocket Stove and is built of brick then covered with mud. It uses less charcoal or firewood and is very efficient. The ladies here generally cook over a fire outside at ground level. They bend over the fire constantly and have to keep adding fuel. This stove is elevated so they will not have to bend so much. Once the stove is finished it must dry for four days. Then the builder will come and teach the ladies to use it. At that time, the cooks will prepare a meal for us and we will eat together. It will cook differently than what they are accustomed to; so, by having the builder stay with them during the first use, it will be successful and they will continue to use it. But, if just left without any instruction, the food would burn, they would get frustrated, and would not use the stove. My hope is that one day, they will want to learn to bake bread and we can build an oven using the same principles.
I am attaching a couple more pictures of children who will be coming to live at GRACE. We are still looking at September 9 to receive the children, so please pray that we can get everything done this week. I also included a group picture of the staff (except for the young girl who is a family member of Justus). I think we have a good staff and I look forward to getting to know them better and learning with them.
Thanks to each of you for your part in making this happen. May God bless you as you have blessed me.
GRACE, peace, and joy,
Libby
