Aweil

school house

Aweil Cathedral

Bishop's House

We learned that to establish a new dioceses for the Episcopal church of South Sudan the people must provide a cathedral, a house for the bishop and a car.  The cathedral and house can be quite modest, but still that seems quite a tall order for such an impoverished nation.

It turns out that Samaritan's Purse has helped build the new Aweil Cathedral.  Bishop Abraham Nhial, Trinity Seminary graduate 2011, is the new bishop.  William Deng had asked permission for us to stay on the Cathedral grounds.  We planned to put up our tent in one of the compound buildings.  Most buildings have open windows or ventilations gaps between walls and roof and unwanted four legged visitors make the zipped up tent very desirable.

After we had  greeted the cathedral staff and dropped our bags by the building designated for our night's repose, we walked back into town to do our shopping.  William knew we had to buy food - it was one thing to sleep in an empty building and quite another to expect food  from our hosts, so the custom was to bring the ingredients and allow the host to cook it for the whole group.

We walked to the Hotel South Sudan which was a rather grim series of small cabins around a large shaded open square.  The square provided a welcome bit of breeze and many locals came here for a drink or a business meeting.  The latrine was slightly nastier than the usual.  The service distinctly unenthusiastic.  When we asked what was for lunch, it was clear we were pushing our luck.  The rest of the team Fran and I were with two years ago spent a memorable night at this hotel when it cost close to $200 a night!!  The price has since dropped to a mere $100, but I would still prefer my tent over that hotel any time.  There were local monkeys scampering about to entertain us and the whitewashed truck made us smile.

We wandered off to find lunch elsewhere.  We ordered and were given a handful of different sized and colored wooden chips which we handed to the cashier and he, having taken our money, handed the chips to a waiter.  No need for written menus or ordering pads.  The sit-down part of the restaurant was a bit like a large tent with trestle tables.  They didn't think we'd fit in the crowd, so when our food arrived they marched us across the road to an abandoned lot with a small hut in it.  The hut had a table and chairs for special clients.  William's enthusiasm to let us try several dishes left us with far too much food.  We stopped a thin young lad and asked him to come and eat with us.  He was cautious, but his hunger won.  He did a magnificent job finishing off everything.

Mid afternoon we found the football field packed with spectators for a match.  Enterprising women had set up around the perimeter with improvised hearth and kettle and sold tea by the cup.

By the time we returned to the Cathedral compound the light was failing and I completely failed to recognize that Bishop Abraham was in the group.  He was another quiet man in a T shirt in the fading light.   I assumed he was one of the men we had been introduced to earlier and I merely couldn't recognize exactly who, and all the names were beginning to tumble together..."I should introduce myself, Bishop Abraham Nhial."  O dear, of course, we should have introduced ourselves.  To heap embarrassment upon us, Abraham invited us to eat with him and then to take his room and not put up our tent in the school house.  We tried to explain that we had thought he was out of town doing pastoral visits and we had set up meetings for the next day with Winrock to view an agricultural project in the area.

Bishop Abraham spoke movingly of his visits to the army men stationed on the border with the North.  He mentioned that they were very touched that he came to visit them and to encourage them when none of their government officials had.  He also spoke of their hunger to read the Bible and their awareness of their need of God and His comfort in such a volatile situation.  It was nice to have several packets of the Gospel of Luke to give the Bishop to pass on.  I hope to find a way to ship a box of Gideon New Testaments to his office in Juba.

We had a very pleasant evening together.  I was so glad that Bert was there to appreciate all that Abraham shared.  It is so clear that the new bishop has a great heart for the sheep in his fold.