Songs of New Sudan.

"It's amazing to me how much life and death can be held in one place. We visited the Lora Orphanage today. 94 children--14 more since the orphanage opened in April. Many apendages are missing in Lora, but the joy is not. One child had a leg blown off by a land mine (pretty common since there are still so many landmines in the South. They're in the process of demining.). This 12 year old boy was walking from Yei to Juba, which is a nine hour drive in itself (but on these dirt roads, 25 miles takes about 2 hours). Another boy was blessed by prostetic legs from an organization in States. Both of his legs (below the knee cap) were blown off by land mines. Seeing these kids smiling, singing and dacing brought and overwhelming amount of tears to my eyes. Even after everything they've been through, they refuse to let go of their hope.

Josaline, who i will adore in my heart forever, is the nurse at the Lora Orphanage. Her husband died of cholera last year. She is the mother of an 11 month old and a five year old, who both live in the orphanage with her. Josaline is constantly smiling, and her love for the 94 children she mothers over is hard not to notice. All the women (and men) who work at this orphanage have huge hearts for these children. The women are all widows. The widows are taking care of the orphans, and the orphans are taking care of the widows.

Even as you're driving down Juba Road, reminants of the war are left on the road side. There are many old tanks, pieces of blown up cars and machinery used for defense--but it never fails to see at least one child playing around these rusted obsticles.

We brought them clean water today--set up three systems for the 94 kids and 30 adutls. God is taking care of His people here in Sudan."
--Taken from my written journal, Day 7.

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." -James 1:27