Our Newest Venture- Friday Market Beads

Suzy returned the to the U.S. last week to help launch a business we have started called Friday Market Beads. Shortly after we moved to Uganda, Suzy began going to a local craft market held each Friday along the railroad tracks on the edge of downtown Kampala. It became a weekly ritual for her, and she was able to build strong relationships with the women in the market. Last summer when we were back in the U.S. on furlough, we brought a lot of jewelry from the market to sell. The products were well-received by our friends in the U.S., and the sales helped us support ourselves during our furlough. We also saw the huge benefits our purchases had on the lives of women here. They told us how grateful they were to be able to better provide for their families.

So we started praying about how we could provide these women with sustainable business- a regular income that they could count on month after month to pay rent, buy food, and pay for healthcare and education. Suzy and I spent countless hours learning about the lives of these women and the details of their trade. There were two things we kept hearing over and over. One was that these women felt that they needed a larger and broader market for their products. The second was that they never knew from week to week how they would fare at the market. Some Fridays they might do really, really well, but the next sell virtually nothing. This uncertainty was not only frustrating for them, but paralyzing as well. How can you plan for your future if you can't be sure that you can feed your family tomorrow? These women felt completely powerless to do anything to change their circumstances as they were completely at the whim of the ebbs of flows of the traffic at the market. When we would visit women in Kampala's slums, we were always struck by the material poverty they lived in. But the more time we spent with them, the more we began to see poverty in a whole different light. As Westerners, we had been programmed to see the material affects of poverty, but we learned that it went much, much deeper than that. Poverty is far more than an absence material things that make our lives more comfortable, safe, and easy. The real tragedy of poverty is the utter sense of hopelessness and powerlessness that it breeds in its victims. This is what broke our hearts and what we became determined to fight against.

It became clear to us that the best way to bring about sustainability and empowerment for the women God has brought into our lives is to give them an expanded market for their products. We created Friday Market Beads to serve as a bridge from their small craft market to a much larger market in the U.S., a market that more greatly appreciates the unique works of art these women create and one that also has compassion for women and children who live in poverty. 

We'd like to ask for your help. First, help us spread the word about Friday Market Beads. We have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/fridaymarketbeads. Please go there and “Like” our page. 

We also desperately need people to help us sell our products. One of the best ways to do this is to host a jewelry party at your home. We pay a generous commission on all sales, and we hope that these parties can provide meaningful income for people in the U.S. as well.

We also have Fund-raising Packs available. If you or someone you know is trying to raise funds for a mission trip or other cause, please let us know. Each Fund-raising Pack will help you raise $75 to $125 for your cause.

Finally, we need your prayers. Please pray that God will continue to lead and direct us in this endeavor and for His blessings to be on this business and the women we are working with. Thanks for your support of us and Friday Market Beads!

Written 30 March, 2012- We just sent home Aid Sudan's first team of 2012. They were an amazing group; I've never felt so encouraged after spending time with a mission team. While in South Sudan the team visited each of Aid Sudan's work sites including our radio tower and building projects in Nasir, our radio tower in Malualkon, and our newest tower in Tonj. They also visited a possible new site for future work in a village called Akot. We pray that each team member will quickly adjust back to life in the U.S. and for discernment as the team members process all they saw this past week in South Sudan and determine God's call for each of them in being involved with South Sudan in the future.

Meet Emily

Written 20 March, 2012- It’s been nice to see that the media is beginning to talk more and more about the atrocities committed by Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army. Suzy has gotten to know a few ladies over the last year or so who have been personally affected by the evil acts of the LRA. She and a friend went to visit one of them last weekend. Emily is a young woman that Suzy has gotten to know well at the weekly craft market, and Suzy wanted to explore possibilities for Emily to make some jewelry to be sold in the U.S. through Friday Market Beads. Their journey started with a series of taxi rides (taxis here are vans that carry up to 14 people) to an area east of Kampala called Kireka. Emily was waiting there for them and instructed them to get on a boda boda (motorcycle) for the rest of the trip to the place where Emily lives, a slum area called Acholi Quarters. They made their way down narrow alleys filled with dirt and sludge and across small wooden bridges until they finally reached Acholi Quarters. The Acholi are known to be very clean people and this area was proof of that. It was the cleanest slum Suzy had ever seen. Here is Emily’s story. Emily is 26 years old and lives with her husband Richard and two-year-old son Michael in a simple two-room block house. They are both born again Christians. Each has a college degree from the top two universities in Uganda. Emily is an Acholi from northern Uganda. She was displaced from her village near Gulu during the civil war there in 1998. She fled to a rehab center near Gulu and later came to Kampala with her parents. Her dad has since passed away; her mom is HIV positive.

Emily is one of eight children. Four of her sisters were abducted and killed by the LRA. They were taken into the bush and beaten severely. They were too weary to go with the others to the rehab center and had to be left behind where they died. Emily witnessed all of this first hand as a twelve-year-old girl. She says that God showed them love and kindness at the rehab center. They were assisted by an NGO and moved to another place near Gulu and then on to Kampala. The family traveled on a truck carrying fruit from Gulu to Kampala, and her mother was carrying a young baby. When the family arrived in Kampala work was difficult to find. The family members started working in a near-by quarry using a hammer to break rocks. Now Emily and her sisters make jewelry from paper beads and try to sell them in the local market. She says that the market for the beads is very small, and it is difficult to make a living from that alone. At times when the family needs money for food, Emily goes back to the quarry to break rocks. She is able to earn 150 shillings (about 6 cents) for filling one 20-liter jerrican. On a good day she can fill 30 jerricans and make 4500 shillings (less than $2). Emily says she trusts in God. He has helped her survive, and He alone gives her hope. She desperately wants a market for the handicrafts she makes so she can help to support her family. And this is where Suzy and Friday Market Beads come in. We want to help Emily find a market for her beautiful products in the U.S. Over the next few weeks we will be working with Emily to develop a product line and then to produce a whole lot of jewelry. Please pray for Emily and her family and pray that her products are well-received by people in the U.S. To learn more about supporting Emily by buying her products, please email us at rliving1@juno.com or check out our Friday Market Beads page on Facebook.

Hand-Held Radios Distributed in Nasir County

It was a blazing hot morning in Nasir. Fourteen pastors from several villages had come to our Aid Sudan compound to pick up hand-held solar-powered radios that they could pass out to their church members and fellow villagers. A few of them had walked for two days to get there. Our Nasir staff set up some plastic chairs and a table under one of the few trees in the area. As the sun rose, our shaded area became smaller and smaller. I welcomed the pastors and told them about our radio tower and the broadcasts that occur each evening. All of them were already familiar with them, and I was glad to know I was speaking to regular listeners of Good News Radio! I explained how these radios would be a great tool to enhance their ministries. The tower broadcasts Bible stories that allow the people to hear the Word of God in their own language. This gives the pastors opportunities to discuss God’s Word with their villagers and to help them apply it to their lives. The radios are fix-tuned to the frequency of our tower, and they are solar-powered so they are easy to keep charged and ready.


Then it was time for the really fun part. In order for these radios to be used, some assembly is required. In all I was about to pass out 2,000 radios, so I needed to teach these guys how to put them together. For an American, this would be a breeze, but for Sudanese who have no experience with electronics, it was going to be a bit challenging. I showed them each of the parts of the radio- the radio itself, the batteries, and the solar panel. Then I demonstrated how to attach the solar panel, how to open the battery compartment, and how to properly insert the batteries. Then we gave each pastor a radio, two batteries, and a solar panel and went through the instructions again allowing them to practice. Not surprisingly, the hardest part was the batteries. They had to slide open a door and then make sure that one was put in with the positive side up and then the second one with the negative side up. It was quite funny watching them struggle with this, but most of them picked it up fairly quickly.


It was approaching mid-day, and we needed to get on our plane and head back to Uganda. I made sure our compound manager and other staff knew how to help with any issues that might come up and left them with instructions about what information to get from the pastors so that we can track the radios. Then we grabbed our bags and supplies headed back to the plane.

It’s great to know that as I write this, 2000 hand-held radios are making their way into the hands of thousands of people around Nasir town. Please pray that what they hear will transform their lives and bring hope to their families and villages.

Streaming Operational in Nasir

Thursday evening, 8 March, I was in Nasir with my colleague Kerry Henderson. One of our primary goals during our short stay was to get our satellite stream established. Although we have been broadcasting in Nasir for several months now, we have been doing so using CDs burned by our office here in Kampala. Although the CDs were a great temporary solution that allowed us to be on the air in Nasir since last fall, they had several limitations. Establishing the stream from Houston would greatly improve the quality of our programming and allow us to add new programming such as community announcements and national and international news. A few weeks earlier, Kerry had traveled to Nasir with a satellite expert, and they still were unable to get the stream established. So we knew we had a difficult task in front of us.


A beautiful full moon was also rising as we made the one-mile trek to the tower. Our staff in Nasir started the programming at 7 PM using the CD player, and we listened in on a hand-held radio. We decided to unhook everything and connect the equipment receiving the stream. Nothing but static. We knew the stream was being received by the transmitter; it just wasn’t sending it out from the tower. Not sure what the problem could be, we reconnected the CD player. But now it wouldn’t work either! This was extremely frustrating. Not only had we failed to get the stream going, but we had messed up the CD player as well. Now there would be no broadcasting unless we could figure out the problem. Discouraged, we shut down the whole system and turned off the generator. We got out the sat phone and made a few calls to relay the bad news. Then we decided to turn everything back on. When we did, the CD player worked! This was a good sign; at least we could continue broadcasting. Then it hit me- we needed to shut down the system, connect the streaming equipment and THEN start everything up again.


10 minutes later our stream was going out all over Nasir County! At that time, the stream coming from Houston was in Dinka. The people in Nasir are Nuer and speak a different language. As we celebrated, our compound manager looked confused. With his hand-held radio close to his ear, he said questioningly, “This is Dinka language.” I said, “Yes, I know, but tomorrow it will be Nuer!”


Praise the Lord that our Nasir tower is now fully functioning after over two years of struggle. Please pray that many people will be transformed as they listen to Good News Radio in Nasir!

Ethiopian Food!

Nasir is only a few miles from the Ethiopian border, so it should be no surprise that the few restaurants in town serve Ethiopian food. My favorite is in the central market next to a photo studio. A huge poster of Avril Lavigne and the smiling faces of many locals grace the door adjacent to the restaurant. The dining area is dimly lit and has a few plastic tables and chairs. The walls and ceiling are made from large tarps, and it’s absolutely stifling inside. Within a minute of taking your seat, you can feel the sweat pouring off you. There are no menus, but you do get to choose between red wat and white wat. Both are stews made with goat meat; the red is spicy while the white is mild. We made our selections (I always go with the red wat) and we each ordered a cold Coke (which hits the spot on a 112 degree day!). A few minutes later our food appeared on huge metal plates. Spongy flat bread called injera covered each plate and there was a small bowl of stew on top. The Ethiopian lady serving us poured the stew onto the injera. We prayed and dug in. There are no utensils so it’s a bit messy as you tear off pieces of injera and then use it to scoop up the goat meat. To make things even trickier, you are only supposed to use your right hand since the left hand is considered unclean. You also have to be wary of bones. When you find one you spit it out and put it on the table. It might not sound pleasant to some, but all in all, it’s one of my favorite meals and one I always look forward to when I travel to Nasir. I never leave disappointed!

A Day in the Life of a Logistics Coordinator

Next week Aid Sudan is building a radio tower in Tonj, South Sudan. I am managing the project and all of the logistics for it. Everything was going along well until two days ago. I had booked the construction team of five on a commercial flight from Nairobi to Rumbek, South Sudan. In addition to the five guys, we also had over 100 kg of cargo. As I was giving the details of the cargo to carrier, they informed me that they could not carry one very important tool called a hangman pulley. This tool is a long pipe with hooks that breaks down into two 3 meter long pieces. Certain restrictions prevented the airline from carrying these pieces in the cabin and they would not fit in the baggage area. So I began exploring other options with some of the charter organizations, praying that something might turn up. Many times they have flights that have space available on flights that have been chartered by other organizations to carry people and cargo. As of this morning, I had not been able to turn up any possibilities. I was about to give up and charter a full plane. The problem with this was that it would cost $7000 instead of $3000 and put me way over-budget for this part of the project. I hated to spend an extra four grand just because of two pieces of pipe, but it seemed I had no choice. I had prayed it through and contacted everyone I could think of, and God hadn’t opened any doors. Then late this afternoon I got a call from AIM Air. They would be able to carry the hangman pulley to Tonj! But to make things even better, the plane would also be going up to Malualkon where I have another 100 kg of cargo that I have been trying to get to Tonj for some time. So this plane can also take my cargo from there to Tonj, which will save money and complications later. I love it when God not only answers a prayer, but also takes care of another problem that you weren’t even asking about!