Your money is no good here.

I (Lisa) have spent many of my growing up years riding bikes with my family. As a gift for graduating from high school my family got me an expensive road bike that was intended for me to use potentially for the rest of my life, so I could do bike tours and races.

About a week before my birthday my bike was stolen off my front porch here in Mt. Pleasant. I was shocked and heartbroken, but with one call to the police and another to my insurance agency, I had a check in the mail for about 700 dollars to buy a new bike.

When they sent the check I went first to craigs list to check and see if I could get something used that would be in my price range. On craigs list there was a bike, the same brand, style and color as mine for sale in Mt.Pleasant. David and I decided to go check it out.

We met with the guy right outside of the bike shop here in Mt.pleasant and it turned out that it wasnt' my bike, and he was selling it for almost as much as a new bike might cost at the bike store, so we explained our ackwardness to the guy from craigs list, and went into the bike shope to look and new bikes.

I was standing there looking at really expensives bikes and pouting and sighing because I really didn't think I could justify buying an 800 dollar bike when I know that I have a hard time paying my own bills, and I know people who have it worse than me.

David was trying to convince me that taking the money to take care of my immediate needs wasn't a problem, when the manager of the bike store came over to convince me otherwise.(those of you who don't know bike store managers... typically they are trying to sell their product... it isn't unusual that they might even try and sell you something you don't need... chough team active...)

Anyways, after hearing his little speach about how owning a bike is good for the environment, and how if I had a bike I'd be able to make a bigger impact on the... yada yada...

David looked at me and and said "it's not like you can take your bike to Sudan next summer, what good will it be there?"

The bike store owner was interested, "Sudan, what will you be doing in Sudan?"

We began to explain that we were going to Sudan to work with a Sudanese pastor, to learn from Him about how to love the least of these, and to feed the hungry where there really is hunger, and to clothe the naked where they don't have clothes, and to know what it really means to follow the red letters in our Bibles. We told him how far the 7oo dollars could go in Sudan, and how badly we just wanted to give it all away.

He looked at me and said, "Don't buy a bike, you have much better things to do with that money, in fact, before you go to Sudan come back here and I'm going to write you a 200 dollar check to take to the Sudanese people."

Praise God. His Kingdom is so exciting, and so inviting that even unbelieving bike shop managers who work on commission get caught up in talk about what God's kingdom coming here on earth.

A Journey in the Making

I just decided to create this blog to keep everyone updated on what is going on in the life of myself (David) and Lisa.

First let me give a brief introduction on the both of us. I did a lot of praying as to where I should be this summer, and despite every desire in me to be abroad (outside the U.S.), I felt that the Lord was telling me to stay in Mount Pleasant. I moved into a house and was the only renter from this house during the entire summer. It was a great time to bring my life back into God's will, which had gone off course last school year.

Long story short, we began dating this summer and have both had a desire to be in Africa. Now I had been to Tanzania before, so I am way excited to go back. We knew this summer that we would be going in the summer of 2009, but hadn't the slightest clue where we were headed to. After a lot of praying about it, both her and I feel entirely led to Sudan.

If anybody knows me, they know that I am not a stranger to Sudan. Yes, it's true that I've never been there before, but my grandfather David Bowman has been actively involved in the lives of countless Sudanese in the past 5 or so years. When I was just in high school, several Sudanese guys became a part of my family.

Several years ago, God called my grandfather to begin the contstruction of a hospital in southern Sudan (in the area called 'Werkok'). The hopital is going to be dedicated this spring!!! My family is actually going to visit the hospital. I was invited to go, but I knew that I never want to go to Africa again on such a short term. So instead of going for two weeks, Lisa and I will be headed there in May and stay for the months of June and July.

As to what we will be doing, here is what we know:
We will be working with a local pastor named Rev. Stephen Mathiang. He lives in the town of Bor. He is A MAN OF GOD and has worked side-by-side with my grandfather in the process of the hospital. We will be living with him and will be doing the following:
*First and foremost, being there FOR HIM and doing anything he needs!
*We also look forward to being discipled by him
*There is also a great work of teaching the Gospel
*The possible construction of a soccer field for the children
*Working on construction of the physical church
*Learning how to love God's people better


In the next few days, I will be formulating a financial budget for this trip, taking into consideration everything else needed and will be updating on the progressive plans of this trip.

Here is the address of the organization that we are going with, if anyone is interested:

***http://www.pccsudan.org/***

Having no confidence in the flesh,

David