Deep South Sudan

Since the beginning of these erratic dispatches I’ve tried to maintain one simple rule:  Don’t ask for money.  This collection of messages and emotions and thoughts was never meant to act as a way to raise funds for Cornerstone.  Yes, I’m naïve enough to imagine that writing – under surly circumstances and in peculiar climates – is an art form that can live and breathe without the aid or aim of capital.  If in the course of posting some of the details of my life I’ve happened to stir up in someone the desire to give – well, that’s splendid!  But fundraising was never my thing, because the thing – the crucial impetus, the thrust, the wildness – at the center of these sporadic letters has always been my need to express what’s happening in and around me so as to avoid going insane.*  Until today.

Today’s the day where my unwritten regulation is being thrown out the window.  We have ourselves a serious problem here at Cornerstone, which is the fact that our scholarship program has received less than a fourth of the yearly amount that’s required to keep it going.  The program sponsors high school kids within our home as well as deserving kids whom we’ve identified in the Nimule community.  It’s also the fund we’re using to send Awi, the young man with the guitar in the photo, to a music school in Kampala where he’s being given the chance to develop his talents in various instruments while being exposed to the likes of Bach and Mozart.  And, as a side note, if there’s a Sudanese equivalent for shredding on the guitar then Awi is learning to do just that.

The scholarship program is meant to provide for all the educational needs of Janet, the tall girl with the electric smile in the middle of the group.  It’s the fund that ought to get her through four years at a roughhewn assortment of classrooms near the banks of the Nile River.  And it’s the fund we’re praying will still be available when she graduates and jumps to the next stage of her life, which will involve pursuing a nursing degree (or so she dreams as she scans the future from the vantage point of this variable, yet hopeful moment in her late teens).  It’s the fund that ought to open the door for Alex – the Italian soccer fan making the funny face – to attend a university and eventually receive a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications.  (I mentioned a little about Alex in my last message, and we recently learned that he won’t be receiving a government scholarship due to a technicality on his application form.)

All the kids you see in the photo and a dozen more are depending on this scholarship program to keep their dreams of education alive.  And, to put it bluntly, if we don’t receive more support very soon then we’re going to have no other choice but to start trying to figure out who gets to stay in school and who doesn’t.

A high school education costs $150 each year and this figure pays for the student’s school fees, school uniform, and learning materials.   A university or other post-secondary institution (such as a vocational school) can cost anywhere between $500 and $2,000 each year.  To ensure that all of our kids will be able to finish this calendar year we need approximately $6,000.  That’s the nature of the beast and I would like to ask you to play a part in taming it.

You can send your support to the following address:  FULAA, Care of Cornerstone EFC, 3901 Gallows Rd, Annandale, VA 22003.

Please write “Ministry” in the memo line of your check and attach a note specifying that you would like the donation to go to the scholarship fund.  If a check is just too analog for you then please stop by www.fulaalifeline.org where you can make a contribution via Pay Pal.

Thanks for tuning in and have a wonderful day!

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*That and craftily converting all of you to Christianity.