From Africa

I received an update from my good buddy, Rob Krause, who is back in Africa serving for two years. Below are some highlights of his most recent email to me. It's long, but a good read.


"Hey Linda,

I am back in Uganda, from Sudan, after suffering quite a bit there. I found out I had a pretty high count of Typhoid in my blood. I had a chance to rest ... and am now fully rested and ready for some more adventures.

Our time started in a small, forgotten place, in this war torn region of the world, that has had no outside attention, even the enemy had not bothered to visit them their to destroy their lives like the neighboring areas. We set up a small make-shift clinic and began handing out meds. This seems quite admirable but in retrospect it seems we were quite overwhelmed and unready for this experience as we saw too many cases of illnesses that we had no way to even begin to help, at least with our humanly resources. We did have a God that has been called healer before and I believe is called healer there in Mayen Pajok, Southern Sudan. Breast cancer, rabid dog bites, open wounds, and other wild sicknesses were frequent cases we saw there and we had two prayer warriors in our group that spent the whole of our time touching and praying for these sick and broken people. I had the honor of joining them a couple time and very quickly became overwhelmed by our task to cry out for these people to our intermediary.

We spent only a couple days there before we had to move to another location. We arrived in time to help train some 40-50 pastors and church leaders. As this time of training came to an end we called the pastors forward to reward them with a simple tan paper with their name scratched there to honor them for their attending our seminar. We stood face to face with these men and women as they came and so gratefully took our piece of paper, I was okay for the first 15 leaders that came smiling. But as others came more solemnly taking our "reward" I was faced with the raw fact that these leaders are most likely going back to very harsh situations that will require them to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Gospel that we were helping/facilitating them to understand. This became too overwhelming for me and I soon found myself on my face in a corner trying my best to hide my emotions but to no avail. This is not my first time to weep before these brothers and sisters.

I went to Uganda... a staging place for me before going to Congo for a month. I was summoned to go to Rwanda first, to help a small 4 year old girl and her grandmother arrive safely in the States. This girl was slowly dying because of a hole in her bladder that was causing her urine to leak into her body. This girl was a victim of local soldiers that were not satisfied enough to just rape this little girl but then thought it necessary to put an end to her suffering by then shooting her in the place where they violated her. She was left for dead but I know there are many times when God was faced with similar circumstances. God allowed for this little dying girl and her grandmother to reach a near by town and provided the means for her to reach a place where Answering the Call visited. The Call came through to help this little girl and I was doing my part by helping her arrive safely at the airport in Europe from Africa.

This was quickly accomplished and I moved on to Congo where my duties started almost immediately. I had a rigorous preaching schedule here between the 8 churches we are connected to here in this small town. My main focus of being here in this area is to get these people excited about taking their Gospel to those around them that do not have an ounce of Good News as soldiers are raping, killing and looting from them and the international community is taking advantage of their very rich land. The people respond with excitement, but time will tell if they are truly excited about what God is doing. I am very enthusiastic about what will happen in this region of Africa because of their willingness to GO!

One thing that has stuck out in my mind during this short time I have spent here is that this task, this call, our duty is not for an individual like me but it is all about the body. It is not a one man team but a body that is unable to operate without the rest. I pray we are able to see our part in this international body that needs us in America to do our part and the Africans to do their part and then again the Asians to do their part in order for the hope and story of Christ's life, death and resurrection to reach the ears of all people."


After several transportation nightmares, Rob eventually returned to Sudan and spent a few days in Maridi, only 200 miles from the boarder of Sudan and Uganda. He wrote, "I have spent some time in this place before and got excited talking to the leaders of the church there about my time I will come back there in June to take part in some major evangelization projects in that whole area."

As Rob moved on to his next destination, he waited from 7 in the morning till 9 at night for a vehicle and finally boarded a small Suzuki 4x4 that moved surprisingly fast along the horribly bad roads.

"I was able to get some rest but found the car stopping around 3 AM as the driver was too tired to continue. My 5 traveling companions pulled out a foam pad and summoned me to join them to lay our heads down. I did not resist as I was very tired. I put my head on the mattress and wrapped myself around my only possession (my bag) and attempted not to think about the wild animals that were probably prowling around our lonely tree I was sleeping under with 5 people I did not know. We woke in the morning and washed our face with water from a nearby well and were on our way.

I was dropped off in town and pointed in the general direction of the place I was told to go to find a radio to confirm with the plane I was going to use to reach my final destination in Southern Sudan. I reached that place after wandering around this strange place for some time only to realize their radio had been stolen the week before. Now, this may seem ironic but looking back this was only starting the trend of how God was going to deal with me the rest of my time in Sudan.

I went to another place and found very high tech equipment but very rude people who did not allow me to radio the plane. I found a local that kindly helped me find another place that might have a radio I could use. I was not sure the plane was still going to come for me as I had not confirmed with them. Desperation set in and I was very panicked. After reaching this place in the middle of nowhere with little money and no means to contact the outside world and with no way to go back, you can kinda understand my predicament.

Needless to say I finally got in contact with the plane just in time for them to swoop down to pick me up, literally, they were about 20 minutes away from this place with no idea they were supposed to come down to pick me up. It worked out perfectly; imagine that, despite my worrying it worked out okay.

I reached my final destination and hastily went to greet my friends there. I picked a bicycle and rode about 2 miles to the church compound where I found my young friends playing soccer, they stopped everything and ran to greet me. They practically threw me off my bike to greet me, all of that sweating and worrying quickly faded away as these children were so welcoming.

They allowed me to join them in their game until I became too tired to continue. I sat down with them to somehow communicate through their broken English. They brought me some cold water which I quickly downed. I returned to my compound, had dinner and very satisfied, I went to bed.

I woke up the next morning wanting to die. I could not move or muster up the strength to even move my legs, literally. I could not find any strength to do anything other than lay in bed moaning. People came by to visit me and I could not even get up to greet them. I did not know what I was going to do as there were no planes that had plans to come into this place and there were not really adequate roads to get out of there. I laid in the bed praying and summoned those around me to pray.

I gained strength after only 3 days which was extraordinary. Now a problem came in my planning when I did not have a legitimate way out of this place. I had only planned my trip to the point I reached this place. I thought a plane was coming one day that would be able to take me but I was sorely disappointed when that plane came and went with no space for me.

I found myself a couple days later in the vehicle of the rebel group that had now taken over Southern Sudan. Do not be alarmed as these people are considered to be the present government of the South ... okay, so you can be alarmed.

I was sitting in between a second lieutenant and his driver driving about 40 miles an hour down this road ... no, it was more like a path. We had some 7 soldiers in the back of this pick-up which did not help me feel any more comfortable or at ease. During conversation to help my mind cope with the situation I laughingly said I could drive if the driver got tired. I was called to answer for my offer to drive and found myself driving 30 miles on these make shift roads with my military escort.

I have to say I enjoyed this time until I was asked to stop abruptly to allow the soldiers to shoot at lunch, a group of monkeys. Good enough the soldiers had found some beer along the way so they were not the best shot so we did not land lunch, shucks.

We left around 6 AM and arrived at their destination around 8 PM. Realizing I did not have a place to stay that night they let me sleep with them in their barracks for the night. We woke up in the morning and they helped me get to a check point where I could find a ride back to Maridi.

I found a big tractor trailer after only an hour and headed down south with some Kenyan business men. It was a very bumpy road but I found myself in decent company which helped the 9 hour ride go by quickly. Who am I kidding! It took forever! I took a motorcycle the rest of the 18 miles the truck was unable to pass.

While talking to my friends up North before leaving, I realized that I was going to be back up there in September to carry out some evangelistic probes into places where the Gospel has yet to be spoken.

If nothing else gets your blood pumping it is realizing that you will be the carrier of hope to a people that have heard nothing of hope ever before in their life. Anyone up for an adventure?! September is the time to come!!

I have learned much during this time, but above all, I have learned that our plans are not God's plans and His ways are higher than ours. I just pray that next time I might be on a similar wavelength that God is on so that I will not have to suffer quite so much, please God!

Once I got back to Uganda, I went to a clinic and found out that I had typhoid. Thank you God because you allowed me to reach a civilized place before revealing this sickness, because I was able to get proper medical attention. I am now strong and ready for more adventures. You see why it is so vital for me to be prayed for here in Africa. Hahaha I love you guys!

I know its long but I hope you enjoyed it, I am doing great now and have a busy next two months. I will keep you updated! Rob