Truckin' Along...

Happy June! This month holds big events for the Soboll's! The 6th: Green Card Interview... The 14th: Eddy's dad, Gunter, arrives in Portland... The 16th: Start of our 1 month+ roadtrip to WY, MN, WI and CO... The 25th: Jess turns a whopping 33... whew!!! And around the middle of the month we apply for our visas to Sudan- please pray for favor! And on the homefront, our YWAM base here in Salem, OR seems to be bursting at the seems- three schools are starting this week, bringing in over 75 new people- doubling are current numbers! It's been an exciting time of preparation and expansion... More people being trained for the nations!


We encourage you to take a look at the Sudan Tribune website to keep up to date on what's been happening in the international community regarding Sudan... sanctions by the US, denial of genocide by the Sudanese government, and China's questionable economic investments. We also finally sat down and watched "invisible Children"- an incredibly powerful and painful documentary about the child soldiers in Northern Uganda, most of whom are Sudanese refugees... abducted from their villages and forced to participate in the rebellion. We hope that by becoming more informed, we will all be moved to action!

On a more personal note... We hosted 2 YWAMers from Brazil for a few days, Eddy's former leader, Wellington Oliveira, and his co-worker Gustavo. Most consumer products are cheeper here, so we spent most days going to goodwill, garage sales and computer stores... I (Jess) had a pretty good time... Eddy tolerated it...! Memorial day turned into hiking at a state park- 12 miles and 10 waterfalls later, we were reminded of just how fortunate we are to live here! Our good friend and possible Sudan Photographer, Ryan, joined us for the romp.

And on a more spiritual level... "His power is made perfect in weakness"... What are our weaknesses and how do we respond when they are highlighted? Weaknesses aren't necessarily sins-- rather dis-abilities, inherited shortcomings/personality traits, etc. What are we doing to allow God to prevail in our lives during these times of frustration, struggle or resignation, when our weaknesses seam to be in control? As they say... Life is 1% what happens to us and 99% how we react to it. We're both definitely still learning and ruminating about this...!