Month: January 2023

So Long, South Sudan!

On By Rachel ChadalavadaIn Life, South Sudan3 Comments

Today I leave South Sudan. I never thought I would pen down these words. Every international staff that comes here, knows this day will arrive. Now that it has arrived for me, I’m not entirely certain how to process it.

Traditional goodbye picture of Samaritan’s Purse South Sudan

It has been more than three and a half years of living in, and loving South Sudan. This nation, though devastatingly broken brought me incredible life, joy and laughter. I’ve made friendships that will last me a lifetime, and I get to call them family.

People often say to me, “How will you find love if you’re in a place like South Sudan?” Oh I wish they could see me now. I wish they could see that I did find love. I found love in the South Sudanese people, in the South Africans, Americans, Ugandans, Kenyans, Ethiopians, Nepalese, fellow Indians, Australians, Canadians, and Brits. I found love in the food distribution sites of Ajoung Thok and Yida. I found love at the rehabilitated borehole of Maiwut. I found love in the back of a shady canoe in the swamps of Mayendit. I found love in the crooked smile of a kid with a cleft lip and in the hen so lovingly offered by a beneficiary. I found love in the salute of our guard, in the “I know how Rachel likes her eggs” of our chef, in the “Kaif Rachel? Tamam?” of our housekeeping ladies. I found love in the life-giving hugs, numerous mugs of chai, coffee tastings, girls nights, therapy sessions, movie nights, cooking-up-a-storm nights, the many birthdays celebrations… the list can go on. I found love in friends that so quickly became family.

My time in South Sudan has been gut-wrenching, yet life-giving. I have grieved here and I have loved here. I have experienced loss and have experienced gain. I have seen beauty birth out of great pain – beauty from ashes. And in all of it, I know this with all my heart – God is in South Sudan. His hand of favor rests firmly upon this nation and upon its people.

This I know with all my heart, that God so loved South Sudan that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, will have eternal life (John 3:16).

To anyone who says, “Rachel, there’s so much war and conflict and corruption here. How can you say God’s favor is on South Sudan?” To you I say from Romans 8:

He who did not spare His only Son, but delivered Him over for us all, will He not with Him, give us all good things? (Vs. 32). Who then will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (Vs. 35). But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the C love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Vs. 37-39).

As I bid this beautiful nation adieu, my prayer for it is this: Our Father, who art in Heaven. Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done in South Sudan, as it is in Heaven. Amen.

I lift my eyes up, my help comes from the Lord.

This is the Way. Walk in it.

On By Rachel ChadalavadaIn Future, Life, WorshipLeave a comment

I was recently deboarding a plane, and there was a mama behind me, calling out directions, “Go! Go!” I looked around to see who she was talking to. And sure enough, about 2ft off the floor, was this little munchkin toddling about behind me. She was listening to the instruction her mama was giving her, and followed through as best as she could. The mama was struggling with her bags and didn’t have enough hands to hold the toddler. I decided to help, and offered my guiding hand to this little explorer. She clutched my hand, and we made our way out of the plane, and down the stairs to the buses. Mama and baby were to go to Nigeria, while I was on my way to South Sudan. “Come on, let’s go. This way!” mama called out to the little girl when it was time for us to part ways. They were headed to Abuja. I was not. Whether the little girl kicked and screamed, or smiled and laughed, THAT was the direction she had to go in – the one her mama was leading her in.

Over the past few months I been thinking a lot about direction, God’s leading, choices, and the impact of our choices on the prevailing of God’s will. My prayer has been this – Lord, if I have a choice in the direction my life is headed, where does, “the steps of a righteous man are ordered by God,” come into play? Are You directing my steps, or am I choosing them?

The year 2023 is going to be a year of change, of new beginnings. It’s going to be a fresh start, in a new location, serving a new people. It is as scary, as it is exciting. The choice I make, will determine whether I stay in South Sudan, or move to another country. What if it’s a location I don’t want to go to? How will I know that that choice is the right one?

I was texting a friend about the direction I think the Lord is leading me in. No sooner than I pressed ‘send,’ I received a call, and on the other side was my loving friend, asking me with genuine concern, “Rachel, what are you doing? Have you thought this through? You know you have a choice. God can use you just as well in a different direction.”  Choice. I do have a choice.

From the time I asked myself that life defining question, “What is it that I’m doing that has any eternal gain?” my choices have been a series of denying myself and following Christ. Quitting a well-paying and stable job to pursue higher education at a time when I should’ve been home, starting a family and laying down roots; staying in the U.S. even when it didn’t seem like another job was on the horizon, trusting that He will provide; returning to India and feeling like I didn’t have the opportunity to lay down roots even though I desperately wanted to; coming to a conflict-ridden place like South Sudan; staying in this warzone for over three years; and now, heading to another disaster-stricken location.

The choices I have made have definitely not been in my best interest – at least in the way you and I understand it. But for the kingdom of heaven, they have been pivotal. God doesn’t need me to accomplish His purposes. I know this. And yet He calls out, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” My unequivocal response, a thousand times, is this – “Here I am Lord, send me” (Isaiah 6:8).  

Yes, I have a choice. Therefore, I choose to say yes to any, and every opportunity He gives me to walk in obedience to Him, and in service to His people, wherever they may be – India, America, South Sudan, Timbuktu.

And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’ ~ Isaiah 30:21

In closing I have to say – I lift my eyes up, my help comes from the Lord