Jeffery Deal. Author of The Mark, A Land At the Center of the World, Time Drive, Toccoa, and Torture by Cieng.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
The Mark: A Novel of Dinka in the Time of War. Available for a short time free in Kindle format
For four days starting July 12, the Kindle edition of The Mark: A Novel of Dinka in the Time of War will be offered by Amazon for free. Please share and forward this link.
Thanks.
Jeff Deal
The Mark: A Novel of Dinka in the Time of War. Available on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H8X877K
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Where are good places to donate money?
I am often asked about nonprofits that we can trust to manage donations well. I have attached links to three that deserve support.
Palmetto Medical Initiative. Providing quality medical care at facilities in Uganda, Nicaragua, and starting one in Burundi.
http://www.palmettomedical.org/donate/
Living Water Community Transformation. Working in Akot Sudan and likely to assume control of the abandoned Akot Medical Mission. They primarily manage a local school and an agricultural project and I know could use some help as they take on the medical needs of this very marginalized group.
http://livingwaterct.org/how-can-i-help/
Water Missions International. Their international headquarters is here in Charleston and they have ten country programs providing water treatment and sanitation to developing regions.
http://www.watermissions.org/
I know enough about all three of these organizations to recommend support.
Of course, I love Samaritan's Purse and some other larger organizations. But these tend to be very well funded and already well known. The three above are relatively hidden jewels.
Palmetto Medical Initiative. Providing quality medical care at facilities in Uganda, Nicaragua, and starting one in Burundi.
http://www.palmettomedical.org/donate/
Living Water Community Transformation. Working in Akot Sudan and likely to assume control of the abandoned Akot Medical Mission. They primarily manage a local school and an agricultural project and I know could use some help as they take on the medical needs of this very marginalized group.
http://livingwaterct.org/how-can-i-help/
Water Missions International. Their international headquarters is here in Charleston and they have ten country programs providing water treatment and sanitation to developing regions.
http://www.watermissions.org/
I know enough about all three of these organizations to recommend support.
Of course, I love Samaritan's Purse and some other larger organizations. But these tend to be very well funded and already well known. The three above are relatively hidden jewels.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Friday, May 23, 2014
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Notes on life and death in the Meningitis Belt of Africa. We will always remember Kuot.
Paul and Rose Kuot are amazing Sudanese Christians that love the people of Akot-- often taking in the destitute and abandoned. Their oldest son is named Kuot, which means, Sour Pumkin. There is nothing sour about them. The photo below is their home.
Hart gave Kuot a copy of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe once. He lit up and asked "Is this a book about God?" Hart explained that this was a book about how God might have been in a world like the one the author imagined. He read the book many times, often out loud to nearby children. Soon they all knew the story.
This area is in a region sometimes called "the Meningitis Belt of Africa," because of the cyclic epidemics that sweep through the area. I was in one and it was bad. When Kuot died suddenly of meningitis, we were devastated. I wrote a single email to around a dozen people describing the need for $35,000 in order to vaccinate the village and surrounding areas. Within weeks, we had exactly that much. When my two daughters came with me with a group of medical students we vaccinated around 9,000 people-- all in the midst of another regional war with soldiers and fighting all around. I have never been more proud of a group of young people in my life. The next time the epidemic swept the area there was a blank spot on the epidemiology maps around our village-- an amazing thing. One epidemiologist estimated that 127 children survived the next epidemic because of their work.
While there doing the vaccines, we held a memorial service for Kuot, hoping to encourage his parents that he did not die in vain and that neither we nor God had forgotten him. It was the hardest thing I ever did.
Rose wrote me the letter below.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Unedited description from a Dinka about Dinka beliefs regarding life after death.
Dead are not Dead :
According to the Dinka culture especially Agaar Dead people are considered alive after death.The spirit
of deceased person of the remained family is said to live after he or she had died.
They believe that there is world of the dead and the ghost will still visit the remain alive family.
At night the ghost may visit with the other group who died long ago.
If the deceased was unmarried young man or young lady.
He | she can get married to his | her wife .This can be done by one of the relative who is alive.
The father ,uncles and the rest of the relatives proposed a girl to be married to the ghost.
When they have all agreed for the girl,the whole clan visit the girl family and declared to the girl and
the parents that they come to marriage their girl for the ghost.
After the negotiation, the clan came back for collecting cows for marriage.
The girl will know very well that when she get married to that man who is a kinsman ,she will stay with
him like a widow.The children born to her are call for the dead person.
Even the children will call the man who born them their uncle or any kind of the relation he has with
the ghost.
The man can marriage his own wife again.The children which can be produce by the second lady will
be for the man because she is his wife.
According to the Dinka belief to the ghost, is that if the younger person to the ghost marriage his own
wife forgetting the ghost ,the ghost will kill the children.
The ghost will start attacking the family saying that the line of family order is cut.
Let,s me say if someone elder brother died and the younger brother ignored the deceased
person,the ghost will kill the children or cause some of the children to be abnormal.
According to their beliefs,a man can marriage for his dead brother, father,s uncle, father,s aunt ,
father,s sister, father,s brother ,mother,s brother.
A man can,t marriage for his sister,s son.
This is because they don,t want another clan to marriage for another clan.
But for the case of mother,s brother,they valued the son of a sister to the dead person to marry for
the uncle.
If you marry for the mother,s brother the children are belong to the clan of your
Mother,s brother.Even if the girls you have produced got married ,you will be given small portion just
like two or three cows.
And the whole dowry belong to the clan of your mother.
After the children grown up they joint their clan most especially boys.
END
According to the Dinka culture especially Agaar Dead people are considered alive after death.The spirit
of deceased person of the remained family is said to live after he or she had died.
They believe that there is world of the dead and the ghost will still visit the remain alive family.
At night the ghost may visit with the other group who died long ago.
If the deceased was unmarried young man or young lady.
He | she can get married to his | her wife .This can be done by one of the relative who is alive.
The father ,uncles and the rest of the relatives proposed a girl to be married to the ghost.
When they have all agreed for the girl,the whole clan visit the girl family and declared to the girl and
the parents that they come to marriage their girl for the ghost.
After the negotiation, the clan came back for collecting cows for marriage.
The girl will know very well that when she get married to that man who is a kinsman ,she will stay with
him like a widow.The children born to her are call for the dead person.
Even the children will call the man who born them their uncle or any kind of the relation he has with
the ghost.
The man can marriage his own wife again.The children which can be produce by the second lady will
be for the man because she is his wife.
According to the Dinka belief to the ghost, is that if the younger person to the ghost marriage his own
wife forgetting the ghost ,the ghost will kill the children.
The ghost will start attacking the family saying that the line of family order is cut.
Let,s me say if someone elder brother died and the younger brother ignored the deceased
person,the ghost will kill the children or cause some of the children to be abnormal.
According to their beliefs,a man can marriage for his dead brother, father,s uncle, father,s aunt ,
father,s sister, father,s brother ,mother,s brother.
A man can,t marriage for his sister,s son.
This is because they don,t want another clan to marriage for another clan.
But for the case of mother,s brother,they valued the son of a sister to the dead person to marry for
the uncle.
If you marry for the mother,s brother the children are belong to the clan of your
Mother,s brother.Even if the girls you have produced got married ,you will be given small portion just
like two or three cows.
And the whole dowry belong to the clan of your mother.
After the children grown up they joint their clan most especially boys.
END
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
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