At the entrance of William Levi’s life work.

The name of William Levi’s local community is Beth Israel on the Nile, and it is located approx. 90 miles south of Juba, and an hour from the city of Nimule on the Ugandan border. For those of you who don’t know, Steve and I were introduced to William, a young South Sudanese refugee almost twenty years ago through a friend in Northern Florida. He came and stayed with us for a few days, during which he shared the plea of his people’s terrible suffering by the hands of the Muslim governmental troops who had pushed them off the land. More than two million had been killed, another five million were languishing in refugee camps in Northern Uganda and Kenya, as well as in North Sudan and Egypt. William grew up in the Nimule are, but he and the rest of the family were forced to flee from the war.

William with his two youngest children.

William escaped and found his way to the States, whereas the rest of his family ended up in the refugee camp in Uganda. He had just started a charity named Operation Nehemiah for the South Sudan with the purpose of restoring his people back to God and their homeland. Steve and I believed in William and his vision, and embraced his mission. We had just sold a piece of land and invested $60,00.00 from our profit into the Ugandan refugee camp to help finance a number of projects within the refugee camp… educational programs for the young, tools and seeds for growing food, a tractor, and several micro-businesses (like a brick-making machine and 12 sewing machines for the women to make clothes and sell them for a little money). Since then, we have partnered with William and his ministry in financing various projects.Fast forward a couple of decades.

William and Hanna in their campstyle home on the property.

In the last five to six years, this flourishing community keeps expanding as new families come and settle in the area. Most of the homes are mud-huts, but there is a bungalow style home for William’s brother, Pastor Michael, and there is another new brick home which was erected just a month ago. It is only a shell of concrete walls, yet, with no doors and windows but this is where William and his family live – camping-style – while they are here for a couple of months. They do it really well… no electricity, flush toilet, or other conveniences we are so used to.

Celebrating the new electric water pump.

What has made a huge difference is the newly installed electric deep well water pump that gives plenty crystal clear, clean water. It even has a couple of spigots that can be turned on in a couple of places in the yard. No more back-breaking labor for the women, some of whom were used to rise at 4:00 am to begin hand pumping at the shallow well, filling large containers that are carried on their heads… then walking 2-3 miles with a container in each hand and sometimes a baby tied on her back and one in front… my hat off to these strong, hard-working women!

Hannah with a new believer transformed by the Gospel.

This is a place of healing and restoration of families; there were many testimonies of physical and emotional healing and freedom from alcoholism, prostitution, and other hardships of life. I came on Saturday and stayed till Thursday, when one of the young men drove me back to Juba where I am now.

Sunday service at Beth Israel on the Nile.

On Sunday morning the church was full of happy content faces… men, women, and children worshiping together…wow… could they sing! I addressed the congregation… what a transformation to see them in person and compare some of their faces to pictures of people from the refugee camps a few years earlier!

Speaking to a radio audience reaching a million people.

In addition to the rebuilding of the community, there is a clinic on the property. A truckload of seeing glasses had just arrived from the States, so a nurse was in the process of preparing for eye exams for the public. William has raised funds to build a Christian FM radio station which reaches one million people all across into Uganda. It was a joy to be interviewed on the radio and address the people in the region who have become so dear to my heart!

The banana plantation.

Beth Israel on the Nile also owns a plantation where they harvest all kinds of fruits and vegetables: bananas, cassava, pineapple, guava, papaya, mangoes, figs, earth-nuts, coconuts, etc. With the upcoming rain season, the fields are being made ready for the planting of the vegetable garden. There is enough for everybody and food left over to sell in the market. In the main compound, chickens, geese, ducks, goats, and sheep are part of family life. I watched one of the women catch a chicken, kill it the kosher way, pluck it, and cook it with delicious spices and serve it to us for dinner. Who in America today has the privilege of having eating a gourmet, one hour old, free-range chicken with freshly picked vegetables – all organic?

Inspecting the papaya plantation.

One day we traveled through a portion of the plantation at the front of a vast approx. 10,000 square acres of land that the Levi family had been given back from the government from their ancestral land. William envisions thousands of South Sudanese families repatriate from the squalor of the capital, Juba, onto this fertile soil where they can live off the land. A new deep-well borehole of fresh, clean water has just been drilled with will supply sufficient water to a large portion of the area.

Measuring and fencing the new property on Gordon’s Mountain.

There are a lot of children and fine young people int he community – they are the hope for the future.