Congo IV

Today after the first plenary session the representatives for the bible society took the platform and their leader introduced them. There are six representatives, three of whom are women. It was great to see the women who hold important administrative roles in the ministry, but they really got a buzz when it was stated that one of the women is an ordained minister.

After the Bible society session, we went for a walking tour of the mission property. We saw the first homes built on the property and then we came to the first high school ever built in Gemena. It consists of two buildings with a courtyard in between. They have open windows rows of benches and a blackboard. Tom says they have 40-60 students per room. They split the day in two, with one group of students attending in the morning until noon and the second group from 12:30 on. Now there are several schools in Gemena and each focuses on a specific area, such as carpentry. This school teaches teachers.

Elsewhere on the property is another building that is used as a preschool in the morning and elementary school in the afternoon. Then there is a dormitory for girls not far from this building.

A short walk from the area with the schools is the health clinic. When we arrived the waiting room was full of pregnant women. Wednesday is pre-natal day. The nurse gave us a tour of this shell of a building and it really is amazing what all they do there. They have 5 or 6 beds (without mattresses, because African’s use mats instead, and boards instead of springs) for those who need to stay and there happened to be a mother with her baby there. The baby was anemic and could use a blood transfusion but the hospital is out of resources so the nurse is taking care of it. Tom explained that it was probably Malaria and worms related. Malaria attacks the blood cells killing 2-5% with each infection and a person can be infected every three days. So the nurse will hydrate the baby, give anti-Malarial medicines and some iron to the baby and hopefully it will recover.

They also do a variety of tests at the center, including screening for HIV/AIDS. The nurse said the clinic has about a 7-9% positive rate for the tests (of those that consent to the test), which Tom said is the in the regional range of 5-10%. The center is responsible for immunizations within a certain distance and that includes just over 10,000 people. From his records he and is counterpart are doing a great job.

Then lunch time at President Selenga’s house (he is in his last year as the Congo Free Church president) and his favorite food—pizza! It was good pizza, too. But in the midst of the fun there was sadness as well. A woman who joined us for lunch works for the orphan’s project and part of her story came out. She became a believer about five years ago and her Muslim husband did not seem too concerned. She began to grow and wanted to be baptized, but waited in hopes he would meet Christ. He didn’t, so 18 months ago she was baptized and he was very angry. He has not spoken with her since, even though they were in the same house. About six weeks ago he came and took their children with him and will not let them have contact with her. Oh, how her heart breaks. Pray for her.

After lunch it was back to the conference where they had a session on AIDS including two testimonies of people HIV positive. They are working hard to hit it head on. We didn’t get much in the way of translation, but fortunately we get to meet with them tomorrow. The final session of the conference was quite powerful and the time ended with a big hug and smile from the pastor who received a Cougs hat from me. He was delighted.

Tonight I meet with the dean of the French speaking seminary to talk about prayer in Africa. It should be informative.

One of the team is sick today, please be praying for us and our health.

In His Grip.

Congo III

July 24, 2007

Mbote` (Lingala “hello”)

It’s been a few days since I’ve had time to write and there are a number of things that have occurred. So I will try to catch up a little.

On our flight north to Gemena we landed at the Equator in the old “milk-run” fashion. While there we had to disembark while the plane was fueled. So they dropped the stairs in the tail of the plane and we walked onto the tarmac and waited. We were greeted by vendors selling different fruits and the team leaders bought some for all of us to share. One reminded me of a sea anemone with bright colors and soft spikes. Under the skin was a grape like fruit whose seed reminded someone of a pistachio nut. What struck me as somewhat incongruous was that we were ½ mile from the equator, essentially in the jungle, with a D.C. 9 and someone’s cell phone ringing. Technology is ubiquitous it seems.

On arrival in Gemena we received a very warm welcome and program put on for our behalf. Then it was dark and dinner time. I must admit it is a little odd for it to be dark at 6:00 p.m. in July, but this is the equator.

The next day we went to “The Temple” (what they call the church building) for the 10:00 a.m. service. We arrived at 9:15 and it was already ½ full with the choir singing as a prelude (and boy can they sing!). It was a standing room only crowd somewhere around 1,200 people and by the time they finished with church and the opening of the pastors conference it was after 1:00 p.m. My tush does not have enough cush for that amount of sitting, but I survived. That afternoon several of us met with the president of the Congo Free Church, the new head of the French speaking seminary (for all Africa) and some bible institute leaders. It was good to hear their hearts and vision.

On Monday several of us spoke at the conference. In the afternoon I was on again with Kevin so I did not get to go visit a couple of kids the mission is working with who have lost their parents to AIDS. I was sorry to miss that but think I will get an opportunity later.

This afternoon I did get to visit the site were they are putting up buildings for housing widows and teenaged orphan girls. They have been able to purchase 120 acres and will build homes that will house two widows with several teen girls. They will also have gardens (a major source of food and income) and a skills center. Because the girls have no parents to teach them basic life skills (such as gardening or sewing) this will be important. The church has also realized the need to provide something for unwed teen mothers and so have decided to include them in this project. Across the road from the site is a large parcel that Habitat for Humanity was developing. But they are closing down the project, so Tom is talking with them about letting the church/mission put more homes on that property as well. They can build a home for about $3,000. In talking about how we might partner in something like this in the future one idea came up of having skilled people come to teach life skills (sewing, carpentry, gardening, etc…). An interesting thought.

The weather so far has been pretty decent. In Kinshasa it is the dry season and was fairly hot. The city was very dusty and dirty and could use a little rain to clean things up. Here in Gemena it is now the rainy season and so far it’s not been bad. I got caught last night when I needed to move from one building to another, but it has only rained at night so far. Today the temperatures must be mid-70’s and is very pleasant.

The food is very tasty, but if you are on the Adkins diet you might have trouble. In an illustration of the hospitality of the people, I had been concerned about the portions I take. In talking with Rachel Martin (who oversees the Orphans ministry) I found out that by asking for seconds you are not seen as greedy, but as honoring the cooks. Apparently there has been a sense that when Americans visit they have conveyed that the Congolese food is not very good and so don’t take much. It is so nice to have someone who understands the culture explain things to me. The people have so little, and in my concern for them, I could have offended them unknowingly. Speaking of food, can you imagine feeding lunch to 1,000 people at a conference for four days without even an oven? I have no idea how they do it with just open charcoal fires but they do.

We leave Thursday for the Tandala mission station and I don’t think there is any internet availability there. But when we return next Thursday to Gemena I will try to get another post out. The internet connection here is limited by an 11 Mb router and is dependent upon when the generator is running, not to mention how many people want on. So the next post may not be until I’m stateside again.

Regardless, please keep praying for us.

In His Grip.

Congo - II; Church

Church today was an experience. A big building with concrete floors, block walls (with openings for airflow) and a tin-roof. Seats a thousand, our style. But they had people standing in the back and outside where they could hear. The choir music is amazing, especially when the jimbe was played. They love choir robes even though it is hot (maybe 90 degrees and 80% humidity?). Some of the people who have come for the conference have WALKED 200 miles to be here and their generosity is amazing. They have so much to teach the church in the west. It reminds me of Paul taking the offering to Jerusalem and says that the Macedonians, out of their extreme poverty gave generously. As part of the service today they did a memorial for a former missionary who died last month. He was here for years and helped start the hospital and schools. They gave the entire offering to Tom and Kevin to deliver to his widow, to honor his memory. Incredible. Imagine a church in America giving up an entire offering, let alone one in the midst of such poverty.
-Nils

Congo I

July 20, 2007

After a long trip I’ve arrived in the DRC. The trip started on an interesting note. Literally. When I was checking my luggage in at Sea-Tac I had problems getting it sent straight through to Kinshasa. During the 20 minutes of delay one of the employees asked where I was headed and when I said Kinshasa his eyes lit up. He had grown up there. Before I left the counter (with my bags checked through) he had written me a note and given me a school to visit if possible. Small world.

The trip itself was fairly uneventful, at least for me, however it was getting old by the time 24 hours of traveling had rolled around and we were over North Africa. Finally, we began our descent into Kinshasa and as we did I found my excitement rising. I pondered that for a bit as it caught me off-guard to feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I almost felt elated. Then I had a new experience. Once we touched down people began to applaud. I half-expected the pilot to come out and take a bow! But then I found out today that an Air-bus had crashed in Brazil yesterday, so I wonder if the people knew about that and thus were relieved to have arrived safely.

When we arrived we were met by several men from the church here and they had the challenge of transporting bags for seventeen people, plus additional boxes of supplies, on top of getting all of us into vehicles. A task that they accomplished nicely. It was a bit cozy in the Nissan Pathfinder I rode in with four of us in the back seat, but we made it to where we are staying. Then to our pleasant surprise we found out that we would have hot showers and air conditioning in our rooms! With only a sheet for a bedcover it’s really no surprise that I woke up shivering at 5:00 a.m. this morning, but how ironic can it get? Tonight we will try the ceiling fan alone and see if that helps.

After breakfast this morning we waited for a vehicle to pick us up and take us on a tour of the churches in this city of ten million. But, as is the African way, it took “a little” longer for the bus to get here and we only got to two of the five churches. The first church, Meluku, was about a ninety minute drive out into the country. They are a church plant which is about four years old and they have grown to around 100 people. When we arrived we found perhaps 20 adults (and probably 30 children) who had been waiting since 8:00 a.m. for us, and we did not arrive until nearly 1:00 p.m. They do not have a building but have erected a rudimentary shelter using tree limbs for poles and attaching rope as a frame for the roof. They attached some tarps as the roof and put some benches underneath and that is where they gather.

They have planted Manioch (a.k.a. Casaba in South America) which they harvest for the root (kind of like potatoes) and the leaves from which they get a dish similar to spinach. The purpose is to sell the produce to raise money for ministry, but they have no machetes or other tools to cut the plants to propagate their crop (although that need may have been met today).

They did ask us to pray for them. When they began, an individual gave the church about 3 acres of land, but a government requirement here is that they do something with it within five years or they lose it. So they hope to erect a building and once they have a building started, the government will leave them alone. They have one year left to do this and they figure it will cost them $3,500 for an adequate building, of which they have saved $500. Once they get the building done they also hope to build a clinic and school along with a house for the pastor on the property. So do pray for them and that need. I took some video on my camera and hope to get that posted soon.

Tomorrow we fly north to Gemena, a city of 150,000 (estimated) without any services (such as power and water/sewer). It is here that the major pastors conference will take place.

Keep praying!

Nils

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