Two Finishes

This morning I walked in the annual 5K Run/Walk Kima Mbangu (Run Fast). This was my third year participating alongside of fellow MAF wives Sandy Franci and Valerie Hochstetler. We also had a pilot running, and four MK's volunteering, so MAF was very well represented.

This was a fundraiser to benefit women in Congo, one of the most challenging and statistically unsafe places in the world to be a female. My daughter, Emily, went with me and was a volunteer helper.

At the halfway mark she brought me water and cheered me on for a bit.

Not long after we began the walk, I got a toe cramp. There are verses in Scripture that talk about God's people being different parts of the same body, and if you never thought being just a little toe was very noteworthy, you have never tried to walk or jog with a toe cramp. At that time, my little toe was getting ALL of the attention. A real runner would push through and ignore the pain. I am not a real runner. I started drinking water too late and by the time I reached the end I had a headache that made me forget all about my toe. But, I did get to the end!

Another finish for me this week was the quilt top I have been working on for Daniel.



I had help reaching this finish also. Elliot. As you can see he is doing better and has gained back most of the weight he lost when he was ill. Why do cats think know that whenever a person places anything on the floor, it is expressly for them to lie upon?

I wanted you to see the "texture" that the print on the black fabric lends to the quilt.












Sorry about the poor photo. I'm a quilter, not a photographer. And my kids are just kids, not quilt racks. This will go into storage, along with my freshly cleaned sewing machine, until we return from furlough.

*** Totally off subject, but our newsletter has just gone to print. If you don't receive it and would like to, you can let us know by sending us an email. Our address is in the sidebar to the right.***

Home Alone and New Linkies

David (bottom) at work here in Kinshasa. Photo by David Francis

David has been in Lubumbashi for the last few days, doing a mini-inspection on a plane there. Even though we have been here two and a half years, this was my first time doing the single mom thing in Congo. He will be coming home late tonight and I will be very glad to see him. Power has been terrible, about two hours a day. Internet has been terrible. Someone left a toilet running over night so for part of the time water was an issue. And the cat has been sick. In fact I thought for a couple of days that Elliot was going to die.

The vet came and without examining my cat or taking any samples announced that it was worms. Elliot was lethargic, refusing to eat or drink, and couldn't even meow. I told him I didn't think it was worms because in the past when he had worms he ate an insane amount and his belly swelled and this time he was not eating at all. I also told him that we suspected he had eaten something poisonous or that he had gotten a kidney infection since he was also incontinent. The vet put him on antibiotics.

That was Monday. Yesterday Elliot got his meow back, although it sounds pathetic. And he is a little more active, meaning he will follow me out of the room now or jump up on my lap. He is drinking water and eating again but can't keep anything down so he is still losing weight. I am not sure what else to do for him.

Bug Freakout (Photo credit: betsystreeter)

Furlough is rapidly approaching and the reality of how much we still have to do in preparation is starting to make me feel a little panicky.








I have written a few times in the past about the plight of women in this country and about ministries here that are specifically for women. This week, Save the Children published a report of the world's best and worst places to be mothers, and Congo made the list. Click HERE to see what position DRC has in the list of 176 countries. Pray for the women and girls of Congo.

I added a few updates to our Media page. There are new articles, blog posts and videos for you to check out, including one about the importance and the cost of aircraft maintenance, which is what David does here.

**UPDATE Elliot is improving! He's super skinny but now that he is eating and holding his food down he should plump back up soon.

Un Moment Chocolat - A Chocolate Moment

During family conference a few weeks ago I was blessed with an incredible gift: a bag of Dove Caramel Chocolates. This week when I opened the last precious piece the little message on the wrapper said "Share a chocolate moment with a friend." Well, none of my friends were around at the time. And it WAS the LAST piece.

So, I ate it.

Last weekend, I was in a store with my friend Christine (one of the unfortunate friends I did not share a chocolate moment with when I ate the LAST piece of Dove) and we saw these gigantic bars of chocolate.

 A single bar was eleven pounds! Eleven pounds of Belgian chocolate! (voice squeaking loudly here). Imagine the chocolate moment I could have with THAT! I'm pretty sure if word got out that I had eleven pounds of Belgian chocolate I would have about 200 girlfriends ready to join me in a Guiness Word Record "moment chocolat."  Sadly, to quote a favorite VeggieTale movie, the price was "out of range."

Another favorite VeggieTales quote is from Madame Blueberry. Bob asks Larry "How much stuff do you need to make you happy?" Larry's answer is "I dunno. How much stuff is there?" Just the other day David asked me what I was doing and I said I was downloading a free quilt pattern. He asked me how many quilt patterns one person can need. I, of course, gave him the same answer I give him when he asks me how many books I need or how much fabric I need - "I dunno. How many are there?"

Have you ever tried to memorize anything from the book of Lamentations? I never have until now. Lamentations is a book that I under-appreciated for a long time. I think it's because of the title. When you think about laments, lamenting, lamentations,..it just doesn't sound as good as it really is. So, I am going to share a Lamentations moment with you. I just added Lamentation 3:22-23 to my memory verses. Here are the verses:

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

If any one ever asks me how much of God's grace, love, and mercies I need, I will smile and say, "I dunno. How much is there?" Thankfully, they are unending, and never "out of range."

Languishing Brownies

Brownies (Photo credit: yum9me)

This could be an interesting post because I am so distracted. We HAD power today, so I made up a batch of brownie batter. I decided to be a cool mom and used the last of our Heath bits in the brownies. Popped them into the oven. A few minutes later the power went off. David went out to check the box since all of the neighbors have power and he has been gone awhile, which means something burnt up and we can't even run the generator. MY BROWNIES ARE LANGUISHING!!! 

This week I ordered limes from Papa Joseph. In French, lemons are "citrons" and limes are "citrons vertes (green)". This is a photo of locally grown produce. The little one is a lime and the big ones are lemons. See the problem with calling limes the green ones? They are ALL green. Papa Joseph misunderstood and I ended up with a bag of lemons. Lemons aren't as tasty as limes in my Coke, but they made good lemonade so we are just rolling with it. Interestingly, oranges here are also green, and yet they are still called oranges an no one seems to think that is weird.

Here's an update on our house. Yes, we are STILL working on the house. When we moved in, the plumbing in the kitchen had been repaired/replaced and there was a section behind the sink where the tiles were busted out; and there was a gap between the concrete wall and the countertop that I could put my hand into - which meant unwelcome guests could crawl through from the other side. This week we hired Leopold to fix the wall and I am very happy to have a whole wall in the kitchen now.





I managed to get some more sewing time and made some progress on Daniel's quilt top. I am using a pattern called Blissful Dreams that I purchased too many years ago from Down Home Quilting. I still have to add borders to it. Daniel asked me to hand quilt it instead of machine quilting it, so when I finish the top it will get packed away until after furlough. I don't plan to haul it across the ocean and then add backing and batting and haul it back. Apologies to my facebook friends who have already seen this.


***Here is a brownie update, because brownies are important. They are a little funny looking but I think they will taste just fine. Hooray for brownies! The neutral line in our box keeps burning up and we keep replacing it. This time it burned a bunch of stuff and David got it going temporarily but says he pretty much has to replace everything.

Wired

creation window (Photo credit: mtsofan)

I am becoming quite the "handy Andy." When sparks were flying out of our breaker box in the house a couple of weeks ago, I had two choices. Remove the burning wires, or do without my precious electricity until David got home. Round here, when the power is on, you don't waste it! So I got my nerve up and pulled this out of our box and set us up to run on just one phase until hubby could make repairs. Yes, I cut off the power before I touched the wires.


These wires couldn't take the heat. They frayed and burned, ending up useless and dangerous.

We have had a week of sickness. First Daniel, then Emily, now David. I am the "last man standing." We have also had a week of twice going over 48 hours without power and several days of only getting an hour or two at a time. Not having a/c is inconvenient in this heat, but when someone has a fever, it's miserable. I felt so sorry for the kids.



During Daniel's sick time, I had to run the generator anyway to keep the fridge cold, and since I wasn't home schooling I decided I might as well sew. Having finally finished making curtains for the living room (it only took two and a half years), I pulled out a quilt project.

This is going to be for Daniel, if I ever finish it. While I was in the states for my surgery he got to choose his own fabric. I finally completed all of the blocks. Now I just have to assemble them and add borders.

This one is my favorite and Daniel's too. Of course, it was also the one that took the most time and care because of all the points there were to match up. Half square triangles are not my strong point. I have to do them slowly and carefully.

 The closer we get to finishing it, the more eager Daniel and I both are to see how it will turn out.

There is just something about working at a project and really putting yourself into it, and then being able to look at the finished product and see its beauty that makes you feel really good. God understands that. It's why He keeps working on us, carefully and sometimes slowly - and doesn't stop until he completes the good work He started. It's why when He finished creating the world He took time to notice that it was good. We are just wired to get pleasure out of doing good work.

I hated that my family has been suffering with the fluish like bug that has hit them, but the forced down time has probably been good for us. We've rested. We've done things we don't usually get time for like reading and sewing. Maybe we were really feeling the heat, literally and figuratively, and about to burn up like those wires. Naturally, my idea of down time would have been different from God's. Mine would include electricity and high enough voltage to use my oven and my dryer, but then I would have filled that time with work, trying to catch up on laundry and bake ahead for the "no power days." It would have been "do time" instead of "down time."

Sometimes Going With the Flow Feels Like Rapid Water Rafting on a Swimming Pool Floatie

Last night we attended a concert at TASOK, Emily's school. The concert was a benefit to collect funds and food for the orphanage in Kimbondo. It was a double blessing for me, getting a chance to help the orphanage and getting to see Emily perform. This year she sang in the high school choir AND played in the band. 

We recently visited another orphanage with a new friend, Jennifer McCullough. The man in this photo was introduced to us as the doctor at the orphanage but I heard him tell someone else he is a nurse. Jennifer is on the left, and on the far right is my friend and fellow MAFer, Sandy Francis. 

We passed out treats and had a belated Easter celebration with the kids.











Jennifer also had donations of toothpaste and brushes for the orphanage. A good follow-up to all those sweets we gave them!










Daniel with his new friend. Kids with red or blonde hair are conspicuous in Africa and get stared at. A lot. 

Unlike all of the other orphanages we have been to, this one had no fences or walls. This photo gives you a good idea of what housing is like in DRC. The "door" is a curtain. The building is  often concrete, with a tin roof and no windows. and no electricity. It's like living in an oven. A dark one.

When we arrived, kids and parents from the neighborhood showed up in droves. After we began passing out the treats, we quickly realized there were way more kids in line (I use the term line very loosely here) for goodies than there are in the orphanage. Moms from the neighborhood were overheard telling kids to go through the line and get something for them. I saw big teens stealing treats from the little kids and tried to help but couldn't stop them all. I caught at least one kid going through the line twice. They were crowding around and pressing in on us. It was mayhem. We ended up having to have the staff go through a list of names of their kids so that we could make sure the orphans got treats. Many times here in Congo I have had mixed feelings about all the walls, but that day my slightly OC mind was telling me "This place needs walls!"  Sort of a Congo version of the old saying "good fences make good neighbors." I am glad I went and got to be part of it but my American self felt conflicted, trying to just relax and go with the crazy haphazard flow instead of being overwhelmed by the lack of structure and order. 





We got stuck in the sand on our way out. You never have to worry about getting stuck in the sand in Congo as long as you have a little cash on you. Before we even had time to ask for help, people ran to push the van in exchange for a few francs.

Picture This: Somber (and otherwise) moments during Family Conference

Thanks Jocelyn Frey for the photo!

The MAF family of west DRC has officially conferred and our conference time is over until next year. As always, there were many blessings. We had time to visit with one another in a relaxed, non-work/ministry setting, just getting to know one another better and enjoying each other's company. Since some of us live in Lubumbashi and all of us stay really busy, that is a rare treat. We enjoyed goodies that our pastoral team brought from the states - especially chocolates! The teaching sessions were great. The food was great - BONUS: we did not have to cook it! In the land of weirdo-unpredictable power that was a huge blessing.

I promise this is the LAST post about this year's conference. I just wanted to share some of the special moments with you, via photos.

photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

 On the last day of conference the kids showed off the songs they had learned. Except my kid, who was busy talking to his buddy, Nicholas. My gene pool is a strong one, what can I say?

photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

One really neat moment was when the pastors anointed us, all thirty-something of us, with oil and prayed for our team, even the kids. It was a very serious and touching moment...

Photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

...as you can see.










But then, Pastor Don was a very serious kinda guy. Truthfully, we have many special memories from this conference and lots of things to ponder in our hearts. Thank you, Walnut Creek Mennonite Church, Don, Brenda, Beau, and Nicole!












I already have a very nice group photo above of our entire team, plus the pastoral team from the states. I really like bloopers, though, so I thought you might enjoy these. Click on them to see an enlarged view.

Photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

Photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

Perspective

Today my husband related a story to me about his day at the hangar. He was talking with one of our national staff. He was asking David questions about our home.

"Do you have a water tank?"
"Yes."
"Do you have a generator?"
"Yes."
"Do you have solar panels?"
"Yes."
"Aaah. Paradise. Like heaven."

Perspective.

Renewal - Family Conference

Family Conference is in full swing.

A major theme at family conference time is renewal. We have time to focus on spiritual renewal with worship times and teaching.

Our friend Jocelyn with her daughter Ruth, who is getting an early start in discipleship!


We also have times for paying attention to our needs for physical, emotional, and relational renewal.







Yesterday after the worship/teaching session, we took an outing to a lake for a hike and a picnic lunch. The drive was long, the weather was hot, the traffic was terrible. Once we arrived at the lake, though, it was worth it.








We took our time walking, enjoying the quiet and tranquility - a rare thing in a city the size of Kinshasa. At one point, David and I literally just stopped and took a deep breath and stood there taking in the fresh air and natural beauty and wide open space.

Last evening the ladies enjoyed some time pampering our feet - which take a beating here in the land of dust and concrete.

While we soaked our tired feet, we had a chance to just relax and visit with each other. Often when we get together as a team there is work to be done and not much time for visiting and connecting on a deeper level.

Conference Time!

photo credit: Tim Dyk

This week we are having our annual Family Conference. I'll try to take photos for ya and post them. Meanwhile, here's a cool photo or two of our guys working on the planes. In both photos, my hubby is the one on the ground at the nose of the plane.

I don't get a lot of comments on the blog but I do get some emails. I hope you'll check out my latest post on the MAF Blog - Better Than Bitter. This post started as a response to an email from a blog reader/friend. 

Numbered With The Transgressors

I wasn't going to blog today. I have so much to do, and so much that should already be done but isn't, that somethings just had to give and today it was going to be the blog. 

Then I read Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" devotional for March 30 Click here to read). When I read Spurgeon's writing, I can't simply skim it or speed read it. His older English obligates me to actually stop all my mental multi-tasking and just focus on what he was trying to say. No zipping through. That's a good thing. We have so many easy to understand paraphrases and translations of the Bible available to us that I think it is easy to "zip through" without completely focusing all of our thoughts on what we read and meditating on it. Reading the works of people like Charles Spurgeon and Oswald Chambers is good mental exercise and builds study skills that I can transfer to my reading of the Bible. 

On my huge list of "things I thought I already knew but seem to keep learning again" is that Jesus doesn't just love me as I understand love, He loves me with an intensity I can't begin to fathom. He didn't just die for me, He also identified Himself with me. 

"Now, when the sinner is brought to the bar, Jesus appears there Himself. He stands to answer the accusation. He points to His side, His hands, His feet, and challenges Justice to bring anything against the sinners whom He represents; He pleads His blood, and pleads so triumphantly, being numbered with them and having a part with them, that the Judge proclaims, 'Let them go their way; deliver them from going down into the pit, for He hath found a ransom.' Our Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors in order that they might feel their hearts drawn towards Him." 

He came and was numbered with us, the transgressors. Sometimes we generalize that and forget that He didn't just become a face in a crowd of sinners that suddenly turned on Him. He counted the cost before He came, and did it anyway. He was loving and thinking of every individual one of us while He was being crucified, paying the price for each. Your price. My price. 

Because Christ was numbered with the transgressors, I can rejoice that am numbered with those whom He has made new. 

He is risen! Have a joyful Easter!

Everyone likes a good story!

Thursday, I was invited to share my testimony with the ladies from Nsango na Bomoi, the church that is pastored by our missionary friends Dan and Christine. I have been a little spoiled because each time I have shared my testimony here I have been allowed to do it in English with someone to interpret for me. This time, I was asked to share in French! Yikes! 

I only had a few hours' notice and still had to do school with Daniel so I sort of cheated. I knew I had forgotten a lot of grammar. I also was aware of the fact that when I am nervous, it is even more challenging for me to think in French. I had written my testimony in French during language school so I pulled that out and edited it a bit. Hooray for saving language school homework! 

French is the official language here, but even among the nationals not everyone speaks French. Many have not had enough schooling to be proficient in French. There was a woman in this group who only spoke Lingala so our time together involved a mix of English, French, and Lingala. I gave my testimony in French and Mama Louise interpreted it into Lingala. If she had a question about something I said, she asked Christine, who then asked me in English so that I could rephrase my original sentence back into French. 

Sharing my story with the ladies was a blessing for me not just because I got a review of some vocabulary I had forgotten, but also because it gave me a way to connect with them. As my story progressed, I could see the ladies smiling and nodding. We are very different in culture and background, but all of us had a testimony. Each of us had a story to tell about how we were burdened and empty before Christ had changed our lives. 

Stories are very popular here, so we also talked about the fact that nearly everyone likes a good story and that if a person is able to share the story of what God has done in their life, they have a very powerful tool for sharing the gospel. Then the ladies shared their testimonies, first in Lingala and then Mama Louise translated into French for my sake. Having heard these ladies' stories made me feel like I was getting to know them on a deeper level. They shared of painful experiences, of growing up in churches that did not teach the gospel so they spent years following rituals without having a true relationship with Jesus. 

A Cheerful Look

Original depiction of fictional anthropomorphic rabbit from the first chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the little quirks our family has is that we like to use anthropomorphism outside of the literary genre. We often ascribe human emotions or thoughts to objects, animals, even our food. We like practicing our vocabulary too (just kidding).

We like for our food to be happy before we eat it.

I have a spoon that I like way more than any human being should like any spoon. It's happy. We use it to make peanut butter cookies so they have smilies on them instead of fork marks. Cookies with smilies are way, way more fun to eat than cookies with prison bars. (As I said previously, we like happy food.) 

Last night during supper our happy spoon was gaily floating in a dish of green peas when my youngest made an observation. He studied the spoon for a bit and then said "How can he be happy sitting in a bowl of nasty peas? We should get a frowny spoon." 

Now, as far as I know, no one likes a frowny spoon anymore than they like a frowny person, so I will likely have an impossible time finding one. Who wants to serve veggies with a frowny spoon? No restaurant or business advertises "service with a frown!" 

I want to be like my spoon, and be able to offer a smile and a cheerful  look to those around me, even if I am in the midst of something nasty. I want my face to reflect the joy God has given me in my heart, and not my sometimes less-than-pleasant-green-pea circumstances.  

"A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones." Proverbs 15:30