From Ocean Front to Battle Front

photo credit: Amber Derocher

Our week at the MAF family conference was amazing! Here are some of the highlights.

photo credit: Chris Steiger

Sessions/studies about: the dangers of ego, God speaks our love language, forgiveness, unity, spiritual warfare, and more

praise, prayer, and worship

Meeting fellow MAF missionaries who serve in Congo with us but whom we never see, and seeing friends we'd not seen in a year or more

Date night: the Rose Drive team entertained all the young children so all the couples could have dinner dates

Pampering: ice cream with real American toppings like Heath Bar bits and Hershey's syrup, real chocolate, door prizes of things we can't get here like Ranch dressing mix and Starburst candies, s'mores! (no graham crackers, big marshmallows or Hershey bars in Congo), shower gels and lotions for the ladies, and hand-written notes from the team leader (hand-written notes are a lost art and a real blessing anywhere!)

Fun activities: pool, beach, volleyball, snorkeling, kayaking

Electricity and water: in abundance!

Cooking and cleaning: none!

Now about Snorkeling.  Forty of us signed up for a snorkeling excursion out to the coral reef.  I have had a fear of deep water since childhood that even after learning to swim did not go away. I like to swim only if I can stand up and still breathe. But I figured I would probably never get another chance to snorkel in the Indian Ocean for only a few dollars per person.  It was a learning experience.  The first thing I learned was not to assume things.  I had assumed that the snorkeling adventure was one of the many activities offered through the resort and would therefore be handled by professionals and come complete with a lesson on how to actually snorkel. Um, no. It was two dudes with boats for hire. Here's a photo of our boat. It was called the Millenium, I think because that's how old the boat was.

photo credit: Sandy Francis

(That's me in the brown striped swimsuit coverup and David is the cool looking guy in the grey shirt and sunglasses. Daniel is up on top. Emily was in the other boat with her teen friends.)








There was no lesson.  No safety lecture. Not enough snorkeling equipment to go around, requiring us to take turns. AND: no life jackets, giant noodles, styrofoam dishes, or other flotation equipment was offered or available. Each boat had one life preserver that was tied to the boat and floated in the ocean. The thing about irrational fears is that those of us who have them know they are irrational and yet there they are. And they are powerful. I prayed. I talked to myself. It took some time, but I finally got up enough nerve to get out of the boat. The water was choppy and the snorkel tube did not have anything to prevent water coming in so I quickly got a big mouth full of seawater. Panic and dread ensued and I immediately got back in the boat. I was angry with myself and decided to try again, only to repeat the first experience. I was so disappointed in myself.

photo credit: Sandy Francis

(Daniel having fun and me either getting in the water or climbing out - I did lots of both.)





Then another girl who was a weak swimmer told me that she had swum out to the life preserver and snorkeled while holding on to the preserver with one hand.  I thought, "I can do that!" So, I tried a third time. I swam out to the life preserver, grabbed hold, and snorkeled away. It was incredible! I was having so much fun! David swam out to where I was just to say he was happy for me that I had found a way to snorkel in spite of my fear.

Next, I learned about currents. At some point I lifted my head up and saw that I was quite a bit farther from the boat than when I began. I told David he had pulled me out too far and he said he hadn't done it. No problem. We just grabbed the rope to pull ourselves back in. Except that the rope had come untied from the boat. Naturally. We started swimming but were really not making any progress against the current for our efforts and it wasn't long before I was tired enough that I knew if I didn't have that life preserver I would have been in trouble. We could see the boat but couldn't get to it. Eventually, one of our friends saw us fighting the current and swam out, got the rope, and pulled it in. Enough water for me for one day, thanks.

I am very glad I went. I had a great time and saw cool stuff! And I was only a little embarrassed over my ridiculous fear because everyone was kind about it.

After we came back to Kinshasa, we took a couple of nights to go camping and have some time alone as a family, away from videos, internet, phones, etc. We cooked over fires, played in the river, hiked, played games, saw cool bugs

and crossed this bridge.

On our way home, Saturday, we were about five minutes into Kinshasa, stuck in a traffic jam, when someone hit our car from behind. The police held us there and let the person go who had hit us. Then they tried to fine us $100 for "being in the way" of the other driver.  This is actually a common occurrence, especially if you are fair skinned. If you don't pay, they put a lock on your wheel until you do. We talked them down to $20, drove about fifty feet, and got pulled over again, and once again it was because of our skin color. David told them we had just paid the police behind us and they let us go.  No kidding, fifty feet later we were stopped for a third time.  This time we had to talk a while before they let us go. 

Our welcome back to Kinshasa was further "enhanced" on Sunday by a 14 hour power outage and the news that our landlady is finally planning to repair the plumbing issues in the house and the wall that is about to fall into the road. She also plans to raise the rent, so we have to move. She wants us out by end of September.

A friend recently said to us "any battle front is not an easy place to live and work." There is sometimes the temptation to feel a bit disillusioned, especially after a mountain top experience like the conference and then coming back to Kinshasa. But this place really is a battle front. A person can't enlist in an army and go off to war expecting it to be a bed of roses. My snorkeling experience reminded me that my God is big, bigger than the ocean I was so afraid of, the ocean He created.  He was with me there and He is with me here.