Even When It's Raining

photo from publicdomainpicture.net

We have a Congolese friend here, whom I will refer to as “Ben” so as to protect his privacy. Ben just moved his family to a new home, and for Ben and his family, this move was very significant. 

Housing for a majority of the people here consists of only a couple of small rooms, and the apartment is part of a duplex or four-plex. All of the families in the building share an outhouse for their bathroom needs. There is a water tap in the community where people go to collect their daily water. Often there is only a curtain where the door ought to be and if there is a window, it may or may not have a glass pane or a set of curtains. There is no indoor plumbing. There is seldom electricity.  Many families here are large, and they all sleep on mats on the floors.  Ben and his wife have six children.

Here are some examples of housing in DRC.  

This move was a big deal to Ben's family because for the first time in their lives, they are able to rent a little house with a tiny yard, a tiny kitchen, space for the children to sleep more comfortably, indoor plumbing and their own bathroom IN THE HOUSE. He was so excited when he told David that “now we can go to the bathroom even when it’s raining!” When it rains in Congo, it’s usually a real gully washer and going out in it can be dangerous with all the mud, poor visibility, and the semi-buried power lines. No one goes anywhere when it is raining. 

When David shared that with me, it stunned me. Here we are feeling inconvenienced when the water is off for a few hours, or when we have to stay home during civil unrest with our refrigerators full of food while the rest of the city doesn’t eat because without refrigeration in their homes they have to shop daily for provisions and it is too dangerous to venture out. How would I feel if our family didn’t even have our own bathroom? If something as simple as going to the restroom suddenly became a big deal?

That phrase has stuck with me for days now. I felt like God was asking me: "Do you love me? Do you trust me? Will you follow me? Will you praise me? Even when it's raining?" 

Sometimes, the combined distractions and needs, whether good or bad, trivial or important, internal or external, are like a rain storm. I know the path before me is slippery and dangerous, and that I should cling to God and praise Him, but my visibility is reduced in the storm and I can’t see Him. Do my love for God and my trust in Him motivate me to praise Him anyway?

We’ve recently had days of civil unrest here and people have been hurt and killed. People have suffered. People are angry, hurt and confused. The Congolese are going through a real and potentially ferocious storm right now. I pray that believers here can be a light, making God visible and showing others the way to Him, and loving as Christ loves. Even when it’s raining.

"You Have Memories"

Ever used Facebook's "On This Day?" At the click of a "You Have Memories" button, you can see everything you ever did on Facebook on that particular day of every year since you joined the web site. It's genius on the part of Facebook. What better way to feed our tendency toward self-absorption and keep us posting and reposting so as to ensure the popularity of their site and attract sponsors and advertisers? And Facebook makes it easy by telling you that "You Have Memories" every day, so you don't forget to look at them. 

It can also be an eye opener. I have looked at mine a number of times and had varying responses ranging from face palms to groans to pleasant trips down memory lane to timely reminders of lessons learned. Sometimes I look at things I posted waaaaay back when Facebook was relatively new and I can't believe I thought anyone would EVER be interested in that. Ever. 

"writing letters today"

"doing homework"

One nice thing about On This Day is that I can delete that garbage. No one wanted to read it once, let alone a second time. I did not join facebook to punish my friends.

Other times I look at posts and see things I wish I didn't: negativity, criticism, anger. I try to evaluate whether I am still the same person who wrote that post and do I still have the same attitude. If not, I thank God. If so, I ask Him to keep working on me and change my heart. 

Sometimes I see posts from people who encouraged me just when I needed it and I am reminded how loved I am and that maybe I should take a moment to let them know I love them too. Or I see posts that remind me of something significant that happened and how God showed Himself in it. That happened today when I saw that "On This Day" four years ago, Emily used my facebook to post a prayer request. I posted our family's little adventure here: Daniel's Bottle Bucket Battle a few days later. It's a story about a night that could have been much, much worse than it was, but turned in to a testimony of God's care for a little boy and his family, and His power to orchestrate even Kinshasa traffic to His will. 

Facebook makes it easy and tempting to live in the past rather than embracing the present and anticipating the future. But it can also remind us that the God who was with us in all those past events is the same God who is with us now and will be with us as we face the future!

Separation and Reunion

Yesterday, we held our annual Christmas outreach at the airport where MAF's hangar is. In addition to MAF and other aviation groups, a large portion of the airport is for military use. Each year we host a service with music, a gospel presentation, and refreshments. We also distribute gospel tracts and Scriptures.

We had a large crowd this year and several decisions were made for Christ. 





Maurice, one of our long time national staff, was the "emcee."

The choir from the International Protestant Church of Kinshasa (IPCK),
led by my friend Sandy, a fellow MAF wife. They were fabulous and sang in Lingala, Swahili, French and English!

Passing out Scripture literature and refreshments.

Have you ever experienced the anticipation of seeing a loved one you've been separated from? Maybe planned a trip to see them and gone through the process of packing, buying gifts, etc? Or perhaps you invited them to come see you. You rearranged furniture and cleaned house, bought gifts and their favorite foods, planned things to do together, did your best to make an environment for them that said "you are loved and cherished." It didn't even seem like work and you didn't worry about the cost, because you were doing it for someone you loved. Maybe even as you did so you were reminded that Jesus is preparing a place for you to one day come home to.

Being away from those we love is painful, painful, painful. Even just the anticipation of a reunion is cause for joy. Last Sunday our pastor shared a thought from Max Lucado that Jesus would rather die for us than live without us. He loves us that much. And that is why He chose to come here. The little card in the photo above says it all: Jesus is the real reason for Christmas. 



This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. - 1 John 4:10

Have a joyous Christmas!

The Problem Behind The Wall

Stone Wall (Photo credit: sobriquet.net)

When we moved into this house in October 2012, a lot of work had gone into preparing it but it was still in need of a lot of TLC. David is still making repairs. His progress is sometimes slowed by other circumstances, including the fact that now we have lived here long enough for some of the original repairs to need their own repairs!

One toilet, from day one, had issues. Previous occupants had installed it improperly. It is an unbelievably loud toilet when the tank is filling. The tank is not level. One side is a full inch higher than the other, so parts don't align properly and they break quickly. Like within days. So we quit buying parts and the only way to flush it was to remove the lid to the tank and stick your hand in the water and pull up the thingymabobber yourself.

We have more than one toilet so my way of dealing with it was to avoid using it.

This past weekend, David decided to try a different approach. Instead of the typical "push button" on toilets here, he fixed a wire to come up through the hole where the button would normally be and made a temporary handle so that now you can just pull the wire up and it lifts the thingymabobber and does the flushing. Yaay!

The hot water connection beneath the sink in the same bathroom had recently begun dripping, so while he was in there he decided to tighten that connection. Almost as soon as he grasped it, the knob broke off in his hand and water started spewing everywhere. You can't just shut off the water to one room in this house like we can in the states, so it was a big deal to have to shut off the water pending a repair. Our Saturday agenda had just been rewritten.

When David attempted to removed the broken piece of plumbing, the next section had rusted through and ALSO broke off. That made our big deal even bigger. Here, the walls are concrete, not drywall, and they concrete right over the plumbing. David spent hours with a hammer and chisel trying to get through the wall all the way back to the broken pipe without breaking more than one ceramic tile or hitting the sink with the hammer. The power was out during all this so I was sitting in there holding a flashlight for him. Neither of us would say it out loud but we were both really hoping that the next section of pipe would not also be rusted through and would stay intact.

The next challenge was finding the right parts, but a local hole in the wall "hardware store" actually had enough of what we needed to at least get the wall closed back up and be able to turn on the water again. I won't have a usable sink in there until we find a couple more parts but at least I have water to the rest of the house and my bathroom got a good mopping!

Very often in Congo, what appears to be a small repair turns out to be a big one.

I think sometimes people are like that too. We never know when someone does or says something to us that has a hint of anger, criticism, or malice what is lying on the other side of their wall and what might be going on with their inmost parts. Maybe they have a burden or a hurt that is way bigger than we can know. Maybe deep inside they have broken places that need God's love and healing.