Change of Plans

This year we've had more than the usual amount of stress and struggles, so we took a few days away to celebrate our 25th anniversary and decompress a little. The plan was to come back refreshed and ready to tackle moving to the new apartment. We had a generous window of time before the old house had to be vacated so we were going to pace ourselves and not make it into something that was harder than it needed to be, even for Congo. 

Sometimes, plans change.

We arrived home at about 1:30 in the morning and before we even entered the house we could smell that something had burnt. Our guard said the electric cable had burned. No surprise. We generally pay for burned cable to be replaced about once a week. So we went on inside and were greeted first by stronger, migraine-inducing smell and our normally white floor was black with soot.

We walked a bit further and found the cause. When the electric cable burned, it caused a big spike in the voltage. One of our voltage regulators couldn't handle it and caught fire, burning completely up. The fire traveled up the wall and into the breaker box, doing quite a bit of damage there.

The walls are concrete, but if the fire had gone just a few inches higher, our wood ceiling would have caught fire and it would have spread throughout the house. If we had been home and it had been worse, Daniel could have been trapped in his room because in Congo, all the windows and doors have bars on them. 

So. Change of plan. With no power, and no relief from the smell or the heat, we decided to begin moving immediately. Right now we are borrowing the home of some friends who are away and moving as much as we can each day by making multiple trips in our car. We also have to clean the soot off every single item in the house, books, photos, furniture, you-name-it, before we can pack it. And David has work at the hangar - so it is slow going. 

This is very inconvenient. But we are thankful that we get to describe our experience with that adjective instead of words like devastating or tragic. God protected our family and our property, and we are humbled and grateful.

Thanks for Nothing!

We all have heard the expression “Thanks for nothing!” It isn’t really an offer of thanks at all. It is an angry declaration that the person speaking feels they have been treated wrongly, cheated, held out on.  This week the utility company came to my home and accused me of owing hundreds of dollars in unpaid bills dating back to four years before I moved into this house. It did not matter that I produced all the paperwork showing my innocence. They demanded money and I would not give it, so they cut my power line in two. I didn’t say anything to them, but for a while I sure wanted to say something like “Thanks for nothing. Have a nice day.” In my drippiest sarcastic tone. 

Sometimes, we look at our lives and there is so much stuff to deal with, so many problems we can’t solve. We feel like the squirrel in the movie “Over the Hedge” who runs to one end of the hedge and back and declares “It never ends!” Then he runs to the other end of the hedge and back and says, “It never ends that way too!” We feel helpless. Helplessness is not a feeling we like to experience, so then we become angry. 

We want God to fix it. Make it better. We are his children and when He doesn’t meet our expectations of what a Father should do, we act like, well, children. Children who are angry and ungrateful and say “thanks for nothing.” 

What if “nothing” IS a gift? What if we had to trust Him for everything? What if instead of taking our problems away He walked with us through them? What would we learn from that? How would it transform us? 

If He gives me “nothing,” can I in sincerity say “Thank you, Father, for nothing?” trusting that in His love and wisdom He has given me something worth more than it appears to be?

In church yesterday we sang a Keith Green song, “There is a Redeemer.” The first part goes like this:

There is a redeemer, 
Jesus, God's own Son,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, 
Holy One,
Jesus my redeemer, 
Name above all names,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Oh, for sinners slain.
Thank you oh my Father, 
For giving us Your Son,
And leaving Your Spirit, 
'Til the work on Earth is done.

"In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

We can give thanks to Him IN everything, because He has given us his Son, and that IS EVERYTHING. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Four Things That Happened On This Day

Today is a special day. On this day TWENTY-ONE years ago, our first child was born. It hurts to be so far away from him today, but I am glad he has his new wife and her family to celebrate with. 

And on this day SIX years ago, we were in Idaho for orientation and became official MAF missionaries. Yaay! Here is a photo from the week prior. 

And on THIS day, as in today, Daniel did THIS:

He was playing with a dog that we are babysitting for a few weeks and fell and sliced it on the air conditioner. We took him to the same clinic that we went to the last time he cut his leg (story here) but thankfully this time around he was not hurt as badly and did not get stitches, though I still think he could have used a couple. He will definitely get another "cool scar or two to add to the collection." His words. Not mine.

Also on THIS day we woke up to another power outage. Nothing new there. We found out that the line was stolen again. Unfortunately that is nothing new anymore either. Third time in as many months. I am grateful for the cooler weather, for our generator and that we had just stocked up on fuel, for our little gas stove, and for battery-powered lights and internet so that we can skype Josh on his birthday! 

A Series of Unusual Events

This week and next, we have a series of unusual events - all of which are cool, cool beans! Yes, cool enough to say it twice.

Unusual event number one? The bad guys lost and the good guys have prevailed! I wrote about Jill Lowery and the ministry at the Mitendi Center some time ago, and their efforts to stop certain people who were stealing their land and then selling it piecemeal to other people. After a battle that took years and had to go through the courts, the ministry has won and gets to keep their land! This was very obviously orchestrated by God and nothing short of a miracle. Jill gave me permission to post her words and photos as an update since so many of you have been praying about this situation.

Here is what Jill posted: "The Mitendi Wall is happening, people!!! After too many interruptions, the crew has already completed half the wall along the back property limit! Please pray that they can finish without further harassment. I'm so grateful to all of you for your prayers and support! Love you!!!"  

"These sweet ladies are the heart of the Mitendi program. They've fought long and hard to make this happen."

If you don't know what I am talking about, here are links to my posts about Mitendi: Finding Hope in Mitendi and Prayers Needed. 




Second unusual event? Tadah! I made a dress! That hasn't happend in 13 years. And it showed. I had to rip out some seams and redo stuff. I found this lovely fabric here in Kinshasa last year.

And I had one little fat quarter of brown batik which I love and wanted to use as an accent. I decided to make the waist band, belt and hem band out of it. But I didn't have enough. So I improvised and sewed the middle portion of the belt with a plain brown. 

I also had to use the plain brown on the backside of the hemband. I figured it would be on the inside of the skirt and the belt would be hidden inside the waistband and no one would ever see my little improvisations. Except, you just did.





It's hot and only having power for a few hours each day made me want to rush, so there are plenty of mistakes. But I tried on four shirts at Wal-mart last summer off the same rack and every single one had major sewing flaws front and center so I couldn't even buy one. I figure my dress looks at least as good as that. 

Unusual events three and four? Our first-born is about to get married! Since we had to fly to the states anyway, and we have to go through Brussels to do it, we scheduled a two day layover and are taking a mini-vacation! We haven't had power for over two days now and don't expect to get it for several more days. Someone dug up our power line and stole three meters! So we are cleaning out the fridge and freezer in the morning and flying away tomorrow evening! Electricity, here we come!

Please keep praying for the Mitendi Center and for Jill. The wall still has a long way to go and it will take some time to get all the illegal squatters off the land. 

No Place Like Home

Ruby Slippers (Photo credit: ZakVTA)

I just sat down to lunch, yeah, at 3:15pm. We've already had quite a day. My sandals gave me a nasty blister on my toe, which kept getting worse, so after Daniel finished school we headed for the house (we are staying at a friend's house down the road for a few days while we pack and move.). We were supposed do actually DRIVE to the house so that after packing for a few hours, I could return here to cook supper, bringing back my dirty laundry and the items we will need between now and when we move into our new home. My car decided it does not like this moving thing and it is not going to run anymore. So, blister and all, we walked to the house, discovered I had forgotten the key, walked back, returned with the key, and proceeded to pack until I ran out of boxes and realized I had forgotten to eat lunch and maybe that was why I felt so tired. Um, there's a lot of stuff still.

On the way back to my friend's house, the first time, I spotted the reason why I am packing in the dark in 94 degree weather with no fans or a/c. This is my power line. It's hard to see the details because I took this with my cheapo phone but that is a broken bottom of an office chair wedged between the wires to keep them from touching each other. The blue and white you see are plastic grocery bags that have been tied around the cable to "repair it." Throw in a few tree roots and you have my power line.

Here's another section of my power line, just a few meters from where I snapped the first photo.





I will miss my neighborhood and being close enough to walk to see most of friends. I will not miss my power line.



Saturday the vet came and spayed our 7 month old kitten. He was supposed to come to check on her the following Monday but never showed. By Tuesday morning she still had not eaten and was lethargic. Her breathing was rapid and noisy. I called the vet and told him I was anxious about her and he said he would come. He said "today" but he showed up on Wednesday. By that time, she had improved a little on her own but still sounded raspy. He gave her antibiotics and went on his merry way. Today she is much better. Lunch break is ending so here's one more photo. Next post will be from the new house!

This is how we keep our cat from licking her incision. I cut the ends off a clean tube sock. She is obviously humiliated at having to wear David's half-sock.  That's why she won't show her face for the camera.

Two Stories to Every Side

I feel as though a lot more time has gone by since my last post than actually has. In addition to our two cats, our hermit crab, and the chicken that adopted us, our menagerie now includes an African Grey Parrot. That's her in the photo. We don't know why she is almost naked. I do know from having pet birds in the past that a bird that is stressed or bored will over preen and/or pull out its own feathers. The African Grey is a very intelligent species and needs a lot of attention and stimulation to keep them entertained and happy. We plan to buy or make some toys for her cage and spent lots of time nurturing her.

We've learned some interesting things about her already. For one, she bites. Hard. She drew blood her first day here. For another, she likes peanuts. A lot. We've been experimenting with various foods to find out what she likes to eat. So far peanuts are her number one choice, followed by palm nuts, mango, papaya and cabbage. Also, she has quite a repertoire of sounds and at least one comprehensible word: "hello." She can do several whistles, including cat calls, and perfect imitations of the following:

a cat
an owl
the little toy plastic whistles that the police buy and use here
a chicken
a car horn, this was pretty impressive. She totally fooled us.
a person laughing
a magpie, we aren't so impressed with this one
the loud and squeaky wheelbarrow they use everyday on the construction site across the street

We are really hoping that we can find a house and move before she has time to learn how to imitate the neighbor's Guinea fowl, or their constantly crying baby, or their habit of screaming their guard's name loudly.

Speaking of moving, here's an update on our housing situation and a Cool Beans story. After a wonderful week of having power almost constantly, Sunday morning our line went out again. The story from the electric company on Monday was that 25 meters of line was burnt and needed to be replaced. A year ago we paid $75 for three meters, so we figured that to mean it would cost $625 or more. We have to move in less than four weeks, so we told them we could not pay for that. There are other people on the line but it seems like our family is often the only one willing to pay for repairs. We resolved ourselves to having no power until the move.

Fast forward to yesterday. I had caught a stomach bug from David and hadn't been eating, which caused me to wake up with a migraine on top of the nausea. Then I couldn't get the generator to start. I called David and he came home and fixed the generator and took care of Daniel, including making sure he did his school work, so I could go to bed. In the midst of all that the guys from SNEL came and told us their "new assessment" (sound suspicious?) of our power situation.

"That story was for the birds!"

The new verdict was that only ONE meter needed to be replaced and it would cost $100.00. David gave them $20, partly since we knew it was only $20-$25 per meter just last year and partly because it was all we had on hand. He told them that should cover our share and to knock on the other gates if they needed more money. Amazingly, by 6pm we had three phases of electricity for the first time since May. By 7:30 we were down to two again but we were still happy. If it lasts today, we will have made our money back on what we would have spent in generator fuel and we will have had a cold refrigerator, hot water, and a dryer. We are hoping and praying it lasts until we move. I still have a headache today but not a migraine anymore, more of a residual effect that is slowly wearing off. I wanted to share all this because I know lots and lots of you were praying for us yesterday and we could tell. Not only did God take my migraine away and enable David to get the generator running, but He gave us electricity when we thought it was impossible!

Also we MAY have found a house. We are trying to line up a meeting with the landlord and our program manager and work out an arrangement that both parties can agree with. I won't go into details on the house until we know if it's the one. Thanks for praying for us!

Mundele, moi!

I’ve been visiting the orphanage for over a year, and I think that FINALLY, some of the kids have learned my name. Every time I go, the kids ask me my name and I tell them “Maman Nancy.” They always call me “mundele,” which sounds kind of like “moon-deh-lay.” Depending on the tone used, it can simply mean “foreigner,” or “white person,” or it can be derogatory. Friday, Daniel and I went to the orphanage and took our friend Roz along. I made a batch of bubbles and took them with us to entertain the kids. After a while, I stopped blowing bubbles and let the kids take turns blowing.

The kids do not take turns well. Pushing and shoving commenced, along with cries of “mundele moi!” That loosely translates to “hey white lady, pick me!” If I didn’t respond quickly enough, a couple of the kids in particular would yell it louder and slap or pinch my arm. Finally I got tired of that and I turned to one of them and said “pas mundele! Maman Nancy.”  It took them a few tries to get the pronunciation, but pretty soon about 15 kids were loudly and repeatedly chanting “Maman Nancy!” They were having so much fun with their chant that they forgot about shoving each other around so I went with it. The whole thing was pretty amusing.

My car overheated on the way home from the orphanage and blew a hole in the plastic water reservoir, so long distance driving is out for the time being. Between that and the fact that we have to be out of this house by the end of the month and still haven’t found a place to live, I am not sure when I can get back to the orphanage. I’m going to have to step up the packing and house hunting, but the realtor says he has no more places to show us within our price range. Please pray for our search for a home and for our search for what we need to repair the car. Also a matter of prayer, I suspect our cable is burnt again because once again we are without power while everyone around the corner from us who is on the same power line does have power. We just paid for repairs on that cable and the new electricity lasted about a week. 

Sometimes when a lot seems to go wrong at once, I want to act like the orphans and yell to God, “Hey, pick me! Pick me for your blessings!” I know He has blessed me, in amazing ways and in abundance. Sometimes, though, I am impatient like those kids and I want Him to answer my prayers in my timing, meaning immediately, instead of his timing. 

Odors and Allergies

Isn't that a gorgeous flower?! I had never seen daisies with blue centers before, but my friend Lori had these growing in her yard when we visited her family in Kenya. Flowers are in my "favorite things list," along with fabric stores, new books, handwritten letters, and coffee. One of the things I don't like about the prospect of moving is starting over planting flowers in a new yard, but it is also one of the things I look forward to. I was just beginning to gather some flowers and fruit trees in my yard here when we found out we would have to move. If we find a place with enough space, I will dig up my frangipani tree and take it with me because the blossoms smell so nice.

This is one flower I won't be digging up to take with me or purchasing at the market for our next yard. It's called a Lantana plant and we recently discovered that Daniel is allergic to it and has a reaction every time he brushes up against it. I'm sure you've seen this plant and other color variations of it in the U.S.

Last week, Daniel had another interesting allergic reaction. I had purchased some locally grown peppers, a hot variety that is called pili-pili. Daniel saw the peppers laying on the counter and picked one up to smell it. I told him that peppers have oils in their skins that can burn if you touch them and then rub your eye and made him go wash his hands. I guess when he smelled the pepper he bumped his lip because a little while later we were watching a video and Daniel stopped the movie and asked "Does my lip look swollen, because it feels funny?" He looked a little like Will Smith after his character ate the shellfish in the movie "Hitched." His hand was also swelling. Benadryl is Daniel's new best friend.

Besides the pepper fiasco, we had an experience that was both amusing and unique to Congo, I'm sure. When we bought our jeep a year ago, it had this sticker on the windshield:

This is the equivalent of what we called "city stickers" where I grew up. My parents got one every year for each of their cars. If you didn't have one, you could end up paying a fine if you got caught. Even though we purchased our car in 2011, this was the current sticker at the time.

Then word got around that there was a new sticker, and the police were stopping cars that didn't have the correct one. Getting stopped by the Kinshasa police is not something everyone longs to experience, so we got a new sticker. I paid $110.00 for the newer, less-outdated-but-already-expired sticker that now says I am current through 2010. That amount included a $10 penalty for being late to buy their late sticker. Seriously. If you visit Kinshasa, don't be deceived if it looks like a million people are driving around with expired stickers. If it is blue, it is "current" regardless of the dates printed on it.

We are still searching for a home to rent and would appreciate prayers. We were talking wistfully the other day about what an amazing place we could get for the same amount of rent if we were searching in the mid-west U.S. Some things we used to take for granted in the properties we rented when we lived in the states are:

light fixtures
built to code
switches and outlets all work
water and electricity at least part of the day
no missing tiles or torn linoleum
closets
cabinets
no leaks in roof or plumbing
screens on the windows
toilets that work
hot water heaters
kitchen sink
door knobs (yes, we have viewed homes that were missing doorknobs)

Most of the homes we have seen so far have had very few of those items. It can be discouraging. We are definitely not looking for perfection, but hope for something that we can make feel like "home." Something cheerful and not gloomy. We have to leave this house in just a few weeks so we are starting to feel pressed for time.

A house we looked at this week that had lots of "issues." Most of the rooms had a lot of mold and water damage. They had a bucket under the kitchen sink to catch the leak and a dead rat was floating in the dirty water. Between the rat (the second one we found at this house), the droppings, and the mildew this kitchen smelled - interesting.



We are very, very grateful to have power today after going without for almost 72 hours. Yesterday the SNEL workers came to my gate ten minutes after finally getting my power back on and asked how it was. I told them that I had two phases (we are supposed to have three). They demanded $25 for "tape" to fix the third phase. After I paid them, they turned the power back off to "fix it." Four hours later the power came back on and we still had two phases. Sometime during the night it went off again and when it came back this morning we were down to one phase. A little while ago we bumped back up to two phases. Sooooo..... we are hoping that since we have to move anyway, maybe we can find a place that gets better electricity. The first thing I did when we got power was start laundry. The second of course, was to bake brownies!

When the Bad Guys are Also the Victims

photo taken in Kinshasa by Thomas, used under Creative Commons

Last week our team had the pleasure of meeting with Jon Lewis, who previously served here with MAF. Jon wrote a blog article about the changes he observed in Kinshasa and Congo since he was last here. I highly recommend his article Congo's Clock.

Two things Jon mentioned stood out to me, one because our family had recently made the same sad observation. On our recent drive to the interior for a camping trip, we passed numerous villages with mosques and only a couple with evangelical churches. The Muslims are fighting for the DRC, and they are doing it with a weapon that the national church here does not have – money. Because of that, they are gaining converts at an alarming rate. Other cults that spend a ton of money here and have an increasingly strong presence are the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons. One of the things we discussed at the meeting with Jon was that there is a discipleship void here. Even in the Christian churches, pastors are often untrained and believers hold on to their old beliefs in witchcraft and magic, trying to make them mesh with their new faith. Pray for the Christian churches in Congo, for strong faith, for discipleship, and for the Lord of the Harvest to send more workers.

Money is a powerful motivator anywhere, but here especially. Which brings me to the second point. Jon spoke of a “myriad of mini dictators who use the ‘Wild West’ nature of this country” for personal profit at the expense of everyone else.

Here is a recent example. The higher-ups in SNEL, the electric company here, decided there was not as much money coming in as there should be. That is true. Many do not pay their bills unless they are threatened with losing their power. The result is that SNEL workers have been on a rampage for a week and are still at it. SNEL doesn't really even know how much power people use, so thThey don’t even have accurate records of payments because half the time they don’t have electricity in their own office and can’t enter the information in or print a receipt when someone makes a payment. They show up, seemingly randomly, at people’s homes or even confront pedestrians in the street and make ridiculous demands. They went to the home of one of our MAF families and demanded receipts for every month back to the 1990’s, when this family has only been here since about 2006. They came back later with a soldier carrying an automatic weapon and a big cable cutter to cut their power and it took some persuasion to get SNEL to give them more time to get receipts together. Their house is actually owned by MAF, so there is a paper trail to prove the bills have all been paid and eventually this should be straightened out, though they might be forced to pay some money. I just learned this morning that another MAF family is now being harassed. The electric company is even cutting power to people and businesses for not paying the supposed debts of previous tenants!

Will any of this money actually go back into repairing and maintaining the infrastructure? Or to pay the SNEL workers who aren’t at the top of the ladder? Probably not. The SNEL employees have little or no training, no uniforms or even ID badges, no proper tools. When there are repairs made to our line, we have to pay for the materials and labor. When will it end? When they finally upset someone who has more power and clout than the head of SNEL.

SNEL is not the bad guy though. Well, ok, they sort of are. But they aren’t. SNEL is only one piece in the puzzle of corruption and love of money; pawns in the hands of the real enemy. I know God can use this ugly problem for his glory. One missionary friend, when they went to her house to confront her, invited them in for a drink and presented the gospel to all of them in their own language. I don’t know how well it was received, but I know they heard it and the seeds have been planted. As I was thinking about all the people being forced to pay the debts of others, God reminded me that Jesus voluntarily paid my debt, and the debts of the SNEL officials. Please pray for them, that they will come to understand Who Jesus is and that He paid their debt, if they will only accept Him.

A fuse shortage can cause a short fuse

Fuse Box Panel (Photo credit: The Adventures of Kristin & Adam)

Emily is off school this week, so I scheduled some time off for Daniel and was eagerly anticipating some free time to catch up on laundry, sewing/quilting, and scrap booking - not necessarily in that order.  SNEL, our electric company, did not agree with my agenda.

Power here comes into the house in three phases. For those of you who, like me, know virtually nothing about wiring and electricity, each phase is a wire coming into our circuit box.  Each wire supplies 220 volt power to various breaker switches.  It is not uncommon here for one phase to randomly go out or have voltage that is too low and therefore bad for appliances and electronics.  When that happens, my handy-dandy husband makes a "bridge" in the circuit box to join two main breakers to one good phase.  It means I might have to turn off the hot water heater if I want to run the dryer but hey, I can live with that.

For over a week now, when we have power, it has been only one phase, and that phase has been coming in at only 140 to 170 volts.  Power for the whole neighborhood has been going off before 7am and staying off until late evening.  Last night when the power came on, we had two phases!  For two minutes!  Seriously.  After two minutes we were down to one phase again.  One minute later we had nothing. I called my friend down the street.  She had power, which meant that as usual, it was just my little section of road.

We have been told by a new neighbor who came in and did some research that our line is older than this country is.  It was put in while the Belgians were still in control.  The switches in the cabine where our transformer is located are all rotted so no one can even use them anymore.  The fuses for our street were missing completely and someone had hot-wired a bypass.  We are paying for new fuses, $25 each for three of them (one for each phase), and hoping our neighbors will pitch in toward the cost but in the past they have refused.  The fuses aren't the problem.  When we do have power, even though we always only have one phase, it's never the same one.  The bypass was probably put there because fuses were blowing left and right, but the only way to find out for certain is to try putting in fuses and wiring it correctly.

We've been told that our line is nothing but bits and pieces and will only get worse.  It is so bad that the new neighbor paid thousands of dollars to get permits and have the electric company move his house to a different line.  I gotta tell you that when someone who actually knows something about the situation and about the way things work here says something like that to you, it does dampen your spirits a little.

We have a missionary friend who has spent countless hours trying to help us, even though she lives on the "good section" of our line and often has power when we don't.  She is arranging a meeting today with a representative of the electric company and has invited the women of the neighborhood.  I plan to be there!  Please keep not just our family, but our neighborhood in your prayers.

The 52 Challenge

image created with Crisp Linens kit by Kathy Woolery of Scrapbook Max!

This week is topsy turvy. I am homeschooling a couple of extra children this week, beginning yesterday, so I went to the orphanage Monday instead of my usual Friday in order to give them a consistent schedule. We took a few toys with us and when the staff saw them they brought out more toys from storage so there would be plenty to go around. We had one of those "See and Say" toys where you pull the handle and it makes animal sounds to match the pictures. The kids liked that but they were more interested in their discovery that the holes on the back where the toy was screwed together were just the right size for all their used lollipop sticks. Sort of like tinker toys. As always we had fun. I was mostly over my illness but still fatigued and those giggles were good medicine!

We are grateful no one else in the family caught my illness! Please pray for our electricity. Once again the electric company has simply cut the line to our street altogether because they didn't want to come out and fix the problem. We have friends trying to help but don't know how long it will take. It can vary here from a few hours to several weeks.

I found a blog this weekend that began a challenge in January to memorize a Bible verse each week for a year. I know it's February but the author encouraged readers to join the challenge any time and just continue until we learn 52 verses. So who is up for a challenge? Check out The 52 Challenge.  I am going to begin with this one:

Isaiah 41:13 - "For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, 'Do not fear; I will help you.'"

I love the image this verse gives of God taking hold of my hand.  As a parent, I remember taking the hands of my children when they were little to help them navigate without falling if the pavement was rough, to keep them from straying into dangers like traffic or crowds, and to make them feel secure.  When I tell my kids not to be afraid and that I will help them, it is because I mean it.  I am watching out for them and protecting them and I desire for them to trust me.  I can picture God telling me "I've got this," and taking my hand to guide me and keep me from stumbling, whether through my dark house and neighborhood because the power is out, or through the darkness, chaos and oppression of this crazy world we live in.  And I'm reminded that when He tells me not to fear, it is because He will help me.  He's in control.  He's holding my hand, and He's "got my back."

Filling Holes

Our kids were given a 3-D puzzle of a world globe a few months ago, and they decided last week to put it together. The pieces all look very similar, so it is important to follow the instructions in order to be able to assemble it correctly. Daniel and Emily made a mistake or two, and eventually reached a point where they were “stuck”.  My husband inspected it, moved some pieces around, and after a while announced with a grin: “There, I’ve fixed Africa. I guess we can go home now.” We noticed a few pieces are missing and I commented, “our world still has some holes in it.” There is even a hole right at the western edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo, ironically. We know that all of us are born with a “hole” that only God can fill to make us complete, but this was a visual reminder of how many, even some who are Christians, still live each day trying to fill holes in their lives. Throughout the week I noticed holes everywhere. The electric company dug numerous holes up and down our road in search of the damaged spot in the cable, and didn’t bother filling them.  There is a hole across my road that a neighbor dug which makes the road completely impassable, so everyone has to drive out of their way to get to their destinations. Don’t we sometimes go to great efforts to avoid dealing with our holes? Or struggle needlessly because of them? People here like to fill potholes with trash, rocks, whatever is at hand, thinking they've "fixed it" when the reality is that it is likely to do more harm to vehicles than the original problem. We do that also, substituting inferior, temporal things for the satisfaction that we can have in Christ. The kids at the orphanage I visited had holes in their clothing. I decided to cut my own hair, so now it has holes of its own. I spent several minutes yesterday plugging holes in our bathroom walls with aluminum foil in an effort to bar the giant roaches from coming in. The physical holes I see bring to mind the spiritual and emotional holes that surround me in this city of 11 million people who spend their lives trying to fill them. Isaiah 55:2 says “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy: Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” A holey heart can only be satisfied by a Holy God. Pray that the people of Kinshasa will hear God calling their hearts to Him and find satisfaction and the Bread of Life!

Adventures in Cableland

The photo was taken just yesterday, in the lot behind our church. Friday night Josh's choir had a performance, which we all enjoyed very much. Their performance was part of a fundraiser for a local orphanage, so the admission fee was a donation of food or cash. From the looks of things, they had a very good response. Josh got news from one of the colleges he applied to that he has been accepted. Please pray for a really good financial aid offer!

On Tuesday, Christine was hosting a Bible study for the ladies in her church and invited me. There were several ladies, maybe 15 or 20. Some of them spoke French with me, but the study was in Lingala, and so were the songs. I got to sing "Holy, Holy, Holy" in Lingala. I had no idea what I was actually singing, but because I know the hymn, I knew the heart meaning of the song and was still able to worship with them. I enjoyed meeting the ladies and they invited us to visit their church. Since Josh plays guitar for our church, I'm not sure when I'll get the chance, but I would like to visit one Sunday. Since I don't know Lingala, I'm sure it would be a bit out of my comfort zone, but I'm the world's biggest chicken, so everything is.

One day last week I woke up to a strange noise. Our voltage regulator was going crazy. The electricity comes to our house in three phases. When I checked them, the first two phases were dead and the third phase was getting 343 volts and climbing. I shut the breaker switches off to the house, but not in time. Our a/c got fried. Thanks to some help from a friend here, we discovered that the cable down the road had burned up and about three meters of it needed replacing. I use French every single day here, and get along fairly well most of the time, but these guys from the electric company were using a lot of vocabulary that I didn't know yet and speaking plenty fast, so I was very grateful for my friend, Christine. She speaks Lingala and spoke with them in my behalf. We learned that here in Congo, when a cable burns, the electric company does not pay for it. Nor do they pay their workers to repair it. The affected neighborhood has to pool together and share the expense, and the labor costs. We were told up front that on our street, there is only one other person who is ever willing to pitch in toward these types of repairs, and he is out of the country right now. Our other neighbors had bigger generators and more money for fuel, so they were willing to wait until we caved in and paid for the whole thing. Which we did, because we wanted electricity. The good news is that our power is better now than it was before all this happened. We actually have all three phases when the power is on, and the voltage is better. The power situation over all is improving also. For a long time, we only had power for a few hours in the middle of the night. Now we are having power almost every night and every other day. When I lived in the U.S., having electricity only every second day would not thrill me, but here it makes me very happy! I wish I could take a photo of the "new" cable for you. You wouldn't believe it! It doesn't look anything like what the utility companies do in the states.