A Month in Liberia

This is a picture of our new home. We live in the right half. We have been here a month now and are adjusting well to the new home, the new culture, and to a new organization. David is the full-time aircraft mechanic for Samaritan's Purse here in Liberia. The week we arrived co-incided with the Liberian Thanksgiving so the first couple of days there was no work for David and no school for Daniel and we got to focus on just settling in. 

David jumped right in at the hangar. He has lots of experience already on Caravans so that is coming in handy. And he is learning about helicopters, both a challenge and a neat opportunity. 

There are lots of different ministries taking place here at various times. This week a Samaritan's Purse medical team is here for the cleft lip project. One of David's first tasks at the hangar was installing a new gear on the Caravan. All of the guys worked together on it in order to have it airworthy in time to fly patients in for surgery. Daniel and I got to be involved in small ways also. He and some classmates have spent time playing with the kids who are waiting for their surgeries and I got to bake cookies for the team lunches. The cleft lip project is an amazing ministry. Please pray for the surgeons and everyone else involved, and that the patients and families will not only be changed physically and socially, but also spiritually. Here is a link to a video that tells more about the project: Just click HERE. 

I've already had an opportunity to use my sewing machine. A group of us got together to sew gift bags. These will be filled and given as gifts to upcoming graduates of Project Ruth. This ministry reaches out to ebola widows and utilizes grief counseling, job skills training, and micro-loans to help them with starting over. It was a neat opportunity for me to learn a little about another ministry I didn't previously know of, and to get to know some of the Samaritan's Purse ladies better while doing something to help out. I have joined a women's Bible study group, which I really enjoy and it has helped me meet people here.

Daniel is one flexible kid. He really liked his old school in Congo. He also really likes his new school here. There are people and things he misses, but he has found and embraced things he likes about being here and has adapted well. He loves living near the coast and getting to go to the beach. He likes that school doesn't start until 8:30 am. He quickly made friends and honestly, we don't see much of him because he is too busy doing things with his new friends and youth group to sit around the house. 

Filling in and Chilling With the Girls

Photo courtesy of Mark and Kelly Hewes

Yesterday I went to the Bandal center to work with the ladies. Nothing unusual about that, except that I went without Jill. Nothing especially unusual about that either, except that instead of going to just pop in and say hello or to give out birthday treats, I was going there to get some work done. I am accustomed to having Jill around to tell me what she needs done, to help with any language barriers, and to organize our time. Jill is on a trip though, and things needed doing, so I put on my big girl britches and took myself to the center to see what I could do.

I checked on the progress of ongoing projects - whether they were completed, what problems they may have been having getting them completed, what items needed to be paid for and/or delivered, etc. They were just putting finishing touches on one project as I walked in, so after leaving the center I got to make a delivery to a happy customer.

I also enjoyed having a chance to ask how the ladies themselves were doing, to visit with them for a while, and to meet some new students from the Mitendi Center who have now joined us at Bandal. They were so much more shy and timid than the ladies I have been working with over the past year or so. They didn't even want to say their names loud enough for me to hear, so Elie had to repeat each one. It will be fun to watch them grow in their confidence and abilities, and I am praying that the more experienced ladies will take them under their wings and give them lots of help and moral support. Mama Jackie and Mama Elie will nurture them and be there to give them spiritual guidance as well as professional instruction.

photo courtesy of Mark and Kelly Hewes

Cool Beans In Our Garden

We went to the Mitendi center today to deliver some fabric, sewing supplies, and paint. We also took pictures of the wall that people have been intentionally knocking down and destroying. 

Every time I return to Mitendi Center, more wall has been destroyed and it really saddens me. We used to have a nice five-foot tall wall. Now it is mostly in pieces on the ground, and there is no protection from squatters, thieves or garden-raiding wild animals.

It also saddens and angers me that people have come and built homes on land that is not theirs.

There are important dates coming up in the land case, so please continue praying for the judges to make a just decision soon.

Even though the long-going land case can at times be discouraging, some really coolbeans stuff is happening at the Mitendi Center and the Bandal Center so there are also lots of reasons to rejoice and be thankful.

The girls at Mitendi are learning to grow a garden. This helps offset the food costs and gives them knowledge that will serve them well when they graduate and go out on their own. Working hard, waiting for results, and reaping the reward also gives them a feeling of accomplishment and something to be proud of.

One of the foods they have been growing is Mbwengi, similar to black-eyed peas and very easy to prepare.

 The ladies in our internship program at Bandal have been learning to make cushions and covers for furniture and throw pillows. 

This is harder than you might think because most of the time when you purchase a couch or a set of furniture here, none of the cushions are the same size or even symmetrical so each piece has to be custom-fitted, whereas in the U.S. they would all be identical and one pattern would work for everything. It is a good skill to have because there is always a demand for new upholstery and pillow covers. 

A New Project

photo by Jill Lowery

For those who've been praying for the Mitendi Center and the court case, here is an update. In last week's post, I mentioned a need for prayer for Thursday's court date. The opposition requested, and was granted, a continuance, so everything has been pushed to next Thursday - Thanksgiving Day. That is not a Congolese holiday so that date was not significant to them, but my American friend who directs this ministry now has to spend her holiday sitting in a courtroom. Please continue praying for the center and for a right and just decision by the courts. And also pray for Jill, that in all this God will strengthen her, give her wisdom, and grant her a thankful heart, encouragement, and contentment in all situations.

We have been working on a new project with the girls at Bandal. These girls are graduates of the Mitendi Center and are in sort of an internship or apprenticeship phase, continuing to build their repertoire of sewing skills and improve them while earning money to support themselves. The new project is a request for several small, lined, zippered bags.

Many of them already have experience making zippered bags but we wanted everyone to use the same technique, follow the same pattern and sequence of steps, and practice precision. So we held a couple of workshops this week and last week, showing them how to do everything from tracing the pattern and cutting to doing the zippers and corners. They did the work, we just walked them through it. Then we supervised while they made more to be sure they "got it" and to help with any problems. 

In the states, our culture equates professionalism with quality workmanship and a high work ethic. It is not quite the same here. In addition to honing their skills, the interns are also being taught the value of correcting their mistakes, that customers will pay more for quality products and take their business elsewhere if workmanship is poor, and that ultimately their success is up to them. It is sometimes a not-so-fun part of their training, but it is for their own good.




Daniel usually does school work when I am at the Center, but he tagged along this week so we put him to work, which the girls found amusing.








I have spent enough time with these young women now that they feel comfortable making jokes and sharing laughs with me. Jill and I had spent a day going through all the steps and figuring out the best way to teach them to make these bags. We even made tiny prototypes so that we could show them how the zipper and corners ought to be done and how it should look. They thought our little bags were funny and jokingly told us we earned a "zero" grade on our work, but in the end it really helped them to have a visual example to study.

Cool Beans In My Luggage!

The other night Daniel and my nephew accidentally spilled popcorn in my open suitcase. Today it is filled with blessings instead of butter.

These are gifts for the orphanage and the Mitendi Women's Center. Some items are still yet to arrive! I have amazing, generous friends and I am grateful to all who donated to make this possible. You know who you are. Dry season is beginning, bringing cooler temperatures, so the blankets and caps will mean a lot to the little ones at the orphanage. The yarn and sewing supplies will help the girls at the Mitendi Center learn to sew and crochet to earn a living. There was even some money donated that will go into the scholarship fund to the Mitendi Women's Center! 

Daniel and I leave for Congo early Friday morning and will arrive late Saturday evening. I am still having problems with my ear infection and residual coughing from the bronchitis so would appreciate prayer for no ear pain and no coughing fits that cause anxiety for my neighbors on the plane, as well as safety and that all of our bags arrive on time, undamaged, and with nothing missing. Can't wait to see David. 

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. 

When You Know Where To Look

They say an elephant never forgets. Not being an elephant, I forget things all the time. I would blame my age or my health but I have always been forgetful AND unorganized - a deadly combination. My poor husband has not gone a day without hearing "where's my?" or "have you seen?" since he married me. 

My mom used to encourage me to be more organized and to put things away before I moved on to the next distraction. She would tell me: "It's easy to find when you know where to look." If I put things in sensible places, it would be easy to find them when I needed them. 

This past week has been a stellar memory week total memory fail. I spent at least an hour looking for this so I could work on some quilt block ideas for the Mitendi Center. Just about the time I told myself that if the girls at the center can cut fabric without a rotary cutter then I jolly well can too, I finally found them.

I also spent an hour (or two) looking for the receipts from last month's water and electric bills. Now utility receipts are one thing I never lose because it is a humongo hassle here if for some random reason the utility company decides to claim you never pay your bills and threatens to cut you off and you can't produce your receipts. But I couldn't find them anywhere. Later as I was going through a shelf I saw a folder I didn't remember the purpose of and opened it to find our utility receipts. Then I remembered selecting that folder specifically for keeping the receipts in so that they would be easy to find if I ever needed them. Aaagh! 

My family and close friends, if you are reading this, I know you are shaking your heads at me but are not at all surprised. 

Not being able to find things isn't always my fault. We went downtown on Saturday to shop for a phone for my birthday. At the first store we tried, an employee told us that the phone I wanted but wasn't willing to pay their price for could be purchased at a significant savings if we bought it at a different store. He even called ahead to make sure the phone was in stock and to guarantee the price. Then he told us where to go. 

We thought we understood his directions but we ended up in a part of the city where there were lots of police (not a good thing in Congo) and after going down several ONE WAY streets the wrong way (in our defense, they were not labeled) and having no success finding the store, we decided to just head home. As we turned a corner to get back out on the main road, lo and behold, there was our store! It's easy to find when you know where to look, which we didn't.

After we got home I wanted to finish what I had begun with my sewing, so once I concluded my search for the iron, I managed to do these. Both are a type of crazy quilt square. I am not sure yet how I will use them.

I am so glad I DO know where to look when I need peace, direction, comfort, strength, or forgiveness. I don't have to search frantically for Jesus because He is always with me and He never loses his own. I just have to call out his name. 

Stopping to Smell the Ginger

Hawaiian ginger growing in my yard

Some highlights and events I experienced since my last post:

My Hawaiian ginger bloomed in the yard. They smell amazing! I know my guards think I am crazy, for lots of reasons, one being that when the ginger blooms every couple of months, I go around the yard smelling all the blossoms and taking pictures like I've never seen it before. I pretty well cemented that notion when I picked some one day and told my guard to smell it. Ha, ha, ha, you should have seen his expression! But he did smell it, and he did admit it smelled nice. 

I went back to the Mitendi Center and the Bandal Center with Jill. This young lady is making a table cloth to fill a customer order - mine! I can't wait to get my new table cloth and contrasting napkins. 

I am praying and giving thought to how God might want to involve me with the centers and these young women.



David and I both had birthdays, so our family went out for dinner one evening. Our conversation over dinner turned to Daniel's schooling and Daniel told his dad we were studying the Great Migration. Being a humble home educator, I decided to show off Daniel's knowledge and asked him to tell his dad the difference between migration and immigration. He replied that migration is when you move some where and immigration is when you water your crops. I am a great teacher.  

David had to go to Europe for a week for training on one of our engines. While he was gone, I visited with some friends, though not as many as I had planned to. I also wrote a post for the MAF blog (coming soon), worked on our newsletter (also coming soon), and cleaned out my email boxes. In one box, I am ashamed to say, I had mail dating back to 2008. I didn't completely finish the job because I kept finding good stuff to read in there. Kind of like when you start cleaning a closet and you find old photos you forgot you had and you are compelled to stop everything and look through them. I am glad I did. I found letters from dear friends who have been praying for us since we first signed on with MAF, before we even knew where we were going to end up serving. They are still praying for us! It was very encouraging to come across that reminder and it meant so much to me that I had to write to them and tell them.

My friend Christine has a little apartment and invited Daniel and me to stay there and be part of their family while David was gone. It was nice to have air-conditioning almost the entire time and to get to spend some time with her. We had been missing each other since I don't have a car and no longer live close enough to walk to her house.

When I arrived home, we found this little guy (or gal?) hiding in our electric box.

Our electric box is not exactly the safest playground for a kitten, so we shooed him out and blocked the door to keep him out. I asked our guard where he came from since we have eight foot walls around our house. He said the mother cat carried five kittens over the wall, one at a time, so that they could all eat my cat's food, which was on the porch during my absence. She had taken four of them back and left this little one. She came back for him a few hours later. Glad I could help out that tired momma for a few days.

Finding Hope in Mitendi

Last week, Daniel and I spent a couple of days with Jill Lowery to learn more about her missionary role here in Kinshasa. I got to know Jill a little better, learn about the heart God has given her for Congo, AND - I got to see first-hand a ministry that is changing lives! God isn't just working in the bush where our MAF pilots fly every day. He is also at work right here in Kinshasa and the surrounding area.

As a missionary with the Congolese Baptist Community, Jill works with two centers. The first is called Mitendi Women's Center, or Marie Mattie Women's Center and is about a 45 minute drive from my home, in a neighborhood that is impoverished even by third world standards. Marie Mattie was the first Congolese woman to graduate from college here and had a vision for helping women. This center is a two-year residential program for girls at high risk of exploitatioin or prostitution. In addition to the women's ministry, they also operate the Marie Mattie Complexe Scolaire, a school for kindergarten through sixth grade for at risk and vulnerable kids. These are kids who otherwise would not be able to attend school. If you want to know more about what the terms "at risk"  and "vulnerable" mean when applied to children and teens, there is an explanation HERE.

When we arrived, our first sight was all the little school kids standing under a shade tree. I got my camera out and immediately a few kids noticed and started "posing."

Then more kids noticed.

And MORE! This took less than ten seconds. They were all smiles and excitement...

...until the teacher blew his whistle. 

He led them in a couple of marching songs to help them get rid of their wiggles before they headed back into their classrooms. Wish you could have been there - they were SO CUTE!

We were allowed to visit the classrooms, and in each one the entire class stood and sang a welcome song for their visitors. This has happened to me in the orphanages and other schools I have visited. It is very much a part of the culture here and even some adult groups have sung welcome songs for me.

In the Women's Center, many of the young ladies have not had much opportunity for education, so they are taught literacy, basic education, and French. They also learn skills which they can use to support themselves such as crochet, knitting, sewing, and restaurant work. It is a two-year, residential program. They also study the Bible and of course the primary goal is for these girls to come to know Christ and learn to trust in Him.

The day we visited, Mama Jackie was teaching sewing class.

The girls learn with hand-cranked sewing machines...

...and hand-drawn lessons, without patterns. 

The way our grandmothers and great-grandmothers did it.

Currently, funds are being raised and efforts are being made to build a protective wall around the center property to stop attempts to steal and sell off the land, to keep animals out of the vegetable gardens, and to increase the safety and security of the girls who live there. 

This gentleman had the task of getting water for mixing cement - a time consuming task when you have to draw the water by hand from a cistern with a homemade bucket and funnel.

The next day we visited the second center, Marie Mattie Maison de Couture. This center is an extension of the first one, sort of an internship program so that when the ladies graduate from the two-year program, they have a chance to refine their skills and earn money while doing it. On the days that Mama Jackie is not at the Women's Center, she is at the Maison de Couture. The "house of sewing" is in the city and has better power and electric sewing machines. Some are hand-crank machines that have been transformed into electric machines!

The ladies sew school uniforms, clothing, surgical drapes and bed coverings for hospitals, baby layettes, and more.

One of Jill's tasks is to inspect each completed item, since the girls are still in the learning process. Each intern then has to correct her mistakes before an item can be sold. This teaches them to take responsibility for and pride in their work and to understand the importance of doing one's best. It also reinforces the core verse for the center: Colossians 3:23-24, which says “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” 

Jill and Mama Jackie are always on the lookout for new things for the interns to make and sell, increasing their skills and their potential to earn a decent living for themselves. Here they are inspecting a quilted zipper pouch that I had with me so they could see how it was made. 

I am sure I left out something, or several somethings, about this vital ministry, so I have included links below to the Lowerys' web site and to a site with information about the center. I asked Jill if there are any specific ways to pray for the ministry and this is what she shared with me.

First: Pray that the girls will persevere and complete the program. They face many obstacles.                                                     Second: The greatest stress right now is getting the wall built and bringing an end to the problem with the man who is trying to sell off the land that belongs to the center. Pray that God gives favor over corrupt officials.                                                         Third: Pray for Mama Jackie for continued health. She has given her life for the ministry and without her, there would be no center.

Useful links:

Lowerys' Web Site

About The Fence Project