Oh, Passion, My Passion

I wasn't sure what to write about this week, but in the span of a few days the word "passion" kept cropping up so I'll run with that and see what happens.  I was ordering produce from Papa Joseph on Monday and asked him what fruit is in season right now.  He said "maracuja," which means passion fruit.

Passion fruit flowers are stunning! I read that they received their name from missionaries, who were reminded by the flower of the passion of Christ.  The three stigmas represent three nails.  The "threads" of the flower represent the crown of thorns.  The purple represents the purple robe used to mock Jesus. The five petals and five sepals represent the ten disciples who remained faithful to Jesus throughout the Passion.

I used to confuse passion and exuberance.  I thought if I was passionate about Jesus, I had to show it by worshiping, speaking, and acting exuberantly.  But that just wasn't in line with my personality so I thought I had no passion and I felt guilty.  Then I met my introvert husband, who is far less exuberant than I am, but has a deep passion for Christ. I came to understand that passion does indeed compel us to action, but it doesn't require us to be something other than ourselves.  I was house cleaning yesterday and had my Selah cd playing.  Passion came to my mind once again as this song played:

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones, died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o’er them from the throne!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!
’Tis an ocean full of blessing, ’tis a haven giving rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, ’tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee!  - S. Trevor Francis

Now that's passion!  I love that hymn, and had to stop what I was doing and just absorb it.  

I had never tried passion fruit so I ordered some from Papa Joseph.  We didn't even know how to eat it.  Emily told us that she sees people at school just scoop out the pulp, seeds and all, and eat it with a spoon.  So, at supper one night we tried it.  Oh my, it was tart! Everyone had a good laugh at the faces we made.  I decided to try baking something with them. I figured if a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down then a cup of sugar ought to help us eat our passion fruit.  I combined a few recipes I found on the internet and ended up with passion fruit muffins.

Passion fruit muffins:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
pulp from three passion fruits
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup milk

Glaze: 

1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbs melted butter
pulp from one or two passion fruits

I just mixed all the dry ingredients first and then stirred in the wet ingredients.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until done.  Add glaze when muffins have cooled.  Half of us liked them, including one of the cats.  She stole my breakfast muffin yesterday.

Nsango Na Bomoi, part 3

This post is the final part of a three part story.  For the whole story, see Nsango Na Bomoi, part 1 and Nsango Na Bomoi, part 2. 

After church, we decided to visit one of the members, Mosengo.  Mosengo and his wife had a baby a few weeks ago -- a perfect excuse for a visit in any culture.  He lives very close to the church, which was nice, because we couldn't have driven to his home.  

First we had to cross the creek behind the church.  This is accomplished by walking across on a two by four that is supported in the center by a large rock.  This is a classic example of the service driven economy here.  People needed to cross the creek, so a man bought a board and made a "bridge." Now people pay him to let them cross the creek on his bridge.  He lets people cross for free to go to church, though.

photo courtesy of Christine Grings

I mentioned in part 1 of this story that this neighborhood has not had city water in over a month. Because of that, people take water from this creek, which is not healthy.  If you click on this photo and enlarge it you can see the trash that is literally everywhere.  Also the creek is downhill from sewage and a cemetery.  Some well-meaning visitors from America came once and saw all the trash all over and decided that people just needed trash cans.  So they provided some, but there was no service in the city to remove garbage. When the cans filled up, people just dumped them on the ground nearby and started filling them again.  

photo courtesy of Christine Grings

After we crossed the creek, we had to walk down this road.  This is one of the nicer, wider sections.  There were rocks, puddles, chickens and pigs to watch out for.  Usually when you see one of these umbrellas, the person attending it is selling some kind of food or supplies.

photo courtesy of Christine Grings

This yard is about the size of my living room and is shared by Mosengo's family and two others.  This is where all the kids play, where the families work, cook and eat, and where they hang laundry.  I wish I had taken a photo of the front of the "house" for you but my camera batteries were dying.

Each building has three front doors.  Each door represents one apartment and consists of two rooms, each about the size of a large bathroom in the U.S.  There are few windows, if any, for light or ventilation.  They are wired for electricity but seldom have any.  There is no indoor plumbing.  The families share a community outhouse.  This is pretty typical of the housing for most of Kinshasa's families.  Mosengo was overjoyed that we paid a visit and told us so repeatedly. In Congo one in every ten babies does not live to its fifth birthday and this family has already lost two infants.

photo courtesy of Christine Grings

Now for the creepy part of my post.  To get to Nsango Na Bomoi church, we had to navigate a crazy road that borders a very old, very large, and very overcrowded cemetery.  Years of rainy seasons have taken their toll on the road and the land around it, causing a lot of erosion.  On the way in to the church we were discussing all  this and Christine said she was surprised that no bones had ever washed out with the rains.  On the way out, we spotted a bone!  Christine took this photo from the car window!  Now we wonder how long it will be before bones are found laying in the road after each storm.









Last but not least, I have a little treat for you.  It took several hours but I managed to upload a video of one of the songs from the church service so you can hear a little bit of Lingala and see a little bit of what it was like.  I had to cut the song so it's just a portion but it's about putting on the full armor of God.  Here are the lyrics and the translation too so you can even learn the song for yourself!

Pesa satana millimetre, (Give Satan a millimeter,)

akojua kilometre (he will get a kilometer.) 2x

Keba! (Watch out!)

Senjela! (Be vigilant!)

Bondela! (Pray!)

Lata (Put on...)

bilato na bitumba ya satana. (the armor of war against Satan.)

Yango nde Ephesiens 6. (This is Ephesians 6.)

The end.

Nsango Na Bomoi, part 2

If you are new to this blog you can find Nsango Na Bomoi, part 1 HERE.

We rode to church with the Grings family and arrived early so Dan could set up tarps and sound/video equipment in order to show photos from his recent trip.  He and one of the deacons had gone to a village in the interior where a new church is being planted.  

First everyone assembled together to sing praises.

After the singing, we went to Sunday School.  Daniel went to class with his friends Timothy and Anna.  No matter how often Daniel tries to be inconspicuous here in Congo, it never works.  He is easily spotted in almost any crowd.   

David went to the men's class.  Emily and I went to the women's class with Christine.  Some of the ladies and I recognized each other from my visits to Christine's Bible study group, which was fun.  They had been inviting me to visit their church and I think they were pleased that I finally had done it.

Some of the smaller children went to class with their moms.  They were curious about the mundele visitors and watched us constantly.

The worship service was in Lingala, but otherwise it was very similar to a service in the U.S. except that it took longer.  The Congolese culture is not as time oriented as ours.  A twenty minute sermon is unheard of. 

There was Scripture reading, prayer, and music - lots and lots of music.

Dan preached, then shared about his trip.  I was wishing I knew Lingala because the congregation seemed to thoroughly enjoy his sermon and his story.  I did get part of the "English version" from Christine.  

But wait! There's more!  To be continued...

Nsango Na Bomoi, part 1

Some of the primary school students at Mayele Na Bomoi;
 photo courtesy of Christine Grings.

I started to make this just one post but I took SO many photos and want to tell the whole story, so I am going to break it up into two or three posts.

On Sunday we visited a local church called Nsango Na Bomoi (news of life).  The pastor is our good friend Dan Grings, and the church, along with a school called Mayele Na Bomoi (wisdom of life), was planted here by his uncle Mark Grings.  The service was almost entirely in Lingala with a few French words thrown in here and there, but we still enjoyed meeting the people and worshiping with them.  I recognized several ladies from the Bible study group!  Here are some highlights and photos.

building project

Currently the church meets in the school building while they are building the sanctuary.  It is slow-going because this is a poor neighborhood and the members are paying for the building themselves, but when they finish, it will be theirs. 










This shows the ground floor.  The second story will be the actual sanctuary and will stretch back to the hill side behind the project site.

There are twelve classrooms in the school building, which are also used for Sunday School.  

Classrooms

We estimated the classrooms to be about fifteen feet by fifteen feet.  From morning til noon, 800 students from kindergarten through sixth grade meet in those twelve rooms.  During the afternoon, the younger students go home and another 800 students from 7th grade though high school meet in those same rooms.

one of the classrooms

There are no textbooks. Everything is written on a chalkboard and copied by the students.  This is pretty typical of any school here in Congo because there is such a shortage of schools, teachers, and supplies. Mayele Na Bomoi is required to use the government curriculum, but at least the school is also allowed to teach the gospel.  Pastor Dan conducts chapel at the school for all the students.

Chapel
photo courtesy of Christine Grings

The community the school and church serve has not had city water in at least a month and the people have to walk a long way to get water each day.  Please keep them in your prayers.

To be continued.....

How much is it worth?

KJV Bible (Photo credit: knowhimonline)

Meet Lily!  Piper was always fighting with Elliot, and peeing on my favorite chair, so we found a new home for her and kept one of her kittens for the kids (and for me).  I wanted to name her Kevyn, but the kids kept complaining about it so her name is Lily.  Her secret spy name is Kevyn though.  Lily really knows how to "chill out."

Thursday evening I got to help Christine with her Bible study for her church ladies.  Christine taught a lesson from the "wordless book" and then we helped the ladies make Bible bookmarks with ribbon markers representing the same colors.  She had never done a craft with the ladies and they needed a lot of assistance but were very pleased with their finished products!  

It was "Bible night," meaning those who came could take home a new Bible in their choice of French or Lingala.  No one was going to be refused a Bible regardless of their means, but the ladies had been asked to pray and trust God and bring whatever God provided for them to use to buy a Bible.  I saw at least two ladies somberly offer 500 franc notes for their Bibles.  That's a little over 50 cents in U.S. currency.  It doesn't sound like much unless you know that many of these ladies are widows, most of them have several children, and the per capita income in this country last year was $210 for the entire year (Source: U.S. Dept. of State).  I thought about my expensive study Bible and how much it cost.  If David and I each earned $3 a day, spent $40 a month on rent, and had to pay for transportation, feed and cloth our children, and pay their school fees with the remainder, how much would I be willing to spend on a Bible?  Any amount would be a sacrifice, but how much do I really treasure God's Word?  I'm so grateful for these women who treasure God's Word and want to know Him better!

"Holy Bible, Book divine, Precious Treasure, thou art mine." - John Burton

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.

I Did THIS for YOU!

Of all the frequently heard sounds in our home: laughter, talking, movies/games, kittens, etc; there is one sound I hate to hear.  I don’t know how to describe it, but if you’ve ever heard it you will know what I’m talking about – that nasty popping noise that occurs when an appliance or electrical outlet “blows up.”  Twice this week we’ve turned on a light switch and heard the “pop” while sparks rained down from the light fixture to the floor.  This morning I lost my kitchen outlet while brewing coffee.  So, in a week’s time we are down two lights and our outlet.  

Yesterday I had to deliver two of our kittens to TASOK so they could go home with their new owners.  We just got a new MAF family this week, the Linds, and I invited Lisa to come along and eat lunch on the campus.  On the way home the car broke down again.  Welcome to Congo, Lisa.  I was very grateful that we were within sight of the house when it happened, but a bit disappointed.  The breakdown meant two things for me. First, David and two friends of ours spent all that time working on it and the problem still isn’t repaired.  Second, I won’t be going to the orphanage for a while.  The car can’t make it that far.  To add to the day’s adventure, my daughter came home with one of the kittens.  The boy who was supposed to get the kitten couldn’t take it home because his father had neglected to tell their driver, who refused to allow it in the car.  

The school musical is finally finished.  Emily had both acting and singing parts in the musical and did a wonderful job.  Yes, I am biased, but she really did do wonderfully!  I imagine that David and I looked pretty goofy sitting in the audience with our big grins and beaming faces.   She is already focusing on her next extra-curricular activity: auditioning for the school talent show and assisting Mrs. Francis with the auditions for the elementary school students.  

Tomorrow our church is meeting at sunrise by the Congo River.  Sunrises make me feel hopeful and expectant.  It’s like opening a present on your birthday and finding inside a gift that someone lovingly made with you in mind.  Tomorrow I get to look out over the vast Congo River as the sun plays on the water, coloring the clouds, and think not just about this beautiful world God made, but also about the sacrifice Jesus made, and in my spirit hear Him saying “I did THIS for YOU!”  Have a wonderful Easter! 

Secret, Secret, I've Got a Secret

Bert and Ernie: Let me tell you a secret / 20090917.10D.53994.P1 / SML (Photo credit: See-ming Lee 李思明 SML)

I am supposed to write a "teaser" to capture your interest and make you want to go read my article that was posted today on the MAF BLOG. The problem is, even when I am writing, I talk too much. Every time I try to write a teaser about an article, I end up writing a whole new article about the article. So! Please consider yourself teased and click on the link above to read what secret God has been teaching me lately.

Six THOUSAND Words

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a recap in pictures of what we've been up to.  There are six photos, so I figure this is a 6,000 word essay.  The photo above was taken at the orphanage in Kimbondo by Daniel.  This week we had great power and terrible water.  As the days went by with still no city water we kept conserving, and the laundry piled up.  Then on Thursday we finally had water coming in again so by default it instantly became laundry day.  The goal was to finish as much as possible before the power or water shut off. We ended up losing both, but not before six loads of clothing were finished!  I am grateful not just for the clothing we have and the ability to get it washed, but also that I don't have as much laundry to do as you see in the photo.  Hundreds of kids means the laundry is NEVER done!

We found a home for one of our kittens (not the one pictured).  We still have four left and really can't keep them so please pray for good homes for the kitties.

Tuesday evening our ladies Bible study group had a potluck with a Mexican theme to celebrate having completed our latest book study.  Two in our group have furloughs this summer and others will be traveling so we are likely taking a break for a while.

We've been reading Henry Reed, Inc. in school together.  Daniel enjoys the author's sense of humor and relates well to the main character, Henry Reed, because in the story Henry is an expat who has spent most of his life abroad.  As a family we've been reading Monster in the Hollows out loud.  This is the third in a series by Andrew Peterson and we've thoroughly enjoyed them all.  They are full of adventure, humor, and virtue.  The author is the same Andrew Peterson who wrote my favorite Christmas album Behold the Lamb of God.

We went to the orphanage Friday and played with the kids! 

Since I couldn't do laundry, I took advantage of the electricity and worked on my quilt project.  I finished 64 4-patches, 16 9-patches, and 64 quarter square triangles.  

What Not to Pray for Your Missionary

praying (Photo credit: ater_unda)

Today I feel compelled to share someone else's blog post with you.  At times, especially during the recent elections, people have said things to us like:

"When are you going to get this out of your system?"
"It's time for you to come home."
"It's too unstable there, maybe you should go someplace else where it's safer."
"We're praying you home."
"There's plenty of work for you here at home."
etc, etc, etc

I know that these comments were made because we are so deeply loved and because others are concerned about us.  We don't take offense or get angry.  In fact, we take it as a reminder that many people care about us and pray for us!  But we do get discouraged.

Since the author of Inky'Spot said it much better than I could, please read her post "Dont Pray Us Home."  I love her quote by D.L. Moody.  She has listed some ways you can pray for us (and for her!) and encourage us.  I'll just add a little bit to her list.  Don't pray us "home," but it is absolutely OK, and a good thing, to pray for times of rest and refreshment for us, to pray for a "getaway" once in a while.  Pray also that we will be an encouragement to others!

We love you all.  We pray for you and appreciate you.  And we need each one of you.

nb