Mussolini for Dinner: Ten Cool Gifts!

tortellini (Photo credit: scottfeldstein)

When I feel down in the dumps, I often turn to the Psalms and to my favorite praise music, making them prayers from my heart to God as I read and sing. This past week as I was feeling discouraged and asking God for help, encouragement and direction, the Giver of All Good Things responded lovingly and generously, beyond what I deserve.  Here are some of the gifts I received this past week, in order of my random thought patterns.

1. New friends – I met a lovely Christian woman, her father, and her new son this week and got to spend a couple of hours getting to know them. They are passionate about missions and it was a real treat to get to connect with them.

2. Generosity – This same family brought enough clothing, formula, and medicine for the orphanage to fill my trunk! My daughter’s school had a drive for the orphanage also and collected lots of food, clothing, and toys. There were many other instances where I was blessed by seeing people show generosity toward others.

3. Letters from home (well, emails, really)! And an email from my son!

4. Unexpected help – We literally had no clue how to look for a house here or what questions to ask a potential landlord before we made a decision on a house. In our prayers we told God, “we don’t know what we are doing or where to look.”  He sent a friend with experience in house hunting to help us!

5. Pumpkin! – Our new friends brought us a few gifts also, including REAL PUMPKIN! We are all very excited about having pumpkin pie with real pumpkin. We did a little happy dance in the kitchen!

6. Electricity – I don’t understand how our old cable keeps going other than God must be sustaining it. We’ve had more than the usual amount of electricity and it has been a nice break.

7. Prayers – Lots of people have let us know they are praying for us! We know God hears and answers, and knowing that folks are praying is encouraging to us.

8. Closeness – As the housing options have been narrowed down, our family has had to talk a lot about what is important in a home to each of us, what is not important, how we are all feeling about everything here, and we have grown closer. It is always a gift when your child desires to share their heart with you, especially as they grow older and more independent.

9. Possibilities! – We don’t have a house yet, but we have a couple of possibilities! Both have pros and cons and neither one is a sure thing yet, but we finally have found a couple of places that we know we could make work for our family.

10. Humor – Always a great gift! I wish I were better at making others laugh. I am sure it looked pretty amusing to our guard and my family when the parrot escaped, as I tried to catch her without getting bit. She actually chased me across the porch trying to bite my toes! Picture a grown woman feeing from a naked, running parrot! And if you want to know how the mind of a boy works, just give him a stack of cards from an Apples to Apples game and listen to him as he goes through them:

“I thought Mussolini was a kind of noodle.”

“If Dick Cheney was our vice president, then who was the bad guy in True Grit?” (That would be the character Tom Chaney.)

After being told that Al Gore was vice president with President Clinton: “you mean Hillary?”

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. 

Candy Theology

We were excited to find Rolos at the store recently, then disappointed when we realized that these Rolos are different. They are square. I know, I know, they are still "chocolate covered caramel from end to end," but now the other part of the commercial jingle of my childhood - "you can roll a Rolo to your friend" -  is no longer true. At least not if I am in Congo buying Rolo candy from South Africa. Rolos are supposed to look like this:

Rolo original chocolate coated caramels, as sold in the UK (September 2006) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Those little square versions can't possibly contain as much caramel, so how can they be the Rolos I remember? I guess I can consider this a little reminder that things change sometimes. Change doesn't have to be a bad thing. I'm grateful to my core that I am not the same person I was back in the early 80's when I was in middle school and astronauts were singing about Rolos on TV. (If you don't know what I am talking about, you'll have to catch the commercial on YouTube.) I'm also thankful to know that God is still working on me and years from now I will not be the same person I am today.

More has changed than the shape of the candy. Across the top of the package is a declaration that this candy has no artificial colors, flavors, or preservative. It's all real. You could joke that candy companies are more transparent than some people are, but it is partly true. My "real-down-to-earth-what-you-see-is-what-you-get" friends are gold to me. 

In my childhood, there were only about six lines to that commercial jingle, and half of them were about rolling a piece of candy to your pal, your chum, or your friend. Nevermind what our moms always told us about playing with food or eating off unclean surfaces. What kid from my generation has never tried to roll a Rolo just to see if it worked? This new packaging, though, says nothing about sharing with friends. It does say "Do you love anyone enough...to share?" I jokingly told my family I would have to think about it. To me, this is not a good change. It's a suttle switching to a more self-centered, self-indulgent marketing approach, sugar-coated in humor (pardon the pun). I've been thinking about all God has given me, physically and spiritually. Do I love anyone enough to share? It's not so hard to love some people, but do I love everyone enough to share? 

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 life hands you weeds and lemons, make lunch!

Lemonade Picture (Photo credit: JenWaller)

You've heard the expression, "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Here's a new twist on that old adage in my latest post on the MAF Blog.

A nasty GI bug has come to our house. Everyone except David has succumbed to it. We've had the usual internet and power issues and all the rumors that go with them. My car broke down again on the way to the orphanage last week, which always makes me leery of going the next time. We still haven't found a new place to live and the clock is ticking.

Things aren't all weeds and lemons here. God has been very gracious in meeting our needs to communicate with others, do our tasks that require electricity, and get places. We know He has a house for us to rent and will lead us to it in his timing. We know our illness will pass and in fact the worst part is over. In spite of having already missed a day due to sickness, Emily and Daniel are both off to a good start with school. It is a huge blessing that David has not become ill because he is in the middle of a caravan inspection.

For those of you who, like me, don't understand all that is involved in an inspection, just know that the plane cannot be flown until the inspection is completed. All ministry with that particular plane is on hold, so everyone pitches in to get the plane back on the job asap. Some of our other team members have also been ill this week, so please keep the entire team in your prayers.

Toddler Olympics

I used to post at least once a week and sometimes twice, but for the last week or so, whenever I try to do anything on the internet that takes more than a minute, I get this:

“could not load the webpage because ____________.com took too long to respond. The website may be down or you may be experiencing issues with your internet connection.”  

I’ll keep doing my best. Obviously since I got this posted, persistence and patience pay off in the long run but the posts will definitely be less frequent for the time being. 

Here are the latest news and prayer requests. 

Last Monday my little man turned 11. We had a quiet family party and enjoyed an evening together. This coming Monday is the first day of school. Emily is a senior this year. Daniel is in 5th so he is now a middle schooler. Both of them are looking forward to new classes this year. Emily is happy about having both choir and drama. Daniel is happy about having medieval history. 

Sunday we had the privilege of meeting a couple of families who were coming through to adopt children. We picked them up and took them to church and then ate lunch together. 

We are still searching for a new place to live. I had hoped to find a place and be much further along in the packing and moving process before school starts because of the amount of time that home schooling requires. Please pray for us to be able to be flexible but also to be able to do the things that need to be done. 

Electricity has been pretty bad lately. While getting laundry done is a challenge, we are very grateful that the weather has not been too hot and that we have solar powered lights, gravity fed water, and a little gas stove to make life easier. The rumor is that power will continue to be sparse until rainy season arrives.

Friday, Daniel and I went to the orphanage. We arrived quite a bit earlier than usual and caught them eating their morning snack. All of the kids, who range in age from 2 to 6, were walking around with jars of baby food. It was the fruity stuff, not the nasty vegetable stuff, and they were eating it with their fingers and slurping it from the jars. It was also hair cut day. There were two stations set up for this. A worker would grab a kid, lather his/her head, and shave it with a straight razor. This happens once a month in order to prevent parasites and make it easier to treat ringworm, scabies and mango fly larva.

We have heard that our U.S. team is doing very well in the Olympics. These kids have never seen or even heard of the Olympics. But they do have their own Olympic-style competition on a regular basis. 

• Dot & Dash: A child dips his finger into his baby food, puts a dot onto the bald head of a randomly chosen neighbor, and then makes a run for it.

• Grab & Go: What happens when one child spills his food or drops a toy and other children happen to see it.

• Cling & Swing: A child grabs the leg of the nearest adult, usually me, and holds on tight in hopes of getting a free ride around the courtyard.

• Sit & Shove: A child sits on someone’s lap and shoves all other children off.

Five Facts and One Educated Guess About Congo's Olympic History

Giant Olympic Rings unveiled at Heathrow ready to welcome visitors to London 2012 (Photo credit: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Some friends of ours have a dish and invited us over to watch the opening ceremony for the Olympics. Since we don't have television, it was a real treat to get to see something live, and in English. I thought you might be interested in the Olympic history of the Democratic Republic of Congo. While there isn't a whole lot of information out there, and some of the information I did find conflicts, here is some interesting trivia about DRC in the Olympics.

* The Telegraph reviewed all 205 national anthems for the London games and the DRC made their list of the top ten worst anthems. You can go to the link above and hear a clip and judge for yourself, as well as compare it to the other nine.

* The Democratic Republic of Congo has never won an Olympic medal. Maybe this year!

* The DRC first participated in the Olympics in 1968, under the name Congo Kinshasa.

* The DRC's second Olympic appearance was not until 1984, under the name Zaire.

* Five athletes were sent to the 1968 games. All five were cyclists.

* How many athletes from the Congo are competing in 2012? Good question! According to Congo WorldWide Services, seven athletes were chosen to complete in six categories, including one participant in the Paralympics. The official Olympics website, along with several other sources, claims that four athletes are competing: one in judo, one in boxing, and two in athletics. The paralympics section of the Olympics website has no athletes listed as yet for DRC. Since the Paralympics don't start until the end of August, it is possible that all of the athlete names have yet to be posted.

English: Olympic rings with smileys inside (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Missionaries are known for going, not for staying. As a result, while the teams paraded into the arena you could hear people in our group saying things like "that's where so-and-so is from," "I know someone who lives there," "we used to live there," and "I've been there." We found ourselves cheering firstly for our own team, but secondly for the DRC team and the teams of all our friends who couldn't be with us.

Here's a recipe for you. This is one of my favorite quick and easy snacks to make. I've had this recipe for so long that I can't recall where it came from. Originally it called for pecans but pecans cost an arm and a leg here, so I decided to try it with peanuts and it worked just fine. You can make up a batch and munch it while you watch the games!

Sweet and Spicy Nuts

1 egg white

1 TBS water

3 cups nuts (any variety)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar - for my friends in Congo, if you use the local sugar instead of white sugar, just increase the salt a little to balance out the added sweetness.

Heat oven to 300F. Beat egg white and water slightly. Stir in nuts. Mix remaining ingredients and stir into nuts. Spread on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Other sources:

Top End Sports

Guardian

Sweet Feet and Baby Philippe

Between the car troubles and the travels, I had not been to the orphanage in several weeks but got to go back today. I had some toys and blankets with me. The workers got excited about the blankets, but the kids got excited about the toys (see above). We are in the dry season, which means no rain and cooler temps. It also means all the kids have runny noses and icy cold feet. I rubbed lots of little dirty feet today and went home with lots of bodily fluids on my arms and clothing. I also got lots of hugs and kisses. 

This little guy's shirt says "Aujourd'hui j'ai décidé d'être sage!" Translated that means "Today I have decided to be good!" As a matter of facts, he was being very good.

Many of the kids are possessive of the toys and refuse to share for fear of having them taken away by bullies. Dieu Merci had a ViewMaster toy and insisted on showing each picture to me, several times. He is one of the most cheerful and sweet natured kids at the orphanage.

I had to take this little man's picture because he is almost always throwing a tantrum and today we caught him smiling!

Originally, this little boy's name was Patrick but it was changed to Giles, with the French pronunciation. I am not sure why. Giles arrived at the orphanage as an infant and is a year old. He was born without arms and is already being encouraged to use his feet to do things for himself.





Today was an fun day because with school out there were lots more kids than usual and they were all playing well together and being very sweet and affectionate. I saw two babies that a month or so ago I wasn't sure would still be alive today and both are gaining weight and getting stronger. It is such a thrill to see a child that was once listless and feeble smile and wave her arms and coo.

It was a heartbreaking day also. A new baby arrived 8 days ago. His name is Philippe but we were told it will be changed to Jacob. Again I don't know the reason for the name change. Philippe is less than a month old. He has cleft palate and either cannot or will not eat. He has only two fingers on his right hand. His right ear is deformed. His right eye is missing. Both of his feet are horribly deformed, as though they are on backwards and upside down. A severe birth defect here is often thought to be a curse or brought on by magic and the babies are then abandoned, which is how Philippe came to be at the orphanage. I really don't know if he will live. I'm thankful he is at least in a place where he is being loved. Pray for Philippe and the staff at the hospital, and for his mama and papa, wherever they are.

Natalie, tired after a morning of playing hard.

The Malevolence Offering

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After church yesterday, our youngest asked us: “What is the malevolence offering for, anyway?”
Before you get any wrong ideas about our church, he was referring to the special benevolence offering that our church collects the fourth Sunday of each month. The money is used for people who need help with medical expenses. It was an innocent mistake, and quite funny, but it made me stop and think about my own attitude toward giving. Do my gifts and my attitude toward others reflect a benevolent heart, or a malevolent one?

I enjoy giving very much. Sometimes, though, the needs here are so great that you feel as though any thing you do is not even scratching the surface. It’s overwhelming. Often people have certain expectations of missionaries, and so they ask for help with an air of entitlement and treat us with resentment if we don’t meet those expectations. Sometimes we just get weary of being asked over and over for help.

I don’t want to give with worry in my heart or just to meet someone's expections. I don’t want to harbor ill will towards the people who might benefit from my giving. Neither do I want to forget that even if my gift seems as small and insignificant as a pebble in the ocean, God can use it to bless someone and show His love and power (think five loaves and two fish)! God has done so much for us! Giving to others in His name is a way to express my love and gratitude toward Him and to love my neighbors. When I truly love my neighbor, it is a joy to give!

Daniel’s question gave us a wonderful opportunity to explain the difference between those two words, and to talk about honoring God and showing love by giving to others.

Speaking of "malevolence offerings," SNEL is still spreading their ill will and mean-spiritedness about the city. Last week, I wrote about some of the antics the local electric company is up to (see my "Bad Guys" post here.) At that time, two of the four MAF families who rent actual homes and not apartments had already been targeted. Now a third family, the Linds, is being harassed. They've posted an update to the whole SNEL fiasco HERE. We are the only family that has not been visited but we don't expect to escape. It would really be nice though, if the timing of our move works so that we don't have to deal with this in both our present home and our future one! As Matthew and Lisa said though, the bottom line is that God is in control. Whether or not we have power, He is still all-powerful! Keep praying for salvation for the SNEL officials, and for all the families who are being affected by this.

Sappy Birthdayversary

Birthday Cake (Photo credit: Will Clayton)

Here is an update on our prayer needs. We still need a place to live. The electric company is still harassing people. They have not picked on us, yet. We have a new team member, Emmanuel, who is adjusting to life here and working in the hangar with David.

Today marks four years that we have been with MAF! I never forget our MAF anniversary because it falls on our oldest son's birthday. Last week our daughter had her first birthday ever without her big brother. Today is the first time Josh will have had a birthday away from us. Next month, our youngest will have his first birthday away from his brother. I knew when we joined MAF, on Josh's 15th birthday, that one day there would be thousands of miles between us and our children. I told myself that would be ok, that God would take care of them. Even if we were still in the states, they would still have to grow up and leave the nest, right?

Mail box (Photo credit: Mark Sardella)

But I didn't realize how hard it would be. I can't just run to the nearest store and buy a gift and a greeting card and pop them in the mail. There is no postal service. No shopping mall. Between the time zones and the slow connection, we can't usually get skype to work. And right now, he has no phone service so we can't call him even on our phones. It isn't just birthdays that bother me either. I couldn't send him goodies during his finals. I couldn't go to his rugby games. Someone else has to drive him to the doctor or the store. There is no one to bake him a birthday cake.

So the prevailing mood at our house has been rather melancholic. We all miss Josh even more than usual. While I was in my self-pity mode I wrote this "letter to my children." It's pretty sappy and not very good, but oh well. It's the thought that counts.


My Mother Heart

I have two hearts. One is my human heart. The other is my mother’s heart. And they are sometimes at odds with one another.

My human heart knows you were never mine. You were a loan, entrusted to me for a time to love, nurture and train. I always knew I would one day have to let you go.

My mother heart will always think of you as mine, and will always long to have you near me.

My human heart knows that you will make mistakes along the way and prays you will learn from them, becoming better and not bitter.

My mother heart wants to protect you from even your own mistakes.

My human heart knows that you are learning to take care of yourself and make your own decisions, and that this is how it should be.

My mother heart wants you to need me, just a little.

My human heart knows that God has you in the palm of his hand. He loves you more than I ever can and is faithful and trustworthy.

My mother heart sometimes fears for you anyway.

My human heart knows I don’t deserve you. You are incredible, precious, and amazing. You give me joy and laughter, and yes, some tears. I love watching you: as you interact with others, as you learn and play, as you grow in your faith. I am proud of you and will always love you.

My mother heart feels the same way.

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.

Gifts are meant to be enjoyed!

We still haven’t found a place to live yet, but I have been trying to motivate myself to at least go through stuff we’ve accumulated since we came here, get rid of the garbage and unwanted items, and organize the rest so that packing will be easier. This includes going through our storage bins. When we came here, we brought with us items that others had told us either cannot be found here at all or are exorbitantly priced. For example certain spices, pecans, dried fruits, cocoa and chocolate chips. While we can certainly survive without them, they add a sense of “normalcy” to our lives here and make holidays, birthdays, and other days more special. 

In theory, as our 32 months here go by, we would take items from the “stash” as needed, hoping to space it out enough to last the entire term. 

The week since we found out we have to move has caused me to think a lot more about what is worth packing up and hauling around and what is not, what really blesses our family, what ought to be blessing someone else, and what is really just “baggage” that no one ought to be burdened with.

Since coming here 21 months ago, I have noticed something I rarely saw in the states but seems much more common here. Unfortunately, in addition to observing it, I have also been guilty of it myself. Unintentionally, even unconsciously, the “supply cupboard” or “stash” becomes a hoard –  added to enthusiastically whenever someone visits from the U.S. and can bring items in or when someone here is leaving and has a “yard sale.”  Then because we might run out of something, we hesitate to use it or share it, especially if we are running low on something. I would never admit to believing that God has a limited capacity or desire to provide for us and bless us, but I have acted as if I did. 

I find it interesting that while I was pondering this, I found a post that my friend T had recently written about the same issue in  Lessons From My Chocolate Chip Stash.  Because of our travels and busyness I didn’t find her article until today. Her post has some good insights, comparing our stash of supplies to our finances. A smart person plans for the future, but there has to be a balance. Whether it is our chocolate chips, our money, or anything else in our “stash,” it has been given to us by God to be used, shared, and enjoyed. I don’t want to be like the man in Luke 12:13-21 who filled silo upon silo for himself and shared it with no one. I would much rather be like the ravens and the wildflowers in verses 22-34.  I want to take joy in what God has given me, enjoy it, and invest it in the lives of my family and those around me. A wise investment yields good returns, whether in the short term or the long term. Sharing some nuts and cocoa or baking a dessert for someone might not make chocolate chips fall like rain over Kinshasa (imagine!), but there is no way to measure the unseen earnings. The simple items in my stash can be used to encourage someone, to make someone feel valued, to brighten someone’s day or maybe even their future by giving them a little "clin d'oeil", a wink from God, that helps them persevere. 

From Ocean Front to Battle Front

photo credit: Amber Derocher

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

photo credit: Chris Steiger

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

praise, prayer, and worship

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

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

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

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

Electricity and water: in abundance!

Cooking and cleaning: none!

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

photo credit: Sandy Francis

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








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

photo credit: Sandy Francis

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





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

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

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

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

and crossed this bridge.

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

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

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

A Shout Out to My Team

photo credit: Nick Frey

We are back from Kenya! I will write about it. I will! But first I have to beg photos off my teammates because I hardly took any.  I got a little frustrated with my camera. I will give you a little summary now though.  We feasted! We were spiritually and physically fed in abundance. We rested. We played. We met fellow MAF missionaries for the first time even though we all serve in the same country, and came home with lots of new friends and memories. We are incredibly grateful for all the people who made the conference possible. There are lots of missionaries who are now returning to their ministries with their "batteries fully charged." Within a few hours after we returned home we had already encountered a bad leak in the bathroom toilet, a power outage, and someone asking us for money for medical bills. There's just no place like home!

In the meantime, I just want to publicly say that I appreciate my team here in the Congo and the MAF team in the U.S. that makes it possible for us to be here. Many of you know that our internet is sometimes less than fun. Since that is our primary means of communication, bill paying, doing homework, etc; not having it can be stressful. Our IT guys work hard trying to keep everyone on the team in contact with their loved ones and they do a great job amid some challenging circumstances.  Matthew Lind has written a blog post about our most recent project, with lots of photos and explanations for those of us like me who are not engineers or IT people. MAF is known for aviation, so there are lots of great pilot stories out there.  We also have full time mechanics, IT specialists, learning technologies people, base maintenance folks, and countless behind the scenes people who perform tasks that I probably don't even know exist.  Matthew's post is a great story about the IT side of MAF, but it's also a great story about team work, since we had pilots, IT staff, base maintenance staff, and national staff all working together. You can read Matthew's article HERE.

Some things God has taught me here

The first ever All-DRC family conference is now underway and so far is going great!  We left Saturday and had an overnight layover in Nairobi.  We stayed at the Mayfied Guesthouse, which is run by the Africa Inland Mission.  There I enjoyed the best hot shower I have had in a very long time.  Water pressure makes ALL the difference!  The climate here is cooler, so I can honestly say that the only bad part of our stay at Mayfield was that the toilet seats were cold, painfully and shockingly cold.  Toilet seats aside, I would recommend Mayfield to anyone.

Several of the team from the east side of DRC were also at the Mayfield so our flight to Malindi on Sunday morning was almost entirely made up of MAF families.

We are less than 24 hours into the actual conference, but we are already incredibly glad we came and grateful for this experience.  It’s difficult to describe, but the release of stress and tension that we weren’t even always aware we were carrying has been almost tangible.

This morning our family had breakfast with Greg Prickett.  Greg is the missions pastor of Rose Drive Friends Church and leads the team that is doing our conference for us.  Greg asked us what God has taught us in our nearly two years here.  At first I had trouble answering but as the morning progressed, I chewed on that question and a few things came to mind that God has shown me since our family came to the Congo:

wall near our room at the conference

1. How “soft” I am.  I am a bigger pansy than even I thought.  But at the same time He has shown me that when I am not strong enough – His strength is made perfect in me.

2. I thought as a single income family that home schooled and lived without debt that we knew what it meant to make sacrifices.  Then I came here and He asked me to give up other things that I had taken for granted: my rights as a citizen (I am a guest here and have no rights.), convenience, steady elcectricity, clean and ample water, choices, access to news as it happens, frequent communication with family in the states, security, etc.  And I realize now that there are plenty of others who sacrifice much, much more.


3. I thought I trusted God – until I had to trust Him for more than I ever had before and the possibility of living in my own strength became less and less.

4. Realizing that I cannot live here in my own strength, let alone be involved in ministry work here, has made Phil. 4:13 mean more to me than it ever did before.  I can do all things through Christ, and nothing without Him.

5. People look at the outward appearance, and God looks at the heart.  There are two Congos.  The Congo we see when we only look at the surface, and the Congo we see when we look at the hurting and lost hearts of the people.

6. It’s not about me.  The more I focus my attention outside of myself, the easier I have found it to be content.  When I focus on myself, I open the doors to selfishness and discontentment.

7. My team needs me, and I need them. We are each other's family here.  They've extended a lot of grace to me as I adjusted to being here and they are priceless!

The Announcements Song

photo: public domain (www.reusableart.com)

I probably couldn't list all of the benefits I received from being involved in the Baptist Student Union during my college years at Truman State (formerly NMSU): Christian friends, discipleship, accountability, fellowship and encouragement would be at the top of the list. But there were other, less obvious benefits as well. Joining the BSU gave me lots of new potential victims for my practical jokes, and I took full advantage of it. It gave me a chance to learn leadership skills and disciple others. Many of the precious friendships I made during those four years still survive today, over twenty years later, in spite of the different directions we all ended up going.

AND! The BSU is where I learned the announcement song:

Announcements! Announcements! Announcements!
A terrible death to die!
A terrible death to die!
A terrible death to be talked to death!
A terrible death to die!

The announcement song is sort of like "It's a Small World" and the Barney love song.  They are nonsensical and irritating, yet they somehow permanently etch themselves into one's memory. I think they would be better combined into one song.

"with a great big hug and a kiss and a kiss from me to you - a terrible death to die! a terrible death to die!- but it's a small world after all!"

Okay, maybe not.

I promise not to talk or write you to death, but I do have some announcements!

1. I have made some changes to the blog and now I am shamelessly drawing attention to them.  As you can see above, just under the title banner, I've added page links for our newsletters and for media.  For now only our four most recent newsletters are up because MAF only keeps that many up on our web site and I haven't yet learned how and where to store files out there in cyberspace to link to. The media page contains links to articles, blog posts, and videos about MAF, especially in relation to where we serve here in the Congo. You should definitely go check out the new video if you haven't yet. We got to have the guys who created it over for dinner and then I took one of them with us to the orphanage.  They are neat guys, a father and son team, and they did a top-notch job.

2. We are going to Kenya! MAF missionaries live in challenging conditions 24/7 and MAF takes member care seriously. We can't be effective in ministry if we are "running on empty" spiritually or physically. Each year we have a family conference, sort of a concentrated sabbath rest.  We spend time in worship, discipleship, fellowship, building team unity, and de-stressing. Normally each team holds their own conference where they are located. MAF has missionaries in three different locations in DRC: Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, and Bunia.  Because of the nature of our ministry, serving people in remote places, the folks from these three bases haven't even all met each other.  This year we will get to meet our fellow workers in DRC because the three groups are pooling resources and combining for this year's family conference and meeting in Kenya next week.  A team from the U.S. is coming in to lead the conference. We are looking forward to meeting our fellow MAF missionaries, having a few days of steady electricity, getting some rest, having a little fun, worship time and Bible study.

3. I don't know how much free time I will have or what kind of internet I will have, so I might not be posting on the blog before we get back.

4. Please pray for the missionaries attending not just our conference but all of the MAF family conferences this year. The conferences really do make a difference and give us sort of a "recharge." They provide times for healing, encouragement, and affirmation. Pray for the volunteers who give up so much to come and minister to missionaries. And pray for the MK's, the missionary kids. They need rejuvenation and encouragement too and the conference will include programs for the kids and teens.