Languishing Brownies

Brownies (Photo credit: yum9me)

This could be an interesting post because I am so distracted. We HAD power today, so I made up a batch of brownie batter. I decided to be a cool mom and used the last of our Heath bits in the brownies. Popped them into the oven. A few minutes later the power went off. David went out to check the box since all of the neighbors have power and he has been gone awhile, which means something burnt up and we can't even run the generator. MY BROWNIES ARE LANGUISHING!!! 

This week I ordered limes from Papa Joseph. In French, lemons are "citrons" and limes are "citrons vertes (green)". This is a photo of locally grown produce. The little one is a lime and the big ones are lemons. See the problem with calling limes the green ones? They are ALL green. Papa Joseph misunderstood and I ended up with a bag of lemons. Lemons aren't as tasty as limes in my Coke, but they made good lemonade so we are just rolling with it. Interestingly, oranges here are also green, and yet they are still called oranges an no one seems to think that is weird.

Here's an update on our house. Yes, we are STILL working on the house. When we moved in, the plumbing in the kitchen had been repaired/replaced and there was a section behind the sink where the tiles were busted out; and there was a gap between the concrete wall and the countertop that I could put my hand into - which meant unwelcome guests could crawl through from the other side. This week we hired Leopold to fix the wall and I am very happy to have a whole wall in the kitchen now.





I managed to get some more sewing time and made some progress on Daniel's quilt top. I am using a pattern called Blissful Dreams that I purchased too many years ago from Down Home Quilting. I still have to add borders to it. Daniel asked me to hand quilt it instead of machine quilting it, so when I finish the top it will get packed away until after furlough. I don't plan to haul it across the ocean and then add backing and batting and haul it back. Apologies to my facebook friends who have already seen this.


***Here is a brownie update, because brownies are important. They are a little funny looking but I think they will taste just fine. Hooray for brownies! The neutral line in our box keeps burning up and we keep replacing it. This time it burned a bunch of stuff and David got it going temporarily but says he pretty much has to replace everything.

Wired

creation window (Photo credit: mtsofan)

I am becoming quite the "handy Andy." When sparks were flying out of our breaker box in the house a couple of weeks ago, I had two choices. Remove the burning wires, or do without my precious electricity until David got home. Round here, when the power is on, you don't waste it! So I got my nerve up and pulled this out of our box and set us up to run on just one phase until hubby could make repairs. Yes, I cut off the power before I touched the wires.


These wires couldn't take the heat. They frayed and burned, ending up useless and dangerous.

We have had a week of sickness. First Daniel, then Emily, now David. I am the "last man standing." We have also had a week of twice going over 48 hours without power and several days of only getting an hour or two at a time. Not having a/c is inconvenient in this heat, but when someone has a fever, it's miserable. I felt so sorry for the kids.



During Daniel's sick time, I had to run the generator anyway to keep the fridge cold, and since I wasn't home schooling I decided I might as well sew. Having finally finished making curtains for the living room (it only took two and a half years), I pulled out a quilt project.

This is going to be for Daniel, if I ever finish it. While I was in the states for my surgery he got to choose his own fabric. I finally completed all of the blocks. Now I just have to assemble them and add borders.

This one is my favorite and Daniel's too. Of course, it was also the one that took the most time and care because of all the points there were to match up. Half square triangles are not my strong point. I have to do them slowly and carefully.

 The closer we get to finishing it, the more eager Daniel and I both are to see how it will turn out.

There is just something about working at a project and really putting yourself into it, and then being able to look at the finished product and see its beauty that makes you feel really good. God understands that. It's why He keeps working on us, carefully and sometimes slowly - and doesn't stop until he completes the good work He started. It's why when He finished creating the world He took time to notice that it was good. We are just wired to get pleasure out of doing good work.

I hated that my family has been suffering with the fluish like bug that has hit them, but the forced down time has probably been good for us. We've rested. We've done things we don't usually get time for like reading and sewing. Maybe we were really feeling the heat, literally and figuratively, and about to burn up like those wires. Naturally, my idea of down time would have been different from God's. Mine would include electricity and high enough voltage to use my oven and my dryer, but then I would have filled that time with work, trying to catch up on laundry and bake ahead for the "no power days." It would have been "do time" instead of "down time."

Sometimes Going With the Flow Feels Like Rapid Water Rafting on a Swimming Pool Floatie

Last night we attended a concert at TASOK, Emily's school. The concert was a benefit to collect funds and food for the orphanage in Kimbondo. It was a double blessing for me, getting a chance to help the orphanage and getting to see Emily perform. This year she sang in the high school choir AND played in the band. 

We recently visited another orphanage with a new friend, Jennifer McCullough. The man in this photo was introduced to us as the doctor at the orphanage but I heard him tell someone else he is a nurse. Jennifer is on the left, and on the far right is my friend and fellow MAFer, Sandy Francis. 

We passed out treats and had a belated Easter celebration with the kids.











Jennifer also had donations of toothpaste and brushes for the orphanage. A good follow-up to all those sweets we gave them!










Daniel with his new friend. Kids with red or blonde hair are conspicuous in Africa and get stared at. A lot. 

Unlike all of the other orphanages we have been to, this one had no fences or walls. This photo gives you a good idea of what housing is like in DRC. The "door" is a curtain. The building is  often concrete, with a tin roof and no windows. and no electricity. It's like living in an oven. A dark one.

When we arrived, kids and parents from the neighborhood showed up in droves. After we began passing out the treats, we quickly realized there were way more kids in line (I use the term line very loosely here) for goodies than there are in the orphanage. Moms from the neighborhood were overheard telling kids to go through the line and get something for them. I saw big teens stealing treats from the little kids and tried to help but couldn't stop them all. I caught at least one kid going through the line twice. They were crowding around and pressing in on us. It was mayhem. We ended up having to have the staff go through a list of names of their kids so that we could make sure the orphans got treats. Many times here in Congo I have had mixed feelings about all the walls, but that day my slightly OC mind was telling me "This place needs walls!"  Sort of a Congo version of the old saying "good fences make good neighbors." I am glad I went and got to be part of it but my American self felt conflicted, trying to just relax and go with the crazy haphazard flow instead of being overwhelmed by the lack of structure and order. 





We got stuck in the sand on our way out. You never have to worry about getting stuck in the sand in Congo as long as you have a little cash on you. Before we even had time to ask for help, people ran to push the van in exchange for a few francs.

Picture This: Somber (and otherwise) moments during Family Conference

Thanks Jocelyn Frey for the photo!

The MAF family of west DRC has officially conferred and our conference time is over until next year. As always, there were many blessings. We had time to visit with one another in a relaxed, non-work/ministry setting, just getting to know one another better and enjoying each other's company. Since some of us live in Lubumbashi and all of us stay really busy, that is a rare treat. We enjoyed goodies that our pastoral team brought from the states - especially chocolates! The teaching sessions were great. The food was great - BONUS: we did not have to cook it! In the land of weirdo-unpredictable power that was a huge blessing.

I promise this is the LAST post about this year's conference. I just wanted to share some of the special moments with you, via photos.

photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

 On the last day of conference the kids showed off the songs they had learned. Except my kid, who was busy talking to his buddy, Nicholas. My gene pool is a strong one, what can I say?

photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

One really neat moment was when the pastors anointed us, all thirty-something of us, with oil and prayed for our team, even the kids. It was a very serious and touching moment...

Photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

...as you can see.










But then, Pastor Don was a very serious kinda guy. Truthfully, we have many special memories from this conference and lots of things to ponder in our hearts. Thank you, Walnut Creek Mennonite Church, Don, Brenda, Beau, and Nicole!












I already have a very nice group photo above of our entire team, plus the pastoral team from the states. I really like bloopers, though, so I thought you might enjoy these. Click on them to see an enlarged view.

Photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

Photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

Perspective

Today my husband related a story to me about his day at the hangar. He was talking with one of our national staff, who was asking David questions about our home.

"Do you have a water tank?"
"Yes."
"Do you have a generator?"
"Yes."
"Do you have solar panels?"
"Yes."
"Aaah. Paradise. Like heaven."

Perspective.

Renewal - Family Conference

Family Conference is in full swing.

A major theme at family conference time is renewal. We have time to focus on spiritual renewal with worship times and teaching.

Our friend Jocelyn with her daughter Ruth, who is getting an early start in discipleship!


We also have times for paying attention to our needs for physical, emotional, and relational renewal.







Yesterday after the worship/teaching session, we took an outing to a lake for a hike and a picnic lunch. The drive was long, the weather was hot, the traffic was terrible. Once we arrived at the lake, though, it was worth it.








We took our time walking, enjoying the quiet and tranquility - a rare thing in a city the size of Kinshasa. At one point, David and I literally just stopped and took a deep breath and stood there taking in the fresh air and natural beauty and wide open space.

Last evening the ladies enjoyed some time pampering our feet - which take a beating here in the land of dust and concrete.

While we soaked our tired feet, we had a chance to just relax and visit with each other. Often when we get together as a team there is work to be done and not much time for visiting and connecting on a deeper level.

Conference Time!

photo credit: Tim Dyk

This week we are having our annual Family Conference. I'll try to take photos for ya and post them. Meanwhile, here's a cool photo or two of our guys working on the planes. In both photos, my hubby is the one on the ground at the nose of the plane.

I don't get a lot of comments on the blog but I do get some emails. I hope you'll check out my latest post on the MAF Blog - Better Than Bitter. This post started as a response to an email from a blog reader/friend. 

Numbered With The Transgressors

I wasn't going to blog today. I have so much to do, and so much that should already be done but isn't, that somethings just had to give and today it was going to be the blog. 

Then I read Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" devotional for March 30 Click here to read). When I read Spurgeon's writing, I can't simply skim it or speed read it. His older English obligates me to actually stop all my mental multi-tasking and just focus on what he was trying to say. No zipping through. That's a good thing. We have so many easy to understand paraphrases and translations of the Bible available to us that I think it is easy to "zip through" without completely focusing all of our thoughts on what we read and meditating on it. Reading the works of people like Charles Spurgeon and Oswald Chambers is good mental exercise and builds study skills that I can transfer to my reading of the Bible. 

On my huge list of "things I thought I already knew but seem to keep learning again" is that Jesus doesn't just love me as I understand love, He loves me with an intensity I can't begin to fathom. He didn't just die for me, He also identified Himself with me. 

"Now, when the sinner is brought to the bar, Jesus appears there Himself. He stands to answer the accusation. He points to His side, His hands, His feet, and challenges Justice to bring anything against the sinners whom He represents; He pleads His blood, and pleads so triumphantly, being numbered with them and having a part with them, that the Judge proclaims, 'Let them go their way; deliver them from going down into the pit, for He hath found a ransom.' Our Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors in order that they might feel their hearts drawn towards Him." 

He came and was numbered with us, the transgressors. Sometimes we generalize that and forget that He didn't just become a face in a crowd of sinners that suddenly turned on Him. He counted the cost before He came, and did it anyway. He was loving and thinking of every individual one of us while He was being crucified, paying the price for each. Your price. My price. 

Because Christ was numbered with the transgressors, I can rejoice that am numbered with those whom He has made new. 

He is risen! Have a joyful Easter!

Everyone likes a good story!

Thursday, I was invited to share my testimony with the ladies from Nsango na Bomoi, the church that is pastored by our missionary friends Dan and Christine. I have been a little spoiled because each time I have shared my testimony here I have been allowed to do it in English with someone to interpret for me. This time, I was asked to share in French! Yikes! 

I only had a few hours' notice and still had to do school with Daniel so I sort of cheated. I knew I had forgotten a lot of grammar. I also was aware of the fact that when I am nervous, it is even more challenging for me to think in French. I had written my testimony in French during language school so I pulled that out and edited it a bit. Hooray for saving language school homework! 

French is the official language here, but even among the nationals not everyone speaks French. Many have not had enough schooling to be proficient in French. There was a woman in this group who only spoke Lingala so our time together involved a mix of English, French, and Lingala. I gave my testimony in French and Mama Louise interpreted it into Lingala. If she had a question about something I said, she asked Christine, who then asked me in English so that I could rephrase my original sentence back into French. 

Sharing my story with the ladies was a blessing for me not just because I got a review of some vocabulary I had forgotten, but also because it gave me a way to connect with them. As my story progressed, I could see the ladies smiling and nodding. We are very different in culture and background, but all of us had a testimony. Each of us had a story to tell about how we were burdened and empty before Christ had changed our lives. 

Stories are very popular here, so we also talked about the fact that nearly everyone likes a good story and that if a person is able to share the story of what God has done in their life, they have a very powerful tool for sharing the gospel. Then the ladies shared their testimonies, first in Lingala and then Mama Louise translated into French for my sake. Having heard these ladies' stories made me feel like I was getting to know them on a deeper level. They shared of painful experiences, of growing up in churches that did not teach the gospel so they spent years following rituals without having a true relationship with Jesus. 

A Cheerful Look

Original depiction of fictional anthropomorphic rabbit from the first chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the little quirks our family has is that we like to use anthropomorphism outside of the literary genre. We often ascribe human emotions or thoughts to objects, animals, even our food. We like practicing our vocabulary too (just kidding).

We like for our food to be happy before we eat it.

I have a spoon that I like way more than any human being should like any spoon. It's happy. We use it to make peanut butter cookies so they have smilies on them instead of fork marks. Cookies with smilies are way, way more fun to eat than cookies with prison bars. (As I said previously, we like happy food.) 

Last night during supper our happy spoon was gaily floating in a dish of green peas when my youngest made an observation. He studied the spoon for a bit and then said "How can he be happy sitting in a bowl of nasty peas? We should get a frowny spoon." 

Now, as far as I know, no one likes a frowny spoon anymore than they like a frowny person, so I will likely have an impossible time finding one. Who wants to serve veggies with a frowny spoon? No restaurant or business advertises "service with a frown!" 

I want to be like my spoon, and be able to offer a smile and a cheerful  look to those around me, even if I am in the midst of something nasty. I want my face to reflect the joy God has given me in my heart, and not my sometimes less-than-pleasant-green-pea circumstances.  

"A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones." Proverbs 15:30

Bone Tired?

We have been in Kinshasa for two and a half years now and sometimes, especially lately, I am just TIRED. It's more than a physical kind of tired, and my whole family is experiencing it. It is emotional, mental, and spiritual. My grandmother used to say "bone tired," meaning she was completely, through and through, weary and worn out.

Some things are just too good not to share. This morning I found this post by OliveTree: "How to Keep Going When the Road Seems Long." She tells of her struggles with growing weary but also graciously shares what God has taught her through the struggles. Her post is full of practical advice on how to keep going when it seems like we work and work and work and see few results. OliveTree reminds us that our labor in the Lord is not in vain; if we persevere, we will be rewarded.

In God's perfect timing He inspired OliveTree to write her post and I found it when I needed it. So, if you are or have been "bone tired," too tired to lift your fork at supper, to think about anything, even to pray - check out her post. I think you'll be glad you did. I was.

Widows and Orphans

Nancy and Nancy, heh heh heh

My friends Jim and Nancy Smith returned from their mission station in Nkara and will soon be on their way back to the U.S. for a few months. I had sent a sack of yarn with Nancy to see if any of the ladies in the Literacy Center would be interested in making baby blankets for the orphanage (more about the literacy center HERE) (more about the blanket project HERE).

One lady, a widow named Ibo, crocheted these blankets. That's her front row left. She is a graduate of the literacy center and now teaches the other students to knit and crochet. She told Nancy Smith that when her husband died, she became very angry. Then she went to the literacy school and met Jesus and He changed her life. Ibo has no children to help care for her. Culturally and economically, life here is very difficult for widows and for people who have no children; I was very pleased to be able to give her an opportunity to earn a little extra money. Now I have soft, new blankets to take to the orphanage before the chilly dry season arrives. Mama Ibo lives a long way from the children at the orphanage in Kimbondo and neither of them has any knowledge of the other. We are admonished in James that pure religion is to look after orphans and widows in their distress. By paying Mama Ibo for her labors and donating the blankets to the orphanage, one project is helping both! I think that is so cool beans!

Tuesday was my birthday. My family spoiled me and did all the dishes all that day and all the following day. Of course it had NOTHING to do with the face that my thumb is still messed up. It is improving. An adopting family came through last week and I was able to buy a splint for my thumb for them to bring. That has enabled me to give it both protection and support, so now I have a lot less pain.






We are all looking forward to furlough this summer. Already our family is praying for a place to live and transportation and doing our best to search for both from here. We have lots to do during our time in the states: doctor and dentist visits, settle Emily into college and teach her how to drive, visit family, friends and ministry partners, raise ministry support, additional training, shopping for supplies for the next term, home schooling Daniel, etc, etc, etc. Somewhere in there we are supposed to take some R&R. We would love for you to pray with us.

Sunday Drive

You may have noticed I haven't posted in a while. I fell on our patio and got to go get xrays taken of my left hand. Those of you who know me well know that while I am fairly ambidextrous, I write with the left hand. Nothing was broken, but before I fell I already had a sore thumb from a softball injury and now that middle joint is just not doing well. 

While trying to rest my hand and let it heal as much as I can, I've discovered some cool things I can do without using my thumb: tie my shoes, brush my teeth, and even put in a pony tail. Things I can't do without hurting my thumb or at least without it getting in the way: wash dishes, open cans, sweep/mop, chop food, grate cheese. Apologies to my family.

Last week we went I got a chance to see a friend from the U.S. who came here on business, as well as meet some new friends who were here to adopt three  children. We planned for all of us and my friend Christine to go to a local church together, followed by visits to a couple of orphanages and lunch together. 

We didn't get to go to the church because it rained Sunday morning and the roads were too bad, even for Christine's big tough vehicle. None of us were really dressed for mudding or for pushing vehicles.









It was a long, slow drive. We tried several routes. Each time we had to turn around. I was pretty disappointed and hope to get to go another day.

 
We did make it to the orphanages. Both of these orphanages are managed by Christians, one by missionaries and one by a Congolese family. This was the first opportunity I had to visit other orphanages besides the one in Kimbondo that I am accustomed to. These were much smaller. One of them is specifically for boys who were street children. 

We were greeted with a welcome song, the second time I have had that pleasure since coming here. These kids were waiting to have their meal but they didn't object to having lollipops for their "appetizers."

the kitchen

Cooking is done outdoors. This is not unusual in Congolese homes. There isn't enough space indoors for a kitchen, nor enough light or ventilation. When we arrived they were preparing lunch of fufu - a starchy hard to describe food made from manioc, the main carbohydrate here. It's sort of like mashed potatoes that you can pick up and hold in your hand and tear pieces off to eat, but not really. 




All in all it was a day of many emotions: joy for seeing my friend again, heartbreak at seeing the poverty and need everywhere we went, excitement for meeting new friends and going new places, anguish and helplessness for the tears and sobs of a child who was heartbroken, and tiredness after a long day. After the day was done, one emotion still remains, hope. God has placed people here who deeply love Him and are dedicated to helping kids by giving them a place of refuge where their most basic physical needs are met but also where they can be loved, encounter Jesus, and find healing for their hearts.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27