Hey everyone. This is Jacob posting.
Yesterday was another lesson in flexibility. We set out in the evening to meet one of Jean-Baptiste's students to meet with him and encourage him. Turns out his student is a pastor; so what we anticipated as a quiet sit down meeting, turned into a 2 hour church service! To be transparent, even after 3 weeks here, it is still very stressful and frustrating to be in such a confusing state of "where are we? what is happening? what is our purpose here?" Even though it caught us off guard, we were given the opportunities for myself and Amanda to share our testimonies (received with many 'amens'), for Aurora to pray for the church, and for us to connect with people from the church afterwards.
We got some (of the usual) questions such as "do you have computers for us" and "are you married". It is often challenging for us to have such short visits with churches and people since we don't really have time to build a relationship with them. We have realized that this is also difficult for them, for they desire a relationship with Christians from other countries, but it is hard. We trust that our short time meeting with this church (and other churches and people) is encouraging for them and that God uses our encounters effectively for His purposes.
As we were escorted from the church through the streets of (where were we?) to a taxi stop, I had the privalige of meeting with a man named Amos. He knew a bit of english, and was very passionate about learning more, though our conversations included much broken english by him and broken french by me. It was hard for me to hear how he struggles to find learning resources and any means to practice his english. I gave him my email address so he can write me, but he said that even finding a computer with internet is not easy. Please pray for Amos.
Today we went to the Congo River with the young people from Kintambo Church. The river is the 2nd largest in the world in terms of volume... It was really big....
Amanda here...Jacob is having some technical difficulties describing the day. We took a bus with a bunch of the local youth and got to experience a fun day out. The bus was packed full (as per usual) and full of singing. Down by the river was just beautiful. There are huge boulders along the shore which we had a great time jumping to and climbing on. It was cool to see a place where the locals would go for a day off. After being down at the river we had lunch together then Aurore led a bible study. She talked about "shine" (mostly looking at Matthew 5:13-16), one of the main messages of MBMSI (it's on our tshirts). Overall I think it was a great afternoon out. Back to Jake.
Although we now have only one week left in Kinshasa, I anticipate that we will have many opportunities to speak with people. Although these are sometimes short conversations, and depending on the person, in broken french, there is much room for God to speak through us. I would ask you to pray for us, just as Paul asked for prayer in these circumstances:
Ephesians 6:19-20
Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
PS It's Alysha's birthday tomorrow! (Sunday)
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Bomyasika
Hey everyone, Josh here
So for the past two thursdays we have gone to visit an orphanage in the same area as Bon Berger. The orphanage is called Bomyasika. This orphanage takes care of orphans, giving them a place to live, while also helping kids who are not orphans, but are in situations where the family cannot afford to take care of them. Many of these kids do not stay overnight at the orphanage, but are there during the day and eat meals there. Also, the orphanage pays for the kids to attend a local school (funds permitting... sometimes they run low and have to miss school for a period of time).
These visits to the orphanage have been a really great experience for us. We have had the ability to perform dramas for the kids which they love. We are all very ammature actors, so I must admit it is pretty funny watching us try and act out these skits. This gives the kids a good laugh, while also teaching them some message from the Bible, or teaching them about how loved each one of them is.
We have also had a lot of time to just play games with the kids. On the first visit we brought a soccer ball out and many of the boys were very, very excited. Yesterday when we went, Jacob and I played soccer for likely close to 3 hours with the kids. It was quite fun. While this was going on, the others were doing skipping, bubbles, and other activities. I wish I could tell you more about them but I was a bit focused on the soccer... One thing I will say is kids here are fascinated with bubbles. At first they are very scepticle of them, but they quickly warm up to them and have a blast popping them and trying to catch them, somtimes with their mouths...
During our times at the orphanage we have also been able to connect and have conversations with the workers who make everything possible, and with the older kids. Many of their stories are quite inspiring. One women cooks all the meals for the orphanage while also taking care of her own family (I think she had something 5 kids herself). I am sure each one of us has many stories to say about the conversations we had. Yesterday I had one really good talk with one of the older boys, who was also a part of the older soccer crew (they sort of followed me around the whole day). He was really happy that we came to visit, and spoke about how it would be sad when we left, but also about how he didn't know what he would do with his life. Similar to Canada, not all kids do well in school, and this was the case for him. Unfortunately there is no real option to be trained in a skill (carpentry, cement work, etc). I talked with Jean Baptiste about this (who was also working as a translator for this conversation) and he was saying that this is an issue for many places. He was saying that the orphanage does geat work taking care of the kids and giving them a home, but the kids don't learn skills, so they find life difficult once they leave. Its these types of situations that I find very hard. In Canada we have so many options for obtaining a skillset to find work, and here they often have no chances. Jean Baptiste mentioned trying to get some tools at the orphanage so the kids could at least learn how to use them, so I am hopeful for that.
Lastly I just want to mention that I am pretty sick. I have had digestion issues for almost two weeks now, and while yesterday I was fine, today was my worst day yet. I have started taking some strong antibiotics, so I am hoping they will work quickly, but prayer for a fast healing would be very much appreciated.
As I write this the rest of the team is out shopping for souveniours and visiting a former student and current friend of Jean Baptiste to encourage him with the social work he is doing.
Thanks for all your prayers for our team! Only one week left now! crazy...
So for the past two thursdays we have gone to visit an orphanage in the same area as Bon Berger. The orphanage is called Bomyasika. This orphanage takes care of orphans, giving them a place to live, while also helping kids who are not orphans, but are in situations where the family cannot afford to take care of them. Many of these kids do not stay overnight at the orphanage, but are there during the day and eat meals there. Also, the orphanage pays for the kids to attend a local school (funds permitting... sometimes they run low and have to miss school for a period of time).
These visits to the orphanage have been a really great experience for us. We have had the ability to perform dramas for the kids which they love. We are all very ammature actors, so I must admit it is pretty funny watching us try and act out these skits. This gives the kids a good laugh, while also teaching them some message from the Bible, or teaching them about how loved each one of them is.
We have also had a lot of time to just play games with the kids. On the first visit we brought a soccer ball out and many of the boys were very, very excited. Yesterday when we went, Jacob and I played soccer for likely close to 3 hours with the kids. It was quite fun. While this was going on, the others were doing skipping, bubbles, and other activities. I wish I could tell you more about them but I was a bit focused on the soccer... One thing I will say is kids here are fascinated with bubbles. At first they are very scepticle of them, but they quickly warm up to them and have a blast popping them and trying to catch them, somtimes with their mouths...
During our times at the orphanage we have also been able to connect and have conversations with the workers who make everything possible, and with the older kids. Many of their stories are quite inspiring. One women cooks all the meals for the orphanage while also taking care of her own family (I think she had something 5 kids herself). I am sure each one of us has many stories to say about the conversations we had. Yesterday I had one really good talk with one of the older boys, who was also a part of the older soccer crew (they sort of followed me around the whole day). He was really happy that we came to visit, and spoke about how it would be sad when we left, but also about how he didn't know what he would do with his life. Similar to Canada, not all kids do well in school, and this was the case for him. Unfortunately there is no real option to be trained in a skill (carpentry, cement work, etc). I talked with Jean Baptiste about this (who was also working as a translator for this conversation) and he was saying that this is an issue for many places. He was saying that the orphanage does geat work taking care of the kids and giving them a home, but the kids don't learn skills, so they find life difficult once they leave. Its these types of situations that I find very hard. In Canada we have so many options for obtaining a skillset to find work, and here they often have no chances. Jean Baptiste mentioned trying to get some tools at the orphanage so the kids could at least learn how to use them, so I am hopeful for that.
Lastly I just want to mention that I am pretty sick. I have had digestion issues for almost two weeks now, and while yesterday I was fine, today was my worst day yet. I have started taking some strong antibiotics, so I am hoping they will work quickly, but prayer for a fast healing would be very much appreciated.
As I write this the rest of the team is out shopping for souveniours and visiting a former student and current friend of Jean Baptiste to encourage him with the social work he is doing.
Thanks for all your prayers for our team! Only one week left now! crazy...
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Where the motorcycles go...
Hello everyone! Amanda here. It feels like a whole bunch has happened in the past 2 days so I’ll sum it up as best I can. We have been at Leve-toi and witnessing Mama Julianne’s incredible heart for the children with disabilities in the neighbourhood. We have been able to get dirty and work hard as well as sing and play with the kids...a good mix in my opinion. They want to build a bathroom for the kids so we helped to get that started. We didn’t get to any cement but have done heaps of digging and moving dirt.
Today everyone was doing pretty good on the health front and the whole team was able to come. It has been almost a week since all of us have been ready for action. Unfortunatly, I can’t say the same about yesterday. Josh stayed back due to stomach issuses and in the words of Jacob « Today was going really well, until I hit Aurore in the face with a pick axe» ...gasp I know... but please don’t freak out she is doing just fine now. She was moving buckets of dirt and moved a little too close to avoid a kid when Jacob was using the pick axe. She has a nice cut right above her eyebrow and was out of commission for the rest of the day but was still in pretty good spirits all things considered. This drama occurred in the afternoon.
Our morning was full of fun times with the kids. We performed a skit about Moses and the plagues where Jean-Baptiste made the most excellent Pharaoh. We also sang songs with them (yes Pharaoh Pharaoh with all the actions...it was a hit) and made a craft. The rest of the team entertained the group while Emily, Aurore and I made paper frogs with groups of kids. It was really cool when we went back today and some of them waved their frogs out of the classroom windows as we arrived.
In the evening we were splitting up supplies and preparing when we heard some music and drumming coming from the street. It was getting louder and sounded like a parade. We all got uber excited and literally ran downstairs and outside. So excited. When we got to the street we asked someone what the parade was for a group of Kimbangists (sp?) the cult that we heard about in Kasungulu. Apperently it is kinda like their Christmas... What a bust...we were pretty disapointed.
Today we arrived at Leve-toi to see that a whole bunch of work was completed while we were gone and we spent the majority of the morning clearing all the dirt that they had dug up. For a while I went with Jean-Baptiste to load some wheel barrows with sand. Before the morning classes were over we did face painting with the kids. They wanted a whole range of things from flowers to guitars and from butterflies to fire-breathing dragons. Alysha, Emily and I became spontanious artists. With the afternoon class we didn’t have quite as much time as we thought we would so we taught them some songs and attempted a game. We have learned that games with instructions don’t really go well so it was a little awkward but we fixed it with bubbles. There are a whole bunch of really great kids and I liked just being able to give them a little love and attention, something they don’t always get.
Before leaving we went to visit Fred, a friend of Jean-Baptiste. Fred is blind and is currently working on all kinds of stories in braile for blind people or «young blinds» as he calls them. He is a supper cool guy and is really busy with all the work he his doing for the blind community of Kinshasa. It was so interesting to hear about how his life changed for the better when he became blind and all the work he is doing.
Now that we have finished our 3 day visit at Leve-toi we can safely say that 3 people on a motorbike is not as dangerous as one might think. They provided an exciting new mode of transportation for us and helped us draw closer as a team...literally.
Thanks so much for all of your prayers and encouragement!
Today everyone was doing pretty good on the health front and the whole team was able to come. It has been almost a week since all of us have been ready for action. Unfortunatly, I can’t say the same about yesterday. Josh stayed back due to stomach issuses and in the words of Jacob « Today was going really well, until I hit Aurore in the face with a pick axe» ...gasp I know... but please don’t freak out she is doing just fine now. She was moving buckets of dirt and moved a little too close to avoid a kid when Jacob was using the pick axe. She has a nice cut right above her eyebrow and was out of commission for the rest of the day but was still in pretty good spirits all things considered. This drama occurred in the afternoon.
Our morning was full of fun times with the kids. We performed a skit about Moses and the plagues where Jean-Baptiste made the most excellent Pharaoh. We also sang songs with them (yes Pharaoh Pharaoh with all the actions...it was a hit) and made a craft. The rest of the team entertained the group while Emily, Aurore and I made paper frogs with groups of kids. It was really cool when we went back today and some of them waved their frogs out of the classroom windows as we arrived.
In the evening we were splitting up supplies and preparing when we heard some music and drumming coming from the street. It was getting louder and sounded like a parade. We all got uber excited and literally ran downstairs and outside. So excited. When we got to the street we asked someone what the parade was for a group of Kimbangists (sp?) the cult that we heard about in Kasungulu. Apperently it is kinda like their Christmas... What a bust...we were pretty disapointed.
Today we arrived at Leve-toi to see that a whole bunch of work was completed while we were gone and we spent the majority of the morning clearing all the dirt that they had dug up. For a while I went with Jean-Baptiste to load some wheel barrows with sand. Before the morning classes were over we did face painting with the kids. They wanted a whole range of things from flowers to guitars and from butterflies to fire-breathing dragons. Alysha, Emily and I became spontanious artists. With the afternoon class we didn’t have quite as much time as we thought we would so we taught them some songs and attempted a game. We have learned that games with instructions don’t really go well so it was a little awkward but we fixed it with bubbles. There are a whole bunch of really great kids and I liked just being able to give them a little love and attention, something they don’t always get.
Before leaving we went to visit Fred, a friend of Jean-Baptiste. Fred is blind and is currently working on all kinds of stories in braile for blind people or «young blinds» as he calls them. He is a supper cool guy and is really busy with all the work he his doing for the blind community of Kinshasa. It was so interesting to hear about how his life changed for the better when he became blind and all the work he is doing.
Now that we have finished our 3 day visit at Leve-toi we can safely say that 3 people on a motorbike is not as dangerous as one might think. They provided an exciting new mode of transportation for us and helped us draw closer as a team...literally.
Thanks so much for all of your prayers and encouragement!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Church, taxi's, Leve Toi and MORE
Hello all! Alysha here. I'm so excited to be writing here again! It feels like I'm connecting with everyone back home, and it's so wonderful.
There's so much to talk about and I have no idea where to start. I think I'll start with what is at the forefront of my mind, so this might not go in a day-to- day order.
It seems as though the biggest attack that we have here in Kinshasa is through physical sickness and pain. We have not had very many days where the whole team has been feeling well and ready to go! Josh currently is not feeling too up to snuff, which we can tell by the way his eating habits have changed!
Today sadly Aurora had to stay home as she was feeling really, really sick. She had been up all night and had gotten no sleep. It's hard to know what to do to make someone feel comfortable in this kind of situation, because I know that all I would want in that moment would be my mom. :) We've prayed for her as a team but we never turn away the chance at more prayer so please keep our teams health on your minds as you pray.
Though it was ahrd not having Aurora with us today it also gave the team as chance to stretch ourselves and step out. The day was good! We were at Leve Toi which is a school for blind and disabled children, it's amazing the things that Mama Jullianne has done with this school! Now it has a variety of children coming to it. Blind, deaf, mute, physically disabled, and mentally handicapped. This women has just reached out her arms to all those who society has shunned. We were told by Jean-Baptiste today that for the most part handicapped children are not even seen as being part of them family and they are not considered to have any potential in their lives. This makes it difficult for a lot of them to get to school because no one sees the job of getting them to school important. It's pretty sad really, and it makes you wonder what can be done so more of these children can learn and get to school. There also having a lot of building problems because of stone quarry that is near by and the loud noises of them breaking rocks and all the other effects of that is ruining their buildings and their foundations. There's so much good going on in that place, pray that they are filled with energy and renewed passion for the work they are doing there.
Now to jump back to Friday. We had a little bit of taxi trouble travelling to where we needed to go, it was a long two taxi rides somewhere near the airport. These taxi rides have not been fun for me as I pinched a nerve or something while hauling sandbags and sitting down on wooden benches in these taxis is not so great! Once we got to the NGO of Peace that we were heading to we were given a tour and then we sat down with the staff from the NGO and chatted with them about what they're doing and what their vision is. They started up basically a youth drop in center with games and an HIV/AIDS testing center. It's great because the youth come in the play games and get off the street and the workers get to hang out with them and chat with them and teach them all sorts of stuff. They started this map where they have pin pointed the "red" spots in the neighbourhood as well as the "safe" spots, namely churches or similar centres. They are partnered with 74 churchs who said they were interested in starting up something similar and wanted to know what to do! We headed to a church afterwards where we were welcomed with singing from more choirs, I'm continually struck with insane amounts of joy each time they start to sing. We then were given more food which was delicious! We were told we were going to lose a lot of weight here but that hasn't happened to most of us yet, we're being too well fed! I'm sure I'm missing out on sooo much but there's a lot to fit in!
Saturday was our Tourism day, we headed out to an MCC store where we were able to buy some souveniers, all the stuff is made by workers who are paid fair prices for the work that they do. Some of the sculptures were incredible and they had awesome furniture, plates/dishes and other household knick-knacks. After that we headed to go and see this artists shop but when we got there we found out that he had moved his large gallery elsewhere but he had a few pieces lying around. He does really cool work with metal, bending it, scratching it and shaping it. It was great to hear him talk about his work and see him so passionate about what he does. We get to go back to learn how he does some of his work and try it out ourselves, it should be interesting. :) The people's welcoming nature here is incredible sometimes.
After that we headed to Eric's house, Jean-Baptiste's assistant, and learned how to make a Congolese meal. We mixed Kasava leaves with peanut puree and dried fish, we fried fish, mixed Fu-Fu (or Foo-Foo, I'm not really quite sure) which was a lot more difficult than we thought, and cooked some chicken. I'm sorry that I don't remember the Congolese names for all these dishes. While dinner was being cooked by different team members Amanda and I were blessed to get our hair braided. It was pretty painful and I know that I had a watery eye once or twice, especially when all three girls were yanking my head in different directions. :) But now we no longer really have to wash our hair! How excited are you guys to welcome us home?! ;) After Eric's we headed to Jon and Anicka's, two missionaries here to play some games and watch a little bit of monster's Inc. it was great to spend some time with them and Anicka had made some amazing banana bread! :)
So Sunday we headed off to Pastor Mulumbu's church, we had much debate over whether we were going to Pastor Mulumbu's or Pastor Muvungu's church. We eventually have learned to differentiate them by saying Mulumbu- the small pastor or Muvungu- the big pastor. It was an incredible 3.5 hour church service mainly filled with 9 choirs and a worship team singing. Their voices are so powerful and the people seem passionate about singing praises to our God. It's beautiful, we told them that we wanted to bring them back with us so that we could experience that much excitement and passion every Sunday. Their voices just fill the church, without microphones or antyhing! It really is totally different than a church service here, there's nothing to compare it to, it's just wonderful! After that we got to sit down to another wonderful meal with the Pastor and a few other church members. We met a woman who had lived in Canada for 3 years and in Fresno California for 3 as well! Her English was therefore pretty good and it was great to hear another person's outlook on a few things in Canada (such as our COLD winters )! It was a blessing to be there and then we headed home.
That's all for now! I hope that this fills some of you in on what to pray for and what we have been doing the past few days! We think and pray for you often! :) Much love from us all!
There's so much to talk about and I have no idea where to start. I think I'll start with what is at the forefront of my mind, so this might not go in a day-to- day order.
It seems as though the biggest attack that we have here in Kinshasa is through physical sickness and pain. We have not had very many days where the whole team has been feeling well and ready to go! Josh currently is not feeling too up to snuff, which we can tell by the way his eating habits have changed!
Today sadly Aurora had to stay home as she was feeling really, really sick. She had been up all night and had gotten no sleep. It's hard to know what to do to make someone feel comfortable in this kind of situation, because I know that all I would want in that moment would be my mom. :) We've prayed for her as a team but we never turn away the chance at more prayer so please keep our teams health on your minds as you pray.
Though it was ahrd not having Aurora with us today it also gave the team as chance to stretch ourselves and step out. The day was good! We were at Leve Toi which is a school for blind and disabled children, it's amazing the things that Mama Jullianne has done with this school! Now it has a variety of children coming to it. Blind, deaf, mute, physically disabled, and mentally handicapped. This women has just reached out her arms to all those who society has shunned. We were told by Jean-Baptiste today that for the most part handicapped children are not even seen as being part of them family and they are not considered to have any potential in their lives. This makes it difficult for a lot of them to get to school because no one sees the job of getting them to school important. It's pretty sad really, and it makes you wonder what can be done so more of these children can learn and get to school. There also having a lot of building problems because of stone quarry that is near by and the loud noises of them breaking rocks and all the other effects of that is ruining their buildings and their foundations. There's so much good going on in that place, pray that they are filled with energy and renewed passion for the work they are doing there.
Now to jump back to Friday. We had a little bit of taxi trouble travelling to where we needed to go, it was a long two taxi rides somewhere near the airport. These taxi rides have not been fun for me as I pinched a nerve or something while hauling sandbags and sitting down on wooden benches in these taxis is not so great! Once we got to the NGO of Peace that we were heading to we were given a tour and then we sat down with the staff from the NGO and chatted with them about what they're doing and what their vision is. They started up basically a youth drop in center with games and an HIV/AIDS testing center. It's great because the youth come in the play games and get off the street and the workers get to hang out with them and chat with them and teach them all sorts of stuff. They started this map where they have pin pointed the "red" spots in the neighbourhood as well as the "safe" spots, namely churches or similar centres. They are partnered with 74 churchs who said they were interested in starting up something similar and wanted to know what to do! We headed to a church afterwards where we were welcomed with singing from more choirs, I'm continually struck with insane amounts of joy each time they start to sing. We then were given more food which was delicious! We were told we were going to lose a lot of weight here but that hasn't happened to most of us yet, we're being too well fed! I'm sure I'm missing out on sooo much but there's a lot to fit in!
Saturday was our Tourism day, we headed out to an MCC store where we were able to buy some souveniers, all the stuff is made by workers who are paid fair prices for the work that they do. Some of the sculptures were incredible and they had awesome furniture, plates/dishes and other household knick-knacks. After that we headed to go and see this artists shop but when we got there we found out that he had moved his large gallery elsewhere but he had a few pieces lying around. He does really cool work with metal, bending it, scratching it and shaping it. It was great to hear him talk about his work and see him so passionate about what he does. We get to go back to learn how he does some of his work and try it out ourselves, it should be interesting. :) The people's welcoming nature here is incredible sometimes.
After that we headed to Eric's house, Jean-Baptiste's assistant, and learned how to make a Congolese meal. We mixed Kasava leaves with peanut puree and dried fish, we fried fish, mixed Fu-Fu (or Foo-Foo, I'm not really quite sure) which was a lot more difficult than we thought, and cooked some chicken. I'm sorry that I don't remember the Congolese names for all these dishes. While dinner was being cooked by different team members Amanda and I were blessed to get our hair braided. It was pretty painful and I know that I had a watery eye once or twice, especially when all three girls were yanking my head in different directions. :) But now we no longer really have to wash our hair! How excited are you guys to welcome us home?! ;) After Eric's we headed to Jon and Anicka's, two missionaries here to play some games and watch a little bit of monster's Inc. it was great to spend some time with them and Anicka had made some amazing banana bread! :)
So Sunday we headed off to Pastor Mulumbu's church, we had much debate over whether we were going to Pastor Mulumbu's or Pastor Muvungu's church. We eventually have learned to differentiate them by saying Mulumbu- the small pastor or Muvungu- the big pastor. It was an incredible 3.5 hour church service mainly filled with 9 choirs and a worship team singing. Their voices are so powerful and the people seem passionate about singing praises to our God. It's beautiful, we told them that we wanted to bring them back with us so that we could experience that much excitement and passion every Sunday. Their voices just fill the church, without microphones or antyhing! It really is totally different than a church service here, there's nothing to compare it to, it's just wonderful! After that we got to sit down to another wonderful meal with the Pastor and a few other church members. We met a woman who had lived in Canada for 3 years and in Fresno California for 3 as well! Her English was therefore pretty good and it was great to hear another person's outlook on a few things in Canada (such as our COLD winters )! It was a blessing to be there and then we headed home.
That's all for now! I hope that this fills some of you in on what to pray for and what we have been doing the past few days! We think and pray for you often! :) Much love from us all!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Life in Congo
Hey All! This is Emily blogging. So we’ve had a few people (including Josh’s mom) ask us about the house we’re living in. We decided it was about time to update a bit about what it’s like here, and our daily routine and stuff like that.
So the house is a big guest house run by an American couple. All 3 boys share a room, and us girls are split into two rooms. The rooms are pretty big, and the ceiling fans really help us keep cool at night. We were provided with mosquito nets, but the screens in the house keep it so there aren’t many mosquitos at all. We DO have lizards, giant spiders, cockroaches, ants, termites, and massive moths. None of us seem to be too affected by the wildlife though. :)
We have our breakfasts and dinners made for us here at the house. The menu is the same every week. Lunches (which we miss) are Congolese, and dinners are American. So we’ve had pizza, pasta, hamburgers, etc. The hamburgers are our favourite. :) The great thing is that we’ve still got to try some Congolese food with all of the churches/groups that have fed us. A normal Congolese meal is fufu (which looks like crusty playdough and tastes like nothing), spinachy stuff (made from the leaves of the root that makes fufu), and chicken or fish. We also get pop, peanuts and bananas for snacks quite a bit.
So a normal routine for us is: breakfast, meet with Jean-Baptiste at MPH (the name of our house), and head off in some sketchy taxi to the church/place where we will be for the day. I’d have to say yesterday was probably my favourite day in terms of taxis. We travelled all classy in 2 different van-taxis. These things are crazy! They pack a ton of people into a van with tiny benches that are way to small for most of us. At one point we counted 28 people in at once! It’s good times.
Well today we went to an orphanage called Boma Ya Sika. We will be going there for the next 2 Thursdays, so I won’t say too much about it. But it was a great day. :) The kids were super cute and we had a lot of fun with them. We got to act out a bible story, sing some songs, and just hang out with the kids and staff. When we were outside we had time to skip and play soccer too. We’re saving the good stuff (bubbles and facepaint) for another time. :)
A bit more about our daily routine is that we spend a lot of our free time in the library in MPH. As long as the power is working, the air-conditioning is running. :) So that’s where most of us are right now. Rob is off giving Jean-Baptiste a guitar lesson, Aurora and Alysha are in their room (I think), and the rest of us are chilling in here. Tonight we’re going out for dinner with the couple that run MPH, as well as Jean-Baptiste, so that should be good too.
Well, hope that gives you a bit more of an idea about what it’s like here. When we get back, I’m sure pictures will help in getting the idea across. :)
So the house is a big guest house run by an American couple. All 3 boys share a room, and us girls are split into two rooms. The rooms are pretty big, and the ceiling fans really help us keep cool at night. We were provided with mosquito nets, but the screens in the house keep it so there aren’t many mosquitos at all. We DO have lizards, giant spiders, cockroaches, ants, termites, and massive moths. None of us seem to be too affected by the wildlife though. :)
We have our breakfasts and dinners made for us here at the house. The menu is the same every week. Lunches (which we miss) are Congolese, and dinners are American. So we’ve had pizza, pasta, hamburgers, etc. The hamburgers are our favourite. :) The great thing is that we’ve still got to try some Congolese food with all of the churches/groups that have fed us. A normal Congolese meal is fufu (which looks like crusty playdough and tastes like nothing), spinachy stuff (made from the leaves of the root that makes fufu), and chicken or fish. We also get pop, peanuts and bananas for snacks quite a bit.
So a normal routine for us is: breakfast, meet with Jean-Baptiste at MPH (the name of our house), and head off in some sketchy taxi to the church/place where we will be for the day. I’d have to say yesterday was probably my favourite day in terms of taxis. We travelled all classy in 2 different van-taxis. These things are crazy! They pack a ton of people into a van with tiny benches that are way to small for most of us. At one point we counted 28 people in at once! It’s good times.
Well today we went to an orphanage called Boma Ya Sika. We will be going there for the next 2 Thursdays, so I won’t say too much about it. But it was a great day. :) The kids were super cute and we had a lot of fun with them. We got to act out a bible story, sing some songs, and just hang out with the kids and staff. When we were outside we had time to skip and play soccer too. We’re saving the good stuff (bubbles and facepaint) for another time. :)
A bit more about our daily routine is that we spend a lot of our free time in the library in MPH. As long as the power is working, the air-conditioning is running. :) So that’s where most of us are right now. Rob is off giving Jean-Baptiste a guitar lesson, Aurora and Alysha are in their room (I think), and the rest of us are chilling in here. Tonight we’re going out for dinner with the couple that run MPH, as well as Jean-Baptiste, so that should be good too.
Well, hope that gives you a bit more of an idea about what it’s like here. When we get back, I’m sure pictures will help in getting the idea across. :)
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Megaphones and Manual Labour
Hey, this is Jacob! I have an update for the last 3 days. Enjoy! *sorry we are still having trouble posting pictures*
On Sunday we were at our first church service in the town Kasangulu, about an hour outside of Kinshasa, at the church we were spending time evangelizing with as Amanda described in the last post.
As expected, the worship service was quite different from what we are used to in North America and it was an amazing experience. Some hilights:
- there was lots of time in prayer, which often begun with the pastor telling us what to pray for, and then everyone praying outloud at once,
- for the most part everyone sings without any instrumental accompaniment, including a couple of songs sung completely solo
- the pastor occasionally used a megaphone which was loud and kind of hilarious
- from our perspective, everything was completely unorganized; we got more warning than we expected, but once in a while someone would just say out of the blue something like (in Lingala) "okay now our guests will bring sing a song of worship"
- we didn't understand most of the service as it was spoken in Lingala, and sometimes french.
- however, Eric, the assistant of our host pastor, continued to be a blessing as an excellent translator for both Lingala and French throughout the day. He also tells really good stories/jokes.
- there were very few adults (maybe about a dozen) and many more children
- one of the pastors read the letter of greetings from Glencairn MB which he translated into Lingala for the congregation
- another pastor conducted the congregation in a special animated gesture to illustrate them sending their love and greetings to Glencairn and our supporters in Canada. We'll be sure to relay that gesture upon our return.
Despite the church being relatively small, we could tell that they still had a strong heart for worship and also had a desire to build into the community. They currently have a vision to build a church, school, and clinic in the town.
Yesterday and today we were in a small village visiting a church and helping with an erosion prevention project they have started. The work we did involved filling sandbags with dirt and placing them where they told us. Most of us were quite excited about doing some manual labour, though on Monday we were all either tired or sick. The digestive systems of myself, Josh, and Amanda had problems accepting some of the food from the day previous. This village had a lot more kids and they were more aggressive in their excitement to see us than anywhere else we had been. The overwhelming presence of loud children coupled with being tired and doing hard work meant we didn't have a great day.
Thanks to some responsible leadership, we were given extra time to rest up and I think it's safe to say that today we were much healthier and in better shape to handle the hard work and excited people. We worked pretty hard and had more energy to converse with the kids and the adults of the village. It is sometimes difficult to build meaningful relationships with people here because there are often cultural differences, language barriers (sometimes double-translation is needed), and sometimes we feel like people have ulterior motives in that they are hoping to get money or something from us. For example, a couple of people kept telling me that I had to give them my shoes. They also offered me drugs.
All in all, we are doing well. Thank you for your continued support and prayers.
No I didn’t take the drugs.
Though I am still taking the malaria meds.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Fun Times in DRC
Hello everyone! Yesterday was our day off and we went to «Lola Ya Bonobo» which is a sanctuary for bonobo monkeys, one of the four great apes (we learned many educational things on this adventure) Ok so the best word that I could use to describe these monkeys is rediculous, they were so funny. As we were walking along the path outside of the fence we heard a loud rustling coming from the jungle. We all stopped thinking ‘oh dear here comes a whole heap of them’ the sound kept getting louder and louder until suddenly...one monkey burst out of the jungle dragging a gigantic branch behind it. At another time we were watching them with a school group (approx. 50 kindergarteners) and they would run along the fence, screaching and pushing a plastic waterbottles like a toy car....like I said rediculous. These are also very special monkeys, they’re slogan is «make love not war», meaning that they resolve conflict and tension in interesting/creative ways, ways which may not be appropriate to disclose as we would like to keep things PG. Feel free to look it up it you have any more questions. It was a nice day to just be outside and not totally surrounded by people. It was so beautiful and quiet out there.
The real adventure, in my opinion, was the drive there and back. I would like to start off by thanking you for all of your prayers...with the driving here we are very thankful for them hahaha. There were 12 of us this van which looked and sounded like it had been shot with a machine gun (not actually this is just a visual, don’t freak out) You have to understand the vehicles they get here are rejects from other countries, ones that are too old, don’t work, rusted out, etc. Then they fix them and drive until they break down, get a boost and give it another go. The best part about this van was that the back seat wasn’t quite screwed in so it lifted and bounced along the way. Emily, Jacob and I had the privilage of riding the rollercoaster as we called it. The road made it all the more fun. I think every time we drive somewhere like this we just shake our heads because in North America, you might attempt this with your 4-wheel drive SUV, maybe. But these reject rickity vans make it...somehow...what a gong show. We just laugh and hold on for dear life :)
Today has to have been one of my favourite days so far. We headed outside of Kinshasa to another district to do some evangelizing with local pastors. This area was very different from Kinshasa and much more rural. The church was a mix of bamboo and lumber holding up a steel roof. We met with the pastors there, split up into teams, prayed and headed out. I was in a group with Eric (Jean-Baptiste’s assistant and amazing translator), one of the pastors (I feel really bad that I can’t remember his name right now) and Jacob. When I first heard that we were doing door-to-door evangelizing, not going to lie it freaked me out. Immediatly I pictured and awkward Jehovah’s witness kind of experience but as soon as I put things into context it was fine. 1 most people don’t really have doors, just curtians over doorways. 2 even if they did have a door they would be outside. and 3 the Congolese people are some of the most welcoming I have ever met. These things helped
Our group met with 4 families. Jake and I had the oppertunity to share our testimonies twice each and pray for the people we met. The main purpose of our visit was to invite the people we met today to church tomorrow. I thought that was a really sweet idea because even after we are gone the people we met can be connected to a community of Christ. We tried to talk to another family but they did not even want us to come into the compound. They belonged to a church in the area that Eric explained to us as being called the «black church» where they believe that Jesus was a white man and came to save white people, and that God is also white. They don’t want to hear anything about Jesus. Jake was just saying that that was a lot of the reason that we were there. That it is really important for all of us to worship God together. They don’t really need us there to evangelize but to be there saying that salvation is for everyone and that God desires for everyone to be saved is important.
I will leave you with a funny story. As we were leaving the church there were a bunch of kids following us (as per usual) and we were saying goodbye and someone said my name. I looked back and it was a little boy. Then all of a sudden there were 2 kids saying it and then out of nowhere there were about 20 kids following us chanting my name! I didn’t even know what to do with myself it was hilarious! Oh another adventure in DRC.
Thanks for reading my novel!
Amanda
The real adventure, in my opinion, was the drive there and back. I would like to start off by thanking you for all of your prayers...with the driving here we are very thankful for them hahaha. There were 12 of us this van which looked and sounded like it had been shot with a machine gun (not actually this is just a visual, don’t freak out) You have to understand the vehicles they get here are rejects from other countries, ones that are too old, don’t work, rusted out, etc. Then they fix them and drive until they break down, get a boost and give it another go. The best part about this van was that the back seat wasn’t quite screwed in so it lifted and bounced along the way. Emily, Jacob and I had the privilage of riding the rollercoaster as we called it. The road made it all the more fun. I think every time we drive somewhere like this we just shake our heads because in North America, you might attempt this with your 4-wheel drive SUV, maybe. But these reject rickity vans make it...somehow...what a gong show. We just laugh and hold on for dear life :)
Today has to have been one of my favourite days so far. We headed outside of Kinshasa to another district to do some evangelizing with local pastors. This area was very different from Kinshasa and much more rural. The church was a mix of bamboo and lumber holding up a steel roof. We met with the pastors there, split up into teams, prayed and headed out. I was in a group with Eric (Jean-Baptiste’s assistant and amazing translator), one of the pastors (I feel really bad that I can’t remember his name right now) and Jacob. When I first heard that we were doing door-to-door evangelizing, not going to lie it freaked me out. Immediatly I pictured and awkward Jehovah’s witness kind of experience but as soon as I put things into context it was fine. 1 most people don’t really have doors, just curtians over doorways. 2 even if they did have a door they would be outside. and 3 the Congolese people are some of the most welcoming I have ever met. These things helped
Our group met with 4 families. Jake and I had the oppertunity to share our testimonies twice each and pray for the people we met. The main purpose of our visit was to invite the people we met today to church tomorrow. I thought that was a really sweet idea because even after we are gone the people we met can be connected to a community of Christ. We tried to talk to another family but they did not even want us to come into the compound. They belonged to a church in the area that Eric explained to us as being called the «black church» where they believe that Jesus was a white man and came to save white people, and that God is also white. They don’t want to hear anything about Jesus. Jake was just saying that that was a lot of the reason that we were there. That it is really important for all of us to worship God together. They don’t really need us there to evangelize but to be there saying that salvation is for everyone and that God desires for everyone to be saved is important.
I will leave you with a funny story. As we were leaving the church there were a bunch of kids following us (as per usual) and we were saying goodbye and someone said my name. I looked back and it was a little boy. Then all of a sudden there were 2 kids saying it and then out of nowhere there were about 20 kids following us chanting my name! I didn’t even know what to do with myself it was hilarious! Oh another adventure in DRC.
Thanks for reading my novel!
Amanda
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
We are still alive!
Hello all! We have been a few days without internet and are currently without water! We are all a little sticky and hot but there is one room in the place we are staying with air conditioning it is wonderful to be able to get out of the heat. Today was not too warm but yesterday was very warm, the girls all got sunburnt quite badly.
We have spent the last two days at Bon Beger and it has been a beautiful experience. It is strange sometimes that there is really nothing that we are doing persay. But we were talking today about what Doug, one of the speakers, had said to us at orientation about how often we are focused on being humandoings instead of human beings. Most of the reason we are here is to build relationship and love the people that we meet. So that means that here a lot of the time we stand around and talk or we sit around a talk.
We are finding a few things frustrating here. Yesterday we watched a movie that summarized most of the history of the Congo and the way that white people have oppressed the people of the Congo for so many reasources. The Congo has so many natural reasources! Rubber, coltan, diamonds, wood, uranium, coffee and coaco. But the Congolese people never get to experience the benefits of these reasources. I think this frustrates us because we donèt understand what our palce is in this stroy of the Congolese and the oppression that they are under because of so many greedy people, that just look after what they want and not whati s best for the coutry that they have walked into. But I could rant and this may get me in trouble so I will stop now.
Today I got to share my story with the women in the sewing school at Bon Berger. These women were amazing! I just told them that I had realized that God has made me perfectly and that he values me deeply and thinkgs I am precious and how He values them and thinks they are precious as well. Delphane, the doctor at Bon Berger, then went on to tell them how the were precious and that they really needed to believe that they are. He went into more but I do not understand Lingala, and it was explained to me in summary after. :)
Hereès a story that us girls enjoyed laughing about! The women asked me if I was married because I have a ring on my left hand. I told them that I wasnèt but that my boyfriend is here. They all got excited and asked me when I was getting married. I said I didnèt know and that they would have to ask him. They all laughed! Later the boys went on a tour of Bon Berger and they came to the sewing room. The women asked the boys who was married and they said none of them, then they asked the boys who was engaged and they again replied that none of them were. Then they asked who Bob was., well of course they were confused because Rob never refers to himself as Bob. We were all talking about it later and laughed. The people here are excited about marriage, they offered to find a Congolese man for Aurora when she said she was single. :)
Tomorrow we get to go back to Bon Berger and have dinner with the people who work there as well as give them the medical supplies we have brought with us. We are so excited to be able to bless them that way. After that we go to see some crazy monkeys at a park, apparently it will be quite the adventure! Saturday and Sunday we will spend with Jean-Baptise doing evangilism and going to his church. Finally! Im so excited for an African church service! Next week we start sand bagging to help to stop erosion. But who knows, these plans will probably change! I will stop writting now because I think I have taken up enough of your time! Hope you are all well at home and on your other trips around the world!
We have spent the last two days at Bon Beger and it has been a beautiful experience. It is strange sometimes that there is really nothing that we are doing persay. But we were talking today about what Doug, one of the speakers, had said to us at orientation about how often we are focused on being humandoings instead of human beings. Most of the reason we are here is to build relationship and love the people that we meet. So that means that here a lot of the time we stand around and talk or we sit around a talk.
We are finding a few things frustrating here. Yesterday we watched a movie that summarized most of the history of the Congo and the way that white people have oppressed the people of the Congo for so many reasources. The Congo has so many natural reasources! Rubber, coltan, diamonds, wood, uranium, coffee and coaco. But the Congolese people never get to experience the benefits of these reasources. I think this frustrates us because we donèt understand what our palce is in this stroy of the Congolese and the oppression that they are under because of so many greedy people, that just look after what they want and not whati s best for the coutry that they have walked into. But I could rant and this may get me in trouble so I will stop now.
Today I got to share my story with the women in the sewing school at Bon Berger. These women were amazing! I just told them that I had realized that God has made me perfectly and that he values me deeply and thinkgs I am precious and how He values them and thinks they are precious as well. Delphane, the doctor at Bon Berger, then went on to tell them how the were precious and that they really needed to believe that they are. He went into more but I do not understand Lingala, and it was explained to me in summary after. :)
Hereès a story that us girls enjoyed laughing about! The women asked me if I was married because I have a ring on my left hand. I told them that I wasnèt but that my boyfriend is here. They all got excited and asked me when I was getting married. I said I didnèt know and that they would have to ask him. They all laughed! Later the boys went on a tour of Bon Berger and they came to the sewing room. The women asked the boys who was married and they said none of them, then they asked the boys who was engaged and they again replied that none of them were. Then they asked who Bob was., well of course they were confused because Rob never refers to himself as Bob. We were all talking about it later and laughed. The people here are excited about marriage, they offered to find a Congolese man for Aurora when she said she was single. :)
Tomorrow we get to go back to Bon Berger and have dinner with the people who work there as well as give them the medical supplies we have brought with us. We are so excited to be able to bless them that way. After that we go to see some crazy monkeys at a park, apparently it will be quite the adventure! Saturday and Sunday we will spend with Jean-Baptise doing evangilism and going to his church. Finally! Im so excited for an African church service! Next week we start sand bagging to help to stop erosion. But who knows, these plans will probably change! I will stop writting now because I think I have taken up enough of your time! Hope you are all well at home and on your other trips around the world!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Our Travel Story
We are alive in the DRC!!!
Josh here, with another novel. This is a summary of our travel adventures, all 42 hours of it...
Today we arrived in the Domocratic Rubuplic of the Congo at around noon local time, which was about 18 hours after our original scheduled arrival time. The following will recap our airport stories and the adventure we have already had just getting here.
We left camp crossroads at around 1pm and arrived at Toronto airport at sometime around 3:30. We had a couple issues at the airport. First, as Emily mentioned, her Visa form was missing the expiry date. None of us had noticed until we were boarding onto out first flight, and were worried that they would not let her through. However, after taking a long time in their line (causing delays) and showing how we were a group of seven, they eventually let her through.
Right after this we went through security as fast as we could, since our boarding time was very fast approaching. We made it through security and arrived at our gate after the schedule borading time had begun. However that volcano apperently hasn’t stopped messing with flight paths and the plane was delayed on its flight to toronto so we boarded late. This was nice for not having to rush, but ended up causing far worse problems, since we also needed to take a longer route back to europe, causing us to miss our flight to paris. On a more positive note, we did a group watching of Avatar to start the flight. The personal movie screens are a great idea.
As Emily mentioned, our new path was from Amsterdam to London to Nairobi to Kinshasa. However, this wasn’t the path we were automatically assigned to, so there was a bit of a scramble to get out luggage off of one plane, get tickets for the other, etc. Once everything was sorted out we had about a 7 hour wait for our flight. This wait mainly consited of everybody trying to sleep (some were succesful).
Our flight to London was quick and comfortable, hour long with lots of empty seats to sprawl accross. Then we had a 4 hour wait in London where we checked out the Terminal 4 market place. Btw, Heathrow airport is huge!! It took us like 15 minutes just to get from our plane to the transfer area to check into our new flight. Thank goodness for those sliding floor things, otherwise it would have taken much longer.
The flight from London to Nairobi was close to 8 hours long. I was fortunate in that I was only awake for maybe 3 hours of it. My body was very clearly needing sleep. Upon landing in Nairobi we got our first sight of Africa! I felt sort of weird realizing that we were actually in Africa, not watching a discovery channel show of the scenery, but actually seeing it. To get off the plane we had to walk onto the tarmak and get shuttled to the airport. Once in the airport we found our gate and proceded to check in. During this process the issue of Emily’s passport surfaced again, with the security person saying she would not be allowed on the plane. However, after making some calls and listening to our pleas (and watching us hold up the line) he eventually let her through. No doubt God was with us on the journey!
Our stoppover was supposed to be only 2 hours, but TIA (this is africa). It ended up being over 4 hours long due to some resource difficulties (it appeared that they didnt have a plane to fly, but none of us really knows. After a free pop or water and 4 hours we got onto the plane and flew to Kinshasa! Ironically enough, the customs at Kinshasa was one our main worries heading into our travels, but we had no issues at all, which was a very welcome change. Also, all of our luggage arrived!! Jean-baptiste picked us up and we headed to our place! I will close this blog as it being our travel story, but I will say that it is a pretty incredible city, and for me it brought back a flood of memories from Nicaragua. Its looking to be a pretty incredible trip.
Josh here, with another novel. This is a summary of our travel adventures, all 42 hours of it...
Today we arrived in the Domocratic Rubuplic of the Congo at around noon local time, which was about 18 hours after our original scheduled arrival time. The following will recap our airport stories and the adventure we have already had just getting here.
We left camp crossroads at around 1pm and arrived at Toronto airport at sometime around 3:30. We had a couple issues at the airport. First, as Emily mentioned, her Visa form was missing the expiry date. None of us had noticed until we were boarding onto out first flight, and were worried that they would not let her through. However, after taking a long time in their line (causing delays) and showing how we were a group of seven, they eventually let her through.
Right after this we went through security as fast as we could, since our boarding time was very fast approaching. We made it through security and arrived at our gate after the schedule borading time had begun. However that volcano apperently hasn’t stopped messing with flight paths and the plane was delayed on its flight to toronto so we boarded late. This was nice for not having to rush, but ended up causing far worse problems, since we also needed to take a longer route back to europe, causing us to miss our flight to paris. On a more positive note, we did a group watching of Avatar to start the flight. The personal movie screens are a great idea.
As Emily mentioned, our new path was from Amsterdam to London to Nairobi to Kinshasa. However, this wasn’t the path we were automatically assigned to, so there was a bit of a scramble to get out luggage off of one plane, get tickets for the other, etc. Once everything was sorted out we had about a 7 hour wait for our flight. This wait mainly consited of everybody trying to sleep (some were succesful).
Our flight to London was quick and comfortable, hour long with lots of empty seats to sprawl accross. Then we had a 4 hour wait in London where we checked out the Terminal 4 market place. Btw, Heathrow airport is huge!! It took us like 15 minutes just to get from our plane to the transfer area to check into our new flight. Thank goodness for those sliding floor things, otherwise it would have taken much longer.
The flight from London to Nairobi was close to 8 hours long. I was fortunate in that I was only awake for maybe 3 hours of it. My body was very clearly needing sleep. Upon landing in Nairobi we got our first sight of Africa! I felt sort of weird realizing that we were actually in Africa, not watching a discovery channel show of the scenery, but actually seeing it. To get off the plane we had to walk onto the tarmak and get shuttled to the airport. Once in the airport we found our gate and proceded to check in. During this process the issue of Emily’s passport surfaced again, with the security person saying she would not be allowed on the plane. However, after making some calls and listening to our pleas (and watching us hold up the line) he eventually let her through. No doubt God was with us on the journey!
Our stoppover was supposed to be only 2 hours, but TIA (this is africa). It ended up being over 4 hours long due to some resource difficulties (it appeared that they didnt have a plane to fly, but none of us really knows. After a free pop or water and 4 hours we got onto the plane and flew to Kinshasa! Ironically enough, the customs at Kinshasa was one our main worries heading into our travels, but we had no issues at all, which was a very welcome change. Also, all of our luggage arrived!! Jean-baptiste picked us up and we headed to our place! I will close this blog as it being our travel story, but I will say that it is a pretty incredible city, and for me it brought back a flood of memories from Nicaragua. Its looking to be a pretty incredible trip.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Airport Adventures
May 8, 2010
Emily here. Writing to you from the Amsterdam Airport.
Wow, what a memorable day it’s been already! First off, it’s Amanda’s birthday! I’m pretty sure it’s one she won’t forget. 5 airports in 3 days is quite a feat! :) We had a few little issues with our itinerary, but we were prepared to be unprepared, so it’s all good. :)
In the Toronto airport we found out that my Visa was missing some things... but they decided to let me go along after all! I’m pretty happy about that. Our flight was delayed too, so we missed the connecting flight from Amsterdam to Paris. The new itinerary that they worked out for us takes us from here to London, London to Nairobi (Kenya!), and Kenya to Kinshasa. Which means we get there Sunday morning instead of tonight.
Jean-Baptiste (the pastor who’s sort of co-ordinating everything we do in Congo) said that there would be no problems. Something along the lines of ‘Church is 4 hours, I’ll take you straight there and you’ll only miss the first 2!’ :)
I think it’s safe to say that this is gonna be a trip where God teaches us (over and over) to trust Him. Things aren’t going to go the way we plan. So... I’m excited! Oh yeah.
Thanks for the prayers and support!
Emily here. Writing to you from the Amsterdam Airport.
Wow, what a memorable day it’s been already! First off, it’s Amanda’s birthday! I’m pretty sure it’s one she won’t forget. 5 airports in 3 days is quite a feat! :) We had a few little issues with our itinerary, but we were prepared to be unprepared, so it’s all good. :)
In the Toronto airport we found out that my Visa was missing some things... but they decided to let me go along after all! I’m pretty happy about that. Our flight was delayed too, so we missed the connecting flight from Amsterdam to Paris. The new itinerary that they worked out for us takes us from here to London, London to Nairobi (Kenya!), and Kenya to Kinshasa. Which means we get there Sunday morning instead of tonight.
Jean-Baptiste (the pastor who’s sort of co-ordinating everything we do in Congo) said that there would be no problems. Something along the lines of ‘Church is 4 hours, I’ll take you straight there and you’ll only miss the first 2!’ :)
I think it’s safe to say that this is gonna be a trip where God teaches us (over and over) to trust Him. Things aren’t going to go the way we plan. So... I’m excited! Oh yeah.
Thanks for the prayers and support!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
We leave TOMORROW!!
Hello All!
I have decided to sacrifice my early sleep to update you all before we fly off tomorrow, I'm also not tired, be it from excitement or the fact that it's only 10:10! The past two days have been jam packed. We have been learning so much about eachother and about ourselves and about our God. He is so incredible and has been working in us in amazing ways. I'm currently listening to the beat of an African drum in the background and it is reminding me that in less than 24 hours we will be on a plane to DR Congo! Wow!
We did a foot-washing yesterday, based from Christ's example when he washes his disciples feet. Can you imagine having the greatest King and Lord who ever lived bending down to wash your dirty feet and serve you? It was something that really bonded our team, as we spoke words of encouragement to one another and prayed over each other!
We are so blessed by the great community that we have in our team. For the comfort that we feel with one another, that we really have a dependence on one another and God in directing our team. We're excited to experience the airport, did I say excited? I meant slightly terrified, for me at least.
We were blessed the past few days to have Paul and Carianne by our side just encouraging us and coaching us and teaching us. Without them I'm sure that we would not be as relaxed and excited as we are now! We hope that we are able to bless their friends that they have made there and really reach out to the people that they love in an awesome way!
Personally I'm so excited to get the chance to meet the people we've been hearing sooo much about. Especially Jean-Baptiste, he seems like such a warm and caring man. We've heard so much about him and his laugh at times it seems like we have already met him.
I'm not sure when we will get the chance to next update you, but don't worry we are safe in our Fathers arms!
Joyfully,
Alysha
I have decided to sacrifice my early sleep to update you all before we fly off tomorrow, I'm also not tired, be it from excitement or the fact that it's only 10:10! The past two days have been jam packed. We have been learning so much about eachother and about ourselves and about our God. He is so incredible and has been working in us in amazing ways. I'm currently listening to the beat of an African drum in the background and it is reminding me that in less than 24 hours we will be on a plane to DR Congo! Wow!
We did a foot-washing yesterday, based from Christ's example when he washes his disciples feet. Can you imagine having the greatest King and Lord who ever lived bending down to wash your dirty feet and serve you? It was something that really bonded our team, as we spoke words of encouragement to one another and prayed over each other!
We are so blessed by the great community that we have in our team. For the comfort that we feel with one another, that we really have a dependence on one another and God in directing our team. We're excited to experience the airport, did I say excited? I meant slightly terrified, for me at least.
We were blessed the past few days to have Paul and Carianne by our side just encouraging us and coaching us and teaching us. Without them I'm sure that we would not be as relaxed and excited as we are now! We hope that we are able to bless their friends that they have made there and really reach out to the people that they love in an awesome way!
Personally I'm so excited to get the chance to meet the people we've been hearing sooo much about. Especially Jean-Baptiste, he seems like such a warm and caring man. We've heard so much about him and his laugh at times it seems like we have already met him.
I'm not sure when we will get the chance to next update you, but don't worry we are safe in our Fathers arms!
Joyfully,
Alysha
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
We Know What We Are Doing!!!
well sort of...
Josh here. It appears I have written a novel, so enjoy!
yesterday we had a session with Paul Peters and Carianne Neufeld who have previously been to the Congo and they gave us a lot of very helpful information for our upcoming trip. For the first time we now have a schedule! However we were also told that the schedule will change continuously so we will still be living on the fly. We also learned a great deal about the history of the country, how the white "colonized" the country, exporting all raw materials, including slaves and natural resources. After the country became a recognized independent state, the world then switched to provide the country with aid. While this seems like it is a great thing to happen, it did carry a negative effect in that it elevated the white people, making it appear that the people of the Congo needed the white people to save them. Because of these impressions, a white person is immediately viewed as having a lot of money, and its often assumed that the white person has no interest in the local culture. Part of our trip will be trying to break down these stereotypes, to show the people that we do care, and that we are eager to learn of their culture. From past trips, Paul described that the people are very open to conversation, and find great joy (and laughter) when the white people try and use their native language. A lot of his talk brought me back to me trip to Nicaragua 5 years ago, where I knew none of the native language but found that the people there were simply thrilled that we would take time to visit them and laughed at me a lot for my terrible pronunciation of their language.
We also learned many details about what to wear, how to travel, where we will stay, what the food is like, etc. One of the more interesting (and exciting) things that we learned is that it is not impolite to pick your nose in public!!! Personally I can't wait to get to the Congo!!
As for the rest of the week, lets just say that I have learned more this week than I did maybe all last term in school... which is a bit crazy (keep in mind it was an easier term...). Basically we have 2 sessions each day where people talk about serious issues related to short terms missions. These topics have included reconciliation, dangerous prayer (pray with authority in the spiritual realm), hot and cold cultures, and much more. I know that I am a bit overwhelmed with how much we have learned and will need some time to process it all.
Besides the sessions, we have been spending a lot of time just chillin and hanging out with each other and with the teams going to Nepal, Germany, and Thailand. There have been some serious dutch blitz games going down, along with some frisbee, soccer, and ping pong. It also is a bit weird because it feels like we have been here for much more than just the 3 days. It feels like I have known the people form the other teams for a long time, not that we just met. I really feel that we have developed a great community here, and it has been a pretty awesome few days.
Currently I am late for a group activity, so I must sign off. From all of us, peace out homies!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Camp Confessions
Hello everyone! This is Amanda and Emily posting. We just left Aurore and Alysha at the lake in a canoe...so we don’t know if they are coming back. Camp has been really good so far and we have been learning a lot. It has been good to have this time away as a team to focus and prepare ourselves for the weeks ahead. Today we learned about intercession and all of our teams had a chance to pray for our countries. For those of you who don’t know we are up here at Camp Crossroads with 3 other teams that are a part of MBMSI’s ACTION program. There are also teams going to Berlin, Thailand, and Nepal. This afternoon we were preparing and practicing dramas to present while we are in Congo with Aurore and Jacob as our coaches. It is super cool to have a whole group of people here, all called from different places preparing to go out. On Friday we fly out to Kinshasa via Amsterdam and Paris arriving in the evening Congo time on May 8th. (Congo is 6 hours ahead of here)
Thanks again for all of your prayers!
Thanks again for all of your prayers!
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