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