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
Saturday, May 15, 2010
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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