Our first short-term missions team was accompanied by another traveler, my Mom. She came out to see her new granddaughter (we had to think of some way to get our family to visit us) and to stay with Michelle in Bangui while I accompanied the Bruihlers to the Elikya Center. It was a huge encouragement to have her. Not only was she a big help with Soleil but she also taught a sewing class while she was here and visited with a lot of old friends (she hadn’t been to Congo since a visit in 2002). It seemed that every day there was someone at the door asking for Mama Judy.
This trip was also sweet because my Mom was influential in the beginnings of the Elikya Center. ELIKYA as a concept came into existence back in the mid 90’s and it was known as CEVO (Centre d’Encadrement des Veuves et des Orphelins translated as Center for the care of widows and orphans). I remember coming out to ELIKYA once with her when I was a kid to help clear some of the land for the Center. It didn’t end too well. I ended up in tears because some of the others were picking on me. One of the deacons from a local church was there and said that maybe God was using the experience to prepare me to be a missionary someday. Sure enough, here we are at the very origin of that statement no less. It was great for Mom to be able to see how the Center has gone from concept to reality and how it is growing and bearing fruit.
So we were thankful to have my Mom out for a lot of reasons and we were sad to see her go. We made sure to send her back with lots of pictures of Soleil for the rest of the family. Maybe she can convince the rest of them to make the trip too.
The daily wash
Koko time
Livin' large in Bangui
Mom's Daily Handiwork
Teaching the sewing class 
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