October 2012 Newsletter...Finally!

The last time we sent out a newsletter was the middle of June so this one is long overdue! Life has been pretty busy lately. Actually, it's been busy since the middle of June. Since then we have left Congo, been to the Philippines and Taiwan, arrived back in the US, traversed the country from Pennsylvania to Colorado to Wisconsin and Illinois, moved into a new home in upstate New York, started graduate school and been to Minneapolis for debriefing and transitioning to long term with ReachGlobal. This past week Michelle has been in Liberia with CAMPS ReachGlobal as she begins to move into a working role within that new department in the mission. She gets back tonight.

One of the things we have not been able to do as much of in all the busyness has been support team building. Now that we are transitioning to long term with ReachGlobal, we need to raise additional support. This edition of our newsletter explains it in detail. Please consider partnering with us through prayer or financial support of our ministry. And if you have any further questions or would like to know more about what we are and will be doing, we'd be happy to answer your questions. This year, at least until June 2013, we will be somewhat restricted to the East Coast due to school. If you live within that area we are open to seeing how we could even meet with you at some point during these two semesters. If you live outside of that area, maybe we could figure something out down the road for the upcoming summer season.

Regardless, read our newsletter and find out what we're up to. A donation sheet is also provided in case you feel led to support us at this time.

October 2012 Newsletter
2012 Donation Information 

The Long Way Home: Part 3

Manila to New York City: July 19

Home, Sweet Home.  We are finally back in the US, currently at my parents' house in Allentown, PA.  We woke up at 3AM this Thursday, headed to the airport and later that morning boarded a plane bound for NYC via Tokyo, Japan.  After four hours to Japan, two hours in the airport there and twelve and a half hours to JFK, we were checking through immigration and putting our passport away (for at least a little while anyway).  Once again, Soleil did great on the plane and enjoyed having Lola and Grandpa to keep her company part of the way.  Now she has met all four grandparents, having met Bestefar (Norwegian for grandfather) for the first time and "re-meeting" Koko (Lingala for any grandparent but in this case referring to my Mom) at the airport yesterday.  We're still trying to shake the travel fatigue so I'm calling it a night and going to bed; just wanted to let you know that we've made it safely back and are once again stateside.  Thanks to all who prayed for our travels!

On Our Way Home...

It has been over two weeks now since we left the Congo and we still haven't made it home to the US yet.  Instead, we've made our way to Michelle's childhood home, the Philippines.  Michelle's parents, Ron and Alice Watters, are missionaries here and they live in Quezon City in Metropolitan Manila.  It has been an incredible vacation and we still haven't had time to rest.  I'm sure that will come at some point but so far we've been having too much fun!

A truly grueling vacation

We arrived in Manila late on Tuesday, July 3rd.  Tired as she was, Soleil took time to try out her new stroller, an early Christmas gift from Grandpa and Lola (Tagalog for grandmother).

On Wednesday we got haircuts and went "malling".  On Thursday we went for a drive around the neighborhood Michelle grew up in and went to a discipleship group in the evening with Michelle's parents.  On Friday, Ron and I went to Corregidor, a famous WWII island battleground at the mouth of Manila Bay while Michelle visited some of the ladies from Alice's Partners in Ministry group at IGSL.  We finished up the day at another discipleship group.   

Riding in a "tricycle" through Quezon City

Ruins at Corregidor

Gun Emplacement on the Island

On Saturday we drove up to Subic Bay.  The primary attraction for the day was Zoobic, a little animal park.

Petting a Goat

"What is that?"

Soleil trying to shake hooves with a deer

Feeding the canaries

On Sunday we went to church and then went malling again.  What else are you going to do to get out the heat?

On Monday we boarded a Philippine Airlines flight for the island of Cebu.  Our destination was a beach resort on the north side of the island called Alegre.  We spent four days here playing in the sea, kayaking, snorkeling, eating and (in my case) getting a bad sunburn.  Well worth it.

When we got back from Cebu we had a day to get our clothes washed and head back to the airport, this time en route to Taiwan.  Michelle's parents were missionaries in Taipei before moving to Manila when Michelle was in first grade.  So we spent three days in Taipei sightseeing and touring their old neighborhood.

We got back to Manila at 3:30 this morning and back to the house by 5:30.  Despite the lack of sleep, the late nights, the early mornings and the constant traveling, Soleil has been a real trooper.  She has seemed to really enjoy this vacation and has been making friends everywhere she goes, whether it's

with a flight attendant on Philippine Airlines,

on the beach at the resort,

in the Taipei airport,

at the restaurant in Cebu

with a fellow hippo-lover at the zoo

or with a young pianist in Manila.

Today we visited the International Graduate School of Leadership (IGSL) where Ron serves as the Academic Dean and heads the Theology Department.  We have one more day left here in the Philippines and all that we have to do is to pack.  We leave Manila the morning of July 19th, touching down at JFK twenty hours later.

Departure Service

Our church, Paroisse CECU Libenge-Moke, had a farewell service for all of us one evening during our final week in Gemena.  We hosted it at ELIKYA, between our house and the classroom building. 

This short clip was filmed during the final 'postlude' as people were drinking tea and the service was wrapping up.

Last Days

We are now exactly one week removed from our departure from Congo.  It is still hard to believe that we won't be going back.  We have left before- several times across the river to Bangui, once to Gamboula for Soleil's birth and once to Kenya for the RG Africa Conference- but this time there is no expectation of return, no timeframe, no date.  It is strange.  

Our last days in Congo were a flurry of activity.  We intentionally left our final week in country free of any training responsibilities so that we could focus on packing up and saying good-bye.  Yet, somehow, there seemed to be plenty of last-minute work-related things to wrap up even during the final week.  Many people invited us over for a final meal together so we ate very well, no doubt about that.  Our church in Libenge-Moke also had a special church service at the Elikya Center to bless our departure.  We had our own church service as well with the team we've spent the last few years training.  They have become so much more than colleagues.  They are true friends and we will miss them dearly.  I am sure that they have taught us more than we ever did over the course of our time there.  We worshipped together and prayed for each other.  The tears were never far from the surface. 

The hardest part was saying good-bye.  For me, the opportunity to come back to Congo, where I'd spent eight years growing up as a kid was something completely unexpected when it was presented to us back in 2008.  So to come back and be able to reconnect with the land and the people was something I will be forever grateful for.  And to be able to return with my wife, to live there together and to raise our daughter there for the first eighteen months of her life are blessings that will forever impact who we are as a family.  And now that it's over there's this perpetual feeling that two years isn't long enough.  It's long enough to adjust to the culture, learn the language well, make good friendships and even complete the work that we went to do.  So it is long enough.  But it feels as though, after all that, it's just the beginning; like the full potential of the ministry and the work and the friendships were just coming to full bloom.

The last two years have been such a blessing and such a rare gift of an experience.  It was never easy, to be sure and filled with it's share of dissapointment, discouragement and sorrow.  But God has taught us so much through it.  And the pain in leaving is a gift too.  It means simply that the Lord forged something of great value between us and those we are leaving behind.  In that sense I am happy for this sadness that is tempered by the accompanying hope of return.  If not for two years, then two months will do; if not for two months, then two weeks.  God knows and we are confident that these things too will work together for good.      

Special June Newsletter

Here you will find our June newsletter.  It has some important information concerning our return to the US and our future plans.  

One of the reasons we are sending out this special newsletter is to invite you to join our support team.  We have made the decision to continue on with ReachGlobal and are once again raising support. The letter and additional attached document will have more information on what we'll be doing this next year, our future plans within the mission and how you can play a part.  You’ll also find our summer schedule in the newsletter so if you want us to stop in for a visit when we’re in your area just let us know and we’d be happy to.

We're not in Congo anymore...

Manila, Philippines

The Long Way Home: Part Two

Kinshasa to Manila: July 2-July 3

Following two good days of rest and visiting and a little bit of sightseeing in Kinshasa, the day of our departure from Congo finally arrived.  Following prayer at our hotel with President Bosokpale, his wife Janette, Vice-President Badi, Pastor Selenga, Jim Snyder, Kevin Kompelein and others, we got into a truck and headed for the Kinshasa airport.  Passing through immigration we ran into a single difficulty: Soleil did not have a visa.  We had been told by immigration in Zongo (across from Bangui) that she was covered under her mother's visa but this was, apparently, misinformation; definitely not how they operated in Kinshasa.  Assessing the penalty for not having a visa and the cost of the visa itself we were asked to pay $2500 for her.  Luckily, we were prepared for this encounter and we soon had Selenga on the line, who called the chief immigration official in Kinshasa who told the immigration officials we were dealing with to let us go through.  It's all who you know, I guess, and we were blessed to have some amazing assistance in getting through the airport financially unscathed. 

We boarded an Ethiopian airlines flight to Addis Ababa and said our final goodbyes to Congo as we took off on the first stretch of our 26-hour leg to Manila.  Soleil did extremely well on the trip and we enjoyed pretty good seating all the way through to the Phlippines, getting either bulkhead seats or three seats each flight.  Soleil slept through our entire 4-hour layover in Addis Ababa and before long we were on our way to Hong Kong via Bangkok, Thailand.  This was the big one: 13 hours, but again, Soleil slept for about 3 hours and we made it to Hong Kong incident-free.

Soleil out cold in Ethiopia

Our two-hour layover turned hectic when we were informed that to enter the Philippines we were required to present a printout of our tickets leaving the country as proof we would not be outstaying our free 21-day tourist visa.  We didn't have this and weren't able to obtain it until the last minute, finally managing to arrive at our gate halfway through boarding.  All's well that end's well, though, and we made it to Manila with all of our baggage.  We got into Michelle's parents' place around midnight, happy to be done with traveling for at least a few days. 

The Long Way Home: Part One

June 30: Gemena to Kinshasa

Since coming back from the RG Africa Conference on May 5^th, we have had June 30^th always in the back of our minds, knowing that that would be our final day at ELIKYA.  We have been working and watching our remaining time whittled down from a month and a half to several weeks, to just a few days and finally the day itself came.  We had packed one suitcase and a trunk, two carry-ons and a backpack.  The rest of our stuff was either left for the Elikya Center or had been given away in the preceding days.  Our luggage sat in the living room while we ate a final breakfast of bread and guavas and waited for the truck to arrive to take us to the airport.  When it finally came up the road shortly before 7AM we felt the finality of it.  Now just a few more minutes and ELIKYA would go from being our home to being a place where we once lived and worked.  We brought our bags out and began saying goodbyes.  Then we locked up the house and climbed into the truck and were off to the mission where we waited for a couple hours as our luggage was taken to the airport and formalités dispensed with.  The truck then returned for us and within an hour and a half we were on board a flyCongo airplane awaiting departure for Kinshasa via Mbandaka. 

Our flight was uneventful and by midafternoon we had navigated N’djili airport (with a lot of help) and were lodged in the Hotel Finesse, where a buffet dinner awaited us.  Eating French fries, grilled chicken breast, rice and cabbage and  drinkinga Sprite in an air-conditioned room made Gemena feel worlds away already.  So this afternoon we are to have a pizza lunch with Pastor Selenga—a former CECU President and currently the Director of ReachAfrica—and his wife, Claudine.  Then we are to see the sights in Kin this afternoon and this evening prep for our departure early tomorrow afternoon.

Soleil in the back of Selenga's car, checking out Kinshasa

Kinshasa downtown streetscape

The May Team

It feels like our latest team just got here and already they are about to leave us, getting ready for a 3 AM departure time tomorrow from ELIKYA.  This last team consisted of Ben and Karen McMullen along with Rachel Martin.  Rachel, our supervisor, and Karen both work with the Global Fingerprints orphan sponsorship program.  They arrived last Monday and have been really busy, hitting the ground running and not slowing up since.  Their time here was spent collecting video, photos and stories of orphans in the program and also in strategic meetings with GF supervisors and program leaders here in order to improve the overall sponsorship system. 

Ben is a youth pastor from their church in Wisconsin and he also does a lot of photography on the side so he and Karen made a great team.  Together with Rachel they were able to visit quite a few kids in Gemena, Karawa and Tandala.  Each visit was different.  Some kids were met, interviewed and filmed in their homes, others in churches.  On Thursday morning of last week we met with three kids, each situation being extremely different from the others.  The first lived with one of the GF supervisors and was very well-cared for.  The second visit was with a child who lived with his grandparents.  He was deaf and mute and his grandparents were poorly-equipped to deal with the handicap, able only to manage a few crude gestures to communicate with him.  They also had some physical difficulties that made caring for the family very difficult.  The house was in disrepair, patched up with old umbrellas and plastic-weave bags.  It was a perfect example of why this program exists, to make a way where there would otherwise be no way.  The last house would be a shock to anyone.  The mother was obviously sick and very emaciated.  Two young children lay inside the house, unwashed, hungry and flaccid.  The orphan sponsered by the program used to sell coconuts but no longer could because he had stay at home and care for his mother since she was so ill.  The house was falling apart, a good deal of it burned some time ago and offered little protection from the elements.  The mother said they had not even 1 cent to their name and no idea where their next meal was coming from.Sadly, she died within the week.  The GF program is doing so much for so many kids all over the Ubangi but there's still so much need, even within homes that are being sponsored.  This is a ministry that God is using powerfully to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Sam and Sarah escorted the team to Karawa to meet with orphans while Michelle and I went with them to Tandala.  Unfortunately, Karen didn't get to go on the planned tour of the hospital but did get to experience the hospital's laboratory services firsthand as she got sick and was pretty much incapacitated the entire two days we were there.  All tests came back negative and by the time we were ready to return to Gemena she was feeling much better again.  Since returning from Tandala they have been busy in meetings with GF staff, also taking an afternoon to visit two very special sponsored twins, Beni and Benedite.  Read their story here. 

Beni and Benedite with Pastor Ezechiel's wife

The Koyamba Team got to take the lead with this team and did well with the "practice".  Benjamin and Bebe did much of the translating, with one of us on hand to supply a missing word if necessary (Mandaba was in Kinshasa for technical training and Simplice was busy with other matters).  They also took the lead in making dinners and arranging the schedule.  It was fun to be able to tag along and see them in action!

Now that the last team has come and gone (almost) we have exactly four weeks remaining here in Gemena.  We will use our final month to pack things up and say our good-byes, then leave this ministry entirely in the hands of the four members of the Koyamba Team.

 

Simplice's Big News

Soleil has a new leki (younger sibling)!  Simplice, one of our Koyamba Team members was unable to play a real part in hosting this last team.  She had a good excuse, though, because she was busy having a baby!  Samuel Kongba was born on May 21st and is Simplice and her husband's first child.     

Simplice with her son in their living room



Samuel was born over a month ahead of schedule but at a healthy 6.4 lbs

With Simplica 4 days after Samuel's birth

May 2012 Newsletter is hot off the presses! 

The May Team just arrived this Monday night and will be with us until the beginning of June.  They spent the morning visiting Global Fingerprints orphans in the area and this afternoon will visit a couple more and then go on a tour of Gemena.

We are praising God for an absolutely wonderful conference at Brackenhurst outside of Nairobi, Kenya.  It wrapped up this past Sunday morning.  We are now in Bangui again, planning on crossing the border tomorrow back into Congo.  Our return has been somewhat (and unfortunately) eventful as Soleil got sick the day we left Brackenhurst and is finishing up a malaria cure.  None of our three pieces of baggage made it on the plane with us so we ended up spending 2 1/2 days in Bangui without a change of clothes.  But Soleil is back to normal and  all of our luggage made it here today so we are all clear to return to Gemena.  We have a lot to be thankful for.

Ndako na Biso--Our House

Here's a brief slideshow of photos taken in our home at ELIKYA.  The blue and black trunks that appear throughout betray the temporary nature of the accommodations but they have been more than sufficient and much better than first expected, honestly.  With only two months in our assignment remaining it will soon be time to bid our home adieu and move on.  Following our departure, one side of the duplex will probably be occupied by an SIL missionary and the other side possibly converted to an office for ELIKYA staff.

Soleil and Junior

Soleil and Junior

"What is this thing?"

Back in January while the teams were still with us, we bought a young pangolin.  My family had one as a pet when I was growing up and I remembered it being pretty fun.  We kept it inside two baskets that were bungeed together.  During the day we'd let it climb around in a nearby guava tree to look for ants or in the rambutan tree right behind our house.  After about a day it got pretty friendly, to the point where it would follow us and climb up our legs if we allowed it.  One afternoon we supervised a game of tag in which the pangolin (we called him Junior) was chasing Soleil around back behind the guesthouse and Soleil would run a short ways, turn around to see if he was still coming then run some more.  Unfortunately, Junior loosed his bonds one afternoon when he was tied up on our back porch while we were busy with the team and when we returned he was nowhere to be found.  He made for a good time, though, for the few days we had him.

In Their Own Words

Michelle and Jerry in Bangui's Central Market

The January Team wrote about their experiences in the Congo and it's worth a read as their updates and thoughts help to paint a picture of what it can be like to take a missions trip to the Ubangi.

Jeremy Howe wrote a couple blog posts detailing his trip, especially being in transit through Bangui. See below:

Bangui, Central African Republic

Crossing into the Congo

The Constance Team also posted frequent updates. You can read them here.

January Team Recap

Better late than never I suppose...

Jim Snyder, Jerry and Nancy Hibma, Debbie and Randy Discher, Dan Byers

Jeremy Howe, Jerry Jameson

A girl collects clean drinking water from the newly finished well at ELIKYA

Two members of the January team, Jerry and his nephew Jeremy, came out to Congo to train a team of Congolese how to drill for water using a rig that was purchased with funds raised by Constance Evangelical Free Church. Access to water has been a major difficulty in the Gemena area. Not only are there few pumps but there has also been a problem with the potability of the water that is accessible. A lot of it has microorganisms that can be dangerous, especially to young children. So having clean water available at ELIKYA is an enormous blessing.

Carpenters taking a rest from constructing the shelter for the ELIKYA well reservoir

Push starting the truck that carries the water necessary to drill

While the team was here they managed to see two wells drilled, one at ELIKYA and the other at the CECU mission. The Congolese team that was trained took the lead on the second well and Jerry took more of a backseat, letting them make the decisions and adding his input when necessary. Following the succesful drilling of these wells, the team looks to have a few more jobs on the horizon as there are some interested organizations in Gemena as well as plans to drill at the CECU hospital in Tandala.

Drilling at the CECU mission

Well drilling is an involved, dirty and time-consuming endeavour. The team did well, though, working through some setbacks such as the pit collapsing multiple times and difficulty getting enough water to flush out the sand, gravel and earth from the pit. Jeremy posted an update to his blog as preparations were being made to drill the first well:

"We've now met the team of drillers. The main guy, Ahundambi, was selected as the leader I believe by congolese folks in the e free church. He then selected 5 others to work with him. He did a good job, most of them have a mechanical or electrical training background of some kind, and they all seem to be pumped to be here.

Yesterday we finally started making material preparation to drill the well. There are a lot of preparations to make! Dig a pit, bring in thousands of gallons of water, make all the tools that aren't already here, etc. We'll spend all day doing that today, and then hopefully the next we'll drill the well, which should be done in one day."

It ended up taking more than one day but they got it done.

Nancy Hibma and Dr. Bienvenue making the rounds during the tour of Tandala Hospital

In addition to Jim and Jerry there was a team present from Constance as well. They were split several different ways and accomplished a lot. Their projects included 1) Pastor Randy lecturing at the Protestant University of the Ubangi (UPU) on spiritual warfare and healthy church growth, 2) Debbie and Nancy giving a 3-day seminar to women’s leaders in CECU churches on the value of women and on spiritual gifts, 3) Dan training ELIKYA staff how to counsel students and Nancy and Debbie training teachers to offer Biblical Worldview/Life Skills lessons, 4) Dan giving a seminar to pastors concerning counseling for youth and relational difficulties and 5) Jerry developing business plans for a variety of ELIKYA initiatives. The team also visited Tandala Hospital to understand the work and the needs and to investigate a potential partnership with their church.

Constance Team meeting doctors and pastors at Tandala

March Update (in April)

We are at the point now where we can actually count the days we have left here in Congo and they really aren’t that many. It is hard to believe how our two years here can be drawing to a close already. Nevertheless, there is still a lot to get done and a lot that will occupy our time for the remaining months.

ReachGlobal as a mission has as its modus operandi “Develop, Empower and Release”. That is to say, the way that it operates is to train nationals in ministry, equip them and let them take over. As we prepare for our departure we have to evaluate what has been done and what needs doing in that light.

DEVELOP. Since the last team returned to the US in February, a significant portion of our time has been spent continuing to teach English and adding computer classes to the schedule as well. Sam and I are currently working through a series of computer classes on Microsoft Windows, Excel, Outlook and Word. The classes are primarily for the benefit of the Koyamba Team but have been opened to others within CECU as well that it might benefit other ministries.

EMPOWER. The Koyamba Team will have another opportunity before our departure to begin the process of taking over our responsibilities. In May we will be hosting a ReachGlobal team. The team will be small, being comprised of Rachel Martin, our supervisor, in addition to Karen, a Global Fingerprints staff member and her husband, Ben. At that time, we will take on a an observing role and the Koyamba Team will fill our roles in hosting the team and even translating. We are thankful for the opportunity for this “dry run” and excited to see the Koyamba Team step up and really begin the task for which they’ve so faithfully trained over the last year and a half.

RELEASE. The four of us have decided that we will be returning to the United States in the beginning of the month of July. Come July we will have fulfilled the two years that were allotted for this mission and it seems that everything will be in place to allow for our return at that time. We want to make sure we are leaving behind a healthy ministry and we are confident that at the close of these next two and a half months the team that we’ve been training will be able to take the reins.

Our time here is even shorter given that in one week we will be making the drive to Bangui (again) in order to fly out to Nairobi, Kenya for a week and a half. We will be attending the ReachGlobal All Africa Conference where we will connect with other RG missionaries serving throughout the continent and take part in workshops to enhance our ministries. Please pray that this time would be blessed by the Lord and that we would all be refreshed and encouraged by this time together.

Thank you for your prayer and support of our ministry here in Gemena. It has been such a blessing and a privilege to serve in this context and to know that we have such a committed and generous support team behind us. Please continue to pray for us during this integral time. Pray also for the Koyamba Team as they are taking on a big job and one of great importance in the life of the partnership between CECU and the EFCA.

Our February 2012 Newsletter is now available for download! Check it out. Past newsletters can also be downloaded from the sidebar.