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.