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.