Home at Elikya

We are finally home at the Elikya Center. Our travel this time around was, in some ways, easier than the last and in some ways more, shall we say adventurous. Our flights were on time, all of our luggage arrived with us and we had only a couple hours layover in Paris. Once in Bangui, CAR we settled into the Brethren Mission guesthouse for a couple nights. We ate our evening meal (chicken and French fries) at a local restaurant. As we were waiting for the food to arrive I felt a tickling on my toes. I pushed back the tablecloth and leaned over to take a look, expecting to find a cat or a small dog sniffing my feet. Instead I saw a large cockroach crawling on my toes, welcoming us to Africa.

Our first full day in the city we took a walking tour of Bangui, visiting such hotspots as the US embassy, the fridge store and a grocery store. That night both of us got only about 3 hours of sleep. As I lay wake my mind was busy with Lingala words and phrases. I ended up with a song in my head and even tried translating that into Lingala with mild success.

The next day we crossed over the Ubangi River into the town of Zongo, Congo. We were hoping to cross the river at 8 AM to get an early start but…As usual the customs process took awhile on both sides of the river. When we finally got on the road it was about 1:30 in the afternoon. We were anticipating something like a 9 hour drive given the report that a bridge was “out” along the way and it was the rainy season so the roads were bad. Michelle quickly showed us all that she was the possessor of an important skill: the ability to fall asleep anywhere. I think it is a safe assumption that if you can sleep in a truck bouncing along Congo roads, you can sleep anywhere.

The bridge required some minor adjusting before it could be crossed. We got out of the vehicle and walked across, though, just in case. We were delayed a couple times for minor repairs to the suspension and changing out the bulbs in the headlights. Finding a place to go to the bathroom was always an adventure. At one point we walked back off the road a ways through two people’s yards and to a third house where the man in charge got the generator running, turned the lights on and let us in. He yelled something about a scorpion to somebody right before he invited us in so we were left guessing a little bit about that.

Back on the road it got dark and we finished the trip, most of us nodding off from time to time (except for Edison, the driver, of course). We had a few encounters with animals on the road with a chicken and a cat being the sole casualties. A cow once suddenly and unwisely averted course and turned immediately in front of us. It got knocked on the head but walked away from it. We arrived at a checkpoint in a town just over an hour from Gemena around midnight. There we were taken into a small room and looked over by an official who registered us after examining our passports and shining a flashlight in our face to confirm our identities.

By the time we arrived in Gemena we had been on the road for 11 ½ hours. We made a stop at the CECU President’s house for a very late supper (or early breakfast) of goat, rice and plantain. Then we finally got to bed and ended up sleeping until just before noon the next day. Now we are continuing to unpack and put everything in order. This afternoon we will register with the regional chef du poste and apply for a residence visa.

The Days Ahead

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9




The months of waiting have turned to weeks, to days and finally to hours. We have made our final purchases, checked in for our flight to Paris, weighed every piece of luggage to within ounces of 50 pounds, scheduled the termination of our phone service and car insurance and a million other little things that must be done when leaving the country for two years. We'll find out what we forgot to do when we get there.

We are excited to be going and more than a little apprehensive...but excited. There will be difficult things to be sure but our God can handle them. And now, when considering the days head, there is something like a swell of excitement at being loosed on this journey and going in His will. There is no place we'd rather be right now and no place we'd rather be going.

The plan is to fly overnight from Chicago to Paris, arriving tomorrow morning. A few hours later we board our flight for Bangui, arriving that evening. We will be spending at least a day in Bangui at a guesthouse as we prepare for the trip to Gemena. That final leg may be a bit delayed as the roads have apparently been wrecked by the rainy season and a bridge is currently out. So we may have to wait for it to be fixed. But regardless, we are on our way. And on our way rejoicing.

Woo Hoo!

July 2010 Newsletter is hot off the presses! Click to view. Past newsletters and donation cards are also available to view or download on the sidebar.

Let the packing commence!

Faith Comes By Hearing

This is for those of you who may be interested in hearing what Lingala really sounds like. We are, of course, aspiring to sound this good but just aren't there yet. The organization that produces the audio here is called Faith Comes By Hearing. They create dramatized recordings of the New Testament in various languages and make them available to poor, illiterate and marginalized populations around the world. They focus on regions that may not have a strong history of the written word but where stories are passed down aurally. This particular recording is of the third chapter of the Gospel of John.



*Allow several seconds for audio to load after pressing play.

Here we go...

Praise the Lord! The Snyders have finished support-raising and we now have the green light to return to the Congo. We have all purchased tickets for a flight leaving from Chicago on July 25. The four of us will arrive in Paris the next day and leave several hours later on another flight for Bangui, Central African Republic. We are excited to finally have a date set for departure (even though it is almost five weeks away). There is plenty to do until then, though, as we will be buying the remaining supplies, packing, getting visas and even receiving training in facilitating an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) course.

Thank you all for your prayers and for your financial support of our ministry. These many months of support-raising, training, traveling, waiting, preparing and saying our good-byes is finally coming to an end. Three months after we finished support-raising and five months after we originally hoped to depart, we are finally leaving. And right on time in God's will. You can continue to pray that our final preparations before leaving would go smoothly, that all necessary arrangements would be made and that we would be mentally and spiritually prepared for the next two years as much as possible by the time we board the plane.

May 2010 Update

We will be sending out an additional newsletter next month before we depart for the Congo but we wanted to give you a brief update for the month of May.

This past month has been one of transition. We moved out of our apartment in our church’s mission house and in with some friends on May 1st. And we have just moved out of our room in their house and are now with some other friends in Lindenhurst, IL. We are a lot closer to Sam and Sarah Snyder and close enough to help with working out departure details and assist with TouchGlobal needs in Rockford, IL.

In between these moves we have been saying numerous good-byes. Our church, Lancaster EFC, commissioned us during both services on Sunday, May 30th. We were presented with a Congolese flag and a certificate and were also prayed over by the congregation. It has been bittersweet because we are both excited to be so close to heading back to the Congo and sad to leave the friends we have been so blessed to spend the last several years with. What’s two years, though? Not much in the grand scheme of things. Among other things, Michelle has been finalizing the process that will get potential short-term team members to the Congo and I have been working on a tentative plan for the agricultural program at Elikya.

We are looking at a prospective leave date in mid to late July and should be buying our plane tickets shortly.

Here are some ways you can be praying for us:

-Pray for the Snyders as they finish support raising…only 5% to go!!!
-Pray that preparations for departure would go smoothly
-Pray that we will be attentive to the Spirit as we continue to plan
-Pray that God will be preparing the hearts of those to whom we will be ministering