Final Post From Cal
Editor's Note: This post was received yesterday, while Cal and Martin and Linda were still in Gemena. At this moment, they have already flown from Gemena to Kinshasa and are boarding the plane for Paris, beginning the long trip home. Please pray for traveling mercies!
Dear Family and Friends,
As we near the end of our trip, I would like to reflect on some of the things that we take for granted and are not as thankful for as we should be.
1. Family. I know that all of us here miss our families. While the team we are with and the Congolese are wonderful, they are not those closest to us. It has been fun to share pictures and stories of my family with some of my Congolese friends and this helps me feel closer to them even though they are thousands of miles away.
2. Light. Outside of urban areas, lights are not to be found. There are limited lights in buildings IF generators are running. There are no street lights. It is much darker here at night.
3. Showers. Here, the best you can do is a bucket of clean (but not drinkable), water that is fairly cool. Sometimes you shower in an actual shower stall, otherwise it could outside in a building that has a reed wall around it. Also, even if you shower, you usually feel sweaty again within the hour.
4. Electricity. Here, this is very limited and dependent on the generators. You have to plan carefully when to charge up things like phones and computers. It is amazing how much we depend on electric equipment.
5. Telephones. There are not landlines anywhere outside urban areas. Cellular service is erratic. For example, in Tandala they use a "skip signal" and while it works some of the time, it is not reliable.
6. Coolness. It is always warm and muggy here. The breeze can help a lot but if you are inside a building, especially if there are many people, it can get very uncomfortable.
7. Roads. Out here, the roads are mostly dirt and in poor repair. The rains really tear things up.
8. Toilets. Here, if you have a toilet, it will not flush unless you pour a bucket of water into it … and then only incompletely. In other areas, you have the African equivalent of an outhouse -- though much more primitive.
9. Running water. This is not found in the northern Congo and when you wash your hands, they never feel completely clean or completely rinsed.
This is not a complete list … nor meant to be a list of complaints! It is just that when you are away from these conveniences, you realize how much we take for granted in our culture.
Yesterday, we met with a group of orphans that CECU sponsors through GlobalFingerprints. Many of them had their uniforms and one had his backpack. Since school is out right now, many sponsored children were not around. Each parish has a supervisor from the CECU that checks on these kids at least once a month.
This is an open program and many of the children are not from CECU churches. You may recall that there was a Muslim boy named Mohamet whom the church sponsors. He broke his leg and the supervisor saw that he got to Tandala for care and visited him during the five months he was hospitalized.
One of his brothers attended chapel at Tandala regularly and said he wanted to become Christian. Even the local cleric was impressed by the love of Jesus shown this boy. They hope to open up the orphan sponsorship program (GlobalFingerprints) very soon. We met with Pastor Deolo, who is in charge of this program, and he shared both his own personal testimony in his calling to AIDS ministry and how the program works through
the local churches to sponsor orphans within their particular caregiver situation. We look for more information to be shared about this in the fall when the DVD that EFCA recently did is ready for distribution.
Today we did two really important things. First we visited the Elikia ("hope" in Lingala). This is the church property near Gemena that the church leaders and Women's Ministry leaders have developed a vision for.
The property is over 100 acres. It now has an almost completed (and quite well built) building for the director and for a few widows. There is a second building being done, too. The local churches are using the space for
their "gardens" to provide food for those who don't have any and raise funds for the project. This center, formerly known as CEVO, is a Congolese solution to the problems with widows and orphans. I think it is inspired and has the capacity for self-sufficiency and duplication at other sites. The main idea is to create an area where older orphans, widows, and unwed mothers can come to learn lifie skills (academics, trade, agriculture, budgeting, etc...) and develop a deepening spiritual life. The problem is that many of the women in the Congo are uneducated and have no skills other than subsistence farming. If a child is orphaned, he or she will be taken in by other families but often is not treated well or educated. Thus, both groups end up facing huge obstacles to success when the husband dies.
The land came to the CECU church in the ‘90s after the prayers of several women in church leadership, including Rachel Martin, whom many of you have met. However, things got chaotic during the war in the late ‘90s and work was abandoned, until 2003. Then the church became concerned about the growing numbers of widows and orphans and decided to resurrect the project.
We did a prayer walk around the property today with President Selenga and Vice President Ibengi from CECU. It is located on a beautiful hillside and has a stream on one border. Unlike much of this area, the land is fertile and has not been abused by the slash-and-burn agriculture used here that destroys the land within a few years. As we spoke with President Selenga afterward over bottles of Coca Cola (a RARE treat for this area, as they cost more than $1 per bottle), I could not help being reminded of how Jesus fed the multitudes on a hillside in the Holy Land. One thing He asked of His disciples was to feed the people. When they could not figure out how to do it, a boy had to come to Him with fish and loaves. Then Jesus multiplied it and the disciples were able to feed all those gathered.
I believe that He is calling us to look at what we can give to this project, in terms of people and money, to make it a reality. It could really be something that could be to His glory. They have plans for a school for the
older orphans. Many of these would not have ever been to school but to put them into the equivalent of first grade when they are already 15 to 18 years old is not practical. They would also have trade schools (carpentry, masonry, sewing) and agricultural projects (that could be used both the feed the widows and orphans AND provide income ... the soil is good here and anything grown on it wisely would be very marketable in Gemena).
They also are looking to do it right. The construction on the first two buildings is being done well. They are actually using baked rather than only compressed bricks, having two bands of reinforced cement in the walls surrounding the buildings to make them last longer, and (as typical) using mahogany for the framing (termites can't chew it). I look forward to sharing the videos and photos of this with you.
The second thing we did today was meet with about 20 widows from the local CECU churches and just let them tell their stories. For brevity, I would like to share some common themes.
One, often when the husband dies, the man's family comes and takes all of the belongings from the widow. Widows cannot generally remarry, as culturally they are considered "damaged goods." Many of these women have young children, grandchildren, or other relatives living with them. In particular, the problem of their own children and their spouses having died leaving only the young and the elderly to survive. These women live in homes that are deteriorating as there is no man to repair them. And most of the time, they have no marketable skills so they end up trying to live on their gardens or collecting firewood or grinding coffee for a living. The gardens can be as far as a one-day walk from their homes and require a lot of work. Many of these ladies are elderly and have their own health problems. Some of them have adult children who would care for them if they themselves had jobs. Others feel that their children have left for Kinshasa and do not think about them
anymore.
We were blessed to be able to take a collection for these women to use through the CECU leaders and to pray for them. Some of the ladies on our trip had jewelry to give out and you should have seen the smiles. Speaking of smiles, I again saw the joy of the Lord in these women, many of whom serve as deaconesses or as Sunday School teachers or in the choir. And, even as they told us their stories, you could sense the happiness. One lady in particular said something to the effect that she had nothing but her worship of the Lord. Others related thankfulness to God for His provision of what little that they have. These ladies were really great testimonies to the type of faith you see here in the Congo.
We leave Saturday afternoon (this would be at about 8 a.m. Pacific time) for Kinshasa and then, after clearing customs, for an overnight flight to Paris. This is all presuming that the planes are on schedule and all our prior ticketing issues are worked out. We will know for certain when we are in Paris in time to catch the flight to Newark. Once we are in Newark, I will feel much closer to home. As I have said earlier, I expect to arrive in Seattle around 5 p.m. on a Continental flight from Newark. I will appreciate your prayers through all of this travel for customs, flight connections, baggage to go all the way through, etc... I would also encourage you to give thanks for the small things we have in America that we take for granted. And, of course, for your prayers for the people of Congo. This will likely be my last message before I am stateside.
May God bless you,
Cal
Dear Family and Friends,
As we near the end of our trip, I would like to reflect on some of the things that we take for granted and are not as thankful for as we should be.
1. Family. I know that all of us here miss our families. While the team we are with and the Congolese are wonderful, they are not those closest to us. It has been fun to share pictures and stories of my family with some of my Congolese friends and this helps me feel closer to them even though they are thousands of miles away.
2. Light. Outside of urban areas, lights are not to be found. There are limited lights in buildings IF generators are running. There are no street lights. It is much darker here at night.
3. Showers. Here, the best you can do is a bucket of clean (but not drinkable), water that is fairly cool. Sometimes you shower in an actual shower stall, otherwise it could outside in a building that has a reed wall around it. Also, even if you shower, you usually feel sweaty again within the hour.
4. Electricity. Here, this is very limited and dependent on the generators. You have to plan carefully when to charge up things like phones and computers. It is amazing how much we depend on electric equipment.
5. Telephones. There are not landlines anywhere outside urban areas. Cellular service is erratic. For example, in Tandala they use a "skip signal" and while it works some of the time, it is not reliable.
6. Coolness. It is always warm and muggy here. The breeze can help a lot but if you are inside a building, especially if there are many people, it can get very uncomfortable.
7. Roads. Out here, the roads are mostly dirt and in poor repair. The rains really tear things up.
8. Toilets. Here, if you have a toilet, it will not flush unless you pour a bucket of water into it … and then only incompletely. In other areas, you have the African equivalent of an outhouse -- though much more primitive.
9. Running water. This is not found in the northern Congo and when you wash your hands, they never feel completely clean or completely rinsed.
This is not a complete list … nor meant to be a list of complaints! It is just that when you are away from these conveniences, you realize how much we take for granted in our culture.
Yesterday, we met with a group of orphans that CECU sponsors through GlobalFingerprints. Many of them had their uniforms and one had his backpack. Since school is out right now, many sponsored children were not around. Each parish has a supervisor from the CECU that checks on these kids at least once a month.
This is an open program and many of the children are not from CECU churches. You may recall that there was a Muslim boy named Mohamet whom the church sponsors. He broke his leg and the supervisor saw that he got to Tandala for care and visited him during the five months he was hospitalized.
One of his brothers attended chapel at Tandala regularly and said he wanted to become Christian. Even the local cleric was impressed by the love of Jesus shown this boy. They hope to open up the orphan sponsorship program (GlobalFingerprints) very soon. We met with Pastor Deolo, who is in charge of this program, and he shared both his own personal testimony in his calling to AIDS ministry and how the program works through
the local churches to sponsor orphans within their particular caregiver situation. We look for more information to be shared about this in the fall when the DVD that EFCA recently did is ready for distribution.
Today we did two really important things. First we visited the Elikia ("hope" in Lingala). This is the church property near Gemena that the church leaders and Women's Ministry leaders have developed a vision for.
The property is over 100 acres. It now has an almost completed (and quite well built) building for the director and for a few widows. There is a second building being done, too. The local churches are using the space for
their "gardens" to provide food for those who don't have any and raise funds for the project. This center, formerly known as CEVO, is a Congolese solution to the problems with widows and orphans. I think it is inspired and has the capacity for self-sufficiency and duplication at other sites. The main idea is to create an area where older orphans, widows, and unwed mothers can come to learn lifie skills (academics, trade, agriculture, budgeting, etc...) and develop a deepening spiritual life. The problem is that many of the women in the Congo are uneducated and have no skills other than subsistence farming. If a child is orphaned, he or she will be taken in by other families but often is not treated well or educated. Thus, both groups end up facing huge obstacles to success when the husband dies.
The land came to the CECU church in the ‘90s after the prayers of several women in church leadership, including Rachel Martin, whom many of you have met. However, things got chaotic during the war in the late ‘90s and work was abandoned, until 2003. Then the church became concerned about the growing numbers of widows and orphans and decided to resurrect the project.
We did a prayer walk around the property today with President Selenga and Vice President Ibengi from CECU. It is located on a beautiful hillside and has a stream on one border. Unlike much of this area, the land is fertile and has not been abused by the slash-and-burn agriculture used here that destroys the land within a few years. As we spoke with President Selenga afterward over bottles of Coca Cola (a RARE treat for this area, as they cost more than $1 per bottle), I could not help being reminded of how Jesus fed the multitudes on a hillside in the Holy Land. One thing He asked of His disciples was to feed the people. When they could not figure out how to do it, a boy had to come to Him with fish and loaves. Then Jesus multiplied it and the disciples were able to feed all those gathered.
I believe that He is calling us to look at what we can give to this project, in terms of people and money, to make it a reality. It could really be something that could be to His glory. They have plans for a school for the
older orphans. Many of these would not have ever been to school but to put them into the equivalent of first grade when they are already 15 to 18 years old is not practical. They would also have trade schools (carpentry, masonry, sewing) and agricultural projects (that could be used both the feed the widows and orphans AND provide income ... the soil is good here and anything grown on it wisely would be very marketable in Gemena).
They also are looking to do it right. The construction on the first two buildings is being done well. They are actually using baked rather than only compressed bricks, having two bands of reinforced cement in the walls surrounding the buildings to make them last longer, and (as typical) using mahogany for the framing (termites can't chew it). I look forward to sharing the videos and photos of this with you.
The second thing we did today was meet with about 20 widows from the local CECU churches and just let them tell their stories. For brevity, I would like to share some common themes.
One, often when the husband dies, the man's family comes and takes all of the belongings from the widow. Widows cannot generally remarry, as culturally they are considered "damaged goods." Many of these women have young children, grandchildren, or other relatives living with them. In particular, the problem of their own children and their spouses having died leaving only the young and the elderly to survive. These women live in homes that are deteriorating as there is no man to repair them. And most of the time, they have no marketable skills so they end up trying to live on their gardens or collecting firewood or grinding coffee for a living. The gardens can be as far as a one-day walk from their homes and require a lot of work. Many of these ladies are elderly and have their own health problems. Some of them have adult children who would care for them if they themselves had jobs. Others feel that their children have left for Kinshasa and do not think about them
anymore.
We were blessed to be able to take a collection for these women to use through the CECU leaders and to pray for them. Some of the ladies on our trip had jewelry to give out and you should have seen the smiles. Speaking of smiles, I again saw the joy of the Lord in these women, many of whom serve as deaconesses or as Sunday School teachers or in the choir. And, even as they told us their stories, you could sense the happiness. One lady in particular said something to the effect that she had nothing but her worship of the Lord. Others related thankfulness to God for His provision of what little that they have. These ladies were really great testimonies to the type of faith you see here in the Congo.
We leave Saturday afternoon (this would be at about 8 a.m. Pacific time) for Kinshasa and then, after clearing customs, for an overnight flight to Paris. This is all presuming that the planes are on schedule and all our prior ticketing issues are worked out. We will know for certain when we are in Paris in time to catch the flight to Newark. Once we are in Newark, I will feel much closer to home. As I have said earlier, I expect to arrive in Seattle around 5 p.m. on a Continental flight from Newark. I will appreciate your prayers through all of this travel for customs, flight connections, baggage to go all the way through, etc... I would also encourage you to give thanks for the small things we have in America that we take for granted. And, of course, for your prayers for the people of Congo. This will likely be my last message before I am stateside.
May God bless you,
Cal
posted by Larry Short at 9:58 AM
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