Tabitha Center

Claudine Selenga teaching the women in the vocational center.

The Tabitha Center is a new ministry here in town started by Claudine Selenga.  She began this ministry after having a Bible Study with her own daughters and some neighborhood girls.  The study she was doing with them was called "Choose Life" published by Would Relief.  Claudine found that these neighborhood girls were very confused about basic facts of life.  She realised the great need throughout Kinshasa for young women to have basic training on their position in life, options for living outside of prostitution, and valuing others.

Figuring out the pattern to a favorite skirt.

Kinshasa is a city with approximately 12 million people.  Many girls come to Kinshasa with hopes of completing school and   then getting a job to support themselves and their families.  Life in Kinshasa is very expensive and many families cannot afford to finance their children all the way through school.  Often the girls drop out and resort to prostitution.  Many children in families in Kinshasa are thrown out on the streets either after being accused of sorcery (witchcraft) or a step parent refuses to accept them into the new marriage to a biological parent.  One-third of the children on the streets are girls and many of them resort to prostitution.

Claudine has a desire to reach out to these girls and help them with training in tailoring, cosmetology or cooking in order to find better options for living.  The first Tabitha Center was opened in the neighborhood of Bendal next to a bar.  The building had been a brothel until the ministry took it over to make it into a vocational school. 
When I visited several weeks ago, I noticed their daily schedule on the door.  Each day begins with Bible and then studying "Choose Life".  Then the vocational training begins.

When I arrived it was already close to 10 a.m. and only one girl showed up.  When I enquired as to why, I was told that many of the girls already have their own children and they have to wait for someone to babysit for them.  Others need transportation to get across town.  I asked if they would begin at the beginning of the schedule when the girls arrived.  The answer was, "Of course!"  So the girls will get Bible teaching and life training even with a relaxed schedule.
There is a great need for these vocational schools to be located in neighborhoods throughout Kinshasa so girls do not have to travel by taxi to get to school.  Claudine's vision is to begin 15 vocational training centers by April 2014.  I just had supper with the mission director, Jim Snyder, on Thursday last week.  They had just dedicated another center.  In five years they want to see 1,000 centers opened in Kinshasa being directed by women in the church who can teach what they know already.

Personally, I like this dress and would like one made for me.

Reach Global, the American extension of the mission is hoping to team with the Tabitha Centers and send out teams to encourage the women serving in these centers.  They also are financially assisting to start the programs.
If you are interested in assisting with this ministry to can receive more information by contacting

Ready to get to work!

Reach Global
901 E 78^th St., Minneapolis, MN  55420
You can follow this link to give a donation. Then follow the "give" link.  Then you can specify for the Tabitha Center Project #2200-5414.

Today, March 10, 2014, I went to visit the Tabitha Center again.  Claudine was there with several women to meet me and tell me about the center.  I took my friend Tasha and her daughter with me.  I really enjoyed talking with Claudine.  My Lingala has not improved over the last 10 years since I have been working so much with English speaking students or students learning English.  It was refreshing to speak Lingala with somebody from Tandala area again.

 Claudine was waiting to start their day with some other ladies when I arrived.  It looked like they were in between classes.  Two of the ladies that came had just finished up the classes with Claudine at the Bendal Center and were getting ready to do an internship in other neighborhoods. 

 It was nice to meet Claudine face to face finally.  We are still getting to know each other and hope to spend some time with some English lessons in the near future.

 Just recently the Bendal Tabitha Center started teaching the women how to do hair.  This will give the women another vocation to earn money for their families. 

 Yes, we drove my truck to the center.  I still appreciate those who gave so that I could have this truck to get around in Kinshasa.  I also greatly appreciate my husband who keeps it repaired and in shape.

Adah and I got to pose with the ladies.

Tasha and I plan to go back with our fabric to ask the Tabitha Center to help us with our sewing.
For a most recent update on the Tabitha Center click on this link: Installation #9 and #10.

The First Language of the Day

In the heart or stomach of Africa!

When we were in the first stages of learning Lingala, my husband would often comment that the language he began speaking, besides English in the morning was the one he responded to everyone for the rest of the day.  In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the government language is French.  At that time the country was called Zaire.  So we started out in January 1991 learning French.  After three months into school we found out that we would be moving to Tandala in Northwest Congo.  The women of the village usually did not speak French so we would want to know Lingala, the trade language.  Since Rod would be communicating in airports and with government agents he needed to have the French.  So I switched to
learning Lingala and Rod continued learning French.

Equateur is in the Northwest corner.

When we finished language school, we moved to Tandala and there began settling in only to be evacuated after six weeks.  You can read about that HERE.   It wasn't until the following year that we returned and while we waited for Rod to be able to get his flight standardization completed, Rod started studying Lingala and I continued studying.  We were able to spend two weeks in the village of Limpoko where we each had a tutor each day and we learned to love the people we lived among.  It was while we were down there that I made one of my big bloopers in language.  Rod was planning to go hunting with a couple of men the next day.  When his tutor invited me, I told him.   "Nakobota bana lobi,"  which means, "I will give birth to children tomorrow."  I actually meant to say  "Nakobatela bana lobi," which means, "I will be watching children tomorrow."
As the months went on, Rod found that if he stepped out our door speaking Lingala first in the morning, he thought in Lingala all day.  If he stepped out the door speaking French first, he thought in French all day.  I have to say that I never got efficient enough in French to switch from one to the other.
This week I was studying Priscilla Shirer's book, Discerning the Voice of God.  The following paragraph really spoke to me.  "We begin our day surrendering ourselves to Him and asking Him to heighten our spiritual senses to see and hear Him throughout the day.  Then, as we do the mundane tasks that consume our lives, we purposefully turn our awareness inward and say, 'God what do you think?' (2012, p.37)."    I saw this as my husband saw the language situation.  If I start my day focusing on God, then when I step out of my quiet moments with God I know I can speak His language when things get tough.  I can turn to God and say, "What do you think?" and I know he will hear and answer in a language I
can understand.

Shirer, P. (2012). Discerning the voice of God (7th ed.). Nashville, TN: LifeWay Press.