Who I Worship With

Sunday School singing in front of the congregation

On Sunday I got to teach Sunday School to the 4^th – 6^th grade in our church.  I love teaching this group of kids.  They are from all over the world but what I really like about them is they want to learn from the Bible.  They ask intelligent questions.  When I tell them they should bring their Bibles, they do it!  Many of them work at memorizing their weekly verse.  (We won’t talk about the candy they get for these two tasks *smile* )

There are times I get frustrated because I think I just want to go to church and sit in the pew and worship.  God has been teaching me that worship is not about getting a fuzzy good feeling from going to church. I have known for a long time that worship is something that happens minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.  Sundays are when we all come together as a church body to worship TOGETHER.  So, I don’t participate with the adult congregation once the intercessory pray and sermon start.  But I have discovered a secret, IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW OLD THE WORSHIPER IS, worship is about the audience, GOD.

Some adult worshipers at a special occasion

I get so blessed by these students.  In the beginning I sing with the whole group and I am blessed by the tiny preschoolers who get the rhythm and mouth the words with enthusiasm.  Before church I study the lesson to teach it and attempt to apply it to my own life, so even before church starts I am being fed by God’s Word and His Holy Spirit.  Then as I teach the students I am asked questions like, “Is Jesus God?”, “How can I know I can get to heaven?”, “Is God soulful?”,  or “Is it a sin to overeat?”  Boy do I need to know scriptures in order to answer these questions.  I can assure you, kids have no problems asking tough questions.  Sometimes I have to ask the students to let me think about a question and get back to them.   

 I only have a last year picture to add.  This was preschool.

God has given us each gifts of grace from the Holy Spirit.  I border between a gift of knowledge of scripture and a gift of teaching.  God has blessed me with opportunities to study His word that I have thoroughly enjoyed and now I get to thoroughly enjoy teaching it too.  This next week I have a partner who will be teaching the kids so I will be worshiping with the adults.  I will miss the kids but it is good to check in with the main body on occasion.

Never Say She Can't

Emily getting ready to start kindergarten

She did it!  This is the child who couldn’t make heads or tails out of phonics.  She was almost nine years old and going into 3^rd grade.  Reading had just not happened even though we worked daily at it one on one for the past three years and more.  She was a hard determined worker so I couldn’t claim laziness in any of it either.  I asked my professional teacher friends, “What do I do?  I think she might be dyslexic.”  They responded, “Work with her one on one”.  She was headed into third grade and still could barely read a beginning reader with help. 

Just before starting college

I had ordered the full 3^rd grade literature based curriculum hoping for some miracle that summer and she was supposed to be reading chapter books.  Well school was starting and there was still no miracle.  So I committed myself to continue the basic phonics with basic readers and then I would read aloud the books.  We began school and during that first week something clicked.  Phonics went out the window and sight reading and context clues became the way to read.  I had received my miracle.  Emily was reading. This wasn't the beginning, this was part of the journey, part of the adventure, and part of what has built an amazing character. 

Her first summer of college was spent being a nanny.

My Emily, with her determination and hard work graduated with honors from High School 3 ½ years ago and has now finished her Bachelor of Arts in Family Consumer Science, Fashion Track this week.  She will not be there to receive her degree from Mount Vernon Nazarene University because she already is headed to Thailand.  First she will spend two months raising support since she is going as a missionary under a small mission called Remember Nhu.  Then she and her friend Janel will be committed for one year to work with young girls who have been at risk of child trafficking.  This will include living in a dorm with them at least for a while. 

Her Birthday gift of a fashion manican.

“And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.” Galatians 6:9

The Tree Trimmer

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit,

 He takes away;

 and every branch that bears fruit,

He prunes it,

that it may bear more fruit.

John 15:2

Several weeks ago I could hear loud sudden noises sounding like gunshots coming from our neighborhood.  At first I thought we might be facing another uprising in town.  There had not been any rumors that had reached me about possible but living in Kinshasa an attempted coup is a possibility, usually.  A couple of days later we had a request from our neighbor to trim our mango tree.  The mangoes had been falling on their garage roof and causing great damage.  Apparently my “gun shots” were mangoes on a tin roof. 

Yep, just two large branches coming out of the stump.

Rod arranged with the neighbors to hire a tree trimmer to come in and work on our VERY large mango tree.  It has been great at providing mangoes.  Our family enjoys their share and then our workers around the house enjoy the harvest and their families take the extras to sell on the streets giving them extra income.  So it was basically providing for 4 families or more.  But the tree had gotten so large that it was becoming dangerous.  The branches themselves were as large as a medium sized tree.  Sometimes mango tree branches get so heavy that the branches fall off the tree before than can be harvested.

As I watched this tree trimmer, he would climb out on a branch and begin to chop with his machete.  Often he would be on the outer side of the branch until the wedge he was making got large enough and then he would climb to safety as he finished the chop.  Each time a branch fell I dreaded looking outside just “knowing” someone either came down with the branch or was under the branch when it came down. 

When the trimming had been completed I went out with my camera to take a picture.  I was shocked.  All that was left was a large stump sticking out of the ground.  Ugh!  Yet I am told that it will grow back and once again produce mangoes. 

Modeling the Mangoes, this is our smaller mango tree!

There are times lately I feel like God, the vine-dresser (John 15:1) is going at it with me.  No I don’t have the problems that Job had but God is working on my heart and showing me areas that need some trimming AND actually trimming them.  Why?  Because He wants me to be spiritually healthy.  Sure I am producing fruit but is my fruit healthy?  Is my fruit harming others?  I need to be spiritually healthy so that I am not harming others with what comes out of my mouth or as a result of my actions.  Does it hurt?  You bet it does.  But He has promised that He will complete the good work He has begun.

A GRAND SLAM

The Part Mitchell Wanted, "Chief Executioner"

A few years ago we had a speaker at our family conference who suggested that we keep a blessing book as a family.  We did do this for a while and it did give us a better outlook on life.  As a parent I had to try not to critic my children’s suggestions for a blessing for the day.  Looking back my children saw the blessings written in my writing and thought I was a little strange.  I had to explain that I was writing their blessings word for word.  Some favorites: “Lydia didn’t have to do hard stuff”. “We had electricity most of the day.” “Emily had a little bit of patience with her knitting and Mr. Friendly (her parrot).” “Austin got better fast from a stomach ache.” “The air-conditioner doesn’t bang on the bottom of the seat anymore.” “Mitchell got the part he wanted in the “Mikado”. And my favorite, “Valerie went with Rod out on a date even though he was grumpy.”  I don’t know if that was mine or Rod’s blessing but I was rolling on the floor laughing after reading that one.

Well when something really great happened and we could see that God was really moving we could declare that God did a Grand Slam.  Well today God did a Grand Slam for me.  Rod got very sick last night with some strange pains in his torso.  He could not get comfortable and I wished so badly that we had a lazy boy chair that he could sit in to hold his head while he sat up. Rod was feeling better this morning at least not in as extreme. Today I went to help my friend as she packed to move.  She had a lazy boy that was already sold but the new owner had not picked it up yet.  As I was leaving with the big MAF van she said, “Why don’t you take this chair?  I don’t think …. Is even here right now and you can store it for him until he gets back.”  Well I took it but felt a little guilty and decided to check on the new owner in case he was still around.  As I pulled into his yard I noticed the travel van getting ready to pull out of the driveway.  I pulled in and asked him if he wanted his chair as he sat in the travel van.  He said that we could keep it for him until he returned in a few weeks.

Modeling the Blessing!

I was so excited.  God provided a way for Rod to rest while he recuperates from this “virus”.  God is good, all the time!

There are Giants in the Land, Spiritual Giants!

CMO, the Caravan that Rod flies, early one morning. 

Rod came home from a trip to Lomela a couple of years ago to tell me about his experience.  He had taken a government official to a remote village in the center of Congo to see how the road project was coming along.  There were two missionary friends out there that Rod was sort of sent to hang out with and stay with overnight.  These men were brothers who had been raised in Congo and lost their father in the 1964 uprising.  They too had been working on this road project because they wanted to see "their" village have better access to the outside world. One brother had developed diabetes and his wife, who was a nurse had given up traveling with him.  The other was fighting cancer and wanted to see some of his projects completed as long he could.   His wife was also a nurse and had given up traveling with him.  So Rod sat with them in a hut waiting for the rain to clear so they could take a dugout to the other side of the river to the house they would sleep in.  While they waited the sun set and by the time the rain stopped the tropical forest was pitch black around them.  Of course the clouds covered the stars so there was even less light.  But the man with the dugout was ready to take them across.  Rod, being unsure of the guide’s ability to see in the dark used his pen light to try to see the other shore.  The pen light was good but not THAT good.  So there he sat in the middle of a tributary river of Congo, in the pitch dark, with two elderly men and a guide and a rower wondering if they REALLY would get across.  They did successfully get across and had a semi-good night sleep (after all it wasn't really home).   

This is actually the Wamba River another tributary river of Congo.

There are some hard things about being a missionary and I am not talking about the sleeping conditions, but one that we are facing right now is saying good-bye once again to friends. Our dear friends, one of the brothers and his wife, are packing up and selling their belongings because his cancer is getting worse back in America.  His wife continues to work here but may need to leave at any time.  It is people like these who make me feel like I have walked among spiritual giants in my years out here.  They are two of the many who have served faithfully in this land, seeking to teach spiritual truth for all to hear and faithfully sticking with it through the good and the bad, even cancer.  We are going to miss them terribly.  This friend has been a leader in our church we serve in and worship in here in Congo.  His dream has been to get a plantation near his “home” area in the middle of Congo producing rubber again and giving them the ability to ship the rubber down the river and to the larger cities to where is can be sold. 

As I write this I think of many different missionaries who have left the country recently. Many have left for health reasons.  Some have left because it is very difficult to understand the people here and it is easy to let anger and frustration take over.Even in these circumstances, I know God is at work.  His church here in Congo continues to grow.