Retreat, Retreat

Our second night of worship with Glen!

Sunday Morning worship with a very innovative drum set.

I just spent the last two weekends with the Youth in our church here in Congo, The International Protestant Church of Kinshasa (IPCK).  I feel privileged that I get to be involved in their lives and enjoy these times with them.  The High School had a desire to go beyond just having a retreat and actually doing more of a mission outreach.  One of the High School students took this on as her project saying that she felt a little jealous of the students in America who get to go on short term mission trips.  So she asked Mission Aviation Fellowship if there was a way that we could charter the plane for a weekend and take a trip to a mission station in the interior of Congo and mingle with the people that live there.  What was amazing was how this was the students' vision and they did most of the planning.  There were many complications and delays but we were finally able to make this mission trip as I shared in my last blog.
Glen Chapman, the missionary at Kikongo was our speaker and he shared with us the theme, "Light to the Nations".  The first speaking opportunity was to take us at night down a dark path that led to a hut by the river.  He shared the contrast of cultures.  The obvious clash in cultures is between Western thought and African thought. But there is also the clash between Christian thought and the World's thought.  We are a light in the darkness to those who do not know Jesus.

Meeting the Delegation from the Village on the other side.

I loved the way he shared how we can reach out to others and our ministries become a safe haven to others.  Kikongo was built out of the African jungle but is becoming a settlement where people can go for safety.  He gave us a LOT of food for thought during those very quick three days. 

We also had opportunities to reach out to the community around us in Kikongo although I felt often that they were reaching out to us.  There is a pastoral school  and a hospital and the people there know how to serve God in a very difficult time and place.
 It wasn't all work though, we had time to go swimming in the river and hiking on the other side of the river to a falls where we met the chief and others from the village on that side of the river.

The Streets near my own home in Kinshasa.

The second retreat I was involved in was with the Middle School Retreat which had the theme of "Outreach".  Jean Senga was our speaker and he spoke on reaching out to others in love.  One thing that really stuck with us is that if we do any kind of ministry or great sacrifice but do not have love we are like a clanging cymbal or noisy gong. I Corinthians 13
After a night of heavy rains in our tents we got up to make sandwiches for the traffic police at one station here in our neighborhood.  Traffic police are not well loved here in Kinshasa so we were all reaching beyond our comfort zone.  Jean had emphasized that loving usually costs us something.  We were going beyond those that we found easy to love and reaching out to those beyond.

Jean's son, Micah leading and teaching Sunday School

On Sunday Morning we visited Jean Senga's church, Source de Vie (Source of Life).  One of our students, Sam, dressed in a Lion Costume and he and a couple other boys rode in a truck around the neighborhood to invite children to Sunday School.  Our students also were able to share through singing during the service.

Our Middle School Team with Leo the Lion of Judah (Sam)

That morning I was doing my normal Bible Study but the passage became very real to me.  It spoke of the people gathering for the feast of booths and living in tents for one week out of the year.  I felt very much like I was living that study.  Then it also spoke of them opening the scriptures and translating it into different languages so they could all understand.  During the church service Jean spoke in French and had a Lingala translator and then Deborah, Jean's wife stood up and translated that into English.  I don't know why but God wanted me to live the Feast of Booths over this time.  I love it when God orchestrates living lessons for me.

A Day with Rod! (second third)

This is a continuation from the last post.  Rita and Glen Chapman had welcomed us in their home in Kikongo and then Rita began showing us around the mission/village.  From the Pastoral School we went to visit the local church.  This mission is ran by the American Baptists and Rita's grandfather had built the church.  It is over 50 years old and still standing strong.  Inside the church we were impressed that this man, who was not an architect or contractor had designed and built such a practical and worshipful building.The foundation was built on a slope so that everyone in the church can see the pastor. The glassless windows give light throughout the church and the high ceilings help circulate air in the tropical heat.  Rita and her mom had made the Easter wall hanging that hung behind the pulpit.  A visiting pastor had donated cloth to cover the walls in the front of the church and Rita had added some applique to give a sunbeam look.
 I had visited Kikongo a couple of years ago and enjoyed visiting a ladies meeting in this same church. 
From the church we moved on down the path which was quite "innocent of pavement" to the hospital.

This hospital was a part of a plan that Dr. Dan Fountain came up with.  The hospital is the center of many outlying clinics with nurses who could refer patience to the hospital if their needs are greater than the clinic can handle.  Glen met up with us here.  They shared that the hospital should have been crawling with patience but there are doctors from Kinshasa who have been going out to the villages and giving illegal operations to people in very unsterilized environments. They can make extra money this way and the patience don't have to leave home.  Unfortunately there is no one to give post operation care nor to make sure infections don't set in.  I thought of writing a blog titled "Operations for Sale: Real Cheap" but decided to just give the story here instead.
One huge blessing that the hospital has is running water.  A pump was donated to the hospital so that water comes to these outside faucets.  

The Nursing School

The Kigongo Hospital is also a training hospital.  Several years ago a western government donated money to build a new hospital.  Before everything was completed the money was cut off.  So the nursing students meet in the old hospital.  I would say these are some VERY determined students to continue to meet in these conditions.

The Hospital Kitchen

At the back of the hospital is a cooking area.  Food is not provided by the hospital so a family member comes along and does all the cooking.  Sometimes the whole family comes along.  Some patience stay in the hospital for months at a time.  This means that gardens don't get planted at home and all reserves if there are any are used up. One 17 year old boy has been in the hospital for months.  He had typhoid and was down to 17 kilograms or about 38 pounds.  He is now up to 30 kilograms and gaining. Rita has been getting eggs sent in from Kinshasa to help his nutritional level. 
A great blessing happened on the day we toured, the wife of one of the Bible School Students gave birth to twins.  Both were over 2 kilograms or close to 5 pounds.  It was very exciting news to all.

After the hospital we walked to the market.  The first store we stopped at we had to sit and look for awhile there were so many things on the shelves.  Don Hamsher looked for something from America.  We didn't find any American made products but we did find some superglue. Rita says she comes to the market very rarely but has friends who might stop and buy things for her as they come to and from work.

Just a cute baby monkey outside the store.

 There was also an open market to buy fruits and vegetables.  We could purchase things like salt, onions, dried fish, oranges, manioch greens, peanuts etc. 

 The people were a little embarrassed that we would take pictures of their straw roof because they felt like they were in such bad shape.  But on top of the roof we found that they were drying mushrooms which seemed to be in season.  There were also dried caterpillars.  I almost bought some to try but I thought our guests might go into too extreme a culture shock on their first day.

Behind Glen and Rita's house is a little hangar where Glen keeps his Powered Parachute (PPC).  He uses this to fly to other villages and show the Jesus Film.  Each village has built a soccer field so he simply looks for the soccer field and lands his PPC on it and then shows the Jesus Film.  Since we were there in the middle of the day and winds are rather unpredictable except in the morning or evening we just enjoyed sitting in it.  I believe Glen was planning to go out and show the film that evening.













 On Glen and Rita's front porch we found triplets waiting for us.  Dorcus, Esther and Ruth are very fond of Rod, the pilot.  Several years ago, Dorcus has a severe case of malaria and was going to die.  Rod was flying through the area and Glen contacted him and asked if he could find room for her on the flight to Vanga where there is a larger hospital with more
doctors.  God orchestrated the situation and Rod got to be a part of rescuing this young girl.  Very often triplets do not make it in Congo because of poor medical facilities and low nutrition.  These triplets are a miracle. 
                                                                            As we loaded on the plane, I looked back and laughed at the sign posted outside of Glen and Rita's house. The sign says, "Koboma yango te," which means, "Don't kill it."  There is a picture of an otter on this sign. Glen and Rita's main message to the people is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They live among the people and seek to be Jesus among them and show them how to live where they are which includes taking care of the unique plants and creatures around them.    

For the other 2/3 of this day you can click on the links below

Rod Sharing His Job for a Day: The First 1/3
The Third 1/3 of Rod's Day