Our 36 Day God Adventure in the Bandundu
Day 27 : Saturday, October 1, 2011
JOY in writing the date! Psychologically it helps knowing we've now entered October. We now just have days before returning to Kin. Still wasn't able to find shampoo yesterday. Can I possibly dilute again our already diluted shampoo, I ask you? Actually Pastor Pierre told us that he had been planning a surprise for us. He was going to phone his wife, have her buy a bottle of shampoo for us, send it with a MAF plane on its next flight to Vanga. Unfortunately the cell tower still isn't working and so no communication is possible by phone or internet. Dilution it is.
Thankful that the team gets along very well. Still the communal living is tiring and am so looking forward to living our own rythym again.
We were told the other day that a hippo had shown up a while after we visited the port. Really would have liked to see one in the wild!
Today's training in itself went fine but once again when we asked for questions or comments on the things we had covered, very quickly the comments were very negative and seemd somewhat antagonistic. At times the questions showed a lack of understanding in what we had said (for example, I spoke of our culture like glasses we wear all the time to see and understand our world. When we go into another culture we can't keep wearing the same glasses but need to put on glasses from that new culture. His question was if he wears different glasses, who will look after him if he's sick Ok, so he REALLY didn't understand the illustration at all!!)
All in all, I found our time in Vanga tough - the toughest yet. There just didn't seem to be a very receptive spirit. The one time they seemed genuuinely excited was when they were told that Mama Fifi would be giving them transportation money. How will we do missions in this context? Lord God, please transform the hearts and minds of these Congolese pastors. Help them catch the vision of what you can do, of what you want to do using them. As Pastor Pierre reminded us, each place has its own set of realities.
Most everyone has gone to the film. I had my bath and washed my hair. Benoit had finally found shampoo and bought us 4 bottles! It doesn't rain, it pours in Congo. While there is still a couple of hours of electricity I'm profiting to get caught up and more or less packed up for tomorrow. We are not staying for the Sunday service in the morning but rather are following our normal travel day routine - up at 5ish, pack the car, quick donut breakfast and off to Masi-Manimba and our 8th training. I can taste the end and its delicious. Lord, keep us focused on the task you've given us to do right to the end. Each time He has given strength and grace to do what I needed to do. I'm confident He will do it 2 more times.
JOY in writing the date! Psychologically it helps knowing we've now entered October. We now just have days before returning to Kin. Still wasn't able to find shampoo yesterday. Can I possibly dilute again our already diluted shampoo, I ask you? Actually Pastor Pierre told us that he had been planning a surprise for us. He was going to phone his wife, have her buy a bottle of shampoo for us, send it with a MAF plane on its next flight to Vanga. Unfortunately the cell tower still isn't working and so no communication is possible by phone or internet. Dilution it is.
Thankful that the team gets along very well. Still the communal living is tiring and am so looking forward to living our own rythym again.
We were told the other day that a hippo had shown up a while after we visited the port. Really would have liked to see one in the wild!
Today's training in itself went fine but once again when we asked for questions or comments on the things we had covered, very quickly the comments were very negative and seemd somewhat antagonistic. At times the questions showed a lack of understanding in what we had said (for example, I spoke of our culture like glasses we wear all the time to see and understand our world. When we go into another culture we can't keep wearing the same glasses but need to put on glasses from that new culture. His question was if he wears different glasses, who will look after him if he's sick Ok, so he REALLY didn't understand the illustration at all!!)
All in all, I found our time in Vanga tough - the toughest yet. There just didn't seem to be a very receptive spirit. The one time they seemed genuuinely excited was when they were told that Mama Fifi would be giving them transportation money. How will we do missions in this context? Lord God, please transform the hearts and minds of these Congolese pastors. Help them catch the vision of what you can do, of what you want to do using them. As Pastor Pierre reminded us, each place has its own set of realities.
Most everyone has gone to the film. I had my bath and washed my hair. Benoit had finally found shampoo and bought us 4 bottles! It doesn't rain, it pours in Congo. While there is still a couple of hours of electricity I'm profiting to get caught up and more or less packed up for tomorrow. We are not staying for the Sunday service in the morning but rather are following our normal travel day routine - up at 5ish, pack the car, quick donut breakfast and off to Masi-Manimba and our 8th training. I can taste the end and its delicious. Lord, keep us focused on the task you've given us to do right to the end. Each time He has given strength and grace to do what I needed to do. I'm confident He will do it 2 more times.
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