Day in the Life?

We arrived in Goma this afternoon, and I felt like I'd just stepped off the plane for the first time (culture shock!). I was disoriented from the late night last night at an expat Thanksgiving celebration then leaving the house by 6:15am to get on the 6 hour boat ride. Plus there was a dog in the night that barked so much, Mark went outside to yell at it (turned out there was not an intruder, just a cat).

So I was tired, and they showed violent movies the whole way (6 hours), then we found out that a government boat sank in the lake this morning and over 20 people died! The violent movies were really disturbing in this culture where violence has become normal. One of the movies (with Bruce Willis) was white US soldiers saving a group of African villagers from the horrible African military of some country. I just felt sick that it was being played because people here have been so close to violence like what was shown. At least the volume wasn't too loud.

This is not the kind of boat we took , but these are traditional fishing boats.
They hang nets off of those long poles coming off the end and travel in threes.

AND I got a message from a friend that her teenage daughter was pushed into a strange man's car and by God's grace was able to get out without being physically assaulted, just really scared. So...heavy day. Plus we're in Goma. Where in 2013 one of the armed groups (M23) was in control for a few months. And the streets have lava rocks all in them, making it a bit hard to walk.

It's quite safe here and we're at a nice hotel, but today was overwhelming to me. I can't wait to go to bed soon! Prayers appreciated for travel, meetings, adjusting, and protection from spiritual attack.

It is very pretty here. There are volcanoes close by.

Songs that helped me come out of the worst of my funk:
- "Beautiful Things" by Gungor: "Could a garden come up from this ground at all? You make beautiful things out of the dust"
- "Christ is Risen" by Matt Maher: "Trampling over death by death! Oh, Death, where is your sting? O, Hell, where is your victory? O, Church, come stand in the light! The glory of God has defeated the night!"
- "We Shall Not be Shaken" by Matt Redman: "When everything is breaking, you are left unshaken; Nations could be quaking but you're the solid ground"