quick laugh

Our neighbors came over for dinner last night. It took Mark and me an embarrassingly long time to understand what the wife was saying about "pisser". It sounds like the word for "spicy" and she'd just been drinking a cup of fancy tea... We were confused but they were adamant. We understood when the husband tried "faire le pee-pee". Then we wondered: how far has our French really come? ;)

Great Saturday!

Wow, last Saturday (one week ago!) was such a nice day! So nice, in fact, that I just want to tell you all about it.

First, there was the problem with the oven. Karen and I have had an electric oven since we moved into our new place in April. But electricity at our place is inconsistent, to say the best. Basically, having an electric oven is the same as not having an oven. So we requested from our bosses, and received approval, to buy a gas-powered oven (with a gas tank that sits next to the oven, not gas that is piped in to the house). On Wednesday we went down to the appliance store (which we didn’t know about because it had reflective glass on its windows and you couldn’t see inside—I always figured it was a front for some shady entity, showing people “hey, we’re rich and have this nice building, but you cannot see inside because we don’t want you to know what we’re doing”). Anyway, turns out they sell appliances! We talked with them for a while asking about the different stove/oven combos they had, and were adamant that we wanted it to have a gas oven, but with electricity on 2 of the 4 burners on top. After we chose the oven we wanted, we requested them to show us how to connect the gas to the oven. They said they would send a technician to do it that day, and got a phone number for us.

Well, Friday rolled around and they still hadn’t sent anybody. So Yosefu, our handy and skilled domestic worker, connected the gas tank to the oven while we were at the office. Come to find out that the oven was electric! Yosefu tried to tell me, but I didn’t understand on the phone, so we didn’t realize this until we got home from work, about 30 minutes before we were about to host some Congolese friends from church for dinner—lasagna. Which, if you don’t know, is something that you have to bake, so you need an oven. And, if you don’t know, having an electric oven at my place means there is no oven at my place. We made due my just “scrambling” everything on the stove-top. So it was basically the same as spaghetti, but it was edible, and that’s what counts!

All of this is the backstory for my first success on Saturday. I went down to the appliance store, along with Safari (our MCC driver/car expert guy) and the oven. They were like “oh yeah, it’s hard to find ovens that are gas if they use electricity on top”. Karen and I expected this response, so we told them we just wanted a stove/oven that is entirely gas. They had such a stove, and it was $40 less than the thing we had already bought. They told me, however, that I couldn’t get a refund on it because the money was already in the store’s safe. I also expected difficulty getting the refund, so I just waited around, and reasoned with him, and after about 10 minutes I got the $40 and a new stove/oven that is completely gas powered. Upon further examination, it’s a higher quality stove than the other one we bought (with better quality components and features, including an automatic lighter for the stove-top!). Go figure.

Oh yeah, all of this happened in French. So a serious victory to start the day!

We then had delicious cheeseburgers at a small local café (I’m not a big cheeseburger fan in the states, but these are artisan burgers, with herbs and stuff in the patties, and this sauce that reminds me of In-N-Out’s… they’re better than 99% of all the burgers I’ve ever eaten in my life). This was even more pleasant because we were catching up with Ben, a British expat worker for Tearfund, a Christian relief and development organization working in DRC. Ben is a pleasure, and it had been several months since I’d seen him, and the café has a great view, so it was just wonderful.

I then took a nap!

While getting up from the nap there was serious, dark, menacing thunder for a minute or so. This is normally cool, except when I’m getting ready to play ultimate, and it might scare everyone away from playing!

It rained for 5 minutes, but then there was clear sky, so we left filled with irrational hope that we’d be able to play. We’ve been playing on the other side of the city lately, and typically meet some people close to us to give them a ride over there. Last week there were 7 people who rode with us. This week: 0. Not a good sign.

Since some people meet us directly at the field, we drove over there anyway. Karen brought a book because she’s a “realist”.

But on the way one of the other players caught up with us on a moto-taxi, and we pulled over and he got in with us. When we got to the field we found two other guys, and, in the end, we played 5 on 5! The field was slippery from the short sprinkle, but it didn’t rain again until we’d been playing for an hour and a half, at which point we needed to quit anyway. Woohoo!!

We then rushed home, cleaned off, and then went to dinner with … les francophones! (A young French couple who are new in Bukavu). We spent 2 or so hours with them, all in French, and they were so nice and it was so pleasant. Wife is a business owner and will be advising on some church-owned businesses while here, husband is a surgeon (a orthopedic knee surgeon (!), but Karen says I shouldn’t try to get him to give me a new knee here in DRC). They have 3 kids, and are practicing Catholics down here for the next 2 years. We feel excited about them as friends! 

And then I found ten dollars!

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That was Saturday. It was great. Perhaps a bit more social time than some of us would have liked, but a very good amount for others of us. ;-) And Frisbee, and tasty food, and new and old friends, and encouragement with our French! 

Here’s some pictures:

1-       This is a video of our back porch. Pretty right? I’m also playing a ndjembe that I bought from our temporary boss. He got it in Senegal, brought it to Rwanda, where I played it, fell in love with it, and then shamelessly asked him to sell it to me. It’s a wonderful instrument and I played it at the church retreat and will probably do so again at church this Sunday. Eastern DRC, unfortunately, does not have drums like this. I believe there used to be, but in the city people just play really poorly made Chinese drum sets. 

2-     Our new stove!! Note the button on the right side -- the automatic lighter!

3-     This is our new grill. It’s an old wheel-well that was re-purposed into a grill. Pretty cool. With this, and the Montreal Steak seasoning sent us in Belgium (thanks mom!), we’ll be eating hobo-dinners soon!

BONUS blog material (!!!) : Short comedic interchange from lunch today (Thursday, Sept 22, 2016):

Lunch companion: What’s your middle name? Do you have one?

Me: Yeah, but you gotta guess. I’ll give you a hint: it’s in the Bible.

Lunch companion: Is it “God”?

 

Recent Happenings

Most Sundays, we go to the French service at our church in the morning (10-12:30ish), and we go again to the English service (4:30-6:30). Often, Mark will play music in the English service, so he goes earlier. Yesterday he also led the congregational prayer at the beginning of the English service ("culte" in French), and I read the scripture passage (ALL of Ezekiel chapter 3!).

One of the songs we sang in the English service yesterday touched me, as we sang
"Your name is a strong and mighty tower
Your name is a shelter like no other
Your name, let the nations sing it louder
'Cause nothing has the power to save but your name"

- (I can't figure out if credit goes to Paul Baloche or Phillips, Craig and Dean)

There was a Congolese man with a strong voice who was singing really good harmonies right behind me, and I was touched by hearing him and singing with the whole congregations "let the nations sing it louder!"

We had a little bit of rain last week that was enough to settle the dust and keep it from covering our patio every day. Things aren't yet turning green. Last week started out with a scare - someone had tried to break into our office, but, thankfully, there's a door that's always difficult (Mark has often called me to ask how to open it or to say that he thinks he's locked in), and the would-be thieves were thwarted. They did smash up the locks, but God protected us.

After that, we had a pretty ho-hum week, just Mark and me in the lonely office most of the time with not a ton to do. (Serge is still on vacation). Friday morning held some challenges - unexpected visitors in the office and unexpected news on a couple of fronts. None of it was bad, but it was a challenge to adjust our attitudes to new realities.

We spent a really lovely late afternoon and dinner doing some self-care at the hotel with really nice grounds and lake access. We swam, read, watched the sunset, drank a glass of wine, ate pizza and thanked God.

Saturday, we felt a little earthquake, then we got to play Ultimate Frisbee with a crew of eight! It was fun and we look forward to being here long enough to help it really gain traction among interested Congolese.

Resonating with this "Lifestyle Missionary Manifesto"

When we lived in Denver (when we were first married), we were part of a house church network. It was a really rich time of growth and living the gospel as a community. A couple from that house church network moved to New Zealand as missionaries and recently, they posted this "Lifestyle Missionary Manifesto".

I've been trying to verbalize why we do what we do, and this is a very eloquent and inspiring description that includes what we do here, but also includes brothers and sisters in Atlanta, Harrisonburg, Roswell, Boulder, New Castle, Seattle, Brussels, Mbarara, Bangalore, Bukavu and many other places in between and beyond!

Here's what it says:

We are determined to live out the goodness of God on Earth.

Who are we? We are game-changers, play-makers, box-breakers, and risk-takers. We are a global family of visionary practitioners, poets, preachers and pioneers. We are sons and daughters. We are blessed to be a blessing, loved to be lovers, freed to be liberators, and called to rise above the status quo.

And this is what we believe: Every follower of Jesus, by default, is part of God’s trajectory of restoration. This mission requires active participation as we become the incarnation of love in a broken world. Being fully equipped by the Holy Spirit, we are united with one purpose expressed in infinitely diverse vocations. We are convinced God’s mission is simple, collaborative, and within arm's reach.

So this is how we choose to live: We embrace inconvenience, listen deeply, honor all, and live generously. We focus our energy locally yet still engage globally. We open our hearts, homes, and lives to all people in courageous acts of hospitality. When we gather we eat well, we pray expectantly, and we learn scripture. We will leave our communities better than we found them. We will promote peace, pursue unity and protect the vulnerable. Last but not least we seek God’s kingdom before our own.

We hereby declare a new era in which these are our defining characteristics. An era in which we will shape culture together as an unstoppable surge of ordinary people. Through faithful presence and collaborative obedience we will see God’s kingdom come here and now.

We are global family of lifestyle missionaries.

Yes! And Amen! 

So Mark and I are taking different risks here in eastern Congo than people in other locations, but that doesn't matter. We're all together on the same mission to live out the goodness of God on earth. And being part of this global family is such a rich experience. (Here's a photo of our church family here in Bukavu taken at the retreat last week.)

 It's the Holy Spirit who equips all of us to do the work God has called us to. And Mark and I feel strongly that He has called us to Congo for this time to promote peace, pursue unity and protect the vulnerable. 

So please don't put us on a pedestal but do be a lifestyle missionary wherever you are!

can't wait for rainy season!

It should be here any day! It will be nice to see an end to the dust, even if it means mud. But I'm most looking forward to having a clear view of the mountains! Right now, the sky is so heavy with dust, you can't see very far. But this was still a nice sunrise!

I had a great week alone in the office, got it all organized and spruced up! (Miss you, Serge! But can I keep your desk chair?)

Mark is home from Kinshasa, still with questions about what he should be doing for work.

We went on a weekend retreat with our church, and it was so worth it, even just after a hot shower on Saturday morning, not to mention learning people's names, recruiting frisbee players, and Mark rocking it as he led icebreakers for the whole group of 50 in French!

I started my class in Restorative Justice and am really excited to be intentionally learning and thinking about peacebuilding in this context.

Made tacos for a short-term mission team from Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC. (Okay, I'll be honest; our great domestic worker made almost everything, but I browned the meat and grated the cheese! And Mark made the most delicious guacamole.)

Our power was out 80% of the week, and I wasn't stressed about it. PTL!