Your Kingdom come

Your kingdom come, your will be done in Congo as it is in heaven.

 

This is our prayer as we prepare for our first leadership training next week in Kikwit, a city which is about 250 miles from Kinshasa.  As our friends and family awaken in the U. S. this morning, Jay and I are traveling there with part of a newly formed team to train church leaders in church planting strategies.  We are so happy to partner with two visionary Congolese pastors, Abraham and Elnathan.  On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, April 26-28, the four of us will be leading a training of about 150 church leaders to consider some Biblical strategies that will implement highly accountable discipleship and will accelerate church planting in their region.  Remember an earlier post when I talked about following and fishing?  Join us in praying for these church leaders to recommit themselves to do just that – follow and fish and teach others to follow and fish.

How can you pray?

• For team unity
• For clarity of communication in French and translation to Kikongo
• For God-inspired, efficient use of time in a packed schedule of teaching
• For God-prepared brothers and sisters who will take this training and put it into practice for the advance of His Kingdom here in DRC and beyond
• For our team to faithfully follow and fish and for those we train to faithfully follow and fish.

{Abraham's family}

{Kathy, Elnathan & Barbara}

Restaurant in a box

I started this morning with a little walk and as often happens, my outings often bring a smile to my face.  People generally don’t like their photo taken here in our city, so I’ll try to paint you a word picture of my two-block journey to the grocery store. 

Right outside our apartment building gate sits a woman who has what I call “a restaurant in a cardboard box.” In her box are live coals in a small round wire grill, several long, thin loaves of French bread, a large plastic container of cheap margarine, a plastic box which she turns upside down for a stool, and another plastic container with coarse salt.  Neatly placed on top of it all is a stack of about three cartons with no tops holding 30 eggs each.  She also has some onions and a large knife.

 

As with most African women, she doesn’t need a cutting board or a countertop to cut her onions because she simply uses her hand.  She sets up every morning except Sunday at about 6:30 and sells omelets on French bread slathered with something like butter flavored Crisco.  Between customers, she sprinkles a very small amount of water on her coals, but when a hungry student walks up, she blows on them, and they quickly catch flame again.  She never removes the flaming grill from the box.  By 10:00 all of her supplies are gone, and she packs her restaurant back in the its cardboard walls, balances it on her head, and heads home.

Rounding the corner, I walk in front of our local “book mall.”  At least 6 different people display their used books on the sidewalk in front of their plastic chairs.  Their small inventory includes school chemistry books and self-help books and Christian themed books.  One of my new friends is a book seller here; I hope to begin sharing stories with her from God’s Book as soon as my language skills are adequate.  Right now, I’m working on being able to tell the parable of the hidden treasure.

One of the book sellers has the same uniform every day for work – a very faded LSU FOOTBALL t-shirt.  I think it has been his work uniform for a very long time because his purple and gold are gray and dull yellow.  I’m sure he doesn’t realize that he’s supposed to “Love purple and live gold.”

After walking past several small hardware stores, I round another corner onto a very busy street.   I step gingerly to avoid the many potholes, overflowing after last night’s rain, and I walk strategically because the cars that fly by spray muddy water from those same wretched potholes.

Arriving at the grocery store two more blocks down, I quickly make my purchases and fill my peacock shopping bag given to me by my precious friends, the Shafto Mission Group at Scotts Hill Baptist Church.

Now to retrace my steps back home…

Right outside our apartment gate an avocado seller has arrived.  The avocados here are to die for, so I quickly run upstairs and come back down with the necessary Congolese francs to get two huge, yummy, perfectly ripe ones.  They’ll go great with our taco salad at lunch.

Life here in Kinshasa is filled with such outings.  The streets are teeming with people who are living life, trying to make a buck to provide for their families.  Will you please stop right now and pray that Jay and I will see each and every person through the loving eyes of the One who created him, with the heart of the One who lovingly knit her in her mother’s womb?  And that we’ll never ever cease to be burdened for their need to know His incredible, self-sacrificing love for them? 

Kathy 

A soft landing...

Kinshasa is beginning to feel like home!  It has only been 2 weeks, but seems like more.  A volunteer team from Gainsville, FL arrived in Kinshasa 6 hours after we did, so our first week included a whirlwind orientation to the city, including visits to

• The Protestant University of Congo (UPC)
• The University of Kinshasa
• The Missions and Leadership Equipping Center (CEMILER)
• A ministry to gangs and center for street children
• Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital
• The offices of the Eglise du Christ au Congo (ECC), an umbrella organization for all Protestant churches here
• Several churches

Each of these visits led to invitations to strengthen and support the excellent work already being done here.  As you read through this post, will you please pray for these important subjects even as you read?

• Pray for us to know which opportunities to engage and which ones to decline

{view from our balcony}

Our transition to Congo was made easy by our teammates, Jeff and Barbara Singerman, who had our apartment move-in ready when we landed.  This past week we were able to further set up our home and begin exploring our neighborhood.  Within walking distance are several grocery stores, restaurants, banks and department stores. Kathy has found a seamstress and hairdresser.  Jay has found electronics and hardware stores.  Gorgeous avocados, bananas, guavas and passion fruit are sold on the street.  Kathy has reconnected with a good friend from Ouagadougou, Lieve Lugunda, who is now living in Kinshasa and offered to take her to the outdoor Central Market.  It is only a few blocks from our house, bustling and overwhelming.  If something can be found in Kinshasa, it will be there!

• Thank God with us for a good start in Kinshasa
• Thank God with us for Jeff and Barbara and the Lugunda family

High on our priority list is language study.  This week we have begun classes in Lingala, one of the official languages of DRC and the main language spoken in Kinshasa.  We will devote over 50% of our time to learning Lingala over the next 6 months, in class and on the street.  The beginnings of language study include walking around and saying things to people like “Hello, how are you?  I am learning Lingala. I can’t say much.  This is all I can say.  I am leaving now.”  Our goal is to use new phrases and vocabulary with 10 people each day.  We have been told that it is an easy language to learn, but at our age we’re expecting the path to fluency to be paved with hard work, frustrating moments, and a few tears.

• Pray for us to learn Lingala quickly and to practice everything we learn everywhere we go

In just a few days the Christian church around the world will be celebrating its most important holiday:  Easter.  Many people will attend church this Sunday who don’t usually attend church.

• Pray for pastors to clearly communicate the message of forgiveness and freedom in Christ
• Pray for people to accept Christ's leadership in their lives

We love you and appreciate your partnership with us in this adventure!  

{a new pastor friend and family}

{teaching school girls}

Tomorrow is the day!

We will arrive in our new home around 1:00 p.m. our time, 7 a.m. EST.  The air around us is filled with anticipation.  We are so READY...

READY to launch ourselves into this new life

               READY to see this new place, this new home of ours

                              READY to meet new friends

                                             READY to grow to love new foods

                                                            READY to embrace a new culture.

Re-routing us through eastern Africa is one of those things that only a loving and all-wise Father would choose for His children.  Being here with other colleagues and like-minded workers from Asia and the Middle East and all over Africa has been both encouraging and challenging.  What a wonderful way for us to start this new term of service!  On this 4th day of March will you join us in talking with the Father about these 4 things?

1. Praise Him for the beauty and majesty and mystery of His creation.  We have awakened to sounds of birds singing in the trees.  We’ve enjoyed a safari walk literally alongside giraffes and zebras. We’ve basked in the coolness of the mountaintop and found ourselves breathless in the thin air as we walked back and forth to our room. 
   
   
2. Thank Him for excellent teaching.  These two weeks of training led primarily by a brother and sister from the great Bayou State (just gotta get a plug in for my home J) have been filled with challenging truth and reminders:
   
   

          when we follow Him, we FISH

   
   

       when we follow Him, we DENY OURSELVES and TAKE UP OUR CROSS DAILY.

   
   Talk to him about these two things today if you’re His follower.  Reflect on how these truths are daily played out in your life.

   
   

   
   
3. Pray that we will begin right away to clearly hear all the nuances of the Lingala language and that our 50-something feeble minds will remember vocabulary and decipher grammar.
   
   
4. Ask Him to direct our thoughts and steps when we set foot off the plane on Saturday.  We want to see places and people through His eyes and to be keenly aware of those that He has prepared to hear His message.  Ask Him to open doors for us to share His mystery.

Tomorrow is the day.  We count on your prayers on this incredible journey of following, of fishing, of self-denial, of cross-bearing.

Much love,

Kathy and Jay

Boston

Well, here we sit in Boston’s Logan airport.  We have packed and repacked our bags and packed and repacked them again.  Taken that last lovely walk on the beach.  Closed on our new house in Wilmington (that we will rent until we retire in 12 or so years). Said all our good-byes.

And then found out that we would be delayed and then rerouted because of potential unrest in our new country.  As a result, we are en route today to a church planter training in eastern Africa before continuing on to Kinshasa the first week of March.

This morning we left Raleigh/Durham with excitement in the air, and let’s be honest, a little sadness is still lingering as well.

How can you pray for us in these next few days?

• That we’ll declare His mystery, tell His story on our very first day and on all the following days.
• That, at this CP training conference, we will learn new ideas and envision practical ways to implement them.

We love you all.  We love being on mission with you through your prayers and thoughtful support.  Thank you for lifting us up to the Father.  Let us know how we can pray for you.

Tearful Goodbyes

The good-byes never get easier.

We call my oldest sister, Peg, “the boss.”  At 4’11”, she’s the smallest of us all, but she always knows what needs to be done and has no problem telling Jo and Bren and me how to do it.  Peg has practiced this no-nonsense bossiness for most of her 78 years and has it down to a fine art.

I had never seen her cry. 

Not until recently, on the day when I was leaving them…    Right there in Cracker Barrel, my matter-of-fact, tell-it-like-it-is, older little sister, began to quietly weep as she prayed for me.

As we prepare to leave for the Democratic Republic of Congo on February 15, there is true excitement in our hearts.  Our colleagues Jeff and Barbara have found us a wonderful apartment.  We can’t wait to tell God’s story in DRC and to train others to tell His story.   And then to watch with anticipation while our amazing God does amazing things through the power of His spoken Word.

But in the midst of our excitement there is profound sadness like we’ve never experienced before.

So through our tears, we find ourselves revisiting our call. 

Do we still feel “compelled by the Spirit” as the apostle Paul did in Acts 20 – not knowing what will happen to us in this new place, and certainly not knowing what the coming years will bring to our precious family that we leave behind?

Yes, that constraint is still there.  That compelling tug of the heart still pulls us to places and people who have never heard His story in ways that they can understand.

Do we still consider our lives worth nothing to us, as did Paul?

Yes, we still believe our greatest aim is to complete the task the Lord Jesus has given us, that of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

So then, maybe tearful farewells are not always bad -- even if they are hard.

Not when they nudge us to re-examine our life’s call.

Not when they cause us to reflect on the race that we’re running.

Not when they lead us to renew our commitment to share His story with those who’ve never heard.

Those difficult, weepy good-byes remind us that obedience to Him is absolutely the most important thing in our lives...

...even when it means leaving behind our beloved family.

New adventures await!

Dear Family and Friends,

This past 1½ years in the U. S. have been exceptional ones for us.  Those who live most of their lives far away from their families will fully understand the joy it has been to have more frequent visits with our children, parents, sisters, and brothers.  Having our toddler niece recognize us with a welcoming smile when we popped in for a visit in New Jersey warmed our hearts.  Tailgating with Robbie before an LSU football game was nothing short of awesome. Dropping in on James and Madeleine who are just a couple of hours away from us in NC has been so convenient, and well, just plain fun.

But years ago, we both wholly committed our lives to the One who knows and loves our family more than we ever could and to actively seek His leadership in our lives.  We know that He calls all who follow Him to be His witnesses and as Jay often says, where we do that is just a matter of geography.

So beginning in January of this year we began what would turn out to be a very long process of searching the heart of the One we love most so that we could fully understand His will for us during this stage of life – this time when we love the empty nest but also love being near our kids, this time when visits with parents seems more precious than ever.

Fasting and prayer-filled months

 filled with

Journal entries

Nudgings from His Word

Closed doors

Open doors

Small coincidences

Thinking we see the path – and then again maybe we didn’t

Anxious days

Exciting days

Hurting days

Information-gathering sessions

Learning about ourselves

Delighting ourselves in Him

Denying ourselves

Surrendering all to Him once again

Yes, Lord, we will go anywhere, anytime, do anything that You ask us to do.

So we’re off in February once again… with our beloved imb family, to share His story among the nations of the Congo Basin in central Africa.  Specifically for this first season, in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We are eagerly anticipating the continued adventure of seeking the sound of His voice just as we have over these past months.  We desperately want to grow in His grace so that the only desire of our hearts is to simply delight ourselves in Him.

So how can you pray?  This blog is called “declaring the mystery.”  In Colossians 4:3-4, the apostle Paul appealed to the body of Christ for them to offer this prayer:

“Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.” 

So please pray that:

• God will open doors.
• We will faithfully declare His mystery.
• We will share it clearly. 

Because we should.

Praying with you for the Congo Basin to know and worship Him,

Kathy