Last week I spent Wednesday until Sunday in a music seminar. I had no idea really what I was going to be doing, but a visiting missionary woman was hosting it and the VanderMeer girls were going so I figured I would go as well. It was amazing. It was held in a church building and there were about 50 participants, almost all of them choir leaders or church officials. The teacher's name was Wendy, and she is an ethnomusicologist (try saying that 10 times fast) who is living in Central African Republic. In 5 days we learned all about music; how it was used in the Bible and God's purposes for music. We learned how to minister through music, the power of it, and how it can delight the Lord. I thought of you, Mr. Keith McMinn :) Not only that, but we also were taught how to compose music. It was pretty neat, I thought, ok sweet, i can listen to how to compose music, it will be interesting. I didn't know we would have to do it ourselves! We composed a total of 18 songs over those few days. One all together as a large group (in Lingala), 9 in small groups (in Lingala again) and then 8 in groups based on our tribal tongue. Composing the first few were fine because we just let everyone else do it, Africans are much better at composing songs than bandela (white people). But when we split into groups based on our tribal tongue there was one English group, Maaike, Joanna, Michelle and I. For the tribal song we all had to compose something to Revelations 7:10 and 12. Half of the language groups had to translate the verses from the Lingala because they don't have a Bible in that language.
On Sunday we performed the songs. It was really amazing to hear all the different languages. The songs and dances were awesome, some of them pretty typical of what you would imagine a rainforest tribe to sing like, complete with costumes made of palm leaves and white face paint. It was awesome. Except for our little english song... it was incredibly boring compared to the African songs. We did sign language along with it, because Africans find it hard to believe that white people actually just stand still when they sing, and with so much dancing in the other songs we had to do something. Our song was very boring, but everyone cheered very loudly when we finished, I think in part because they were unsure as to whether the white people would be able to do it :)
The time here is just flying by. Next week 12 or so people come from Germany for Bettina's wedding (her Malaria is gone by the way, praise God!), and the festivities and craziness begin. I think all of northern Congo might be empty except for Isiro because they are all coming to the wedding!
Tomorrow Maaike, Joanna, Mr. VanderMeer and I and three other people are biking to the town of Nebubongo. It is about 50 kilometers or so away from Isiro, and we are traveling over muddy jungle road (hmm... path). We will spend Saturday and Sunday staying with a German missionary couple there and then bike back on Monday. I am sure that it will be a lot of fun, but I don't think any of us really know what we are getting ourselves into! The trip takes three hours by car, at least. So much longer by bicycle! But I am sure that it will be quite an adventure! We might take a trip into the dense jungle to visit the pygmies while we are there. I am very excited, and I hope that we will be able to brighten the day of some of the villagers we pass... I am sure they will spend the next week talking about those crazy white people who biked to Nebo just for fun!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Makutano
That is the name of a special kind of church service they have in Congo, one that goes all day and all night and into the next day... basically an all-town party. On Sunday morning (bright and early- 4:00 am) Bettina and I left Isiro and drove 4 and a half hours through the jungle to get to one. It was held in a town called Juba, and it was aimed specifically at women. Bettina was speaking, so we were the honored guests. The drive there was very exciting, we drove past little villages literally right in the middle of the jungle. The road was really not more than a dirt path, and although we left so early in the morning sleeping in the truck was impossible because of the bumps. When we got there it was pouring rain, so we dashed into the first house. It was FILLED with people, there were just women everywhere (and people here are not too big on deoderant...). When we got there everyone started cheering and singing wedding songs (to prepare for Bettina's wedding they said). Juba is in a Swahilli speaking region, so I understood nothing, but it was still very fun.
The rain finally ended around 1:00 in the afternoon so we began the service then. There were at least 5000 people there. Oh my. I have never seen so many people sitting outside together. (And Bettina and I were the only white people there) There were songs and prayers and then Bettina spoke about Mary breaking the jar of oil and pouring it over Jesus' feet. It was a huge success. Afterwards there were introductions, so all the important people there (at least 20 or so) had to be introduced to everyone and say something. I was introduced, it was intimidating in front of so many people! Then there was an offering, separated by the town the people came from. That went on for 45 minutes at least, for the offering they come up to the front, everybody comes, and you dance along the way. It was like a 5000 person conga line!
Then there was music on and on until about 10 at night, probably later. Bettina and I walked around greeting people and then fell into bed exhausted. All the homes were absolutely packed with people. Because we were so special they gave us a bedroom. It was in a mud and stick house and the room was probably 5 feet by 9 feet with one twin bed and one nightstand. Outside the door there were women sleeping everywhere on mats on the floor, so getting up in the middle of the night to go out to the bathroom was very interesting. It was quite the adventure!
The exciting news of the night (I probably shouldn't say exciting...) someone fell into the latrine. Apparently the ground around the wooden seat in the outhouse just kind of caved in while someone was there and they fell right in. Someone outside heard the calls and they got a ladder down there and got him out and washed up. Gross. That is the kind of thing we joke about at home but never actually think will happen... I just praise God it wasn't me!
We left the next morning, with about 13 people in and on the truck. They all wanted rides home. I got to sit on the back of the truck, it was sooo much fun! On the way back we picked up a German missionary named Olga who is twentysomething. She and I talked the whole time, it was really fun! I got an up-close and personal view of the jungle.
I am loving it here, everyday is an adventure! But I do miss home a lot. Please pray for Bettina as she came down with malaria on Monday...
The rain finally ended around 1:00 in the afternoon so we began the service then. There were at least 5000 people there. Oh my. I have never seen so many people sitting outside together. (And Bettina and I were the only white people there) There were songs and prayers and then Bettina spoke about Mary breaking the jar of oil and pouring it over Jesus' feet. It was a huge success. Afterwards there were introductions, so all the important people there (at least 20 or so) had to be introduced to everyone and say something. I was introduced, it was intimidating in front of so many people! Then there was an offering, separated by the town the people came from. That went on for 45 minutes at least, for the offering they come up to the front, everybody comes, and you dance along the way. It was like a 5000 person conga line!
Then there was music on and on until about 10 at night, probably later. Bettina and I walked around greeting people and then fell into bed exhausted. All the homes were absolutely packed with people. Because we were so special they gave us a bedroom. It was in a mud and stick house and the room was probably 5 feet by 9 feet with one twin bed and one nightstand. Outside the door there were women sleeping everywhere on mats on the floor, so getting up in the middle of the night to go out to the bathroom was very interesting. It was quite the adventure!
The exciting news of the night (I probably shouldn't say exciting...) someone fell into the latrine. Apparently the ground around the wooden seat in the outhouse just kind of caved in while someone was there and they fell right in. Someone outside heard the calls and they got a ladder down there and got him out and washed up. Gross. That is the kind of thing we joke about at home but never actually think will happen... I just praise God it wasn't me!
We left the next morning, with about 13 people in and on the truck. They all wanted rides home. I got to sit on the back of the truck, it was sooo much fun! On the way back we picked up a German missionary named Olga who is twentysomething. She and I talked the whole time, it was really fun! I got an up-close and personal view of the jungle.
I am loving it here, everyday is an adventure! But I do miss home a lot. Please pray for Bettina as she came down with malaria on Monday...
Friday, July 15, 2011
Colored Pencils
I have never met anyone who didn't know how to color. When you see a three year old girl at home, you figure that they know what to do with a colored pencil, even if they can't stay inside the lines. On Wednesday, Michelle and I helped out with Maaike's girls' Bible study, Bana Basi ya Kopela. It was held at a school building on the other side of town. The Bible study is focused on teenaged girls, but there are always a lot of little one that show up and just fall asleep. So Michelle and I planed a lesson for the little ones. We were in a classroom made of mud bricks and concrete, with a chalkboard on the fron wall and 4 rows of wooden benches. We had 14 little children, most of them about three years old. We did a puppet show for them (all in Lingala of course) and then helped them with a memory verse. They got a piece of candy if they could say the verse. Then we handed out paper with the verse written on it in bubble letters and a picture of a flower. We gave each child a colored pencil and were suprised when they just sat there holding the pencil and looking at us. They didn't know what to do! We went around and demonstrated for them and after about 10 minutes they were finally comfortable doing it on their own. They were satisfied to just sit there for 45 minutes coloring the same picture, with the same color. I was struck by the fact that at home, they would have been fighting over colors after about 5 minutes and bored of coloring after 20. But these kids were so happy. The little things in life brought them the greatest joy.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Welcome to the Jungle!
Mbote, hello! Here in Congo it is very important that you greet every person that you pass on the street, even more so if you know them. And when you greet them you grasp hands (always the right hand). In the past 4 days I have probably shaken the hands of at least 100 people, probably more. Everything is amazing here, I have been going basically nonstop since my plane touched town in Isiro on Thursday. The people are so welcoming!
On Friday I had my first Lingala lesson, which was interesting because my teacher is a girl a bit younger than me, and I don't speak Lingala or French and she doesn't speak English. It was quite fun trying to communicate! Then on Friday afternoon I went with Bettina to meet her family, her fiance and his six children. Every Friday afternoon they have an english lesson because they want to learn, so we had fun trying to discuss hobbies and what careers they are interested in. Her family is absolutely wonderful, they are extremely loving and joyful all the time, and I don't think I have laughed so hard in a while.
Yesterday we drove 57 kilometers (three hours) through the jungle to get to this big market. While we were there a family of the church in that town took us into their home twice and fed us two meals, just because we were from so far away. The food here is good. yes, there are sometimes when you don't ask what you are eating because you really don't want to know, but usually the food is good. Driving to the market yesterday we fit 8 people into a little land rover and drove on this little dirt road (apparently not really in too bad of a condition) but there were times when the road was so bad that we had to get out and walk while the driver tried to get the car through. coming home we had all eight of us plus everything we had bought, which included three huge sacks of peanuts as big as me) two sack of rice and one sack of beans. Then we also had three clumps of bananas (not clumps like you find in the grocery store at home, but clumps straight off the tree with at least 25 bananas on each) two chickens (they were alive, we named one dinner and one dessert), a bag of tomatoes, a bag of pili pili (really hot peppers), a dead antelope, and a basket of grubs. Yes, the grubs were live, crawling things about the size of one of those pink erasers. Just to show off, one of Bettina's sons ate one right then and there, alive and whole. Some things I can handle but that was a little much!
And then last night we had all the other missionaries in the area over for volleyball, apparently a Saturday night tradition. I was not that great, but it was extremely fun. And this morning we just got back from going to church, where Bettina's fiance preached. It was in French and Lingala, so Bettina translated for me. He is a fabulous teacher. But before we could leave we were swept into one of the houses nearby for tea and bread with one of the other pastors. It has been quite an adventurous few days!
Every night I crawl under my mosquito net and fall asleep to the sound of the jungle birds, and I am woken up bright and early in the morning by the roosters.
On Friday I had my first Lingala lesson, which was interesting because my teacher is a girl a bit younger than me, and I don't speak Lingala or French and she doesn't speak English. It was quite fun trying to communicate! Then on Friday afternoon I went with Bettina to meet her family, her fiance and his six children. Every Friday afternoon they have an english lesson because they want to learn, so we had fun trying to discuss hobbies and what careers they are interested in. Her family is absolutely wonderful, they are extremely loving and joyful all the time, and I don't think I have laughed so hard in a while.
Yesterday we drove 57 kilometers (three hours) through the jungle to get to this big market. While we were there a family of the church in that town took us into their home twice and fed us two meals, just because we were from so far away. The food here is good. yes, there are sometimes when you don't ask what you are eating because you really don't want to know, but usually the food is good. Driving to the market yesterday we fit 8 people into a little land rover and drove on this little dirt road (apparently not really in too bad of a condition) but there were times when the road was so bad that we had to get out and walk while the driver tried to get the car through. coming home we had all eight of us plus everything we had bought, which included three huge sacks of peanuts as big as me) two sack of rice and one sack of beans. Then we also had three clumps of bananas (not clumps like you find in the grocery store at home, but clumps straight off the tree with at least 25 bananas on each) two chickens (they were alive, we named one dinner and one dessert), a bag of tomatoes, a bag of pili pili (really hot peppers), a dead antelope, and a basket of grubs. Yes, the grubs were live, crawling things about the size of one of those pink erasers. Just to show off, one of Bettina's sons ate one right then and there, alive and whole. Some things I can handle but that was a little much!
And then last night we had all the other missionaries in the area over for volleyball, apparently a Saturday night tradition. I was not that great, but it was extremely fun. And this morning we just got back from going to church, where Bettina's fiance preached. It was in French and Lingala, so Bettina translated for me. He is a fabulous teacher. But before we could leave we were swept into one of the houses nearby for tea and bread with one of the other pastors. It has been quite an adventurous few days!
Every night I crawl under my mosquito net and fall asleep to the sound of the jungle birds, and I am woken up bright and early in the morning by the roosters.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Blast Off!
I am leaving tomorrow night!
I got my visa on Wednesday, thank you so much to everyone who was praying. Everything is set set and ready for me to leave tomorrow. I am incredibly excited and cannot wait to see how the summer unfolds!
Please pray specifically for my travels there. It will take three days and five planes to get there, and things generally don't run as much on time in Africa as in the U.S. I was going to fly there with a missionsary from Canada, but so far his visa has not gone through. So please pray for protection, and that the Lord will provide people to help guide me. And that I will be able to make all the connections I need to and travel safely through customs. God is in control, and I am trusting in His almighty provision. Our God is a mighty God!
I love Romans 8:31-32 "If God is for us who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
Lord willing, I will write next from Africa!
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