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Last Sunday at New City Fellowship South City, we had a live SKYPE interview with Pastor Macklann Basse. To watch the video, go to: http://connectwestafrica.wordpress.com/ 
Please be in prayer for the team that is going to visit the Basse’s in Togo this week.

This year’s trip to Congo was like visiting your favorite out of town relatives. It was great to see old friends in Congo. There never is enough time to catch up on all the events that transpired since last year. Yet is it was fun to introduce some new friends from America to the great folks in Congo.

It was encouraging to see how things had improved. I was pleasantly surprised to see that an orphan that last year was severely malnourished had survived this year and is now doing quite well running around in a baby blue track suit.

 

  

Yet, there were many heart breaking parts of the trip. We were frequently confronted with needs that we could not meet. One mom has 10 kids having lost her husband in the war. We can only help one go to school but the other children can’t attend school. The mom shared that the kids were all healthy but she struggled with whole family living in such deplorable conditions unable to attend school.

It was a great comfort to be reminded that God sees those in need and He cares more then we ever could. It was good to be able to show a glimpse of God’s love to the people while we were there. Our presence was a sign of our concern and was comporting to them. Our trip in some ways was similar to the mourning that happens when someone dies in Congo. The family takes all the furniture out of the house and everyone comes to the house and just sits around on mats in the house mourning the loss. We were in Congo mourning the brokenness of the world and comforting each other with the hope of the inevitable victory of God’s Kingdom to make all things new again.

May God show us each day how to “do what’s right and set things right and fair.”
Tim Rice

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (The Message)
“Don’t let the wise brag of their wisdom.
Don’t let heroes brag of their exploits.
Don’t let the rich brag of their riches.
If you brag, brag of this and this only:
That you understand and know me.
I’m God, and I act in loyal love.
I do what’s right and set things right and fair,
and delight in those who do the same things.
These are my trademarks.”

If you would like make a charitable contribution you can donate to the work in Congo through this link to Christian Foundation of Education. http://cfenow.org/donate/

Follow the Ritchie family journey of service to children in need at their blog.  The Ritchies joined us for our recent Congo Missions trip.  http://ritchies4orphans.blogspot.com/

Follow this link to the website with the all 3000 photos taken by the 2010 Congo team. 

This is a 6 minute video showing some of the things that happened in Congo.

Most of the team of 18 that went to Congo has returned to USA. Leon is visiting his son in Italy and will return later. I added a new folder with a set of photos covering all of the teams Congo trip photos. I have tagged many of them but still need to add tags.

Barry Henning said, “This was a very, very, very good trip.” The team is looking for ways to further our collaboration and strengthen our communication with our
Congo brothers and sisters. We want to further explore how to encourage the orphans and widows in Congo.

We posted another 13+ pictures.  Please continue to pray for us.  We have been on the 3 ring circus of pastoral training, medical ministry & orphan care.  It has all been good.  Today Pierre will hopefully get to spend some extended time talking to his family.

Grace & Peace,

Charlie

The whole team has arrived and are now getting ready for a busy day. Travel was without problem but the checked baggage did not do as well. Only 8 out of 24 checked bags arrived with the team. This meant a extra hour at the airport filing reports. The official that was to take the report was away from their desk so that added to the wait by the team.

While waiting for the Richies luggage I took a photo with Leon’s permission of the part of the team that had arrived. A police officer came up and threatened to arrest Leon. Leon asked me to call the US embassy. Of course I did not have their phone number but was in the process of calling Dr Bill Clemmer when the police man said that was not necessary. He took Leon aside and lectured him. Leon said he witnessed to the man and told of the God’s goodness for Congo expressed through us. He described Pierre’s surgery and how we brought him back to meet his Coco Emily. We eventually the officer just asked to have the photo deleted and the asked for $100. We paid a $35 fine and the quit hassling us. The police officer later came to ask for Leon’s phone number to talk some more about the work we are doing. Pray that this man will be saved. Pray for us that we will be protected from this kind of oppressive shake down.

While waiting for the second group to arrive we drove about 20 miles east of the city and ate a fish dinner next to the river. It was quite relaxing and it was fun to see folks going working on the river. There were several large barges going up river with items piled high. Click here to see the uploaded photos.

Today’s busy schedule: 7AM breakfast, traveling at 7:30 to church for an 8:30 church service. Then Barry will preach at the second service. After the second service there will be lunch and a visit to see the monkeys in a park. The evening well be spent at Leon’s house.

Hey, I AM alive! Today I ate breakfast at MPH. I went and checked my face book. I sat around and listened to people talk to Monique. We were waiting for Papa Leon to pick us up. We went to the airport to pick up the Ritchies. Dr. Rice was taking pictures and almost got arrested. He wasn’t supposed to be taking photos at the airport. They wanted him to pay money. They wabted him to pay $50 - 100 but then I did Jackie Chan karate moves on them. We give them $35 for the “fine” and deleted the picture.

We went out for lunch near the river. We saw people fishing and there were a lot of boats. They were made out of wood, canoes really, made out of wood. People were fishing. There was this big fish, I have a picture of it loaded up. We had fish and kwanga. It was good. Kwanga is just like fufu except steamed in a banana leaf. It is harder than fufu. The music was not as loud as some places.

That’s it. Now we are waiting in the car at the airport waiting for the rest of the team to come.

While we were at the airport, these people were fighting over money. They had carried the baggage were wanting more money. This one guy chased the other and the police just watched without doing anything.

Pierre

Bonjour! Today we were going to CEFOREA but then we got stuck in traffic jams. There were a lot of people in our van. We saw where my old school was. It was a long drive, and my butt was hurting. When we got to CEFOREA, we saw my grandma. Well, first we saw Papa Omair and he took us to my grandma where everyone was. My grandma started dancing and singing and thanking my dad for adopting me. They were saying that Dr. Rice was the one that did my surgery. (It was actually Dr. Place.) We had the boringest meeting ever. It was toooooooo long.The meeting was outside and they were talking about business I didn’t understand. I wanted to fall asleep. Instead I walked around. I took photos.When we were driving to my grandma’s house, we saw my Catholic church. We had to drive only half way there because the sand was so deep we would have gotten stuck. This guy on a motorcycle fell (LOL)!

After the meeting, we went to my house and there was a lot of people, probably about 150 people!, and a parade. They were all saying “Sadame, Sadame”. That’s my nickname from soccer. That was awesome, though I was kind of scared. Papa Leon said that we need to stop and praise God for what He has done. I showed them the picture of my family in St. Louis. Everybody started shaking my hand and I gave my 2 cousins a soccer ball. My cousin, Ya Madosha, had gotten SO BIG! I also saw Sophony. One time we were fighting and he stuffed sand in my mouth while I choked. It’s funny now. I also saw Moama, my cousin who is a soldier.

We left and everybody was following us and took a march to the car. We got in the car and went to visited this pastor at a church for 5 minutes. We almost got stuck because it was muddy and deep.

We went to Pastor Leon’s house to eat. I ate 5 fish and 10 fish eyeballs! I had a piece of chicken too. I drank a lot of soda. All the sodas taste better here than the USA. I wanted to drink beer, but he wouldn’t let me. Dr. Rice was teasing me. I took a walk around the block with Benjamen, Papa Leon’s son and Mukanda, Papa Leon’s nephew.

I took some pictures for you, Milo. I am going to try to upload them on the computer.

Now I am trying to get Corey and Brittany to get on Skype. I know they are being too girly about it. You guys better get on facebook! LOL.

Au revoir,

Pierre (Sadame)

Check the link  in our previous post for more photos just posted.   

We had a good day yesterday meeting for lunch with Leon after his arrival.  We revied the plans and adjusted to the schedule and transportation “realites of Congo.”  We further clearified the use of cell phone in Congo and realized that cell phone minutes are just plain expensive.  We now have two phones with Congo sim cards.  We just need to keep feeding the phone “beast” with “money” to keep them charged. 

Yesterrday for dinner we had a wonderful Bar-B-Q with the teachers at The American School in Kinshasa.  It is across the street from MPH.  Met one of the nurses that used to work at La Clinica in St. Louis before it closed.  We had worked together a couple of times when she worked there at  La Clinica.  We sat outside under a grass thatched roof and talked by candle light.  Many of the teachers will be traveling with us back to America on the same airfrance flight leaving Kinshasa Saturday June 12th.

Our ride is nearly here so must close for now.

I left on Tuesday.   My sister Abi  dropped me and my dad off at the airport.   I felt excited about getting back home because I have not been home in a long time.  While home I look forward to meeting my family and friends this next Thursday.  I look forward to playing soccer like the old times.  I used to play with my cousins and friends at the lot one block away from our house. 

 We are staying at MPH.  It’s a hotel.  They have a big backyard in the back so we can play frisbee.  There’s a lot of other missionaries and college students who are staying here.  We watched Star Trek  with them, but I didn’t get to finish it.  I played ping pong.  We’ve been playing cards-Rummy.  We eat here sometimes.  I asked for some foo-foo!  We had pizza too. 

So far what I have been doing in Kinsahsa:  I have gone swimming, and visited a clinic where Doctor Rice talked with the nurse and the doctors.  We saw some x-rays of a kid’s broken arm.  We visited Pastor David’s church where they introduced us to the church members.  I slept through part of the church service because I was so tired.  The church was small compared to our St. Louis church.  They just had drums and singing.  It was loud but not as loud as the church I attended when younger here in Kinshasa. 

After church we went to eat by the river.  We had to wait for two hours for our fish to finish cooking.   I was tired and starving!  We watched these kids who were tying themselves into pretzels.  I will try to get a picture  up. ( I used to be able to bend myself backwards before I had my surgeries.  It was my superpower and my weakness was metal.  Surgery put metal in  me…aghhhhh.  –ha!)

We then visited the river.   We saw all these boats.  People were making boats and fishing.  The kids were using bamboo sticks in the water to fish.  That’s how I used to fish.  There was a pond that we walked to and we would make boats of our own out of leaves..  We would pull the leaves out of the water and stick them together with mud.  We would go out in the middle of the pond.  Sometimes they would break apart and we would have to swim back.  It was dangerous.  We got in trouble.  We would get chased by an older cousin to give us swats because we weren’t supposed to be out on the water.  My grandmother would get mad at my cousin for giving us swats.  She wasn’t in favor of swats. 

We used fishing poles with a hook.  When there was a fish we would yank back to get the hook stuck in its mouth.  After cleaning it out, we would wrap up it up in leaves and cook over the fire.  We would catch catfish and smaller fish.  One time I tripped and fell and a bucket of fish fell on me and all the fish were chasing me to bite me.

Part of the stories on here are because Doctor Rice was asking me questions and told me to include them on here even though I didn’t want to post them.
 

More updates to come….
Pierre

Leon arrived after an uneventful trip.  We were told our bags also arrived but we have not picked them up yet. 

We were scheduled to meet with Dr Bill Clemmer and a group in the process of writing for a $145 million dollar USAID grant to address the health needs of the worst health zones in Congo.  We missed connections and instead had a relaxing morning at MPH.  What a comfort to know that missed connections are a part of God’s divine plan, and I can just go with the flow and see what God wants to do.

After lunch we went to a local Baptist self-supporting clinic that also does deliveries and some simple surgeries.  I was moved and choked up to see a group faithfully taking what God has given them and meeting the need to the poor in the community.  Katherine Niles who took us around the clinic is the daughter of one of the greatest medicial missionaries in Congo Dan Fountain, MD MPH.  Katherine and I talked about the visit we had with her father at Urbana this last Christmas.   

In the evening just before dinner Pierre and I went swimming in the pool at the American School of Kinshasa just down the road from MPH where we are staying. We had a fun time swimming and playing Marco Polo.  Playing with my eyes closed, I scraped my nose on the edge of the pool.  I look really good with a bandage across the bridge of my nose. 

After dinner we listened to a the American School of Kinshasa end of school band and choir concert and art display, an unexpected treat.  We visited with Bill Clemmer and his wife Ann.  Pray that God will give them wisdom as they make some strategic career decisions.  Then the Svobodas and we played cards for awhile.  Now to bed……

Kathy and I arrived in DR Congo after an unusually uneventful set of fights and connections.  Pierre and Charlie started their trip two days prior to us and spend an unexpected night in Brussels because of flight weather delay arriving into Chicago.  The four suitcases the Pierre and Charlie carried arrived with them.  The four suitcases carried by Kathy and I arrived in London but not in Kinshasa.  Jeam Paul is visiting AirFrance today to file a second missing checked luggage report (first report filed on the date of our arrival). 

Follow this link to the photos.

Suday we visited pastor David’s church and worshiped with them. 

For lunch we went a little way up river to a restraunt in Kinkole where we had fresh grilled Congo river fish.  Exceptionally tasty wonderfully spiced.  Fun to eat from a shared plate. 

After lunch we walked to the river and looked at the boats.

This year 18 people will be traveling to DR Congo to collaborate with and encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Kinshasa. This last Sunday afternoon we gathered for our final planning and packing meeting. (Follow Link to photos) There will be over 30 suitcases of items carried to be an encouragement to the Congolese. Praise God. A set of donated labs supplies from Randolph World Ministries headed by on of the professors at Saint Louis University will nearly stock a complete lab in Congo.

Some of the team is already on the way. Kathy and I leave on Friday.

There has been $1000 donated towards the needs of Marcel Mukendi’s widow. God is our provider.

Pray that our hearts would be a peace–confident in the sovereign work of a loving God.
Pray that our brothers and sisters in Congo would boldly trust God and follow Him doing deeds of mercy for the poor in their community.

A/O 150 Binocular Compound Microscope (10/45/100)
10W, 6V PLEASE RETURN HARD SHELL CASE TO RANDOLPH WORLD MINISTRIES
Lens cleaner, oil, lens paper, Q-tips

200 Red Top Clot Tubes 1 Westergren ESR Rack
200 Lavendar Top EDTA Tubes 200 Westergren Tubes with Saline
400 vacutainer needles 1 Test Tube Rack
1 box 3mL syringes 1 Table Top Centrifuge
300 Syringe Needles 1 Hct Centrifuge
Transfer pipettes 1,000 Plane Hct Tubes
1 Hemacytometer with cover slip 1,000 Heparinized Hct Tubes
4 boxes slides 1 Card Reader
2 boxes coverslips 2 Clay Sealer
6 Urines Tubes 200 Alcohol Pads
20 Urine Sample Cups 200 Bandaids
5 Tourniquets 100 Cotton Balls
1,000 Lancets
6 Thoma Pipettes

Here is a link to a video summary of how the Lord has allowed New City Fellowship to partner in West Africa in the past year, and where we believe He is leading us in the years to come.

The West Africa Bridge Team exists to enable the members of New City Fellowship & God’s people in the St. Louis area to partner with the West African church… Read the rest of this entry »

Link to Video.

All team members are home with their families.  Jeff got home about 10 pm last night.  Lots of hugs and kisses.  This trip will be a talking point for some time and many of the team are already talking about the desire to return. 

Anyone who has traveled to any degree outside the US is familiar with reverse culture shock.  This can often be as difficult at the initial shock of the travel that took place this past week as we tell ourselves that “this is our normal and it should not be as difficult to get back into the flow.”  Our hearts are now torn in two places.

For now decompression and prayer.

Team Sabre is en route to Lambert and will be on the ground shortly after 4 pm.  Team Jeff (again our thanks for his willingness to take the long way home) will be in this evening by 8 pm.

Once the team gets settled we will discuss how to properly bring this trip to a close on the blog.

For now enjoy the pictures.

The team had a refreshing night and are looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family.  Some of us did not spend much time in bed so we could enjoy the beauty of the Bahamas with a night walk on the beach or a morning stroll on the beach watching the sunrise. 

A large set of photos has been just uploaded for your viewing on the picasa web site. http://picasaweb.google.com/NCFHaiti

Before I type anything else, I need to say one huge thank you to Mark. What an incredible job you’ve done with the blog! It was so fun to arrive in the Bahamas and have internet access for the first time and be able to scroll through the blog and read all about the activities of our group over the past week!!

I am sitting here in Nassau at the hotel sort of in disbelief of all that has happened over the past week… Read the rest of this entry »

Team 3 has arrived (10:40 in Nassau), has the hotel information, and are finding a cab.  Today definitely was more like an Amazing Race episode.  Team 2 arrived first with team 1 not far behind and a mad dash accross the finish line.  On tomorrow’s episode one team member gets left behind and has to find his own way home…  Read the rest of this entry »

The Sabreliner team has secured a copilot for a flight tomorrow.  The disappointment of the morning was replaced immediately with a resolve to find a way and they went right to work.  It took quite a few phone calls and several additional hours to get all the paperwork completed again.  Tom, who will not be able to make the flight tomorrow, stuck around with Dave to make sure everything was in order.  They are men committed to the return of this team and the fulfillment of the commitment.  Read the rest of this entry »

As a result of many moving parts we reached outside the window for the pilots to fly today.  The measure of a man is not when things are going right but when they are going awry… Read the rest of this entry »

Missouri based Sabreliner (http://www.sabreliner.com/index.php) called late yesterday to volunteer their services to get our team home!  Sabreliner does not believe in leaving any job undone.  Apparently several of their associates have been following the blog and had asked about our return plans.  We are very excited to accept this generous gift that will expedite the return of our team after a very long week. Read the rest of this entry »

The day in Haiti at the Immaculate Conception Hospital took a very interesting turn for the team. 

It is expected that the care needed in Haiti right now is critical care, emergency room type services.  In fact the population in Les Cayes has grown from 47k to nearly double that in a few weeks time.  Many of the patients at the hospital have come from PAP and are past the critical stages.  The transition to maintenance and primary care is beginning.  While there are still tales of difficult things to see the situation is normalizing.  This is a team of primary physicians and so they could sit back and appreciate the long term needs and the assessment of the local physicians. Read the rest of this entry »