It is 7:10 am on my fifth day in the DRC; I was
up a little after 5:00 having had my best night’s sleep thus far. When you travel through so many time zones
your poor body does not know when to sleep and when to eat. I would go to bed early feeling so exhausted
and then wake up to miss several hours of sleep, go back to sleep to wake up
and find the sun shining. This morning I watched the sun rise in Africa. It is so beautiful. You are right, yes there
is no place I would rather be than in The Congo.
This morning I was up a little after 5:00 am,
fixed a cup of Via—Starbucks instant coffee. While a gallon of bath water was
heating I had breakfast: a maple flavored sausage patty, a large cracker and
half an orange. I cannot tell you how
nice it is to have a camp stove and water filter in the guest house. What a blessing to be able to have hot water
and drinkable water at my disposal. A year ago I was dependent upon someone
else to heat my coffee water over charcoal and my bath water was solar heated
so I could only take a bath in the evening.
Yesterday
was a busy day, we left the mission station at 1:30 pm to travel to Church
Three which Didier pastors. The church has experienced dynamic growth so new
benches were being built to accommodate the congregation. Didier wanted to be there to oversee the
project and we had Services starting about 4:30 pm. The Service begins with at least an hour of
singing interspersed with passionate prayers. Following that is at least an
hour (minimum) of preaching. I think we
went more like an hour and 45 minutes. Tyler and I shared the pulpit. If I could understand French and or Swahili
then I would tell you what follows. I
think there is fervent exhortation based on the sermon for at least another ten
minutes. Following this there is recognition of visitors and some sharing from
the congregation plus more prayers. Then
choir practice; the choir sounds like angels when they sing. Wow! At least what I would imagine Angeles would sound like. Indescribably beautiful.
On the way home I was
sitting in the front seat as Didier drove I felt a small hand touch my upper
arm and then it settled there to stay. Before long another small hand was
partially over it resting on my arm so I reached over my chest placed my left
hand over the two hands to hold hands with two children the rest the trip home.
The best part of the day.
I just
stepped out on the breezeway three orphans upon seeing me ran as fast as they
could to body slam me and throw their arms around my waist. Wonder why I feel so spoiled when I am here?