Dear Friends and Family,

This past Christmas and the New Year must have been very special in the "connected" world. Many friends wrote about the special events marking the passing of the year, century and the millennium. We had a very reflective holiday season—we looked at each other a lot. The e-mail system being down for a few days around Christmas was a blessing in disguise as well. However, the Advent season was a very special one; it would have been very special in anyone’s standard. Friends at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver assigned one person a day to send us an Advent message everyday. It was better than the gifts for the twelve days of Christmas. Some friends talked about their admiration for us, having heard the clear call from God and answering it. Honestly, we have to admit that we didn’t hear our call as much as overhear the conversation between God and His servants and think that maybe we could sneak in too. You give us too much credit. Had we thought about it thoroughly, we probably would not have committed ourselves to this line of work, because it is way beyond our capacity of love and wisdom. We continue based on the trust that God will lead us, even if we started on ignorant and misguided courage.

We had a chance to read the book of Jonah recently. We found he really was not a bad or cowardly person at all. Compared to us, he seems like a person of courage, with a sense of righteousness. We don’t blame him for running away from an impossible and unreasonable assignment. We do rejoice in the fact that we find ourselves in a similar situation. It must be a sign that His commands are a little more focused on us than the conversation we overheard was, n’est-ce pas?

Here at Tshikaji, Christmas was celebrated much like it would have been before commercialization. We were not completely free of gift-giving though. A special meal was served to the patients at the hospital, and we managed to put a TV-video in the patients’ waiting room, showing the Jesus film and other appropriate movies. With something to watch, waiting for the lab results is not nearly as long for the patients. Outside, the village children put their chins on the windowsills to watch the TV images. In the town of Kananga, meanwhile, the government gave running water for two days as a New Year’s gift. It was a scene similar to mid-summer in the inner cities. Rather than forceful fire hydrants, water was running out of smaller faucets, but the children were very happy. We pray that during the next year we can have many "flowing water" days in Kananga, in Congo and in all of Africa. It’s been 40 years since the independence of this country. Had they started in the desert crossing then, now is the time to enter the Canaan. We pray the period of answered prayers and kept promises will start soon. So each day we wish for a Happy New Day, and pray to be faithful for one more day, as tomorrow will take care of tomorrow.

Fruit-wise, we are enjoying (only Simon) the exotic fruits from our yard, goyave and jilakuji (passion fruit). There are many goyave trees in the village, but ours are the only ones giving good fruits. It is not because the trees are special, but our fenced in yard allows the fruits to ripen and fall on there own when the time comes. With all other trees, the children pick them before their time and end up up with green furits with poor taste—makes us wonder in how many other areas of our lives we fail to wait for His time and end up with a mess. Jesus taught in parables. We are trying to discern the real meaning of the parables of "life experiences" God is giving us. We pray to wait for His revelation, not our own premature interpretation. We planted bananas and pineapples for future occupants of our house. We discovered that frozen pineapples and bananas make good substitutes for sherbet. Two grown-ups eating frozen pineapples like popsicles is a sight to behold. We can’t wait until next mango season. We will freeze several hundred mangos.

When Simon came home for lunch one day, Haejung very cautiously told him that the e-mail bill for the month of December was $565. Normally they run under $100. We sent off a note to MAF asking for an investigation. The response came back that one or two of you—we don’t know who—sent two very large messages (pictures, sound or animation file) that never got delivered to us. MAF was good enough to reduce our bill by $460. So, in the future if you would like to send us a large file like that, please consider sending us $230 instead. We do not have access to the Internet either, so we didn’t get to see the several greeting cards you posted for us. Thanks just the same.

PC(USA) missionaries in Africa are having a retreat in early February at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, on the border with Zambia. Kananga to Victoria Falls is not very far in distance, but the trip will take almost a week in each direction, as we need to go to Kinshasa, then to Nairobi, Kenya and Harare, Zimbabwe, then finally to Victoria Falls. We look forward to our first trip since arriving here in July. As is the case with all travels in Africa, we will be trying to do some pressing work for the hospital while in Kinshasa, such as buying medicines and straightening out problems with our vendors and freight forwarders. Pray for a safe trip and restored spirits for us.

Supports from the friends continue for our work. We just received the report from Louisville (PCUSA) that someone has anonymously given $10,000 to care for the poor. We thank $20 gifts just the same. Sometimes the affirmation that there are brothers and sisters who believe in our work here encourages us. The political and economic situation has gone down hill for the past several decades. The standard joke is "for the past XX years, we have said that it can’t get any worse, but it does." While it is not safe enough for ex-pat workers to work with USAID office in Kananga, the work continues. Yesterday, January 15, the U.S. ambassador and the USAID administrator for Africa were in town for a visit along with their staff. The governor of Kasai province invited the entire American community in Kananga to a reception. So four of us, who are the American community, had a quick visit with the ambassador. It is heart-warming to see many people continue to work and hope in hopeless situations.

So went our first Christmas in Congo. We felt bad for not having a home for John and Kevin to come to. But, they report that they had a good visit with each other in Boston over the holidays. We thank all of you who remembered our children and us and prayed for us. Please continue to do so during the year 2000.

Happy New Day.

Haejung & Simon Park

(If you e-mail us, please don't send attachments. We have to pay by the byte.)

The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 29