February 7, 2007
Dear Friends,
Yesterday was a very tiring day at the seminary. The heat, the
drive, and the dynamics and chemistry of teaching in several languages
might have something to do with the tiredness.
Val's Lingala
Val is taking Lingala seriously. After she finishes teaching
her English class, she has three hours to sit and wait for me
either in the hot stuffy library, or under a tree where she sees
lots of kids in recess from a small school next to the seminary,
and a few adults who come and go. Last week she enjoyed practicing
a little Lingala and a little French with some of them. This week
she was asked to introduce herself to the classes, and the teacher
asked her to come back in two weeks and tell more about her life.
I don’t enjoy learning in a class setting, so I’m
hoping I’ll pick up Lingala as I talk with the workers.
Val is a tiny bit more analytical than I am, and seems to love
seeing the language stuff on paper and asking questions! My Dad
used to get such a kick out of Val’s questions. I have no
patience for sitting in a class.
Electricity
Speaking of patience. There has been no water for two days—you
pray for a good storm and you can shower off the roof—due
to the neighbor’s ancient “cabine” or fuse box.
(Their side of the house electricity controls the water pumps
for both sides!) I got disgusted and went out there this morning
with my little tiny Maglite, with its fading batteries, holding
it in my mouth while I stripped and re-taped wire and then connected
the wires while it was all live! Finally figured out how to cut
the current so I did not have to hyperventilate out of the deadly
fear of getting bitten—I absolutely hate working with electricity
out here—it is all so old! And every system is different.
And it becomes more of a challenge when you sweat so much, and
have to work on your knees! We did some fancy work to our system—had
to have a few safety breakers and switches to replace stuff that
had caught fire several times!
Now we have water. I feel very thankful to the Lord and expressed
same, while the Congolese workers are all shouting stuff like
“you’re the man!”
A death in the community
This morning early I took the kids to school and hung around
to catch a boy at school who lost his step-dad—he died in
a hospital in Namibia, and his mother yesterday text-messaged
him to let him (ninth grade) and his sister (fifth grade) and
brother (second grade) know that the step-dad passed away. They
have been coming to church, and so I felt pretty responsible to
minister to this embassy family. The kids are taken care of by
another family connected to their embassy, but what a kick in
the stomach for this ninth grade boy Vangi! So I prayed with him
and gave him some time to talk with me about it. I think the Lord
is working in there. The mother will come back on Monday. Strange
way to handle this, but we don’t know the extenuating circumstances—lots
and lots of those out here, let me tell you!
Prayer requests
Please continue to pray for the seminary students, that they
will all get their own French Bibles, that they will be honest,
and that they will truly learn how to apply the gospel to their
own lives. Also, pray that the international church will grow
as a body of believers concerned with each others’ lives
and growing in grace and in knowledge of Him.
By His Grace,
Walt
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 313 |
