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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.

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)

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

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

Today five of the eleven team members departed from Congo.  Four ladies are now onboard Air France heading for Paris.  Barry Henning is in Niarobi Kenya for one week working with our sister church in Kenya.  Sarah returns to St. Louis Sunday 7/6/08 and Rebecah returns to Newport, Oregon on Tuesday 7/8/08.  We have been working on finalizing the plans for the clinic.  We will have a meeting at the clinic building on Monday morning to review the status and plan with the team members.  We have a business man who works at a bank and has a heart for the poor.  He was the one that helped New City Fellowship get in touch with the poor in Kinshasa in 2001.  This connection lead to the several trips including this fifth trip by a team from New City Fellowship.  We have also helped a pastor from Congo come to St. Louis to speak to our church.  This two way trave and frequent visits is important because we want to maintain a strong two way connection and open communication.

We continue to have some problems with this blog.  I up dated the blog on 7/2/08 but the site was not updated.  I think it is now working and I hope this addition will also go to the website.

Please look at the photos on the Picasa site as I added some of the recent photos from the team’s time here in Kinshasa.

http://picasaweb.google.com/CongoClinics/CongoPhotos

Blessings,

Currently the team is at a church, sharing in the pastor’s conference. As I write, I sit in a courtyard outside the meeting rooms. The weather is mild and overcast. The sounds of “Yesu Azali Awa” drift through the open window, familiar from worship at New City Fellowship in St. Louis, but now made alive with clapping and acapella harmonies. To my right, some of the Congolese women sit over cooking pots over hot coals in the courtyard preparing the afternoon meal we share with the Congolese pastors and deacons at the converence.

The trip is going full swing, and God’s spirit is present. Each team member is struck differently by the sights, the needs, and God’s work in the midst of it all and ideas are brewing of ways to stay involved in the lives of the people we are meeting, even upon our return.

To see photos follow this link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/CongoClinics/CongoPhotos

Some of the happenings of the trip:

There have been two meetings now with the eight pastors of the churches we have partnered with to care for orphans. A beautiful collaboration is unfolding, even through intense conversation with differing views and cultural perspectives. It is obviously the Spirit who enables us to come together. 

The pastors are very pleased about the health clinic that has been built, and are eager to begin construction upon another. They see much need for it. Tim and Barry communicated with them our desire for the first clinic to become self-supporting before starting a second.  There was talk of giving more funds to pharmacy already established, but this idea was declined in favor of moving forward with the self-supporting clinic with the available resources.

We have also had some good dialogue with Bill Clemmer, medical missionary, about the need for mosquito nets for families with small children or pregnant women, as an inexpensive, life-saving preventative measure against malaria. The Congolese pastors confirmed that this was a need.  Bill shared we might need to charge a small fee for the nets so people would value them. The pastors were concerned that this could prohibit the people who most need the nets from getting them. The local pastors suggested instead, that people give a small, non-money (food or goods) donation to the church deacon’s fund. This idea goes hand in hand with the deacon’s training that Perpetue is leading, in which she is teaching the churches about the biblical concept of having a deacon’s team to help the church bodies care for their own members in need.

The deacon’s health training yesterday afternoon started off, intense and in depth, with questions of how to care for families affected by AIDS/HIV.  Complex ethical questions were raised, such as how a woman with an unfaithful husband should biblically handle her intimate relations. The team encouraged the deacons to go to the Bible for guidance on how to love rather simply relying on traditional African thought, and using a team of deacons and pastors to advise couples in such situations rather than one person bearing the responsibility of advising.

This afternoon, some of the team may head over to Le Grace De Dieu Orphanage while the trainings continue, and take the socks, underwear, baby clothes, and small toy donations that finally arrived with the delayed luggage!

We are very busy here, mostly with meeting people with whom we have ongoing relationships.  We continue to make new connections that could be fruitful in visits to come. On the team there has been much laughter and teasing, some tears over the suffering we have seen, and much love. We are moved to meet or reconnect with our brothers and sisters in the Congo. God is alive and at work here. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts of us. We (the whole team) send you our love!

-Heidi

We have been trying to call home and keep up the comunication but have been having some problems.

Good news…Perpetue has arrived with her daugher Kelly.

Here are some note from team members…

To Rex from Lynda, Sorry I haven’t called…hopefully today. XOXO!!

Bob, Rachel, Chris - All is well.  Miss you all very much!  Kiss Frankie for me.  XOXO, Gretchen

Mom, Dad, Tina & James, Will and Alex, Doug, Larry!! Miss and love you all but I’m having a GRRRREAT visit!

Heidi Harbin
Wow what an experience!  You can’t imagine the assult on the senses with all that we’ve seen, heard, smelled and the emotions all this has caused.  Seeing the need and seeing too what the local churches are doing to help with both the orphans and the widows is truly amazing but is far from enough.  Trying not to be too overwhelmed by the need and realizing that we have 5 loaves and 2 fishes and God will multiply.
Rebecah Morris

An encouraging email from a church member.

Just a few days until you leave for Congo….my kids, led by Rebekah (8 years old) and Hannah (6 years old), decided to do a bake sale yesterday to raise money for the orphans that you’ll be visiting in Congo. So they sold 46 whole wheat cinnamon rolls and about 2 1/2 gallons of sweet lemonade tea yesterday in front of our home. They raised just shy of $50. I was so proud of them! May God bless your trip!

I took the liberty of posting these encouraging emails from two of our team members. Tim

Dear Congo team,
I just wanted to share something with you. A friend gave me a Selah CD the other day and asked me to listen to a couple tracks specifically. I had not been aware of this group before (you may be), but one of the singers, Todd, grew up in Congo with missionary parents. I was so taken by some of the African songs they do that I was perusing their website to learn more about them. Click on this link and then at the bottom of the page click on the icon to watch the video for “You Raise Me Up”. I hope it touches you like it did me. I can’t wait for what He is leading us to do in Congo.
His Blessings to you all,
Gretchen
http://www.familychristian.com/selah/

Hi Gretchen and all,Thank you for sharing this. Between your message and Tim’s this morning I am in tears. As I am getting ready to leave, I thought this week might be pretty hectic and crazy but it really hasn’t – oh, it has been busy and lots of things going on but I haven’t felt the “panic” of oh, I’m going to be gone for almost three weeks.In fact this week has been filled with such an ease and peace about going (and being gone) and I know that it is God’s hand in this project that has made it so. I too have a great anticipation and excitement to see God’s plan working through each of us during our time in the Congo. I can hardly wait to meet all of you and to experience this with you all. I will see you all soon.

God Bless You,

Rebecah

As we read the story of Jesus’ feeding of the 4,000, we see that it is Jesus that brings the needs to the attention of His disciples.

Matthew 15:32 Jesus called his disciples together and told them, “I feel sorry for these people. They have been with me for three days, and they don’t have anything to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry. They might faint on their way home.”

The disciples were impressed with the great need and their serious lack of resources. Then Jesus helps them see they did have a few resources and He plans to work through these small resources to meet the need.

34Jesus asked them how much food they had. They replied, “Seven small loaves of bread  and a few little fish.”

Jesus then gets them organized (Lord help us) and then gives thanks to God who provides all we need. Jesus, then as a free gift, gives the disciples the bread and fish; exactly what they need to share.

35 After Jesus had told the people to sit down, 36 he took the seven loaves of bread and the fish and gave thanks. He then broke them and handed them to his disciples, who passed them around to the crowds.

The disciples received much more then enough to meet the need.

37Everyone ate all they wanted, and the leftovers filled seven large baskets.

How does the miracle of the the feeding of the 4,000 relate to our work in Congo?

We want to continue to partner with our brothers and sisters in Congo. We hope to strengthen mutual interdependence as we look to God as the only source of everything we need. It has been wonderful to learn of these church’s sacrificial work among the poor in their community. We look forward to seeing how the resources and relationships each of us brings gets multiplied by God to meet the great need.

From a book called If Jesus Were Mayor by Bob Moffitt he spoke about resources.

Outside resources can be helpful, but when and how they are introduced is very important. The local church must be sacrificially investing its own resources in ministry before receiving outside resources. If outside resources come first, powerlessness and dependency are reinforced. Local initiative is stifled. People learn to look to man—not God—to meet their needs.

Outside resources are best used when: (a) people have already demonstrated a willingness to sacrificially use their own resources; (b) outside resources are not substitutes for local resources; (c) outside resources produce a multiplication of local resources; and (d) people understand that God ultimately provides all resources.

In Summary:
1. God, help us to have listening ears and seeing eyes as You point out the need.
2. Help us not focus on the need but in faith trust You, Jesus to meet the need.
3. Freely receive from God the very thing you can share with others to meet their need.
4. Remember God loves to provide much more then enough to meet the need.

God bless you and build your confidence in Him,
Tim

In six weeks the team of 11 will be arriving in The Democratic Republic of Congo.

One of the tools we will be using is the handbook Health Education for Developing Countries. This handbook explains the basic issues that will have the greatest impact on health in developing countries. We will be using this material to train the Pastors, Church leaders and parents of the orphans. The training sessions have yet to be nailed down but will consist of group discussions of these topics. The team, lead by Perpetue, will decide on the main topics to cover during the training sessions. There will be 2 or 3 (or 4?) group training sessions that will be 2 (or 3?) hours long with breaks during the sessions. We want to include some Biblical ground work during these training sessions.

Main page with information on the Handbook
http://hepfdc.info/

Handbook
http://hepfdc.info/files/HANDBOOK_English_May_072.pdf

We ill be finalizing the organization and starting the second clinic. We will be visiting the orphans and encouraging the parents that bring these orphans into their home to raise. Pastor Barry Henning will be leading biblical training sessions with the pastors we are collaborating on 5 days for two hours each session.

Follow this link to read posts that I have sent to the Congo team as we prepare for the 2008 trip. Tim Rice
http://ncfbridge.org/?page_id=239

This book illustrates the work to partner with Congolese believers to promote healing and health among the hurting and oppressed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. If you would like to learn more follow this link.
http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/163959

     “What do you mean ‘a self-sustaining clinic in the slums’?  We can’t even do that in the U.S.!”  With wonder, Tim Rice MD questioned the doctor in the slums of Nairobi , Kenya in 2004.  As Tim began to hear how clinics could be run utilizing nurse practitioners, church volunteers, a defined scope of practice, and low-cost medications, an idea was born.  Fast forward to May 2007, Democratic Republic of Congo.

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