Seeking God's Peace in Africa

Dear Friends and Family!

It’s hard to believe we have been here for a month!  We have kept busy—but not necessarily the doing what we anticipated….this is Congo.  So, while my passion is teacher training and improving the learning experience for students, I have worked mainly with administration—money, salaries, trying to figure out the best way to keep our fees low to serve our population in the Keredi Slum.  This is not an easy balance, while we also try to pay teachers a decent salary.  

As a school we pay our teachers the government recommended salary—something not even the government pays.  But we also charge the lowest school fees in Bukavu--$1.50 a month or $15 a year, providing an education and free meals for some 600+ students.  Unfortunately the disparity between cost and income is a burden.  We are trying to work out ways to raise school fees for those who can afford to pay a little more, without losing those who can’t.  We are also working on developing scholarships that can be donated from abroad, or given by local Congolese churches.  None of these decisions are top-down executive actions….they demand lots of discussion, research and consensus; and this takes time.

I can only have so many meetings a week, so our time is also spent working on our house.  We have rented a house from Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF—the ones who fly the planes into the inaccessible areas of the world carrying aid, medicine, literature, patients, missionaries, etc.)  It is a nice house although badly neglected since the war.  It has bullet holes at one end, but otherwise it is intact.  So far I have….repaired the roof that was leaking, replaced ceiling boards that were rotten, plastered cracks from the earthquake last year, re-plumbed sinks and toilet, rewired interior lights, added exterior security lights, painted the interior, and added curtains.  I’m sure that makes the house sound like a gem, but for further insight you can read Jen’s entry on our blog found here.

This month has also been a month of orientation.  We love our Congolese church—I (Davis) have gotten a chance to meet once with the youth and to preach, Jen has joined the ladies group (she will be hosting them all tomorrow), but the girls find it very tedious to sit for 3 hours while everyone speaks a language they don’t know….please pray for them to endure, to learn Swahili, and for wisdom in addressing this situation.

We are also enjoying lots of new friends.  Part of our orientation is just asking questions and listening to stories.  We eat lunch with our staff every day and probe them for as much information as we can.  Often talking takes a lot more time than lunch.  Speaking of friends, one of our friends is Chantalle, who has been helping us get this house into shape, and is a new mom (for the fifth time.)  Imagine, on Monday she was helping us clean, and on Tuesday (my birthday) she had a 10 pound baby girl!  Jen went to visit her in the hospital to take her food and see the baby.  See picture.

Logistics also consumes our time.  Please pray for our passports with our visas to come soon!!!  Jen and the girls are here legally until June 8^th, but seeing as we don’t have passports, we can only stay put and wait.  Again…something for prayer.  Also, an answer to prayer and also a prayer need—our car is finally being licensed for Congo, but I had to pay $2900 today!  In order to decrease the fee they valued our vehicle at only $1900, but still customs and registration cost 150% more!  Finally, please pray as I make my first trip into the “interior” tomorrow, driving out to ELI’s farm—an initiative to empower local farmers.  Pray for safety and a trip with no breakdowns.

That’s our news.  If you want more of the daily stuff, please visit our blog, http://davisandjen.blogspot.com where you will find these emails and a couple more entries.

God Bless,

Davis

Pictures:  The girls and some of their friends—eating beignets and climbing the mango tree.