Our First Congo Christmas…actually, Sarah’s first Congo Christmas

As difficult as it is to be away from our families and in 90 degree weather during Christmas, we managed to make our Christmas celebration very special. We are sure that most of you would like to know how we celebrated with our friends here.

This is our third, married Christmas and one of our favorite things to do around Christmas time is buy a tree and spend an evening decorating it, just the two of us. Since we had no luck finding a pine tree here in Gemena, I (Sarah) decided to surprise Sam with this Christmas tree while he was gone for a couple hours on Christmas Eve morning.

That night we had our own Christmas celebration where we ate a taco dinner (not exactly a traditional Christmas meal, but one of our favorites), finished decorating the Christmas tree (with markers) while listening to Christmas music on our computer and watched the movie Elf. We had spent most of the afternoon decorating our living room and baking yummy treats with Robert …Ginger Snaps, blueberry muffins, bread and chocolate cake.

We opted out of the 8pm-12am Christmas Eve service at our local church but Sam attended the Christmas morning service that started at 9:30am and ended at 1pm. We joined Mowa’s family for a short time of singing, praying and sharing a meal together after the service. Then we headed over to our friend, Mama Francoise’s, house for our second big meal of the day. Francoise is one of the several surrogate mothers we have here in Congo. When she invited us over for Christmas she told us that you are supposed to be with you mothers on Christmas and since our mothers aren’t in Gemena and she is our Congolese mother, we must eat at her house. We gladly accepted her invitation because she is a lovely woman and eating out her house is as tasty as dinning at a restaurant.

We were delighted that it started to rain here in the afternoon, even though it is the beginning of the dry season. Everything cooled down significantly for the rest of the evening and we geared up for our third big meal of the day at the Ekstrand’s house.

We ate canned ham, scalloped potatoes, salad, Swedish meatballs, cheese and crackers, green bean casserole and even had Christmas cookies and ice cream for dessert. The evening ended with af “White Elephant” gift exchange and we were both pleased with the gifts we ended up with…a bag M&Ms and a mystery puzzle game.

On Christmas Eve, the two of us talked about how we do miss our families and wish we could have been with them for at least one, snowy day. But we are so happy to be here, where we are supposed to be, with each other, in the Lord’s hands. And we are grateful for the friends we have here, who are starting to feel like family. The Lord knows what we need and it is our delight to trust Him and praise Him…especially for the new life He has given to us.

Our Thanksgiving

It is very strange to be in a different country when Thanksgiving rolls around. We both love Thanksgiving and it is so hard to not have cool weather and our favorite Thanksgiving foods. But, we did what we could and ended up celebrating Thanksgiving twice last week.

On Monday we threw a little party for our English class. We made a few different foods and I successfully made a squash pie from scratch. Sam taught our students what Thanksgiving is and we had a fun time just hanging out with our class

All of our Thanksgiving guests.

On Thursday we were invited to have Thanksgiving with the two other missionary couples who live here in the area, Tim and Helen Smith and Pete and Cindy Eckstrand. Aaron and Michelle left on Wednesday for Central African Republic where they will wait to deliver their baby and then wait to get the baby's passport before returning. So, just the two of us took motorcycle taxis over to the Thanksgiving party where we ate like royalty!

The photo I took of the whole table full of food and people wouldn't upload here. So we will leave with a photo of Sam and Pete watching a previously recorded football game on Pete's computer.



Living like Laura Ingalls

As we have now been living here in Congo for over three months, we have a much better handle on living daily life. We know that many of you are curious about how we live daily life here and we want to tell you all about it. As a child, Sarah was always enamored by the Little House on the Prairie books and of course the TV series starring the beloved Melissa Gilbert. It seems to make the most sense to write this blog by comparing the similarities and differences of how we live in Congo and how Laura Ingalls lived on the prairie.

Every few weeks we buy and roast our own coffee beans which involve sorting out all the bad beans and stirring them in a pan over the fire for at least 45 minutes to get them just right. Afterwards we hand grind all the beans in the antique coffee grinder Sarah’s mom bought us. But, if we feel like it, we can call her mom on our cell phone to tell her how well the coffee grinder is working.

Michelle’s doctor makes house calls once a month to check up on her pregnancy. But, instead of coming in a horse-drawn carriage, he drives his dirt bike
 

Hand washing our clothes is the only option we have and it is best to do on a hot day so the clothes will dry quicker on the line. Even though Sarah works up a good sweat while washing clothes, she can always grab a frozen pineapple from the fridge to help cool down

We can buy certain fruits for 2¢ apiece, but it costs about $24 to buy enough milk powder to make 3.5 gallons of milk.

 

After slaving over hot coals on our back porch for a couple hours to make a simple dinner of rice and chicken, we like to relax together by putting in a DVD of The Cosby Show on our computer while the generator is running.

Since we don’t have our own mode of transportation, we walk about three miles twice a week…so we can get an internet connection.

We live on the outskirts of town (or the prairie, if you will) and the “general store” where we can purchase items, such as charcoal irons, is in the city. But, we can try to call a motorcycle taxi to come pick us up if we need to get to the store in a hurry.



Newest Update

Our October 2010 letter is now available. Click the link to check it out.

Meet the Hospitality Team!

We are glad to introduce the Congolese Hospitality Team to you. We have known them all for over a month now, but finally got a photo of all five of them together this week.

From left to right:

Nónó is married and has three children. He is a deacon at his church and is currently studying to be a doctor. He is actually right in the middle of finishing his dissertation. José is also married and has had experience teaching Sunday school and working with children at a camp. Simplicé is engaged to be married but hasn’t set a wedding date yet and her father is an elder at one of the local churches. Bébé and Mandaba are a married couple. Mandaba works for Global Fingerprints, the orphan sponsorship program here, and knows English very well. He lived in the US for a year when he was a teenager while his dad went to seminary. They have 7 children at home which keeps Bébé plenty busy when she is not in English class.

We are so grateful to have this team of people to work with. Right now their top priority is to learn English and when our first short-term team comes from the States we will begin training them to host Americans. We are also praying that at least one of the Hospitality Team members will be gifted as a teacher and begin teaching English to the widows and orphans here at the Elikya Center. We are looking forward to seeing how this team and this aspect of ministry at the Elikya Center will look at the end of our two years here.

In the Classroom

We started teaching English on September 20th and it has been going very well so far. We teach with an English curriculum called Ohana that uses a variety of DVDs for teaching phonics and dialogues. We are finding that using games and activities in the classroom is the best way to go. Our students seem to enjoy learning new games like “Pictionary”, “Charades” and “Telephone” to enhance their English. We definitely enjoy teaching this way as well.

The four of us (Sam, Sarah, Aaron and Michelle) are taking turns teaching so we all get to teach with each other and prepare lesson plans for different days. We have class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings for two hours. This week we took some photos of one of our classes to post on our blog.

We taught the students the game “Charades” with their new vocabulary words for the day and it was hilarious to see how they each chose to act out their word

Most of the class was so enthusiastic about guessing the answer that they forgot to raise their hands. We were always reminding them to raise their hand before shouting out the answer and it caused all of us to laugh a lot.

Each student had to write their own dialogue this day using the phrases they had learned the previous week. After writing their dialogues, they performed them in front of the whole class. We are planning on having them write and perform short skits in the future when they know more English because they are so great at performing.

A Picture of the Father

 

I (Sarah) have been witnessing a great thing in the two months we have been here. There is a teenage boy named Tresor who lives here at the Elikya Center. His parents died last year and Mowa, the director of the Elikya Center, brought Tresor into his home and has adopted him into his family.

 

Tresor is a kid who is full of life. He is always smiling; he works hard; he is friendly and welcoming to others; he is responsible and there is a general sense of joy around him. One thing that stands out the most to me about Tresor is that he loves his father, Mowa, who has adopted him. He speaks so highly of Mowa and he wants to please Mowa and bring him joy. When Tresor started up school again this year he told us he wants to study to become a civil engineer after high school and wants to be called Engineer Mowa (many people here are called by their last name). The idea of bearing the name "Mowa" and bringing honor to that name is something very important to Tresor. A couple weeks ago I heard Tresor and Mowa laughing and talking on their front porch. There was such joy and laughter coming from the house as father and son were telling each other stories and simply spending time together. A few days ago Sam was asking Tresor about some of his homework in a class he is taking for drafting floor plans and designing houses. Sam told him he wants to see his work sometime and Tresor said that he wants to show his dad first and then he could show us.

 

All of this has caused me to think of my heavenly Father who has adopted me into His family. Our Father has saved me from a life of despair and has called me His own. He didn't have to do that for me, but He chose to. As I watch Tresor delight in his earthly, adoptive father, I am reminded of what the Lord has given me. It should be my absolute joy to bear the name of my Father, to please my Father and to spend time in His presence. I am amazed at how the Lord reveals Himself to me through people and situations. I am learning how to love and delight in my Father by watching a young boy who is grateful, full of life and eager to please his dad.

Big Changes in the Snyder Household

Two weeks ago we got a new addition for our small home…a refrigerator. We had planned to purchase a fridge to make feeding short-term teams in the future much easier. After looking high and low for a fridge that runs on kerosene, we came across this beauty that was left in a former missionary’s home in another town.  We are estimating that it is at least 20-years-old…but it works well. One of the best things about this fridge is that it was free; we only had to pay for the transportation.

Since our duplex is so small, the only place for the fridge is right in our living room. At least it matches our leopard-print furniture…we would hate for it to clash with our home-décor.

It makes such a difference in our daily lives to be able to store meat and leftovers. Our favorite perks are the cold water and the ice packs we keep in the freezer.  Knowing that on occasion we can drink cold Cokes and make Gatorade popsicles is an amazing feeling.

Michelle is particularly pleased with this new addition since she is 6 ½ months pregnant and living in a tropical climate. She frequents our side of the duplex to grab an icepack or a cold glass of water. We are all very happy to have this 20-year-old fridge. Robért, an Elikya Center employee who helps us cook, was particularly excited when we showed him that it was working well the first day

Fullness of Joy

“…In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever” Psalm 16:11b


Last year I (Sarah) was meditating on this verse quite a bit. Raising financial support is a difficult thing. There is a lot of waiting and asking and, in my case, even some worrying. During that time I felt the Lord reminding me to come into His presence and experience true joy. In Him is fullness of joy…what more could I want than that? Why would I look elsewhere for joy and pleasure when simply being in His presence I will experience joy to the fullest?

Life is moving slowly for us here in Congo. I knew our first couple months would be like this…a lot of waiting, adjusting, planning, etc. Before we got on the plane(s) that brought us here, God was reminding me that He wants to bring us joy individually and as a team. A couple days ago I came across this verse in the Psalms and was quickly reminded that the Lord has been inviting me into His presence to experience His joy for some time. Joy is not something that will just fall into my lap. In order to know joy, I must know my Lord and abide in His presence. I have a choice each day to live in His presence. I am realizing over and over again that in Congo there are simple joys all around me when I choose His presence.

So many things could easily be discouraging about being here right now because the lifestyle is so different and we are incredibly far away from close family and friends. But there has been something amazing about the “simple joys” the Lord has been so kind to give to me. Such as…

- Walking away from a conversation in Lingala knowing that I successfully told a story, answered a question or understood the answer someone gave me

- Spending time in our garden pulling weeds and seeing the results of hard work

- Having enough water in our barrel, filter and bottles to get us through a normal weekend of drinking water, showering, cooking, washing dishes, flushing the toilet and brushing our teeth

- Drinking a lukewarm Coke

- A hard rain that significantly lowers the temperature outside…even if the rain blows through our backdoor and windows and covers the entire floor of our house

- Watching Sam learn the games kids play here and then watching him teach kids the games we like to play

- When the internet connection is strong enough that I can do 2 tasks at once

- Having the time to set aside to read the book Les Miserables

- When the weather is actually cool enough that I am not uncomfortable wearing my hair down

- Knowing some of the names and faces of the people who live in our neighborhood and go to church with us

When I am aware of God’s presence day in and day out, He uses these things to bring me more joy than I would have imagined.

Becoming Teachers

On Saturday, Sam's dad arrived in Gemena with Kevin Komplien, director of ReachGlobal Africa. They will be in Gemena until the 28^th. They have a variety of meetings during their short visit, but we are glad to see them. They brought with them the curriculum we will be using to teach English at the Elikya Center. Now we have some work to do!

We have begun looking through the curriculum and talking about how we will write up lesson plans, assess students, etc. Our hope is to begin our first week of teaching on September 20^th. A Congolese "Hospitality Team" has been selected for us to train and we are waiting to meet all of them (6 in total). We, along with the Larsens, will teach English to the Hospitality Team first. We know this is a big job for the four of us and we are grateful to be using the Ohanna curriculum for teaching English. Please pray for us in these upcoming weeks as we put time and energy into creating lesson plans and prepare to be teachers (some of us for the first time).

We are also really looking forward to meeting the Hospitality Team and beginning to build relationships with them. Please pray that we connect well with them right from the beginning and that the Lord uses these relationships in a powerful way over the next two years. We look forward to introducing this team to you as well.

'Tis the Season

for rain.

We are right in the middle of the rainy season here in Gemena. This week we bought almost all of the things we will need to start cooking for ourselves here. We needed to wash all of our new kitchen things and Michelle and Sarah decided to take advantage of the free, clean, rain water. We filled up buckets with rain water and started washing and rinsing while sitting at the back of our duplex. It even helped to rinse some things off by sticking them directly under the rainfall. It is important that we use clean water for drinking, cooking, washing dishes and brushing our teeth. Clean water is hard to come by and it takes a while to filter all the water we need through our filter. The huge downpour yesterday came at the perfect time for us to clean our dishes.

This week we have started meeting with some of the leadership here at the Elikya Center and in the church. This is an important time for us to make plans for getting started with our responsibilities and building solid relationships with our co-workers. Please pray that the Lord gives us clear direction and unity.

You know you’re on an African road-trip when…

You know you're on an African road-trip when…

-The trip begins about 2 ½ hours later than expected.

-In order to cross a bridge, all the passengers must exit the vehicle and walk across while others manually adjust the width of the bridge to accommodate the vehicle.

-You stop for a bathroom break and find yourself either behind a bush or in a complete stranger's backyard bathroom.

-All the local animals wander into the road resulting in a dead chicken, a squashed cat and a bruised cow.

-You stop a couple times to allow the driver to perform much needed repairs on the vehicle that conjure up memories of MacGyver episodes.

-You drive through a giant spider web that spans the entire road and half the passengers spend at least 10 or 15 minutes frantically looking for and trying to kill the spider that is now in the vehicle.

-You stop in a town, in the middle of nowhere, and a half-drunk local official check s your passport by shining a flashlight in your face to match your face to the photo.

-A 150 mile road-trip takes 11 ½ hours.

* The above is based on actual events experienced on July 28^th by Sam and Sarah Snyder. To those who are wondering, they arrived safely with all their baggage.

And we're off!

We fly out of the O'hare airport today at 5:10PM. We will fly to Paris, then fly to Bangui, Central African Republic. After arriving in Bangui we are planning to stay two nights at a guest house before we cross the border into DRC and make the long (7-15 hours) truck journey to the Elikya Center.

However...we were informed this week that one of the bridges on the road to the Elikya Center is out. So, that means we may have a(n) A. delayed trip B. difficult trip C. "interesting" trip or D. all of the above. So please pray for us as we are traveling the next few days.

Some things to pray for:
- Safety, health and energy
- All of our luggage arrives
- That the roads are clear the whole way

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! We look forward to sending you news and strories from the Congo.

Our First Video Entry!

And so it begins...

Aaron and Michelle came to town yesterday. After we finally tracked down the correct Wal-Mart that had the trunks we needed to pack with...we began packing. There are several things we can't get in DRC so we are bringing a few important things that will come in handy...such as shampoo, razors and deodorant. And we must bring books! We might as well get it packed up now.

The next four weeks...

We are leaving Illinois one month from today. Even though we have been raising support full-time since October, and we were orginally hoping to return to the Congo in January 2010, I (Sarah) still can't believe we are leaving in a month. I began to pack up all my winter clothes last week and it hit me that we are really leaving the country. Packing boxes of clothes I won't see for two years seemed like a very "official" step toward moving to the Congo. This is really, and finally, happening.

Here is what will be taking up our time in the coming weeks:
July 1-3: Sam's brother Caleb is getting married and we are excited we will be here to join in the celebration!
July 7-8: We will attend an Ohana Foundation training with the Larsens and Sam's aunt, Rachel. This is the curriculum we will be using to teach English at the Elikya Center.
July 10-12: Family friends are coming to visit.
July 25: We fly out of the country

Of course, there will be plenty of packing and getting together with family and friends in these coming weeks as well. Not to mention some of the smaller (but important) details to take care of before we can leave.

Newest Support Letter

Here is our (early) July support letter. Click on July 2010 to read about our plans this upcoming month. We will continue to send out quarterly support letters while we are in the Congo. We hope to post more personal stories, photos, videos and testimonies on this blog while in the Congo as well.

Please pray for us as we have a lot of small details to take care of in these final weeks in the states. We desire to spend quality time with family and friends during this time as well.

We are leaving!

As of this past week we reached 101% of our support and bought tickets to Congo! We will leave July 25th from the Chicago airport. We have five weeks left in the states which will be filled with packing, a training, Sam's brother's wedding, saying goodbyes and preparing to jump into ministry. We will write more in the near future. We just want you to know the latest news.

In the News...

Sam was interviewed for an article in Mission Network News. Click here to read it.

Prayerfully Consider This...

As most of you already know, we had originally planned on returning to the Democratic Republic of Congo in January or February of this year. When January came and went, we re-evaluated our amount of support and determined that we would try to return in March or April. Now that May has come, we are again re-evaluating our situation. We are currently at 83% of our necessary support and strongly feel that we, with God’s help, we could reach 100% very quickly.

First, we want to thank you all for your support and prayers. We are constantly encouraged by your love and faithfulness to us and our ministry in the DRC. We can’t help but adopt the words of Paul in the opening of his epistle to the church of Philippi: “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Our hope and prayer is to return to the DRC by mid-June and with your help, we may be able to reach that goal. We are in need of an additional $610 per month in order to reach 100% of our support. We are asking you all to pray about and consider increasing the amount of support you are already giving us by $10 per month. If we have 61 supporters increase their monthly support by $10, we would reach our goal of 100%. Please pray about this opportunity. If you are able to do this, please E-mail us back and see the information below to make changes to your support commitment. Thank you again and in the words of Jude, may “Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.”

To increase or commit to monthly support please visit www.efca.org/reachglobal/give or call the ReachGlobal office at 1-800-745-2202 and indicate your donation for Sam and Sarah Snyder #1511

Reflections on New Orleans

It has been almost 5 years since hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans...and there is still a lot of work to be done here. It has been an unusual experience to drive through neighborhoods with abandoned and condemned homes standing right next to beautiful, large homes. It is amazing to observe this throughout parts of the city. So many people never returned to their homes, or never had the money to rebuild their homes. We met a woman last week with a Crisis Response team working on her home. She and her husband have been living in a 14 x 22 FEMA trailer for almost five years. She told us she has been going stir crazy and was just waiting for the team to get the plumbing and electric set up in her home so she could move back in. Can you imagine living in a trailer on the front lawn of your actual home for five years waiting for your home to be safe enough to live in? I can't imagine the joy that family will experience when they are able to sleep in their own bedroom again.

On Saturday we drove down to the 9th ward to witness the remaining devastation. The 9th ward is a section of the city hit the hardest by Katrina. The neighborhoods are extremely overgrown and most homes are boarded up and abandoned. It is desolate and yet some people have rebuilt their homes.

The staircase is detatched from the rest of the house

A portion of the neighborhood has brand new homes that were funded by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Seeing these beautiful, unique homes standing in the midst of such devastation is unreal.

We are grateful to be experiencing this in New Orleans. It is easy to forget that this happened, but once you are here you are quickly reminded. These photos are a very small taste of what we have seen this past week. We have met wonderful people who are working hard to help others and we have had plenty of opportunities to meet people in great need and pray with them.

Please keep praying for us. Our days are busy and we are working hard...so we need energy.

April Newsletter

Our April newsletter is ready for you to read (if you haven't already). We are still going strong in New Orleans this week and had a great weekend seeing the city. We will post more pictures soon. But, until then, please click here to read our letter.

Week One in New Orleans

We arrived in New Orleans last Saturday evening and just finished our first week working with a Crisis Response Team. It has been a great week so far. Our days have been full and we have slept hard each night. We have met many new people during this week as well.

Sam was the site supervisor for a team painting a house called the "Yellow House". The Yellow House is where the teams stay during their time in New Orleans and it was in need of a paint job. We both spent the week working with this team and we will do the same thing next week with a new team (we didn't quite get the job done).

We painted and painted during the day and in the afternoon we either took part in an activity with local kids living in the projects or led prayer walks in a neighborhood. The other teams here this week were spread out all over the city at various houses doing different projects. We worked with a great group of people from a church in Pennsylvania who worked hard painting and connecting with people in the community.

Tomorrow we get a day off and are planning to head down to the French Quarter with Aaron and Michelle before we jump into another work week. We'll write more about what we have seen and experienced later on this week.

We're heading to New Orleans

We have mentioned in past posts and in our January letter that we were hoping to do some work in New Orleans and the plans gave finally come together. There is a crisis response ministry in New Orleans that is part of Touchglobal.They host teams that come work with families still affected by hurricane Katrina by rebuilding homes and other projects.

The staff who work with this ministry in New Orleans are going to be partnering with us and our work at the Elikya Center. People interested in joining a team in the Congo will go through an application process which includes spending a week in New Orleans. The staff there will evaluate potential team members during their time in New Orleans. Sam and I along with the Larsens are going to spend April 10-24 in New Orleans getting to know the staff, their evaluation process and get a better understanding of the crisis response ministry. We are also grateful to lend a hand to their staff since they need the extra help in April.

Stay tuned for more updates and hopefully photos from New Orleans.

The Lord Provides

I have always believed this truth. The Lord is my provider. Since we returned from the Congo in October, Sam and I have come to a new & deeper understanding of the provision of the Lord. Since November we have been living on a portion of the financial support we are receiving which allows us to focus on fundraising full-time. This means that we live on a very tight budget. When we came back to the states we knew that from a worldly perspective it didn't seem possible to live off such a small amount, but we chose to trust in the Lord. I feel it is important to share with you as our friends, family and supporters the wonderful things the Lord has done for us. The Lord is praised when we testify to His work in our life. Here is a list of ways the Lord has provided for our very basic needs when at times we thought it impossible:

• Sam and I were invited to live rent free in the guest house on my grandparents' property. If this were not offered to us, we would have to be living with one of our parents, but instead we have our own space on a beautiful piece of property.
• In November, I was hospitalized with a staph infection for two days. We did have insurance at the time, but still owed 20% of the bill. We applied for charity assistance through the hospital to see if we could get some additional assitance and were approved for 100% coverage...for up to a year! This has been an incredible blessing because we have had a couple other unexpected doctor visits since beng approved.
• I have been able to babysit for a couple friends twice a week which has added just enough extra income.
• We were surprised to receive a tax return this year that allowed us to buy a few much-needed items and to pay for an eye exam and new glasses for me.
• We found out that the remainder of my car loan was much less than expected and were able to pay off the car with part of the tax return!
• Just when we thought the Lord had done every miraculous thing to allow us to stay where we are living while raising support, we received a very unexpected gift intended to pay off my student loan.
• A friend offered us a financial gift that allows us to go to New Orleans next month to work with a ministry of TouchGlobal for a week. This is an important trip because the staff involved in this ministry will be helping us with team member selection while we are in the Congo. Sam and I had thought we would not be able to go on this trip because of finances.
• And, I can never ignore the random gift cards, gas money, meals and clothes we have received at random the past few months.

We serve a limitless God who cares for our every need. "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?" Matthew 6:26


The list I have shared testifies to the basic needs we have for shelter, clothes and food. But our God provides for every need of ours and that goes beyond food and shelter. He knows our emotional, relational and spiritual needs as well. Sam and I have been experiencing a very rich season of life these past few months. Our marriage is thriving, our relationships with others have deepened, we have each matured greatly in our understanding of Christ and living in community with other....and the list goes on.

Even though we had plans of returning to the Congo last January, the Lord knows everything. We wait with excitement for when we can return, but this has not been a wasted season in our lives by any means. We trust the Lord to provide all of the financial support needed to return to the Congo in the same way He is providing for our most basic needs today.

We are excited to let you know that we have now raised 66% of our needed monthly support. We only need about $1200 more dollars for each month we are in the Congo.

The Congo Consortium

Tomorrow we are heading to the Chicago area to attend a Congo Consortium meeting. The Congo Consortium is a group of churches who are involved in ReachGlobal ministries in the Congo. Aaron and Michelle (the other half of our team) are meeting up with us there. We will have the opportunity to share with the people there more about the Elikya Center and our plans. This could be a great support-raising opportunity for all four of us. We are also excited to connect with people who are excited about what is happening in the Congo and have invested a lot into the ministries there. Plus, Selenga, the director of ReachAfrica will be there. We are looking forward to seeing him again and putting our Lingala to practice.

Please pray that all goes well and that God brings more supporters into our support team.

Progress at the Elikya Center

We were so excited to receive these photos in an E-mail from Mowa, the director of the Elikya Center. The center is up and running again which is very exciting in light of the conflict that occured at the end of last year. These are photos of one of the classrooms being built at the Elikya Center.

This building will be used for teaching English and Computer Skills.

The beginings of the foundation were there in August when we were in the Congo, but the building was put on hold due to the lack of funds. But, now enough money has been raisied to complete the building!

In the past few months, enough money has been raised by U.S. churches and individuals to fund a 4-plex for the widows to live in on the property as well as another 4-plex for the short-term teams we will be hosting. This is big news and we are amazed at how the funds came in for these projects. We are praying and hoping for this same kind of miracle for the funds we need to return to the Elikya Center.

February Already...

We can't believe it is already mid-February. Our original plan was to return to the Congo in January and due to the fighting that occured there the end of last year and the lack of funds, we are not there...yet. We are so grateful for the support that has steadily been coming in and all the opportunities we have had to meet with friends and family to share about the Elikya Center.We sure have been learning a lot about trusting the Lord with not only our ministry plans, but wth our whole lives.

We received the following E-mail last week with some good news about the conflict in the Congo. The E-mail was sent to the churches in the Congo consortium who are involved with ReachGlobal in the Congo.
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News of the War

We are very thankful to report that there has been no new fighting reported in recent weeks. Unfortunately there are still many people living as refugees. Latest reports say that about 90% of the population at Bozene (town 14 miles west of Tandala) have returned, and even in Dongo where the worst confrontations occurred down on the Ubangi River, about 30% have returned. But there are still tens of thousands of people still living as refugees, either across the border in the other two countries, or in the forests.

The CECU has used the funds that were sent them from our churches here to buy a large number of tarps to help people with shelter, as well as food stuffs. They are working on distribution right now. If you’d like to read a summary of the war that occurred from the UN perspective, check out http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87961.
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Thank you so much for your prayers for us and for the Congo. We still need to raise 45% of our monthly support which is roughly $1,775 each month. Please consider joining our monthly support team. You can find information for donating on the sidebar of this site.

More Than Halfway There!

We are very excited to announce that, as of yesterday, we have surpassed the halfway point of monthly support needed! We are now at 54% of our monthly support! It feels great to know we are a little more than halfway there. Please consider helping us reach our goal by becoming a monthly supporter. We are so blessed by God's faithfulness and have been pleasantly surprised to receive support from unexpected people and places.

January Support Letter

Happy new year to our friends and family! We hope your Christmas season was enjoyable and that you are looking forward to 2010. We celebrated Christmas several times this year and are so grateful for the quality time spent with our family. It is always a joy to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

We have been back for a full three months now and it has been a busy time. Our main focus during these past few months has been raising support in order to return to the Congo. It has been a blessing to spend so much time with friends and family and to begin building new relationships with some of the churches we have visited. It is so exciting to share face-to-face with people about the Elikya Center.

We have also spent much of our time working with a small team of people developing some of the plans for the Elikya Center. We have been putting the pieces together to develop ESL and Computer Skills curriculums that will be used at the Elikya Center. We are also putting together the application process for short-term team members. In February we are going to New Orleans to meet with people from ReachGlobal who will be helping in the application process.

Recently, there has been some unrest in the Ubangi region of the Congo where the Elikya Center is located. After fighting began between local tribes over rights to fishing ponds, a group of men led by a witchdoctor began traveling through the region injuring and killing people. The group of men retreated before they reached Gemena (the city the Elikya Center is located) but many people are currently displaced because they fled to avoid the fighting. This news has been hard for us because it directly affects the people that we know in the Congo and our hearts have been heavy. Yet, we have also heard powerful testimonies of God protecting people and using Christians to minister grace and healing in this situation.

Due to the instability in the Congo, we will not be returning to the Elikya Center in January as we had originally planned. We will wait until the region becomes stable before we set a date for returning but we are hoping to return early this spring. This change in plans has caused us to trust the Lord even more with our lives and the ministry at the Elikya Center.

Financial Update:
We are so grateful that many of you have responded to the financial and prayer needs that we have. It is exciting to have support coming from so many different people and churches. We have currently raised 40% of our necessary monthly support. Our greatest need is for people and churches who are able to give monthly financial donations. When we receive 100% of our needed monthly support we will return to the Elikya Center. Please prayerfully consider joining us in this exciting ministry by being part of our support team.

Prayer Support:
Your prayers are a vital part of our ministry. Below are specific prayer needs we have.
• That God will raise up more financial support for us.
• Wisdom as we help develop plans for the Elikya Center.
• Peace in the Congo and strength and wisdom for the local church leaders.

Us with Eyenga & Kongba, two boys in the orphan sponsorship

program called Global Fingerprints

Elikya Video

While we were in the Congo we filmed a lot of the work going on at the Elikya Center and Aaron and Michelle put together this video. Please watch it and get an even better idea of the amazing work going on at the Elikya Center. We would also greatly appreciate your prayers this week as Sam's dad, Jim, is in Africa meeting with local church leaders. They will be discussing some of the current issues due to the recent fighting in the Congo, as well as planning and evaluating some of the current ministries. Jim will return to the States this coming Friday and we look forward to receiving updates from him.