Challenges, Open Doors, and Congolese

After my exciting experience of 5 days without electricity that ended Wednesday the same problem of course reappeared on Saturday, not wanting to relive the experience I decided to buy a generator which makes life so much easier. Even now I am typing because of the generator. I am beginning to understand some of the valid reasons why people here can never be on time to anything. For myself some times I am supposed to do something at 3PM but at 2:50 the water comes and the thing is if I don’t stay and fill my containers with water it may be another week until the water comes again. There is no schedule so you never know which time the water will come. Not only that but the water tab services many families so you also have to wait in line for who knows how long just to get your containers filled. It makes things very difficult to prepare for. Anyway now that I have a generator I can prepare at least the electricity parts of my life.

On Sunday we played football with the youth from church and had by far our biggest turn out ever. There were 25 people. In fact several of the people I have never seen at church before but their parents attend. I am excited about the possibilities that could arise from this. There is a big youth event this Saturday at the church here and I really hope it goes well. I’m not sure how everything will work out but hopefully God will use it as the beginning of getting our youth on fire for Him. I am the speaker so also be praying that I have wisdom and anointing to say things that touch the hearts of the youth.

I talked with the pastor on Sunday and he told me he has been seeking the Lord about planting a new church in Likasi. Everything isn’t planned yet but he wants me to be apart of it which I’m really excited about. He has also asked me to begin leading the block meeting in Shituru. I sense that the devil has such a stronghold over that area of town. I am really seeking the Lord for the best way to minister to the people there.

I tried to get my furniture once again and this time asked for the coffee table that is finished. I was able to take it but decided to take it the Congolese way so I put it on top of my head and walked about a kilometer to my house. It was heavy and my head hurt for days. Everyone got a good laugh out of it.

I tried to find rat poison because I’ve had some trouble with them but all I found was glue to trap the rats. I asked my neighbor about it and she said it’s because they eat them. She asked me to please give her any I catch. I did eventually find poison and was able to take care of my problem the American way.

Another thing about Congolese is they are very free about where they pee. I’m all for peeing outside but not in the city. The men pee on the side of shops right in the heart of the city. They pee on walled fences of people’s houses. All of this I found strange but it didn’t bother me until people began to pee on my house. There is one side of my house where the septic tank is and there is a wall around 3 quarters of it so I guess it makes for a nice private place to relieve oneself. And of course peeing on the ground just wouldn’t do so they pee on the wall and I’m stuck listening to and smelling their urine. I would ask them to stop but I haven’t learned how to ask someone to not pee on my house in Swahili yet. I guess I’ll have to learn.

Next week I am supposed to begin doing house to house visiting like I did before. I am really excited about that. I haven’t heard any more about being able to visit some new places. I’m hoping after I get things in order with my visa I’ll have that opportunity. Please be praying for my visa situation. The hang up is just people taking their time. I think it is going to end up costing me even more money but I just don’t know how to motivate or convince people to do things quickly. It’s frustrating because before I left I discussed all of these things and I followed their instructions but when I got back things changed. The language barrier makes for plenty of miscommunication.

Recently I’ve been hearing some of the people from the churches I work with explain that God doesn’t heal any more. They are always praying for healing and so I asked them about it and they explained that God can use doctors and He can heal headaches and things like that but He can’t heal a lame person or a blind person or cancer. It makes my heart sad to hear them absolutely convinced of this. Also there is a lot of resentment from the old denominations and the Pentecostals in this area. They have heard many of the Pentecostals give false prophecies and now they are completely against prophesy. It has been a challenge to have the wisdom to talk to them about it especially with the language barrier. Please pray for me to have wisdom.

Thanks for your prayers. God continues to open doors and I am excited about what is happening over here. Each day is filled with challenges so I appreciate your prayers more than I can explain!