Shituru

So Diane asked what Blog readers could do which reminds me of another funny reality of Congo. Congo basically has no infrastructure which means basically no postal system. There is a working post office n Lubumbashi or so I’ve been told. In Likasi I found an old post office. I was pretty excited about it so I ventured inside. I was hit first by the atrocious smell of dried fish which covered the place from floor to ceiling. I asked some of the guys moving the dried fish if it was a post office still. They said ye and sent me to a room without dried fish and told me to wait for the boss. After 30 minutes he came inside. I asked him how much it cost to send a letter to the US and it took him another 30 minutes to look through all of his papers to try to find the prices. I walked around back and saw that the back side is being used as a bar and the side with the post office boxes is being used for people to hang their laundry from. So sending things via the post office isn’t really an option.
The biggest thing that blog readers can do is pray. As much as Congo’s problems and my life here brings humor it can also get super annoying and difficult. Each day I need God’s grace to handle each new challenge and to do the ministry God has called me to. If you want to ask questions or anything you are welcome to email me at noahminstriescongo@yahoo.com
On Friday I went to Shituru again. It was a day filled with intense spiritual; warfare. There is such a covering over that area hat has to be broken. We spent the day casting out demons, counseling people concerning spiritual problems, and encouraging them that there is hope. We went to one house where 2 teenage boys had just moved in with a family looking for jobs with the mining company. They got fired because they are drunk all the time but before they moved to Shituru they weren’t drinkers. One of the families had a lot of money stolen from their house and the now the husband tried to kill himself and keeps saying he’ll do it again. One young man was working for the mining company and water he said was 1000 degrees splashed onto his ankle and he suffered serious burn damage. The doctors have said the damage is so severe he will never be able to do heavy manual labor and will always walk with a limp. When the mining company heard that they immediately declared him fired and refused to pay his medical bills. There are so many problems there. In one of the house the Congolese song C’est Encore Possible (It’s Still Possible) was playing. It’s a song all about how there are so many problems and so much suffering but God hasn’t forgotten and even thought it may seem impossible with God it is still possible that things can change. It just reminded me that Shituru can change regardless of how bad the situation is because God is bigger than all of its problems.
The pastor took 2 months to seek the Lord without doing ministry. His official day back was Wednesday and he is so on fire it’s incredible. He declared Thursdays as the church’s day of intercession and this past week it was so anointed. I am excite about what God has done is and is doing through Pastor Kabamba. I am really enjoying working with him again.
A lady asked me how I got so many mosquito bites on my arms. I responded that I didn’t have any mosquito bites on my arms. So she said something I couldn’t understand and then came over and grabbed my arm and began examining it. She asked what those spots were on my arms if they weren’t mosquito bites. I then proceeded to explain to her what freckles were without much success but I assured her they never come off or go away, I was born with them, and they don’t hurt.