Reflections on arriving and just being present...

Night had already fallen when we descended the stairs from the jet onto the tarmac in Kinshasa.  It was not particularly late, but darkness comes at 6:00 p.m. every day along the equator and our flight from Brussels had taken us across into the southern hemisphere, a first for most of us. It was a long day and a half of travel after over a year of planning but we had arrived!

Cheryl is our "co-pilot"

Christina points out the equator

Well, mostly…. We’d made it as far as the international airport on the outskirts of Kinshasa but it would be almost two more days until we would arrive with our partners in Mbandaka, about 400 miles northeast, and just a few degrees back into the northern hemisphere. Mbandaka is the capital of the Équateur Province and the home to the General Office of the Community of Disciples of Christ in Congo. It was also our destination for eight days

Our plane from Kinshasa to Mbandaka

spent with our partners in the Mbandaka District of the Disciples in Congo. Our group traveled the last leg to Mbandaka via a small plane flown by Mission Aviation Fellowship. Other options to reach Mbandaka include a two week boat trip up the Congo River or a somewhat sporadic commercial flight. Traveling by car, bus or van is not possible – there are no roads reaching even that modest difference. Though it is a sizable city, one must be very intentional about getting there. Mbandaka isn’t somewhere you are likely to happen through on your way to somewhere else. 

Disciples lining the road to the first church we visited

We had been very intentional about getting there. Besides the hours spent in transit and in transit lounges, we’d raised money and renewed passports, gotten immunizations and lots of information. We had planned and prayed and the time had come. And it was worth every minute. We were greeted as long lost relatives, come home at last. Of course, we carried gifts with us… many of them, items that are not readily available in Congo, especially in Mbandaka. But after traveling all that way and finally arriving in Mbandaka three days after we left Indianapolis, it occurs to me, this is definitely a place where just being present means more than anything.