Back online in Kinshasa...

Headed home tomorrow... Filled but exhausted; Blessed but burdened; Missing our Mbandaka family but longing for home....

Just a few photos from our days in Mbandaka....

Musings from beneath the mosquito net

The alarm is set for 5:30 so without a doubt, I should be sleeping. However, like the old Disney commercial, I'm too excited to sleep.... So much running through my head from the past 24-hours.... So much I'd like to share but I haven't fully processed yet. 

Kinshasa is an astounding city. So many people going so many directions....  Cars, carts, children, commerce... People etching out a living amidst constant challenge. 

And brothers and sisters who stop whatever else is going on to greet us, meet with us, translate and answer questions, cook for us... all before we even reach the Mbandaka district where we have our partnership....

We also spoke with Reverend Ilumbe and Rosette by phone a couple of times today. We are excited to go to see them tomorrow, and from the sound of their voices on the phone, they are excited to greet us as well. 

There is so much more to say but I cannot keep my eyes open to type it, or my mind clear enough to form thoughts. 

With a grateful heart, goodnight.

Reflections from the Scenic Route

If I'm being honest with myself, this journey started years ago for me. I've never been one to take the reasonable route, I tend to take the long way around and this trip is no different. I was not living in Indiana when the partnership was forged, but I sure knew about it. In 2012 I took my annual pilgrimage to northern Indiana to counsel camp and heard the remarkable stories of one of the 2012 pilgrims. I was awed, I was inspired, I wanted to go. He recommended I apply for the next trip and I vowed that I would (I'm looking at you, VJ Stover!) Yet as time passed and the due date for applications for the 2014 trip loomed, I started talking myself out of it. In the spring of 2013 I was focused on graduating from Vanderbilt Divinity School with my M.Div., I was spending my time trying to figure out where this M.Div. would take me once I had it in my hands, and I was dreaming about my ordination. How quickly I had forgotten the remarkable stories from the 2012 pilgrimage, how quickly I had brushed off my dream of traveling to Mbandaka to visit my brothers and sisters in Christ in Congo. Next time, I promised myself. Between the spring of 2013 and the spring of 2014 I moved back to Indiana, started a new job in full time ministry at Geist Christian Church, I was ordained, and I wished I had applied for the Congo pilgrimage. The Holy Spirit works in some remarkable ways. Sometimes it comes as a rush of wind, a pillar of fire or an e-mail from Sarah Riester. On March 31, 2014 (yes, I looked it up), an e-mail landed in my inbox telling me that some of the pilgrims had to drop out and would I be interested in going? I swear I stopped breathing. In less than two months I have renewed my expired passport, gotten 2 vaccinations and (the most remarkable) raised $4500+ for the trip. It has been a humbling experience to talk to people around the region about the trip and have them support me not only through prayer but monetarily. I have gotten at least one donation from someone I did not even know. Here's the thing. I have been committed to this trip for less than 60 days and that time has been full of trip preparation. But as I prepare physically, I realize that I have not had a moment to prepare mentally and spiritually. In the next 5 days I need to pack my bags, but I also need to reflect on the enormity of what has happened in 58 days. I need to process the kindness and generosity of those around me, some I have known my entire life and some I have never met. I need to spend some time in prayer for and with those I will meet in Congo and those with whom I will travel. It is fitting that we will be worshiping in Congo on Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit breathed life into the Body of Christ. It amazed the body gathered in Acts 2. It amazes us still. And I, for one, cannot wait to see the work of the Holy Spirit throughout our 13 days in Congo. God of Grace, who sends the Spirit like a rushing wind into our lives when we least expect it. Open our hearts to your work and your word. Give us a new understanding of what it means to be the Body of Christ not just in our comfort zone, but wherever we are called. Amen.

Three weeks and counting...

Plans are coming into place for our June partnership pilgrimage to Mbandaka. We have all been inoculated against yellow fever and various other tropical disease that our Indiana immune systems are not prepared to handle. We have our passports with travel visas stamped and signed and ready to go. Guest houses and transportation are reserved.  We are gathering both gifts and supplies for our partners and doing whatever else we can think of to prepare our physical selves for this journey.

Will we ever be able to prepare our spiritual selves? Though raising/saving the funds needed to travel to Congo may seem most difficult, I think the spiritual, mental, emotional readiness is much harder. Are we prepared to step away from life at home for a couple of weeks? Are we prepared to open ourselves to the gifts offered? Are we prepared to be vulnerable? Are we prepared to see from a new perspective... see ourselves, see others, see God?

Ready or not, here we come. We pray for strength for the journey and thanksgiving for the opportunity.
 

The Background Story...

 The 2014 Pilgrimage to Mbandaka will send the third group of travelers from the Christian Church in Indiana to visit partners in the Mbandaka District of the Community of Disciples of Christ in Congo (CDCC) in June 2014. In addition to pilgrimages to Mbandaka in 2008 and 2011, Indiana has received our partners from Congo in 2009 and 2012.

The partnership between the Mbandaka District of the CDCC, the Indiana Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and Global Ministries began formally in May of 2008 when denominational and regional leadership from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Christian Church in Indiana traveled to Mbandaka and signed the first partnership agreement with leaders of the church in Congo. The pairing of Mbandaka and Indiana was made with the leadership of Global Ministries and Reverend Sandra Gourdet, Global Ministries Africa Executive.

 
The 2014 Pilgrimage includes primarily a mixture of young adults, a seminarian, and recently ordained pastors. Pilgrimages like this are not typical “mission trips.” The group may visit projects under construction but we do not go to do physical labor. We will likely visit one of the Disciples hospitals providing much needed care to people in the area, though we do not go as doctors and nurses.  We will see schools and meet children, but we do not go as teachers. Our Congolese brothers and sisters are better equipped for these jobs. However, we do have a mission… to build, to heal, to learn – but we will be building relationships together, healing a broken world and our own broken worlds, learning about each other and our faith. We accompany each other on this journey. It is an opportunity to forge new relationships between peers within the churches and a chance to deepen the partnership. The journey provides an opportunity to share our stories and our lives, to know each other better and, in turn, to know ourselves, our faith, our world, and to experience the glory of God through another’s eyes.

In the years since the partnership began, many joys and concerns have been shared across the miles between the church in Congo and the church in Indiana. We have accompanied each other through baby blessings and ordinations, through storms and difficult times, through laughter and tears, through music shared in churches across Mbandaka and Indiana. We recognize each other as brothers and sisters and celebrate family dinner as we come together in the breaking of bread and the sharing of communion.