From February 11-22, I had the opportunity to travel with a group of friends from Crossroads Church to the Democratic Republic of Congo. We joined World Vision on a "vision trip" to see the progress made in the city of Gemena in an Area Development Project (ADP) known as Ledia that Crossroads supports. The Ledia project is a joint effort between World Vision and the Evangelical Covenant Church of America. This project known as Covenant Kids Congo powered by World Vision, is the first of it's kind in which a denomination has partnered with World Vision on such a large scale. The project is just a few years old and includes nearly 10,000 sponsored children-over 500 from Crossroads alone! One of those kids is my family's sponsored kid, an eight year old named Antoine.My team from Crossroads included Jessa Anderson, Michelle Jacobson, Elspeth Atkinson, and Preston and Tena Pettis. Leading up to the trip, we jokingly referred to this group as the "dream team." And it truly was. Each member had unique gifts and talents and a specific reason for being on this trip. Jessa was the professional photographer, Michelle was the videographer, Tena and Preston alone had three sponsored kids, Elspeth was our French speaker and often served as our wise counsel, and then there was me-the trip pastor!
We left Minnesota Wednesday February 11 and flew 8 hours via Delta to Paris, France. At Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, we met up with our World Vision guide, David Snyder, an Episcopalian priest and liaison for World Vision. From Paris, we flew Air France for another 8 hours down to the capital city of DRC, Kinshasa. We arrived late in the day on Thursday February 12. From the airport we were whisked away to a missionary guest house in Kinshasa. That first night we experienced our first taste of Africa including the warm, muggy weather, insanely large spiders, and the craziest traffic congestion we had ever seen.
After a few hours of intermittent sleep, we awoke on Friday the 13th and went directly to World Vision headquarters in Kinshasa. There we met the incredible World Vision DRC staff including Scott, Fred Kosonga, Delphin, Frank, and others. We received a security briefing and learned all about the DRC and World Vision's efforts throughout the country and with Ledia in Gemena. Unfortunately, this morning Tena fell ill. We had no idea what exactly caused her illness but it did linger until Monday. Thankfully, she did feel better by Monday evening and was able to enjoy the rest of our trip. After our morning meeting we enjoyed lunch at a French country club. We spent the afternoon learning a bit more about World Vision and then made our way back to the guest house to relax and get a good night's sleep.
Valentine's Day began with our flight to Gemena! We boarded a PC12 seven passenger Swiss airplane for a three hour flight to Gemena. The flight was incredible and better than we all had expected. We landed in Mbandaka (located exactly on the equator and Congo river) to refuel and then took off again towards Gemena in the Equitorial Province in DRC. Upon landing we were greeted by local World Vision staff and led to the World Vision office in Gemena. There we met the local staff and translators. We were fed lunch including fish, beef, chicken, rice, eggplant, bananas, boiled bananas, fried bananas and Coke! This would be a common meal all week! We were given another security briefing. After our meeting and lunch we drove over near the church in Bokonza and were greeted by a group of local church folks. They shook our hands, sang for us, and gave us an incredible greeting. We then were brought to our rooms for the week. We were blessed to be able to stay in some missionary homes along with local ECC missionary Pete Ekstrand. Pete's sister Karen is a Crossroads member at our Eagan campus. Pete became an amazing host and a great friend. Each evening, we'd debrief as a team, share our highlights of the day, and pray for the people of Gemena and for our trip.
On Sunday February 15 we went to church! And this was a church unlike any church in the US! The service was 3 1/2 hours long, consisted of over six choirs, three offerings, a large nest of bats, and a little 'ole message by yours truly. I preached about looking for and listening for God in unexpected places. Pete Ekstrand was my translator and he had a fun time translating the word "moose" into Lingali! The service was beautiful and afterwards I got to stand outside and shake hands with nearly half the church as they went home. In the afternoon, a few of the church leaders brought over a pineapple for me as a thank you gift! It was delicious! Later that afternoon, Preston and I got to see a young man carrying a crocodile down the road. He had it tied to a stick and brought it over to us so we could see it. I think he wanted to sell it to us!
On Monday February 16, we spent the morning with World Vision. We learned more about the Ledia project and unique challenges of doing business in Gemena. By this time we were also joined by three executives from World Vision USA, Sean, David and Kent. In the afternoon, we ventured out for the first time in the field and saw some of the water projects World Vision has been working on. We visited two wells/water rowers that will soon include solar powered pumps. Preston and I climbed to the top of one of the water towers and took some pics. We also went to see a spring that World Vision helped build. We saw many women and children walking up and down a narrow trail on a steep hill with large buckets of water on their head. These women and children either wore flip flops or went barefoot. They do this every day!
On Tuesday February 17, Michelle and I spent the morning at the fish pond. Oh the fish pond! Our interviews at the fish pond did not go as well as planned, but we did get to see 17 fish ponds containing tilapia and eel that help feed children in the community. While MJ and I were there, the rest of the team toured a gardening group and got to meet several interesting characters! In the afternoon, we met with a savings group. This group included hundreds of women, all running their own businesses, who then pooled their earnings together and then leant that amount to create even more wealth for themselves. Capitalism in Congo! The ladies faces beamed with pride as they told of how their group operates and the good things they could now do and afford thanks to this amazing group. This group was truly one of the top five highlights of this entire trip. From there, we all drove over to a Catholic school where World Vision had built a few buildings. We visited a few classrooms and saw how well behaved the students are. Imagine 50 3rd graders crammed into one classroom all sitting quietly and standing when called upon to answer a question. After we left the classrooms, we viewed construction of a latrine being built and then experienced a moment like we've never had before. Hundreds of school children gathered around us in the courtyard. They loved seeing their faces on our cameras and tablets. They jumped, they sang, and they swarmed us! It was truly incredible. That evening, a few local artisans came by our house (an hour early) to sell some of their creations. We all were excited to purchase souvenirs for home including carved wooden elephants, purses, and hand made necklaces.
Wednesday February 18 was the day we all had been waiting for! This was the day we were to meet our sponsor kids. Unfortunately things did not go as we all had hoped. What should have been a pretty simple and exciting day seemed to become unnecessarily complicated. All of us in the group ended up being split up in different cars to go see our children. Fortunately for me, Michelle and I were paired together. We first drove to meet Esther, Michelle's little girl. Esther was waiting at the side of the road when we arrived. She had flowers for MJ and was so excited to meet her! After visiting Esther, we went to meet Antoine. Antoine is one of four brothers and I got to meet his mom and dad. I gave Antoine a soccer ball, a Frisbee and a few pictures of my family. The family then showed me an email I had sent months earlier. They actually received it! It was a very cool experience I will never forget. After our two visits we happened upon a World Vision truck. It belonged to Tena and Preston who were visiting their second (of three) sponsor kid. MJ and I were so happy we caught up with them and were able to video tape two thirds of their visits! MJ, Tena and Preston all did a fantastic job visiting with their kids and families. Despite a chaotic afternoon, everyone did enjoy their time and will never forget meeting their sponsor child.
On Thursday February 19 we left Gemena. We said farewell to Pete, promised to stay in touch, and also said goodbye to the World Vision staff in Gemena. We flew out on an eight passenger Cessna Caravan. This plane flew lower and slower than the other plane that took us to Gemena. Preston got to sit in the cockpit with the pilot and we all enjoyed an incredible flight at 12,000 feet over the Congo rainforest. That afternoon we landed in Kinshasa, enjoyed some pizza, and bid farewell to the World Vision staff there. We navigated our way through the Kinshasa airport, which by the way included witnessing a protest, a one hour process to check our bags, 19 security check points, and a customs agent that attempted to get me to bribe her with some cash and booze! Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we were onboard our Air France airbus on our way to Paris! Sadly, we said our goodbyes to Congo and to Africa. Hopefully, we'll be back again!
On Friday and Saturday, our team kicked back and enjoyed Paris! We visited the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame. We ate very well and had a lot of fun. It was the perfect ending to an incredible trip.
All in all, our trip taught us many things... Americans have more than enough. Africa is big. Congolese people are wonderful and full of joy...their roads are not! The Church is alive and well in Congo. American church services are too short. Congolese peeps can sing! Brave men and women like Pete and his wife Cindy do exist and are doing great work around the world. World Vision is a fantastic organization and spends our money well. Rush hour traffic on 94 is really no big deal. You don't need Google when traveling with Preston Pettis. A bad day in Paris is better than a good day anywhere else. And God is indeed good!
