Greetings!
This past Thursday was the birthday of my native land and though we are far from home, we did not refrain from celebrating our American heritage. After a full day in the clinic, we went to the mission for an evening of celebration. In true American style, we whipped up a game of baseball, which attracted a rather hefty crowd of curious Congolese, wondering what this strange barbaric game was. The Harvey family hosted us for dinner, which consisted of corn beef sandwiches, potato salad, and some rather tough corn on the cob, with red, white, and blue cake for dessert. We didn't have any fireworks, so Dr. Harvey turned the lights out and squeezed a lemon onto a candle, which made a nice homemade sparkler. We spent the rest of the evening playing music and singing songs (one of the other short term missionaries has a fiddle and plays bluegrass and Irish music, so we had a blast!).
While it was certainly very different celebrating our nation's birthday so far away, I think it was a good reminder that our real nation is not the United States or Congo or anywhere else on earth, but is the Kingdom of God. Independence from foreign rulers, though a great blessing, is a mere trifle compared to the independence we have from the bonds of sin. The affairs of nations and the kingdoms of men pass away, but the Kingdom of God endures forever.
That said, this past week made me very thankful for my home in the U.S. and the life I've lived there thus far. I am thankful that our government is relatively just, that we have good sanitation and infrastructure, and that we really don't have to worry about most of the basic necessities of life. Here in Congo, things are obviously different. People die from things here that would be easily treated in the U.S. and would also be easily preventable if there was good sanitation here. Healthcare is often just the tip of the iceberg; poor health can be sign of other larger problems. Poverty here is rampant; many folks survive on a dollar a day or less. The reason there is so much poverty is because there are so many unemployed. There are so many large factors that seem to play a role in the great disparity between nations like Congo and western countries; it is hard to understand why God allows such gross differences to exist. There is certainly nothing special about Americans to warrant the rich blessings that we have received and there is nothing about the Congolese that condemns them more than others; in fact, we all deserve much worse. God works His justice and His grace in His own timing; we are not to judge or question, but simply to work in faith, knowing that it is He who has torn the veil in two and it is He who lifts this world from the curse of the Fall.
Now that my sermon's finished, let me move on to some of the more everyday things from my first week in Impfondo. Our living conditions are quite pleasant; we are staying in the house of an American missionary family that is currently on furlough. We have a gas stove, gas refrigerator, a faucet that works (until this afternoon...), a toilet, and a shower. In a lot of ways, living here reminds me of the old Outing Club Cabin at Grove City, very primitive, but also very pleasant. We have recently invested in what we thought were two chickens. We named them Debbie and Little Jerry. As it turns out, Little Jerry is actually a rooster (which explains both his incessant crowing and his poor egg production). Unfortunately, Debbie flew the coup last night. We saw her up in the tree, rather close to the wall that surrounds the hospital. When we returned from the market later that day, we discovered she was gone. Tomorrow, we're going to do a recognizance mission to see if we can locate the AWOL hen. Whether or not we find her, Little Jerry's days are numbered as Andrew leaves next weekend to go back to the states.
During the day, we have a cook come in who cooks lunch for all of us working at the hospital, but for breakfast and dinner, we fend for ourselves. A few nights ago, we discovered a chicken stand in the market that is absolutely delicious. For the equivalent of about 4 U.S. dollars, she cooks up about a quarter of a chicken over an open fire. She serves it with onions, mayonnaise, and this really spicy sauce she makes. Over the last couple of days, we've become very devoted patrons and enjoy coming down there in the evenings to try our broken French on her.
Well that is all for now. Tomorrow we are going to church in one of the Aka villages (one of the tribes referred to as "pygmies"). Hopefully, they will be taking us on a walk in the forest after church. Can't wait!
God bless,
Ben
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