Home!

Well, as anyone who has traveled over time zones knows, it takes awhile for your body to catch up with the clock. We arrived home last evening safe and sound. Barb had quite the greeting committee as her entire family ran to meet her in the parking lot. Heidi went home to a quiet house and my kids began making up for lost time with each other. But, this morning I rose early. For one we always rose with the sun in the C.A.R. and two, at 5:00 am, my body thought it was 10 am and just couldn’t sleep.

As I walked around the house and marveled at how clean it was, the things of life here began to grab my attention: unpacking, laundry, bills to pay, banking, shopping that needs to be done, work, etc. It’s difficult sometimes to adjust back into your culture. The pace of life here is much faster, the demands often greater. So please, as you interact with the team, be patient with us. If we do strange things like raise our eyebrows at you from across the room, we are just saying “hi.” If we snap our fingers in the air, we are just trying to get your attention. If we want to shake every person's hand whom we see, well, that’s just the polite thing to do there. If you are hanging out with us, driving or walking and we begin to wave at everyone on the street, just give us time, we will adjust.

Culture is an interesting thing. I enjoyed discussing with Maurice, our translator, the differences in our cultures. We both realized we could learn from each other. His culture is more like Mary and our’s like Martha. He sometimes would get frustrated with his culture because of the lack of things that would get accomplished because people really don’t have much concept of time and relationships are far more important anyway. I get frustrated sometimes because accomplishing things sometimes takes priority over taking time to build relationships. We agreed there is a middle ground between our cultures that we could both benefit from.

Anyway, we are all happy to be home, even though I miss already the friends we have in the C.A.R. There is a great bunch of people there serving the Lord and the people of their country. I can’t wait for all of you to meet them personally one day in Heaven. We always part by saying to them, we will see you again either here (in Africa) or there (pointing up to Heaven). Of course they always say they hope it is in the C.A.R first. And so do I.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and comments to the blog. You have been a lifeline to us, and we are happy to be back home among you!

Serving Together for Christ,

Jeana

Team Arrives in Paris!

Hello everyone:

I got a text from Jeana Harley saying that the team arrived safely in Paris. We praise God for that!

Please keep praying that God will continue to bless them as they journey back to the U.S. and that they will arrive safely.

Thank you for your prayers!

Pastor Ivanildo C. Trindade
itrindade@woostergrace.org

Final Good-byes

Today has been the bittersweet day we knew it would be. It has been full of goodbyes. It began raining at 5 AM and rained until about 3 PM. Nurse Rebecca’s daughter came to the guesthouse in the rain to give Barb a gift. This meant so much to us because to come in the rain for the Africans means running through it. Doesn’t sound that bad until you consider why the Africans don’t like the rain. When they get wet, they can’t go back to their homes and dry off or change clothes or warm up by the fire because they can’t make one inside. They are just wet and miserable. So for her to come to the guesthouse, we knew it was very important to Rebecca.

By 7:30 AM we were loaded up ready to go to Air France to drop off our luggage and get our boarding passes. Since it was still raining when we returned, we didn’t get to go back out to the school and finish the pictures for Project Hope and Charity. The rest of the day was really just hangin’ out, talking pictures and playing Dutch Blitz.

We did give out the rest of the gifts we out together for the ICDI staff. Farrel was very happy to receive his gift from Zac.

Since Maurice had pulled that joke on Barb about finding her a kid named Maurice that needed a sponsor, we made up a package like we had for the children, made up a sponsorship number, CR-000-0000, and told Maurice we found him a sponsor. He is such a humble, soft-spoken man and it was great to see him laugh so.

Well, next stop, Paris, the D.C. then Cleveland. If all goes well, we will be back in Cleveland around 6:16 PM on Friday night.

Duit Njonio,

Jeana

Loving Before Leaving

[Blogger's note: Please pray for our team as they take their luggage to the airline tomorrow morning (Bangui time). Pray that the luggage will be checked all the way to Cleveland and for great flights and timely connections. And if I were a betting man, I would bet that Heidi will NOT be canoeing on Saturday. Sorry, RAD. Also, for the future history books -- I was the one who started the tradition of having my hair "braded" while in Africa. It looks great, Jeana!].

Thank you all for praying about the water situation at the guesthouse. The pipes were filled with water around 10 am…the exact starting time of our “Appreciation Tea.” God was definitely working and the praise goes to Him!

During the “Appreciation Tea,” we served cookies, brownies, muffins, and snack crackers, along with tea and coffee. We even had the privilege of hearing Zac sing in Sango for everyone. We also spent time singing a few hymns in Sango. Jeana thanked all of the employees for their hard work and servant attitudes. Then, Mr. Zokoe thanked us for coming and loving the Central Africans with unconditional love. He also said our love for God is evident in how we showed love to those we interacted with while here.

In the afternoon, we helped Tom & Sue Peters teach an English class to some of the ICDI employees. Tom teaches the advanced students, and Sue teaches the beginners. We helped in the beginner class, and spent time one-on-one with the students. The previous week’s homework had been to learn to say a prayer in English, so each student prayed at the beginning of class time. Their English wasn’t perfect, but it was still neat to hear them try. The lesson for the day was the Feeding of the 5,000 in John 6. During the class time, each student had to write a sentence about 12 pictures that depicted the story. It was really encouraging to see how the one-on-one interaction helped each student gain a better understanding of English.

After the English lesson, we gave gifts to the ICDI employees that we spent most of our time with. These employees had seen us give gifts to all of the orphans during our visit, and this afternoon it was finally their turn to receive a gift given in love. They were so pleased and felt so appreciated. Their smiles were priceless, as seen in this picture of Nestor. He is one of the school tutors/teachers for ICDI. We gave him pens and a highlighter (among other things), and he immediately put them in his shirt pocket!

Barb stuffed her backpack full of medical supplies for Nurse Rebecca. This backpack enables Rebecca to take medical supplies with her when she travels to see each orphan group. Until this time, she could only take a few supplies with her. Even though Rebecca doesn’t fully understand English, she completely understood how much the backpack will help her and the children. She kept saying “thank you” over and over in Sango. We all enjoyed providing encouragement and support to these employees. The work they do is inspiring!

In the evening, Jeana and I got our hair braided, so that we can look like Africans. As Sue Peters says, “When in Africa, do as Africans.” It was hard to sit still for hours, but our hair looks great! The price we pay for beauty :) While we had our hair braided, Barb went to the prayer meeting at Heidi Sisson’s for the local missionaries here. She had a great time singing hymns and praying with the missionaries. Zac spent time helping pack…it’s a good thing we brought a boy along. :)

Please pray that we easily get through customs and make all of our connecting flights tomorrow

Thanks for being faithful readers of the blog!

Heidi- on behalf of team

Gifts, Dreams and Appreciation

Tuesday morning began with a visit to the Mercy Center to meet a few more of the orphans our church sponsors. It had rained a lot during the night, so we weren’t sure if the kids would actually be able to make it there. (The roads become very had to travel on when it rains for many hours.) Needless to say, we were very happy to see them patiently waiting for us. We handed their gifts to them, and then added their hand prints to the giant sheet.

The children stayed after they got their presents, so I spent time with the girls, which was a great benefit to me. I got the privilege of hearing all of them laugh…tickling worked great! :) It’s so neat how laughter is a universal language. Even though I couldn’t have a conversation with them, I was able to hear them laugh and see them smile. Of course, giving them candy helped too. :)

After leaving the Mercy Center, Jeana, Zac, and I went to the farm Project Hope and Charity owns. (Barb stayed at the Mercy Center and helped Nurse Rebecca. You can read about her time there below.) I have been looking forward to this visit since Friday. Farming runs deep in my blood, and I just couldn’t wait to see a farm here in Africa! The closer and closer we got to the farm, I got more and more excited. As soon as we got out of the jeep, I felt at home seeing corn standing taller than me. It amazes me that corn grows just as well in Africa as it does in the U.S. (the growing seasons are at different times in the year though). The farm is directed by Madame Zokoe, who is also the founder and administrator of the Project Hope and Charity school (affiliated with GBIM).

The farm consists of many fields. Rice and gozo (manioc root) are the main produce, but there is also a field of potatoes, and peanuts, along with a garden. Planted in the garden are the basic vegetables gardens in the U.S. have - onions, beans, lettuce, etc. The fields are maintained by widows, because it is very difficult for widows to financially support themselves. The food produced from these fields is used to feed the orphans at the school, and also sold to financially support the school and keep it maintained. Positively, each widow also personally has a plot of land to sell the produce and make a profit.

As we toured the farm, Madame Zokoe explained to us the future plans for the land- a high school, a boys dorm, a girls dorm, a chapel, and a shop, used for carpentry, masonry, and sewing. She said some of the land would be used for the orphans to raise chickens, and grow their own food, too. It was neat to hear her dreams for the land, and she asks that we pray for financial funding to get the projects going.

(Barb) It was great to work with Nurse Rebecca again. Due to the hard rain last night it took the children longer to get to the Mercy Center, so we had a little time to talk. I tried my Sango and she tried her English. With the help of my dictionary, we communicated well. She has bilateral knee pain, so I gave her my knee brace to keep. She practically danced! It seemed to give her some instant relief. Great! We also had time to have a knitting lesson which she picked up rapidly. She has one brother and three sisters, just like me. She is the mother of four and the grandmother (Ata) of eight. Four boys and four girls, and I got to meet three of them today. How beautiful they are!

We also had time to sing Sango hymns. I learned all four verses of “Jesus Loves Me”, “O How I Love Jesus” and a few more. Before we finished singing, Flavia came and we had three part harmony going. Finally, the children came! Three were suffering from malaria. We gave them thorough exams to check for anything else. Another child was suffering from parasites, but the lab results are not back yet. As I was looking over the list for all eight groups, it saddened me to see that two little girls had died. This morning before we left we had some time so Sue Peters and I turned it into prayer time. It has been a plus to see Tom & Sue every day. It doesn’t seem possible that we only have 2 days left. I will be sorry to leave, but so happy to see my loving family.

I was reading in Job today and found these verses applicable- 36:6 “He giveth right to the poor” & 36:16 “He delivereth the poor in his affliction.” God bless & thanks for all you prayers.

We had lunch with Brice and Maurice, at the Grand Café, which is basically a French restaurant planted in Bangui. Brice is our driver, and Maurice is our translator and right-hand man. We appreciate their work for ICDI and their help so much, that we wanted to thank them. It was really neat to see how much this meal, and time with us meant to them. And, what good is a meal, if you don’t get dessert?! The ice cream we got was delicious! :)

In the afternoon, we cooled off again in the pool at the Ambassador’s house. We enjoyed the time of relaxing after a busy day. After dinner we had team time, and planned our appreciation tea for tomorrow. We are hosting an “Appreciation Tea” as a way to show our appreciation to all of the ICDI employees we’ve interacted with during the trip. Please pray that the ICDI employees will feel appreciated. Also, please pray that we will have running water by the time the tea starts. For most of Tuesday we did not have running water, and when we went to bed, we still didn’t have any.

Thanks again for your prayers! We’ll be home soon. :)

Heidi- on behalf of the team.

JOY!

Well today is Monday, July 6, 2009. Today was a bittersweet day because we met with the last of the 8 orphan groups. We just love their smiling faces. We still have opportunities to be with orphans tomorrow as we try to catch some who were absent while we visited their groups and on Thurs. as we will try to complete out photo project with PH&C. But as for the groups that have become such a part of our schedule, we will miss them dearly.

There are other things we will miss too as Heidi was starting to think about our return and mentioned. Things like someone to open the gate when we come home (our equivalent would be the garage door), someone to open the door of the car and carry in our things. Who will cook, do laundry, escort us everywhere, explain everything to us that we don’t understand? I tell you these ICDI workers are top notch! It has been nice having so many things taken care of for us so we can just concentrate on our ministry here. But, reality will hit us soon enough, so we will not go any further with it for now. But hey, Tim, I hope you have perfected your cooking skills while I have been away!!! I know, ha, ha.

Tonight in team time, we prayed for emotional, physical and spiritual strength for these last few days. Please pray also for us. We are filling each day with as much as we can to make the most of the remaining time. We want God to be honored and lifted up, and for the African people to really know how much we love them. Knowing our brothers and sisters in Christ from Bangui has been an incredible experience.

Going back to the group tonight, we met a young man who is 16 years old. His name is Merveil Feidangamo. He is an orphan in group 002, but has no sponsor. He is currently being trained though as a leader of the group so that he can become one of the leaders when he is an adult. He gave the Bible lesson tonight to the children. I was impressed at how well he was doing and the leadership skills he had already learned. The ICDI group leaders have recognized his heart for God and his leadership potential and have begun training him. Merveil is a perfect example of the impact that these orphan groups are having on this country. I was privileged to meet him. Please pray for him to grow spiritually and also that someone would step up and sponsor him for his last 2-3 years in the program.

I have included pictures of the smiling faces and fun games we played.

Heidi is playing a shoe game in the one picture. Zac is doing some sort of line dance/game. Everyone is just being joyful. JOY – that has been one of the themes of this trip. We are doing ministry, and in the process, spreading joy!

The final picture is of Williams (back), Brice, Zac and Christophe. They have been with us almost everyday, and that has been a joy!

Thanks for all of your prayers for not only us, but also for those of you have let us know you have been praying for those requests we have listed on our blog for the orphan groups here. There is no doubt that God is working in these groups. There is no doubt that Satan is also hard at work too. Keep praying.

In the Name of our Great God – Duti Njonio

Jeana

Sweet Perfume

Sunday morning we went to a Grace Brethren church in Bangui, and we heard Tom Peters preach. What a treat it was to hear him! On our way in and out of the church, the children crowded around us, each of them wanting to shake hands with us. This happens to us often, actually. We feel like such celebrities! One night during team time, we talked about how we’ll have to adjust back to life in the U.S., where people won’t care that a white person is at church, or walking down the street. Jeana put a different perspective on it, when she commented about how this reminds her of the verse where Jesus says, “let the little children come to me.”

During the church service, we sang “O, How I Love Jesus.” This song took on new meaning as I thought about the Central Africans singing it. I thought about their lifestyle…how their houses are as big as our garages (maybe even smaller) how they make very little money…how they don’t live to the age of 80-90…how they probably eat one meal a day…how they only have a couple pairs of clothes…how the military walk around everywhere…how diseases are very common. And yet, they still sing “O, How I Love Jesus.” I think what gets to me even more is how loudly they sang the song. They weren’t singing it, they were practically yelling it. No matter how well each person’s voice sounded, they all sang as loud as possible. They boldly declared their love of God, to God.

After the church service, the deacons and deaconesses stood in a circle and all of us greeted them and shook hands with them. Some of the women sprayed us with their personal perfume, too. At first, I thought only one women would do that, but as I went around the circle, I kept getting squirted. We all walked out of church smelling like a perfume shop. I’ll admit, I was a little annoyed about getting drenched in perfume, but then my perspective changed when Jeana and Barb both mentioned this scenario reminding them about the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume. To the women of this church, we were so important that we deserved to be treated with the best, including their perfume. They wanted to honor us and show their love.

When we were done greeting, we ate a small meal with the pastor, Tom & Sue Peters, and a couple of other leaders in the church. The pastor told us how much our presence there meant to him. He was greatly encouraged by it. He said that our visit to his church showed him that we loved him and cared for the congregation. We all enjoyed being there, and were glad we had time to talk with the pastor before and after the service.

Sunday afternoon we went to the Mercy Center and visited another orphan group. Our church sponsors a handful of kids there, so it was a neat experience to see this group. For some of the children, this was the second time we saw them. (We saw them on our first Saturday in Bangui, when we had the orphans put their hand print on a sheet). During group time, the teacher gave a hygiene lesson about the importance of washing your hair/scalp. Unfortunately, there is a girl with lice in the group, so the teacher used her as an example of someone who wasn’t properly washing her hair. This probably embarrassed the girl, but the teachers of each orphan group not only educate the children about God, they also educate the children on hygiene (this is to help stop diseases from spreading).

We really had a great time playing with the kids at this group. They seemed to have a special dose of joy and happiness. It was encouraging to see Jememiah up and running around, because she had been tired and weary the first time we saw her. Of course, the visit wouldn’t be complete without Zac playing soccer, and Jeana, Barb and I dancing and playing games with the girls.

One thing I’ve noticed about the children in Bangui is that they are children. You’re probably saying, “Of course children are children. What else could they be?” Here’s what I mean. I’ve realized that location (country/continent), language, and socioeconomic status does not change the fact that children like to have fun! The children in Bangui are just like children in the U.S. They love to run around and play, and make crafts, and laugh, and …the list could continue. Whether a child is an orphan, or a part of a family, or born in Africa, or born in the U.S., children speak the same language…FUN! This is why I’ve included the picture of the paper chains. Even in Bangui, Central Africa, children like to make crafts and draw and paint. The children of Bangui are children…just like the children in America.

Please keep praying for us, as the last few days are packed full.

Thanks for the comments. We look forward to reading them daily!

Heidi- on behalf of the team.

Meeting and Praying for the Strong and Weak

Saturday, July 4th. As I am writing this, many of you are taking in the festivities of the holiday. We are finished with ours and I am very tired. But I am determined to complete this entry before heading to bed. It may be shorter, and I know some of you will be glad for that.

We visited two orphan groups today. In the first group we noticed one of the girls sponsored by someone in our church was wearing the headband we gave her last Saturday. That was pretty cool. The first group, Heidi observed, was from a poorer part of town than the second group. I also met Gina, an orphan in that group. So we have a picture of Jeana and Gina. I am the one in the blue shirt :). I now know a Valerie and a Gina in the CAR.

The second group was the group that we visited last year and Beth Lehman led the craft where we wrote their names on papers and they decorated them with markers and glitter and such. They loved it. I asked them if they remembered and a good many of them raised their hands. This group has a lot of older boys in it, and I remember the impact it had on me last year. These boys showed so much respect and appreciation to ICDI for finding them sponsors and giving them a chance at life.

It was impressed upon me how these older kids only have a few more years left to be in the program and the importance of sponsoring these older kids. They will be out on their own very soon and need first of all to know Christ, and then to have an education, a skill, good health and know how to care for themselves. All of these things they learn in this program. The boys, especially, in this culture, even more than the girls, will be the ones who can really change their country.

We saw Prudence today. Barb and I delivered a birthday backpack to her at her school 2 years ago for her sponsor. She is really growing up to be a beautiful young lady.

Of course we gave the group a soccer ball. That created some excitement and some showing off of some fancy footwork by a couple of the boys. Then, before leaving, I asked how our church could be praying for this group. The 4 leaders each shared different requests with us:

Please join us in praying for group #7 that their caregivers, often extended families, would let them come to their group meetings. The caregivers would rather have them be out working and making money for the family. They want their own children to succeed, but want the orphans that live with them to work. They also asked for spiritual growth for these children as well as success in school and prayer for their teachers and good health. One group leader said that the devil is fighting against them so they need us to pray a lot for them. They closed by asking for prayer to give them the strength they need to care for these kids. This is a very large group too. I left, as I often do, with a very heavy burden. I must share this with all of you and encourage you to pray. That is one thing that these trips cause you to do as you never have before: PRAY.

We ended our day by getting all dressed up and going to the US Ambassador’s house. Fred and Denise Cook hosted any American citizen who wanted to attend along with many dignitaries and bigwigs in country at this time. It was quite an experience. Zac and I mingled a little as we went back to the beverage table for another African Cocktail (a mixture of several fruit juices). It was neat talking or trying to talk to different people. During the ceremony, an African choir from the university sang American Patriotic songs.

Then they introduced the President of the C.A.R. and the Prime Minister and sang their national anthem. Our Ambassador, Mr. Cook, invited all citizens of the United States to come up and join the choir in singing our national anthem. We happened to be in front and quickly noticed the TV news cameras were filming us. After that the Ambassador read a speech in three languages which was very long. A cake was brought out, a toast was made, then the President of the C.A.R. came around and shook our hands. Wow, none of us had ever had the privilege of shaking hands with any country’s president before, so it was quite an honor. Sorry we don’t have any pictures of our night there. We didn’t want to look like tourists.

I prayed for the 4th of July outreach and look forward to hearing all about it.

Good-night - Jeana