Another Interesting Car Moment.....

This past Sunday, like many Sundays, Pat preached in a local Congolese church. It was a large church with several thousand members. There were 2 services that went from 8am till 2pm. Since Pentecost Sunday is this coming Sunday he was asked to preach on the Holy Spirit. A total of over 200 people came forward for prayer with many being filled with the Holy Spirit. It was an incredible 6 hours of church! God is good! Afterwards Pat was invited to the pastor's house for lunch. While he was making a left hand turn a taxi bus that was behind him suddenly tried to pass (even though Pat had his blinker on).......While trying to avoid our truck the bus glanced off of the drivers side door and went into a ditch.

Then the fun started!! Praise God no one was hurt, but boy did it ever draw a crowd, especially when everyone saw that it was a white guy who had been hit. Pastor Nsembe got out and began working on crowd control. Pat had to lock all the doors of the truck (it wasn't necessary to lock the drivers side door as it now could not open) and tried to stay low. Quite a few of the church people and locals who knew Pastor Nsembe well came and were able to get things settled down. The taxi driver finally admitted that it was his fault (with some aggressive help from the growing crowd).... But it was still necessary to spend many hours at the police station doing interviews and filling out reports. Fortunately Pat knew most of the policemen in the little bureau as he drives past many of them almost every day on his way to the bible school. He has given several of them rides to places and provided them with bibles - It's all about relationship!!

At the end of it all, Pat and Pastor Nsembe began to talk to the taxi driver about Christ. He was a young man who was afraid of his boss, the actual owner of the taxi bus. He got down on his knees in the little police station and asked for prayer for salvation.

Pat was gone for a total of 13 hours! He went from preaching in a large church - to praying for those who came forward - to having an accident - to being threatened by an unruly crowd - to hours in a police station - to praying for the man who hit him. We are amazed by God's presence in our lives here. From the obvious ministry situations to the bizarre twists and turns that life here can take, we are constantly aware of His hand on our lives and of His desire that ALL would know HIM.

Justice

Many times people want to know what a typical day is like for us here in Kinshasa. It's often hard to say - we don't have an "exact" routine that we repeat everyday, but today I had an interesting experience that is really quite typical for many people living here, so I thought I'd write about it.

I went downtown for a "quick trip" (famous last words) to buy a few groceries. As in many parts of Africa, I had to park on the street and arranged to pay someone to "guard" my vehicle.....meaning that you're paying them to NOT slash your tires or steal anything. Whatever, I've lived in Africa long enough, this is just part of the landscape and I don't really even think twice about it anymore.

However this time when I came out of the store someone had put a tire lock on my tires so that I couldn't leave. There was no rhyme or reason for them to do this......I was not parked "illegally", etc. but the bottom line was that I had to pay $50 to have the lock removed. There were several people around - men that make a living repairing shoes on the street, selling belts, etc. They were all on my side and I had quite a little support group. Our vehicles say very clearly "Assembly of God" (only in French), so they knew I was a "Mama Pastor" and were very incensed that this happened to a missionary.

However, as is often the case, reason didn't prevail. The little gang of men with the lock keys came and went, often leaving me for 30" at a time to ponder my fate, with the hope that I would then whip out $50. Honestly, I was about to do it.....I am not at all in favor of bribes, but when you live in places like this, there are just times when you are between a rock and a hard place....I couldn't give up our Speed The Light vehicle for $50! Even though I had done nothing wrong, it was looking like I would not be able to save the vehicle if I didn't pay and frankly, my Toyota Land Cruiser is worth the $50!!

I had called our missionary colleagues at one point, just to see if they had any thoughts on the matter - this was the first they had heard of this particular scam, so they were a bit baffled too. But they are friends with a man who is quite high up in the police department here. A few minutes later they called me to say that he was sending a representative to help me. I stood outside for about 15" when a very important looking man in a uniform showed up. To make a long story short.......after much talking (on everyone else's part, not on mine!) and a fair amount of yelling from the huge crowd that had formed around us (fortunately this crowd was mainly on "Mama Pastor's" side) my car was released and I did not have to pay a thing!

Though this time I got off free and felt somewhat of a sense of justice.......I realize that things like this happen very often to the Congolese. And if you don't have someone in a higher place to call upon, you become another victim of another scam. It's easy to get very caught up in the "principle of the matter" and the "sense of justice, or injustice". But the bottom line is that we live in an unjust world. Though I'm all for as much justice as I can find while I'm here, it's a good reminder to me that we serve a just God. Jesus is our advocate - though it sure was nice to have a representative of a "bigger man" come and help me out, I realize that my ultimate help is from Christ and he is the ultimate "big man."

I'm trying my best to be a blogger....and I will continue to work at it. But my reality is that I'm not that into my computer (gasp!)......I'd much rather be "out there" interacting and moving. Too much computer time drains me. But sometimes "out there" is draining also. I'm posting a link from CNN about some of the realities of Congo. It's a bit "raw" and rather graphic, but that's what life here is like.....raw and graphic. Please keep praying for Congo!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/05/18/ensler.congo/index.html