Hursts in Africa

After years of living in Africa I'm well aware that "peace" and "stability" are really more a state of our spiritual well-being than our physical surroundings. This rang home again to me yesterday. Kinshasa has been very quiet - as far as Kinshasa goes. DRC is gearing up for elections this coming November and there's a lot of rhetoric going around with that, but as far as unrest, etc. there has been nothing.

Pat's in Cameroon so the girls and I are here alone. After church, while enjoying a nice, quiet Sunday afternoon I received a text from an embassy friend - something about a "security situation" not far from where we live. I didn't pay much attention - those texts can get sent out for about anything and often by the time you get them the "situation" has been long resolved.

A few minutes later she called; shooting over by the president's house (not far from us!), tanks, etc. My phone began ringing like crazy as others called to give me information while friends who don't live in this part of town began to call trying to get information.

The long and short of it was an attempted coup d'etat. While I manned the phone, had the guard locking up our gate, and started charging all our phones and computers (in case the power were cut) Emily began texting her friends (some with parents in high gov't positions) and adding to the info. Poor Pat in Cameroon was calling and making sure we were okay.

At no point did I feel in immediate danger - but in these circumstances you're always looking ahead; what direction is this going to go? They can turn very violent and all consuming in an instant. Praise the Lord this one didn't. After quite a bit of shooting, general panic and fleeing by the population, and having trucks full of soldiers flying up our street things settled down, the government remained intact and calm was restored.

The suddenness and intensity of it all reminded me of a very important principle - the safest place to be is in the center of God's will. I know that's where we are.........and we are thankful.