The Container
It’s almost here! The schedule keeps adjusting: the ship is now scheduled to dock in Matadi on December 6th. This is a large matter of prayer, since that is the date scheduled for the presidential election results to be announced (more about that later in the letter). Once the ship docks, it can take up to 4 days for the container to be unloaded, depending on where it was placed on the ship. It will then enter “parking” for 3-5 days. The customs inspection is estimated to take another 3-5 days after that. So, estimating on the conservative side, and Lord willing, we should have the container in Kinshasa around the 23th of December.
Your prayers and sacrificial gifts have been invaluable to get this container and its contents here. We finally received the estimate for the cost to get the container into the country, and to Kinshasa. Unfortunately, the cost is higher than we were expecting. Please continue to pray for the Lord to provide for these funds.
Please also continue to pray for wisdom and guidance in what to do with the container. The Lord has not, so far, opened the doors for us to be able to transport this 40 foot container to Dibaya. It looks much more promising to get 20 foot containers up through the rough roads, so we are now praying about the possibility of trading it for two 20 foot containers, or one 20 foot container and some cash. The Wards are working diligently on trying to find us a buyer/trader. We need to have a plan on where the container will be delivered before the truck brings it to Kinshasa. The plan at this point is to unload the pickup and pile the other items into the Grings’ car port, while the container is still on the trailer, and then have the truck deliver it to the buyer. The shipping company said this should not cost us any extra since they have already quoted us for “delivery and unloading.” There really isn’t a place to unload the container here at the Grings’ house. The Lord already has a perfect plan!
Orphanage
Myndii has been able to return to the orphanage several times, and Martha and Titus have each been able to go once as well. It was such a blessing to see our two oldest respond to these little ones. They both keep asking when they can go again.
Visas
Thank you for praying!!! Our passports our back in our hands! We were approved, in a miraculous short time, for our 5-year missionary visas. We have been told that the wait time recently has been up to 9 months for this specific visa, but the Lord moved quickly and we had them back just 25 days after giving the immigration office our paperwork. Praise the LORD.
Dibaya
The men returned from Dibaya in mid-November. They were able to accomplish many things while in the interior. After a lot of work, they were able to level the missionary house. However, there is still work to be done.
We are praying that we will be able to return to Dibaya, as a family, in mid-January. At that time, there will be an Association Director’s Committee meeting at the Bible Institute. Again, it is such a blessing to have a location for these types of meetings in the interior where it is so much more accessible to the interior pastors.
Elections
The elections on November 28th went fairly well. There were a few reports of people trying to submit pre-marked ballets, some confusion about where people were supposed to vote, and a few instances of violence. However, for the most part, things went peacefully and smoothly. Our neighborhood went on as usual.
The next date for your calendars is December 6th. Please pray earnestly for this country as the election results are to be announced late that evening. The people of Kinshasa seem to be split on their votes. Please continue to pray for peace and unity!
We are not anticipating any trouble in our neighborhood. However, we are preparing to stay home for a while if things get out of hand in other areas.
Holidays
We hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving and were able to remember many things to thank our Heavenly Father for. We were pleasantly surprised to find frozen turkeys at a local store, so we had a grand Thanksgiving feast and time of fellowship with the Ward and Grings families.
Christmas will be a bit different this year, as we will be celebrating the birth of our Savior in 90º tropical weather, and without many of our family and friends. We are looking forward to starting new Congo Christmas traditions as we spend this time focusing on Christ and why He came to earth as a babe so long ago.
Under His wings,
“He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust…” Psalm 91:4
Time in Kinshasa