African Journey January through March 2003
 

January 9, 2003.
We left for Guinea Bissau, West Africa. Praise the Lord, everything went fine.

Our plane left Sea-Tac for Amsterdam, Holland at 1:05 PM. We then flew to Lisbon Portugal. Friends who live in Lisbon, Carlos and Paula Martin, picked us up at the airport. The Martin's showed us their city, including the site of the 1998 International Exposition. We went to a 9:00 PM Praise and Prayer vigil at their Church. It was all the two of us could do to stay awake, after 54 hours with practically no sleep. It was after midnight when we got to bed.

January 11, 2003.
We arose at 7:00 AM. At our departure gate we met Hazel Wallis, a missionary who has been in Guinea Bissau for 20 years. Our departure time came and went, but no airplane. About 1:30 PM, TAP Airlines announced that our flight was cancelled because of technical difficulties. The flight was to be rescheduled for Sunday morning - time to be announced later. We were taken to a nice hotel and fed well. We were disappointed not to reach Bissau that day, but we looked forward to a full night's sleep.

We left Lisbon at 8:30 AM on Sunday, January 12. It was very nice having Hazel as a traveling companion because she was so experienced. We finally arrived in Bissau at 12:30 PM. Our Guinean friends were there to meet us. All our luggage arrived with us. We left for Pastor Uezza Mendes (Chenda)'s second home in Bissau. His primary residence is in Canchungo where we will be working and living. We will be house guests at Pastor Chenda's during this stay. For Martha it was reuniting with former friends and for Herb a whole new world of friends.

Meal type and times are different here. Breakfast consists of fresh baked bread, margarine, jam and coffee usually served at 8:00-9:00 AM. The main meal consisting of rice with fish or sometimes chicken, or beef, bananas or oranges is served between 1:00-2:00 PM. A supper consisting of the same as the main meal, lighter portions, or soup is served between 8:00-9:00 PM.

On Monday we left for Canchungo in a ½ ton pick-up truck with a back seat. There were six of us traveling together. The trip took 3 ½ hours. The roads were paved but they were full of pot holes so driving was tedious and slow. The temperature was probably around 85° F. with fairly low humidity. We were glad when the trip was over. It was nice to move into more permanent quarters in Pastor Chenda's home. We have a room to call our own. Electricity provided by the Government is turned on about 10:30 AM for two to three hours and at dusk and turned off at midnight with occasional outages. Some of them are prolonged, such as the one the one where it was out from 12/9/02 to 1/8/03! We are learning to live with candles and flashlights!

Herb got up at 7:00 AM to go for a prayer walk. The sun rose about 7:30 AM. It was a new and glorious adventure seeing an African sunrise. He was reminded all over again of Psalm 19:1-6. God's faithfulness in the realms of nature and in our lives is renewed every day. The mornings cool off to about 70° F. and during the day build up to around 85° F. This is the coolest and driest time of the year.

When we came to Canchungo yesterday, we were greeted by Jill Karlik, a missionary from England. In the last ten months we have communicated several times via e-mail with Jill. She has been very helpful.

Pastor Chenda, Jill and the two of us walked out to the site for the director's house by the sea. We had hoped that the Director's house would be finished so we could set up our own housekeeping. Unfortunately, the house was not finished; instead it had been torn down because of a land dispute with the military Commandant who wants to build his house next door. The brighter side of the house being torn down is that the Area President over reacted to the complaint and more than doubled the original amount of land by the sea shore that is deeded to Pastor Chenda. The breeze from the sea makes this a cooler place for us "fragile northerners". It is also fairly close to the Church and School property.

On January 15, we arose at 6:45 AM and had devotions and prayer with Pastor Chenda and six young girls, who live here. It is the usual way to start a day. We have a beautiful time of fellowship with God, and with them.

Pastors John Ukpabi and Samuel Dumbuya came to visit us. They had come from Dakar Senegal to meet us when we arrived. John is Nigerian and a son-in-the-Lord of Martha's. Pastor Dumbuya is engaged to be married and John wants very much to get married. Together we spent time going through "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman, even though we did not have the book here. It was time well spent and they took notes and deeply appreciate the insights on marriage. This was an unexpected opportunity to be "marriage counselors".

Because the public schools in Guinea Bissau are closed, since the teachers have not been paid in six months and are on strike, we have been asked to, and are seriously considering expanding our school to include a high school. Pastor Chenda's Christian grade school enrollment includes 50% Muslim, 35% Animist and 15% Christians. We believe the ratio would be similar in the high school. What a potential mission field!

Amenities we don't have, but the joy in the Lord for what we are doing more than makes up for the absence of them. Because this is a totally new experience for Herb, he prayed many times, before leaving home, that God would help him not desire or long for the amenities he was leaving behind. God has answered Herb's prayer far beyond his expectations. There has been no desire for these things left behind. What we are doing more than compensates! Praise God!!

A young mother with a baby girl and young son who are staying here came and met with us. Herb, with his grief support ministry, comforted and ministered to her with Chenda as an interpreter. Martha added a few words of comfort too. It brought back some pain of loss for Herb and Martha to see the mournful appearance of this young woman.

We visited the Canchungo Area President this afternoon. Pastor Chenda wanted to introduce us to him. We talked with him about the public high schools being closed and our consideration of starting a Christian high school along with our vocational school. We asked if the government would give us more land adjacent to the Church and existing school property if we needed it. He agreed to consider any request we would make.

We went to the property by the sea to measure where the house for us will be built. We are excited about what is being done for us and thankful to God for this cool and lovely location. The first thing we did when returned home was to take a bucket shower. Oh did it feel good after the initial shock of the cool water!

We are taking many photos and really appreciate the digital camera our children went together to purchase for us for Christmas. We took this picture.

This is how we send e-mails. This store is in Bissau. Sometimes I can get a machine with the MS Word program on it, sometimes not.

In spite of the heat and humidity at night, Herb is sleeping through the night. Martha adapted quickly. Half the time we even get in an hour siesta in the afternoon.

We went to the Church and vocational school property to confirm measurements of the site in order to finalize a plot plan. There was a work party of about 30 young people (12 to 25 years old) building a new section onto the Church in the heat of the day - the heat did not phase them. The rooms being added will become a library and sleeping room.

There are few touches of Western culture around Canchungo: us, the only white people, and a Western Union station.

Yesterday we met a very sweet and beautiful Christian Korean lady, Sun Hwe Kim. She is 23 years old, and is teaching in the Christian grade school. She shares our vision for Canchungo. We talked and prayed together for a couple hours.

We enjoy watching sunsets whenever we can. The sun seems to sink into the western horizon between palm trees. The sun looks almost the color of a harvest moon as it sets.