A 12 hour African Sunday

What does a 12 hour African Sunday look like?  Well, there are many different ways to have one of these. They are not all alike and I am sure I will have many more.  I will give you just a brief synopsis of what my day consisted of…

Another missionary couple, missionary colleague and I left our home at 7:30am to embark upon a journey that would take us one hour outside of the capital city.  It is way passed the airport, which was new territory for me.  I had never been passed the airport.  We arrived at a church in a small neighborhood with kids in the street and people walking to church.  This church plant is three years-old and Pastor Philip has been the pastor since the beginning.  The church started meeting in a home not far from where the church is now. The church has a roof, but no walls.  They plan to build walls soon. We had church that morning along with a baby dedication. I was asked to pray at the end of the service. This was definitely something I was not expecting.  He allowed me to pray in English and then I finished with some French. The service lasted about 2 ½ hours.  

 

Once the service was over, we were invited to the Pastor’s office for juice.  Afterwards, he took us down the street to meet the family in the home where the church was started. It is a Congolese family with a giving and compassionate heart. They have lived overseas and felt called to come back and help their brothers and sisters in Christ. We spent some time on the streets in route to where we would eat lunch. It is about noon when we arrive to the restaurant. It is sad to say that you would never know there was a restaurant there, as many places are walled in.  We sat at tables and chairs under a cabana-like hut.  It had a very nice atmosphere.  Kind of like an outdoor patio/café. We were told that lunch was coming and we would eat soon.  The lady who was preparing it, needed to go the “city” because electricity and water were rarely seen in this village.  She wanted it to be good.  While we waited for her to come, we were served an appetizer of caterpillars and fish! Both were pretty good!  The caterpillars were cooked in a sauce with eggplants and some flavorful spices.  They loved that we tried their delicacy!  I couldn’t describe the taste to you, but it wasn’t bad.  I think the hardest part was chewing! The fish helped too!

After a couple of hours, we found out that the lady was stuck in “embouteillage” TRAFFIC! It would take her another hour or two.  Once she arrived we saw the dark clouds roll in!! There was a rainstorm that blew in from who knows where!! It poured and poured for a good thirty minutes.  Our little cabana was flooding and the men who worked at the restaurant were desperately trying to get the water out and keep it out, but it wouldn’t stop raining.

 

Finally, we were able to sit down and eat at 4pm.  It was delicious!! Congolese food is very good!  There was chicken, fish, and goat in sauces, fufu, pandu, plaintains, and more caterpillars.  Within thirty minutes we had finished eating. What a blessing it was to spend the day with Pastor Philippe, his wife, daughter, and members of his church! But we knew we needed to head home, as we didn’t know what traffic would be like. The man who had taken us in the morning would take us just to the airport, as our request.  The reason being was because the church we visited was his home church and we didn’t want him to have to go all the way into the city and then turn around to come home.  Because I was the only one who had a driver’s license, I would be the one to drive.  We made it passed the airport and a major market area with no problem.  Then we ran into traffic over two bridges that were under construction.  It would be an understatement to say it was “insane.”  At one point there were 8 lanes of traffic, ALL going the same direction.  No one wants to wait, so they make another lane and jump the others to get to where they want to go.  There were a few times I was squeezed in and had nowhere to turn.  I got a couple interesting looks from people when they realized a white woman was driving. You have to be aggressive here or you get nowhere!  People who were taking taxis (Taxis are just vans, minivans, and cars which hold as many as will squeeze themselves into it) were getting out and walking because it was faster! (I almost wonder if I could have made it home by walking??) It was a Sunday and not many police work on Sundays. They are the ones that organize this chaos. We were in the car for three hours. We rolled into the driveway at 7:30pm, completely exhausted!  I thank God for the opportunity to be here, but I hope I won’t have to do that again for awhile! (I do apologize for not having pictures of the Traffic Jam, but you have to be very careful here when taking pictures. We were so close to the other vehicles that, at times, we had to pull in our side mirrors.  We were definitely closed in with no exit plan. We had to be vigilant.) Thank you again for all your prayers!! They are making a difference!!