Tuesday 13 October 2015

Two Hours that Transformed



How do I know if the school we started in Congo will be what it set out to be, “a school where transformation of the heart takes place”?  I have often thought to myself, “Are our expectations realistic? Are our hopes too high?  Is transformation, the way we understand it, transcultural, or just what our western “Christian” perspective thinks is best ?”





I just got off a long Skype call with my colleague Fima in Congo.  I had been dreading the purpose for the call: trimming our school budget down by $9000.



Fima in his office :-)
In wonderful Congolese tradition, where time is not seen as something we waste or reluctantly give away, Fima asked how I was doing … and really wanted to hear my answer. I asked how he and the school were doing, and took time to listen to what he was saying. After a while we got to the main reason for the call … THE BUDGET.  As we worked our way down the list of revenues and expenses trying to think through the items we could reduce or where we could add revenue we branched off onto various topics, usually communicated through a story, events, or ideas related to each category.



For example, the principal from a neighboring  “Christian” school (I put this in quotations because my African colleague pointed out that Christian might not mean very much in Congo) had approached Fima earlier that morning and asked if our school (FKA) could help train some of their teachers. They wanted to learn what makes our school different. Would we be open to helping them? (We might possibly even gain a little revenue if we set up a training program).



Another idea to help reduce the cost was putting off the hiring of a school janitor. Fima’s idea was to let a young man he had “taken under his wing” do some work for us. He mentioned that he was spending time showing him how to take care of the school ground, how we wanted the school cleaned, and even how to use a vacuum cleaner  (something I have discovered they don’t normally use in Congo).  He mentioned that while he was out there working with him and getting dirty the other day, the teachers had laughed and thought it was great that the head of school was not just sitting in his office, but getting his hands dirty!





He also said, “We don’t have to put money into embellishing the school grounds because the last couple of weeks parents have started bringing little contributions of plants that we can plant on our school grounds … It will all be in bloom when you come in November!”  He also mentioned that parents were so pleased with the transformation they were seeing in their children that they wanted to help in whatever way they could. One little girl who has special motor needs has shown such improvement that the parents are thrilled!  Another boy has quit hitting other children, and many are expressing with words their love for Jesus and others. 



I also told him that some of my friends here in Germany wanted to help the education of children in Congo by participating financially in a child’s education. He was thrilled because he knows so many families that would love to have a child at our school, but they just can’t afford it!


Sand box activities ( we still don't have sand box toys, but it's fun to be creative!)
















 By the end of our 2-hour “work call” we amazingly achieved what we had set out to do: “trim our budget by $9000”.  I was pumped! 

 But what thrilled me even more was the confirmation that transformation is happening in and through a little school in the heart of the huge city of Kinshasa. God (Jahweh) is breathing His life into the FATEB Kinshasa Academy to impact, encourage and bring about change in the lives of its students, staff, parents, leadership, a neighboring school, friends here in Europe, my own family, and maybe even some of you ... and that is what really matters!

Sunday 16 August 2015

Kinshasa’s Children- Congo’s Hope for the Future

A normal city street in Kinshasa, Congo


View of the road outside our car

Once again I am shocked at the “state of affairs” in the Congo.


 It feels like one big mess to me. 

Dirt is normal, trash is everywhere: I have yet to see a garbage can other than in the bathroom.  

 The roads and traffic are messed up and crazy. Four lanes merging at the intersections from all directions, without lights or stop signs, and honking seems to be much more understood than a blinking signal… but somehow it works. 

The local public transportation, called Esprit de mort”, is a trashed van which crams as many people in it as can fit. Having to ride in one of those is putting your life at risk, as its name well describes (spirit of death). 

Most people seem so desperate, living in a “survival mode”, that thinking beyond today's immediate needs is almost impossible. I don’t think you can even call Congo a developing country…more like pre-developing.



Christopher and Daniel. Daniel is a young man from our church in Germany who came to help us for 1 month.

In contrast to all of this, which adds to my frustration of understanding the situation. Congo is possibly the world's richest country in terms of natural resources (gold, cobalt, diamonds, rubber, water, and much more...), but this doesn’t seem to help its people.

So people ask me "Why come here? Why Congo? Why invest time, money and effort here, while most people have given up hope for this country?" I asked a guy from Washington state, who had just moved his young family here to work with MAF, a missionary aviation company, this same question yesterday. 

 His answer, put bluntly: 
“Because Congo needs some freek’in help! It’s like one of the last frontiers.” He went on to say that it is a country that still hasn’t recognized its own potential yet.  Most people don’t see it, but he wants to be part of that change.

 


I've been told that 15 million people live in Kinshasa.  At least 50% of those are children. Is there hope for this country? Who will be the ones to bring about change in this country?  It is the children. 

 That is why for me the only thing worth investing in the Congo is in the lives of children... 



Children who have been taught to value the nature and natural resources of their country, and not to destroy it or sell it in exchange for vanishing rewards... 

Children who begin to realize that finding solutions to a problem is much better than being given a hand-out to address a need... children that learn that hard work and perseverance is better than being named “the most intelligent kid” in the class. But the most important aspect for me… I dream of Congolese children that believe that they are wonderful creatures, loved by of a Heavenly Father, and that as their minds, hearts and actions are transformed into “image bearers of God”, they have the incredible potential to bring about huge changes in this country.
 






 
Watch these little videos we put together above about this past weeks teacher training week in the Congo 

So I’ll return to Congo in 2 weeks to build into a Congolese team of administrators and educators who will invest in the children of their country through education that is immersed in values which we believe bring about change.

Kende malamu!! (Good bye)

Our great team of Congolese teachers-in-training



Monday 20 July 2015

A place of refuge...


Bonifacio, Corsica

 

Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8


Just woke up to the sound of birds, the bright sun streaming through the cracks of the thick wooden shutter and then the wonderful smell of this island of Corsica… a mix of rosemary, oleander, eucalyptus and the smell of the Mediterranean all in one.
I know this place… I have come here many times  on wonderful vacations since I was 13. Here the past and present are mixed together. Memories, impressions, thoughts and emotions blend and have a balm-like effect on my soul.




The Coastal beach of Palombagia, Corsica


God allows “oases” in our lives where our minds, bodies, and souls can come to a repose and sense His goodness and care for us His children.



It is so easy to doubt His goodness when the walls of certain stabilities of our life come tumbling down.  Those events can destabilize, threaten, and send me into a “quick fix” pattern, and that is the time I am faced with a choice:  to lie buried under those crumbled walls, or to stand up and see the bigger picture. My belief that God is in control and that He actually is the foundation under those walls is what gives purpose to my life.









So this morning I chose to take refuge in him and taste and see that the Lord is extremely good.  

I am here, on this beautiful island with the ones I hold the most dear… feeling his goodness through this gift of refuge….
 


Tuesday 2 June 2015

To hope – Esperer – Hoffen - të shpresojnë – الأمل - si ay u rajaynayaa





 

I don’t know how you have been taking in the current events regarding the mass influx of migrants.  Here is Europe there is no way that one cannot be aware of the issue. We see the news about boats carrying human cargo stranded for days at sea… ships sinking with hundreds of migrants on board… smugglers abandoning their cargo to “chance”… countries finding mass graves of people who have been trafficked and then left to die… adults, children, elderly, who are starving, traumatized, with nothing left…


Khayelitsha ( Xhosa for New Home), township in South Africa



… and yet the migrants keep coming, they keep trying, they keep going on, taking the next what might be fatal step, all because they hope to find peace somewhere, and they hold on to that small ounce of HOPE.





I saw it in the eyes of the woman I had breakfast with yesterday morning at the refugee center in my neighboring town.   

A new friend from the refugee center near us
 Hope - for something better.  She left Macedonia with her husband and their little boy, along with about 20 others, crammed into a truck set for Germany. Germany was the country in which they hoped to find what they didn’t have back home.  She said there was nothing for her and her family in Macedonia - no work, no suitable place to live, no hope for the future of their little boy.  I looked around the simple “common room” at the refugee center we were meeting in for a breakfast get together with some of the refugee women, and thought that this wasn’t really great either.  However, for this young mother sitting next to me, it was more than satisfactory.  They had food, safety, a warm place to live, the company of others in the same plight and… HOPE.



My son Michael texted me last night with a disappointed message.  An important scholarship he had applied for had sent him an email informing him that he was disqualified from the scholarship because his file was incomplete; the school transcripts were missing. Oh, no!  He worked so hard to get it all in and he was quite certain it was. I starting praying and I texted Grandma, our prayer warrior, to pray as well that if they did have it they would find it,  somewhere.  He called them and told them that he was pretty sure that his college had sent it all in.  30 minutes later they called him back and said they had found it.  It had been misplaced. What a sigh of relief - not because he received the scholarship, but because there was still HOPE that he might.


In the Bible, in the book of Luke there is a story of a blind man who sits on the side of the road begging. When he hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by he is filled with HOPE and starts yelling out: “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” 
 Oh boy, how many times have I felt like that blind beggar.  We probably all have if we are honest.





I know - I can’t compare my degree of “despair” to his, or to the refugee lady I sat next too yesterday, or anything remotely comparable to those thousands of migrants stranded at sea.  But I do know what it feels like to hold on to a little bit of hope. To not give up trying… or fighting… or running… or enduring… because of the potential of something: new, better, peace, or joy that I am hoping is around the next bend in the road…



I sometimes wonder how people keep on going in desperate situations when they don’t believe in a God who is sovereign, who has promised to walk through those desperate moments with them, and in whom they can put their trust. It would seem to me that just to hope isn’t enough. Hope alone has been shown to increase your chance of achieving something better because of the power of positive thinking. But is it enough?


Phil and Tammy at Cape Good Hope ( South Africa)
I’m not a theologian, and don’t aspire to be. I also don’t have many answers about the reason for so much suffering in the world. But like that blind beggar I am so thankful that I can cry out to Jesus, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me…” 

… to Jesus who sees me, who loves me, who walks with me and has my life in His sight. …to have mercy on these unjust situations in the world, on us, on me… on you. 

Sunday 12 April 2015

Beauty and the Beast



I woke up in the middle of the night once again feeling overwhelmed by the task of starting a school in the DRC (Congo). This included feelings of incompetence, doubt, fear, being giving too much responsibility, and unrealistic expectations placed on me. 


Along the beautiful Crocodile river
Phil, Alex, and I are on a combined work/vacation trip in South Africa, since Phil’s job brings him here. Yesterday here at Kruger National Park was an amazing day of witnessing God’s nature in harmony with its creatures. 

Those are hippos not rocks

Beauty, harmony, and creativity at its best….”Wow, God was even creative when he made animal’s private parts”, Alex pointed out as he noticed and commented on the the blue monkeys’ “bright blue balls!”


The vervet monkey
Alex enjoying a ride through the Kruger







But as I lay awake at two in the morning, all that amazement and awe disappeared and all I felt was a weight of bricks on me, and the replaying in my mind of an animal drama that we had witnessed the evening before.  Across the river from where we were staying, a couple of water buffalo had separated themselves from the rest of their herd. With them was a little calf.  When we arrived on the scene, drawn in by a little crowed watching with binoculars, five lions came out of the bush and slowly, but strategically approached the water buffalo, seemingly with their eyes on the calf.  One of the female water buffalo kept chasing off several of the lionesses. Time after time she tried to scare them off.  Unfortunately, after about 40 minutes, the largest lion lunged towards the calf and took it down. Several cries of horror went out from us spectators on the other side of the river.

If you look really hard you will see the male lion approaching the water buffalo

In my “out of proportion, 2 o’clock in the morning reasoning space” I was comparing myself to the female water buffalo, possibly the mother of the calf, who was trying to save her young one…..but lost in the end.  I was glad to wake up to an amazing new day in Krueger Park.  I took in more of God’s wonderful creation. 

South Africa's funny Guineafowl

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matt. 6:26)

I have to let it go.  I cannot carry it on my own and should never think that I need to. Phil often reminds me that “God does not need our ability, but desires our availability”, quoting Ian Thomas of the Torchbearers.



So with this blog I lay down my worries, which are mostly connected to my lack of ability…
- worry about the teachers getting adequate training so that they’ll be ready to start teaching
- worry about where the $30,000 needed for the renovations on the school building we plan to use will come from
- worry about the timing of the rental contract for the school property
- worry about how the school principal is going to be able to raise enough support to get to Kinshasa by summer time
- worry about African “timing” - will we be able to open our doors in September 2015?
… in order to once again make myself available to be used, and to serve through God’s strength alone! And to remember that the Creator loves his creation!

Thanks for listening.  Maybe these thoughts will resonate with you.


The beauty of the Kruger Park




Thursday 12 February 2015

The Paper Tie

The Stuart Family 1975


When I was a little girl I remember giving my dad a special tie for Father’s Day. It was one that I made in my kindergarten class. It was made out of paper. We had cut them out and decorated them especially for our dads.  Mine was quite colorful with my own special designs. It was kind of silly looking, but I was proud of it, because it was something I had made for him. I remember giving it to him and how he graciously and lovingly received it with a big smile on his face. I also remember being a little embarrassed by it because it definitely didn’t live up to the many other ties that my dad wore.  My dad was a pastor and often wore a tie. One morning he showed up at the breakfast table wearing the tie I had made him. He loved it and was going to wear it to work. He couldn’t have made a little five-year-old happier!

Tammy in Kindergarten



Standing in front of our "likely" Congo, Kinshasa school building
Today, 40 years later, I still feel like I am making “paper ties”. Not for my dad any longer, but for my heavenly father. Whether the tie I make comes in the form of the project I am working on to get a school starting in the DRC (Congo), organizing a fundraiser Freiheitslauf(“freedom run”),  trying to connect our church women’s ministry to the needs of the many refugees that are moving into this area of Germany, perhaps cooking a meal, or singing in our town’s Music Verein (local choir). These “ties” are all things I enjoy “making”, with my limited knowledge, experience, expertise, passion and love…


The other day while reading in the Bible I was reminded that when God created men and women, He created them to reflect His own image to the world.  It hit me that the gifts and passions He specifically gave me were given so that I could reflect that aspect of Him to this world.  I don’t have to be ashamed of them, or feel like they are “less worthy” than others, because I know he has made me to reflect that part of His image in me to the world around.
 
Happy Birthday Dad! ( Feb 21) Love you! 

I have a delightful picture in my head - a picture of God wearing a different paper tie every day. Ones that each of us have made and given Him which show our own individual uniqueness, culture, gifts….ones that reflect something of Him in us. And yes, He is wearing them with a big, proud smile on His face!


Sunday 18 January 2015

Long Distance Family




We put Amanda and Michael on planes back to the US the last weeks after having them “home” for Christmas break. We had a great time together! 







Yes, the house seems empty now. Living 5000 miles away from your children is not something I find easy. I usually spend a couple of days after they leave feeling the “empty space” that comes with their departure.








My mother-heart feels heavy, I might shed some tears, and sometimes relish in the memory of the very familiar feeling that “being a whole family” brought back. I’m sure many of you can relate. The long distance family is no longer an unusual phenomena in our global world.

I often struggle with what this means for us as a family. Does the long distance define us?  How do we balance a live meaningful relationships as a "long distance family"? 
How much should we "hold on" and how much should we "let go"? 

A fun ski outing over Christmas break

Cheese fondu prep


I















I visited a refugee center in a neighboring village this morning, 7 km from my house. 

40 people arrived just 3 days ago from various countries that have been ravaged by war, poverty and economic crisis, and 140 more will join them in the next couple of months.  I assume that most of them felt they had to leave their “home” and likely even family members to hopefully find a new place to begin again.

 As I sat with them in a room listening to the social worker explain, through broken translation, the refugee center’s “Hausordnung”, you could sense their apprehension, questions and uncertainty about this new place and their future lives.

Good times with Grandpa!
 What I did notice is that most of them sat together in what I assume were families; father, mother, children, some grandparents.  They held on to each other, touched each other, moms stroked their little girl’s hair, little boys sat on their dad’s laps, daughters whispered comments to grandparents..... and there, amidst the unfamiliar, foreign, and frightening new situation, was a kind of security, connection, and a sense of strength through the family unit which enables people to face the unknowns of the future together.




Family is important! It is a gift to have one, whether long-distance, displaced, patch-work, or if you all live in the same town.  Cherish your family, make your relationships a priority. Be open to sharing “your family” with those who don’t have one. Phil and I work with so many children who don’t
Pray for each other, encourage each other, carry each other, and love, love, love.