To fulfill my responsibilities at Editions CECA I depended on Ukumu’s help.  Purchasing paper at the Pan Paper mill in Kenya, traveling through Uganda and importing into the DRC had to be done the only way possible in Africa.  We were able to account for most of the expenses.  With tons of paper on hand the plan to print thousands of hymnbooks in Pazande was realistic.

The tensions between the tribal groups at Rethy were becoming obvious when the Alur would not pay their electric bills since a Lendu was the manager of the electric company.  The manager would not pay an Alur for purchases made for him.  At the press I found the Alur working together and we were able to get things done.

When nothing was the same after the rebellion and looting, being given the same responsibilities at Editions CECA, offered a new challenge.  Working again at Rethy, but unable to fulfill the expectations of all those who had depended on missionary services, was a big adjustment to many.  The radio station became my focus.

We couldn’t help but wonder what had happened at Rethy after our evacuation and the subsequent looting.  Was there any hope of returning to complete the radio broadcasting station that had been started?  While we prepared to return we worked on the old farmhouse and then I went to see.

It wasn’t the environment or the elaborate display of wealth that made the perfect wedding.  It was called a homespun garden wedding by a Cooperstown paper, The Doubleday Courier but rather it was a union made in Heaven by the God of Love.  A three strand chord is not easily broken, and God was in it.

Confident that we had all the firewood we needed, we had three fires keeping us warm at Christmas time.  We tried everything we could to keep us all warm, but the wood supply rapidly turned to smoke and ash.  Our children hauling firewood down the hill in sleds somehow communicated that we couldn’t do it all ourselves

They say location, location, location is the most important thing when buying a home.  Paying cash made permits, inspections, and loans unnecessary. All the work we did together to make it our home built deep family relationships that lasted.  The rather extensive rebuilding and repairs were all made by the family with God given ingenuity.

When evacuated from Zaire, we had a place to go, the ancient farmhouse in which we lived every time we came back for furloughs from Zaire.  We first came to live in New York when Ellen’s brother shot himself in the foot and I got his farm job.  All the work we did together as a family has made it a special home with lots of memories.

Kwanzaa was invented recently and somehow has become equated with a religious celebration of Christmas.  It is far from that!  Kwanza is a Swahili word for first.  Siku ya Kwanza celebrations in Zaire was focused on Kaikpo, not on the birth of Jesus Christ. 

The miracle of evacuating safely all the missionaries who fled from Zaire through Rethy had to be God’s doing.  The small grass airstrip at Araa handled more traffic in a few hours than it ever has, in all the rest of the time since it was created.  In the tiny details, that worked out so marvelously, He cared for as well, showing His love for us and our family.