Sunday, September 27, 2015
Let me just begin by saying this has been a much more relaxed schedule this past week compared to our three consecutive weeks of visitors. Monday offered a different forum for humanitarian work with President Thomas. He is a runner and met a construction manager from South Africa, Graham Mc Murtry, who is in charge of a development known as Luano City. Graham and President Thomas talked about the possibility of providing some construction jobs to church members. The unemployment rate here is around 90% and almost everyone is looking for a stable full-time job. Many have part-time work or look for work every day jus to provide for their families a day at a time.
On Sunday they had announced in the wards that those who had construction skills and needed work should show up at the Lubumbashi Stake Center at 8:00. I went with President Thomas and Elder Darper and we met with Mbidi Ilunga, self-reliance center director, and Justin Mukuna, Katuba Stake President. There were 62 brethren and one sister who came to the meeting looking for work. Our objective was to explain the assignment and assist them in organizing themselves under the umbrella of a privately owned company registered with the government. They couldn’t be church employees and the church couldn’t sponsor the project or the company.
The objective was to explain the scope of the first project that was to build two homes as a trial and determine the pricing that would be charged. Graham said they would be building as many as 75 homes and later a shopping mall. This is on the road to the airport and a perfect location. The complex would be occupied by corporate employees, mostly ex-patriots living here for work but form out of country. Any work opportunity is important and we hope this will provide some additional jobs.
The other Monday activity was to have a joint meeting with Andre Kahenga of the MOH and Beya from the handicapped association to coordinate the reporting for the wheelchair project. The church monitors the placement of chairs to determine the distribution of the inventory and the types of chairs most used. They also conduct interviews with recipients 6 months after placement to determine how the chair may have changed the recipient’s life in allowing them to become more self-reliant. The best part of the meeting was that we had Steve Mutombo, our 2nd translator and the new in-country coordinator conduct the meeting. He had prepared by having the forms loaded on his computer and demonstrating with Andre at the keyboard in how to complete and use the forms. He them copied the forms formats to Andre’s flash drive so he would take ownership. We have always told Steve that he was one of our most important humanitarian projects. We were proud of him on Monday.
We concluded the day by giving the lesson in FHE. I’d have to say that FHE has really helped us as senior missionaries bond with the other seniors. It is the only church meeting held during the week that we can understand and it give us a chance to feel the spirit and express testimony. Our lesson was # 36 on justification and becoming joint-heirs with Christ.
Six weeks previous, we had been required to pay $3,950 of our own money for the release of the wheelchairs and the vision equipment. This was clearly the Ministry of Health’s responsibility but they said if we waited for the document clearance process, it would take 6-8 weeks and we would never receive the release of the chair and vision equipment in time for our projects and the trainers who were coming from the U.S. We had been reimbursed by the Church but never believed we would see the day that the government honored their commitment. That day arrived on Tuesday with another tender mercy. We spent the morning with Patrick from the MOH office. He is in charge of finances and he took us to the Ministry of Finance where we visited with several people while waiting for over 3 hours to receive our refund. I happened to make friends with a woman who was in the waiting room. I thought she was of no particular significance other than I showed her pictures of the vision and wheelchair projects and told her of the humanitarian work we were doing. In the end after moving to another office, she was the cashier who disbursed the refund money to us. She asked if her neighborhood could be involved in the Regideso project and thanked us for the work we were doing. I could have spoken to any of two dozen people, but the very person we needed to help us was the only one I was impressed to speak with. I hope the tender mercies don’t stop when we return home.
Tuesday is when we received confirmation of our return routing by church travel. It seems perfect. We leave on October 4th at 14:55 and arrive in SLC on October 5th at 13:30. We travel from Lubumbashi to Ndola, to Nairobi, to Amsterdam, to SLC. 23 hours flying time and about 10 hours in combined layovers.
Valentinne of Malaika TV has become another friend who has helped us. She is very friendly to the Church and has produced two 30-minute TV documentaries and is now producing another two. Everyone here is unafraid to talk religion and faith regardless of the situation. While providing TV coverage on our Kafubu Health Zone pump repair project and the Kisanga General Hospital water storage coverage, she spoke of her daughter, Sublime, as being the most beautiful girl in the world. As a mother, she asked for and we provided her a copy of the Bible and the Book of Mormon for teaching her daughter.
At the end of the day on Wednesday, we met with Graham McMurtry, who took us to a deaf school in Bel Air. It was started by Dr. Andrew Foster from Michigan. He also provided funding for similar schools in Likasi, Kolwezi and Kamina before his death. It looks like no funding has been provided since his death almost a decade ago. This will have to be a project for the next couple.
Our final activity of the day on Wednesday was to have dinner together with all the seniors. We discovered a Chinese restaurant called Xin Xin that is located on the road behind the Grand Karavia. We discovered this restaurant when we asked Matilda, Steve’s fiancĂ© to choose her favorite restaurant to celebrate Steve’s new job with the Church. She chose this one but when asked what she wanted to order, when told us she had never been inside, she just liked to building.
Thursday was spent closing projects and catching up on paperwork that we had procrastinated until the end. The banking process is very frustrating here. We have to spend our own money and then wait for 2-4 weeks to get it reimbursed. Long story short, I had submitted 4 different requests for reimbursement over the previous month and none had been honored at the bank. It amounted to nearly $5,000 and although it took a two hour wait in the manager’s office, we were able to clear all 4 of them in a single day. Unheard of, impossible; Marcel would refer to this as the “Invisible Hand” (that has helped us frequently)
Friday morning we shopped for missionary supplies with Sister Cook , Sister Vance and E/S Draper. We also visited several fabric shops in between, a favorite pastime of Shelley’s. In the afternoon we had been invited to Katimel Orphanage to a party. Fifi, the Catholic nun in charge of Katimel said the girls had requested the party and she told them as long as they organized the party and cooked all of the food she was agreed. It was delightful; they served refreshments they made themselves, danced and sang for us and gave us some going away presents. We have loved our association with the girls at Katimel. We painted their rooms together, gave them new beds and mattresses, ate their first pizza together, provided back packs for school and supplied them sewing machines, fabric and sewing instructions. Fifi’s tribute to us was particularly touching.
She said:
You couldn’t speak the language, but that didn’t stop you
The color of our skin didn’t stop you
Religious differences didn’t stop you
You saw the person as an individual and you have helped us all individually, Thank You.
Friday evening we went shopping for paint for Steve’s new home and picked up his newly constructed furniture to deliver to his home. Saturday we solicited the Sisters and we spent the morning preparing his new home for painting. We took some pictures and will share them later.
Today, Sunday was our last full Sunday in Lubumbashi and we chose to attend Kisanga 2nd Ward. This is where Mbidi is the Bishop, Steve is one of his counselors and Marcel is also a member of this ward. President Tshibanda was there conducting. We were both asked to bear our testimonies and they fussed over us all day. Elder Wright commented that we need to be prepared for a real letdown in returning home, because here we are treated like rock stars or at least general authorities. We’re looking forward to the events of General Conference and were saddened with the death of Elder Scott. This may be our last letter and let me just say that I have enjoyed documenting the events of our mission and it has primarily been for my record. I’ve been happy to share these emails with you and appreciate your support throughout our mission.
Love Dad, (Elder Davis)