February 22, 2015 - Clark

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

This was a very different week for me.  Our mission president, President Thomas, asked me to help with the transition of the finance function.  He had requested the area auditors come to do some training.  Rolf Randall from Johannesburg and Tommy Muhemedi from Kinshasa came on Monday and spent the week doing training and auditing the work of Sister Anthony.  From Monday thru Friday noon, I spent with the auditors and the sisters involved in the accounting function change.  It began to feel much more like my old work and a job rather than a calling.  I was glad to see Friday come.

On Friday we were able to spend the afternoon with David Frischknecht, the Director of Temporal Affairs from Johannesburg.  This is the equivalent of the church’s full-time position that works with the Presiding Bishopric’s Office.  We visited Enoch from the Ministry of Health and Serge and Peter from Regideso.  These are people with whom we have been developing water Projects.  We also visited the market rebuild site where the construction department of the church was involved in building new shelters from displaced vendors from a fire near the Lubumbashi Stake Center.  

Our time together with Brother Frischknecht also included a trip to the Quartier Congo, a neighborhood, where we are proposing a water line extension with Regideso, the local water utility.  The neighborhood is extremely poor and we had to transverse a very muddy and wet road in order to arrive at the neighborhood safely.  Following these events, we had dinner with President and Sister Thomas.

Speaking of wet and muddy roads, we had a memorable and nerve racking experience on Wednesday.  We were schedule to attend a meeting at the Kisanga Stake Center to talk about our member self-reliance project with Elder and Sister Lee Kimball.  This is the farming project we have been working with Mbidi Ilunga on.  We left the mission home around 4:30 and return home around 8:00 and traveled no further than 5 miles but never reached the meeting.  There was a powerful thunderstorm that created washed out roads and snarled traffic.  We ended up in a virtual parking lot.  The traffic was in the Gegamine Market area and we felt fine until the daylight started to disappear.  All the passengers from other vehicles had gotten out and started walking when the traffic didn’t move.  We were surrounded by a mass of humanity and the traffic was locked solid.  The black face that seemed friendly in the daylight looked much more foreboding in the dark.  We were also concerned when Mbidi Ilunga called about our safety 4 or 5 times while we were stranded.  With the help of our translator, Steve, we were eventually freed from our trail but even if it was only in our minds, it was a hair-raising experience.  Three and a half hours later we returned home exhausted and emotionally spent.

Saturday was spent as a working day with Steve.  We spent the morning in Ruashi.  We first visited Tumaini Orphanage.  This is a real success story.  We had 100 desks left from our Maisha Karavia Institut project because the Director, Peter Kandall, didn’t keep promises made to match our desk contribution.  We decided to give the 100 desks to Tumaini but required some participation on their part.  They had secured a verbal promise from Ruashi Mining to finish their new classrooms so they would be available for new students.  The promise was made 2 years ago and had gone unfulfilled.  We told Tumaini that they needed to contact Ruashi Mining and collect on their promise before we would deliver the desks.  Miracle of miracles, Ruashi Mining responded and we went to inspect their progress.  They will be done in another week to 10 days.  We then went to Maison  des Jeunes, the manufacturers of the desks to check on their delivery schedule.  Everything is coming together perfectly regarding the timing.  Last stop was to make contact with the welder who makes bunk beds which we did.  Mission accomplished, and mom got to stop at a souvenir stand in Ruashi where local artisans display their wares.  Big mistake! All that pent up demand for mother and grandmother was released and price was no object.  I’m half teasing, but for those who know Shelley, she would never negotiate and once she finds something of interest, price doesn’t matter.  The perfect prospect for local vendors, who always expect to dicker and start high (much higher if you are white).  We did have fun and will have some shopping stories to share.  

Today we took David Frischknecht to church with us.  Our objective was to show him some church buildings that need consideration for replacement or upgrade.  We attended Nyashi 2nd and Kutuba 2nd wards.  The Nyashi building is unique in that they have a tent where sacrament meeting is held.  We’ll send photos with mom’s email.  Kutuba 2nd is Flavien’s ward and is just an older building with no power and a generator running in the background.  David also visited with us about member self-reliance projects.  We enjoyed our time together before dropping him off at the Lubumbashi Stake Center on the way to the airport to pick up Kenneth Mofokeng.  Kenneth is the water specialist we have been waiting for in order to move ahead on our water projects.  Wish us luck.

We’ll have both David and Kenneth for dinner before rushing over to the mission home to watch Music and the Spoken Word; A Sunday tradition here in the Congo.

Observations from the week are:

1. Finance training was familiar and comfortable, but more like a job, more like administration and less like true ministering.  
2. Humanitarian service feels like ministering but we wish we could do so much more.  We’re hoping some hurdles are cleared this week that will allow us to accelerate our involvement.
3. Working separately as we did much of the week wasn’t nearly as enjoyable or rewarding.  Even though not perfect, we enjoy being full-time companions.

I’m back on my Sunday sweet roll routine.  I take some to Mikesells every week and then other guest recipients as the mood strikes me.  Last week it was President and Sister Thomas and three new sister missionaries who have moved into our apartment complex.  Well, duty calls, see you next week.

Love, Dad (Elder Davis)