Saturday and Sunday

It's hard to keep track of what the day of the week is, right now, much less the dates. We have been going so hard and seeing so much it feels like we have been in the CAR for a week and a half already, not just four days!


Saturday


In the morning we arose before the sun. We wanted to get on the road early for our trip to Mbaiki. Departure time was at 7:00 a.m. We met Janet Varner at the GBIM mission station and then loaded into two trucks for the 2 hour trip. The purpose of the trip was to introduce us to the 3 year young Bible school.




The 2 hour trip was an inundation in sights, sound, and smells. The drive bordered on sensory overload for some of us as we took in the lifestyle of the people who live in this area. The road out of the capitol city had a steady stream of people walking along both sides of the road as they travelled to the countryside to farm or gather wood to take back to the city and sell. We had been driving for 30 min. and were still seeing people on this mission! It was mind boggling to see what lengths people here were travelling by foot.




The homes we passed were varried. The most common home was made of baked clay bricks and palm frond roofs. These are mostly one room huts and the cooking and washing is done outside in the front yard which dirt. The majority of the homes had items sitting in their front yards to sell to passerbys. The most popular (and the most pungent) is a food these people love call gozo or mantioch. This food is actually a root which is soaked for 3 days to remove the poison, crumbled into small pieces and then dried before being put through a press and then mixed with water.











We took a break from the travel and stopped to visit a gorgeous waterfall. It is amazing to view God's creativity!

We arrived at the Mbaike Bible school around 11 and were encouraged to rest and eat before we were given an official tour. Fresh banana's and delicious cooked squash were served to us as well as the feast that we had brought to share. Lisa and Nancy had the opportunity to speak with one of the teachers at length and find out more in depth about the ministry at the school





This is an African run Bible school that has 13 couples enrolled for the fall semester. Janet Varner teaches women theology, knitting, discipleship, and even math 2 days a week. All the other teaching is done by Central Africans. We loved seeing and hearing about the school and were very impressed by their vision for the people here. We even got to see one of their daughters using water from an ICDI well.







Upon arriving back at the mission we discovered we had several hours before dinner, just enough time to hit the artisan market. Always an experience in culture when you barter with people, we got some good deals, and enjoyed the relational experiencing of haggling people down from 7,000 francs to 3,000 francs ($6).




Dinner was a wonderful time of sharing common experiences with the other GBIM missionaries as they hosted us to pizza and ice cream, african style. It's been such a pleasure and honor to rub shoulders with people I have been praying for, in the case of Janet Varner, my whole life. We stopped to take a picture with WLGBC missionary Tina Walker.






Sunday:


Today has been a day of rest. It couldn't have come at a better time. We have sat around for hours discussing culture and experiences and our thoughts on everything from the poverty we are seeing to the amazingly vital faith of these people.

Church this morning was a whole new experience as we worshiped with our brothers and sisters in a different language. Although most of us had no idea what was being said, we knew that we were worshiping the same God and are united together in our faith. What an incredble opportunity!

Thank you so much for your prayers and your support. Please continue to pray for us as we experience such new things and want the Lord's guidance in understanding them. We have had amazing unity on the team thus far, and we would appreciate your prayers that this continues. We leave tomorrow for Berberati. So far travel has been safe and we ask for your prayers that God continues to protect us and give us good traveling conditions. Thank you...

Diving Head First Into Africa!

Please excuse the tardiness of this entry... you will soon find out why it hasn't arrived sooner!

WEDNESDAY: We arrived into Paris after a long day of travel, and excitedly went into the city after freshening up at a hotel. We grabbed an all day metro pass for the city and stopped at the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, walked along the Siene, had a marvelous lunch including french onion soup and chocolate crepes! We picked up GBIM missionaries Rob and Nicole Plaster, and landed in a french bistro for a cafe au lait and pain au chocolat! Oh-la-la... this break was very much needed as we were going on 6-7 hrs of sleep in 2 days. We very much enjoyed our time in beautiful Paris. We all gave our spouses a kiss at the Eiffel Tour as it is le cite de l'amour.... :)

THURSDAY: We boarded our plane for Bangui at midnight on Thursday. We enjoyed the most amazing dinner on the flight- Air France. We arrived into Bagui Airport at 6 AM. Our trip to our housing was the first major culture shock for most of us. As we drove through the capital city we saw the life of CAR every where. We are staying at the sweetest Baptist Misson, with the most wonderful African men. (Andre, our cook, made fresh bread this morning and then with it made the greatest french toast of my life!) We headed off to a small village where ICDI was completing a well. They were just about to finish installing the pump and see if it would work. This small village was a bible school. A lot of the children had been getting sick because their water wasn't clean. Abe had the privelege of priming the pump, and drawing from it the first pure, clean water this small village had ever used. Their response when they first splashes of water poured out was overwhelming. They cheered, danced, yelled, sang.... it was a wonderful moment. Very emotional. We were so happy to share it with them. The women and children all brought up every jug in the village to have it filled, as if they thought it wouldn't last long. They were so excited. What a beautiful way to spend the afternoon.

We continued in Bangui to see the ICDI office where we met many of the godly men with big hearts who have commited their lives to the vision of ICDI; Josue, Farel, Dimanche, Marceiln and David Zokoe. Next we traveled over ICDI's orphan care center, where we were greeted by many beautiful children, who sang and gave us flowers. We met with each of the leaders of the four parts of the center: HIV and True Love Waits, Micro Enterprise Development, Orphan Care (food, medicine, clothing), and the Mme Hibaile's sewing group. True Love Waits oversees many groups in Bangui who encourage kids to be abstinent, and also care for kids with AIDS, and help with AIDS awareness. A woman named Antoinette shared with us her ministry of Micro Enterprise, which gives loans to people in order to help them start a buisness. ICDI has given out 5 loans since Antoinette started, and she showed the huge stack of requests. Two men, with huge hearts, Christoph and Williams talked with us about the Orphan Care. Orphans meet once a week with their group, and frequently visit the Center for health care, nutrition, food, or school supplies. Sadly, a little girl that was in the group died 10 days ago from the HIV virus. Next we met with 4 orphan girls that are in Mme. Hibaile's sewing group. They have been sewing 6 months, and should us a table full of beautiful baby clothes they had made. This ministry is very empowering to these girls sense of value and self- esteem.

FRIDAY: We began our day by meeting the GBIM missionaries in Bangui. They took us to see the amazing new orphan care center and school that is currently being built. We enjoyed lunch with them talking to them about their passion, and they experience in CAR. Nate, Jo, Abe and I had a great conversation with Winona Lake missionary Tina Walker about her ministry with True Love Waits. She spoke with us and answered many questions about HIV, and the viscious cycles of the the Africans lifestyles which lead them to contracting HIV. Please be praying for the GBIM missionaries as they have a huge, and exhausting task. It was wonderful to hear from Tina the way in which some of the teens ARE changing, and are encouraging their peers to change as well. Next we went to see Mme. Zokwe who has been a part of the Micro Enterprise Development. She has been doing a chicken business for the past 2 years because of a loan that ICDI gave her. She showed us their housing, and talked to us all about the complexities of her business. She recieves 800-900 chicks at once! We conlcluded our day by visiting an orphan care group. More beautiful faces greeted us with song and flowers. They sang many songs for us, a handful of kids voluntarily stood up and quoted scripture, and a young boy stood up and prayed for the group. They neighboorhood kids stood around back... and they knew the praise songs. We brought them gifts of pencils, balloons and frisbees. The frisbees we a huge hit. Nate and Joanna taught the group how to play "monkey in the middle." I sat and talked to some of the girls, who thought it was ridiculous that I didn't have babies, and even MORE ridiculous that i was waiting to finish school to have them. They asked Joanna if she had any, when she said "no", they told her she needed to have some. They were fascinated by our skin, and hair. They couldn't get over how fine our hair was. They kept screaming, petting it and saying "Very NICE!" I let mine down, and they braided it for me, and gave me a silk flower to wear.

We have seen so much! Please pray that we will keep up with it all, and not become TOO overwhelmed. We are all in good health, and have had no security problems. We are so happy to be here with our African brothers and sisters, and to meet others. They are a blessing. Abe and I are headed off to bed. We will fill you in on todays adventures, as well as tommorow's worship service... by tommorow. Promise... if there's electricity. :) We are thinking about you all back home, and appreciate your prayers very much. We love you. Lisa, Abe, Nate and Jo, Jay and Deb, Nancy and Jim, And Jim H.

Written by Lisa Wright

p.s. These are the verses that Jim started our day with today:

If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.

Jim also updated his blog at www.icdinternational.org

Deut. 15:7-8

We made it!

Hi friends & family! After two days of traveling, we made it safely to Bangui. Everyone is doing great... just a little jetlagged. The last two nights we tried to get as much sleep as possible on the plane, and we are definitely looking forward to real beds tonight.

I am posting the picture of the team taken a few minutes before we left for the airport. We will post some more pictures of our day in Paris later today.

Thanks to everyone who is praying for us.

- Abe

Welcome to our blog! We will be updating this site from Africa so that you can know what we are up to and how to pray for us.

We are excited to share in this adventure with you. Thanks for supporting us!

Abe & Lisa Wright, Nate & Joanna Zuck, Jay & Debbie Hocking, James & Nancy Zuck, Jim Hocking