Skipton Baptist Church Blog

BridgetL — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:09:47 +0000

7 April 2012
Dear Friends
It’s early morning on Easter Saturday and before the sun has even appeared above the horizon, groups of people have started pouring on to the centre for baptism services. Some groups are relatively small (15-20), others may be several hundred strong. It puts quite a strain on resources particularly when the power is off and water has to be hauled by hand to fill the open air baptistery.
This is also the day that our church youth group has decided to have an outing to Chemchemi, a Roman Catholic farm/agricultural training school, not too far up the road from here. The word ‘picnic’ not having yet really found its way into everyday vocabulary, some of the girls will have been up all night, preparing food for the day: rice, spaghetti, chips, nsima (the maize-based staple, popular here), chicken, fish and green vegetables, not forgetting the popcorn and peanuts! There’s a full programme of debates, talks, testimonies, songs and drama, with the young people themselves taking charge this time. Previously, they have always invited outside speakers so this should be good experience for them.
College has a 2 week break over Easter, although the third year students will be starting their month of work experience in churches around the city. They are also hard at work, researching their final assignments, without which they won’t complete their 3 year course. All the other students are relaxing – one even found time to get married! I visited the young couple yesterday morning on my way back from checking out the tree-planting going on at the site of the soon-to-be built conference/retreat centre. Ideally, the trees should have gone in sooner as it now looks as though the rains are pretty much finished for this year, but we are putting in 2 year old seedlings we have grown ourselves from seed for the most part and they’re quite sturdy. I’m hoping they’ll be drought resistant as well. We have planted Malabar Chestnut, guava, mulberry and pawpaw (there are 2 mango trees already well established). If everything flourishes, we should have a tasty fruit and nut corner in the garden (sadly, no chocolate!). In addition we have put in quite a lot of fir trees and palm trees. There’s a long way to go but I’m cautious about creating a lot of work for the dry season as any water will have to be hauled from the small river in the valley below. Plus, with the builders trampling over large areas, I’d rather wait until they finish before we put in flowering shrubs and other plants.
I’m busy writing exams, which the students will sit straight after the Easter break and preparing for 2 days teaching in different ladies’ groups in the city. I also in a weak moment agreed to spend a few days teaching in a small Bible school in Kolwezi in early May. Not that I wasn’t happy to do it but as I expect to fly to UK on 21 May, I know that I will have left myself a mountain of jobs to do before I get on the plane.
… It’s now almost 7pm. The last church group has just made its way down to the baptistery as the sun sets and a wedding party is leaving college on their way to the
reception at a local function room. We had a great day at Chemchemi even if we didn’t quite squeeze in everything that had been planned. I left them with one hour to go before
the bus came to take them home and got back here in time for English Bible study group. Lots and lots of question tonight so we ran over but we can always come back to some
questions next week. The newly formed youth choir gave their first performance!! Singing in a circle is quite common here, when it’s unaccompanied other than by the
rhythm of bamboo sticks. When it came to games, I’m not sure who was the most competitive! Serge speaking about the qualities of love found in God. Serge is recovering from TB and can’t stand for long periods of time. Earlier on another young leader, Espoir, had led a lively debate on the theme ‘Can God repent?’ I’m looking forward to my 2 month break in the UK and the opportunity to catch up with friends and family. I’m sure the time will go fast!
With love and thanks for all your continued support and encouragement,
Bridge

BridgetL — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:06:56 +0000

7 April 2012
Dear Friends
It’s early morning on Easter Saturday and before the sun has even appeared above the horizon, groups of people have started pouring on to the centre for baptism services. Some groups are relatively small (15-20), others may be several hundred strong. It puts quite a strain on resources particularly when the power is off and water has to be hauled by hand to fill the open air baptistery.
This is also the day that our church youth group has decided to have an outing to Chemchemi, a Roman Catholic farm/agricultural training school, not too far up the road from here. The word ‘picnic’ not having yet really found its way into everyday vocabulary, some of the girls will have been up all night, preparing food for the day: rice, spaghetti, chips, nsima (the maize-based staple, popular here), chicken, fish and green vegetables, not forgetting the popcorn and peanuts! There’s a full programme of debates, talks, testimonies, songs and drama, with the young people themselves taking charge this time. Previously, they have always invited outside speakers so this should be good experience for them.
College has a 2 week break over Easter, although the third year students will be starting their month of work experience in churches around the city. They are also hard at work, researching their final assignments, without which they won’t complete their 3 year course. All the other students are relaxing – one even found time to get married! I visited the young couple yesterday morning on my way back from checking out the tree-planting going on at the site of the soon-to-be built conference/retreat centre. Ideally, the trees should have gone in sooner as it now looks as though the rains are pretty much finished for this year, but we are putting in 2 year old seedlings we have grown ourselves from seed for the most part and they’re quite sturdy. I’m hoping they’ll be drought resistant as well. We have planted Malabar Chestnut, guava, mulberry and pawpaw (there are 2 mango trees already well established). If everything flourishes, we should have a tasty fruit and nut corner in the garden (sadly, no chocolate!). In addition we have put in quite a lot of fir trees and palm trees. There’s a long way to go but I’m cautious about creating a lot of work for the dry season as any water will have to be hauled from the small river in the valley below. Plus, with the builders trampling over large areas, I’d rather wait until they finish before we put in flowering shrubs and other plants.
I’m busy writing exams, which the students will sit straight after the Easter break and preparing for 2 days teaching in different ladies’ groups in the city. I also in a weak moment agreed to spend a few days teaching in a small Bible school in Kolwezi in early May. Not that I wasn’t happy to do it but as I expect to fly to UK on 21 May, I know that I will have left myself a mountain of jobs to do before I get on the plane.
… It’s now almost 7pm. The last church group has just made its way down to the baptistery as the sun sets and a wedding party is leaving college on their way to the
reception at a local function room. We had a great day at Chemchemi even if we didn’t
quite squeeze in everything that had been planned. I left them with one hour to go before
the bus came to take them home and got back here in time for English Bible study group.
Lots and lots of question tonight so we ran over but we can always come back to some
questions next week.
The newly formed youth choir gave their first
performance!! Singing in a circle is quite common
here, when it’s unaccompanied other than by the
rhythm of bamboo sticks.
When it came to games, I’m not sure who was the most competitive!
Serge speaking about the qualities of love found in God. Serge is
recovering from TB and can’t stand for long periods of time. Earlier
on another young leader, Espoir, had led a lively debate on the
theme ‘Can God repent?’
I’m looking forward to my 2 month break in the UK and the opportunity to catch up with
friends and family. I’m sure the time will go fast!
With love and thanks for all your continued support and encouragement,
Bridge

BridgetL — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:25:16 +0000

Dear Friends
Goodbye drought!
The sky early this morning looked as if it had had a good scrub. The rains have returned! The earth is gulping down every drop and the ground is already greening over outside my house. I’ve just been reading Psalm 104 and find it reassuring that God makes the lightning to serve him! Storms here can be both magnificent and terrifying – some may remember that the centre was struck by lightning last rainy season and some damage done, though thankfully, no one was injured.
The first rains bring the first flying ants and I enjoyed an evening spectacle as they danced in the last gold rays of the setting sun – to the huge delight of all my chickens practising their vertical take-off skills and getting a good meal into the bargain.
College re-opens after the annual holiday
November has also seen the return of the ISTELU students (theological college) plus the arrival of a new group of students in year one. I haven’t quite worked out how many there are as there has been a fair bit of absenteeism. Two students who are related were off for the funeral of their mother/aunt and another has been away in Kinshasa for the wedding of his daughter to a Congolese doctor who lives in the UK. It seems marrying someone who lives abroad is quite the thing at the moment. My neighbour’s daughter has just got married to a young Congolese man who lives and works in Canada! Lylie is from a huge family of brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles and a grandmother who with the parents all live together. I wonder if she has thought how different life will be away from the support of her extended family.
I’m hoping by next week, things will have settled down at college and we can get down seriously to the business of teaching. We are quite short staffed, with 3 colleagues currently away from Lubumbashi and a fourth often tied up with university studies and other teaching commitments, so I have been doing all the hours I can. With 5 computer classes and two English classes, plus preaching duties in morning worship, I’m kept well busy! Kym (Delport), is helping out with an extra computer class for the final year students as her knowledge of Excel programme is undoubtedly better than mine.
Youth Bible Reading notes … and Presidential/legislative elections
Last weekend, I was away overnight on a training/refresher programme for writers of Scripture Union’s Bible reading notes for young people (the notes are distributed throughout French-speaking Africa). The notes we write this year complete the series of 6. We had a great time of fellowship and, among other things, looked at some different approaches to reading the Bible based on Jewish and monastic traditions. We stayed in the newly opened Methodist Guest House and took the opportunity to visit the enormous building being constructed on the site. We were told it would seat a church of 5000 people. Adjacent buildings for offices and meeting rooms were almost as huge.
It was blissfully quiet, a fact which just about everyone commented on, coming as we had done from the hurly-burly of the city, with its all night bars, all night church meetings and the endless streams of vehicles bearing politician’s supporters on their way to election rallies. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to attract customers/evangelise/win supporters, everyone announces their intentions with full amplification, whatever the hour! Given that there are over 18,000 candidates vying for 500 posts in central government, including over 600 here looking to fill 13 positions, it’s not surprising everyone is working flat out in the 30 days allowed for campaigning. We’re thankful that earlier violence seems to have subsided and we are praying for peaceful elections and a trouble-free post-election period. Join with us! Elections are due to be held on 28 November, the results to be announced on 6 December.
With love and thanks for your fellowship in this work,

Bridget

BridgetL — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 10:14:47 +0000

Dear Friends
I had thought of writing this blog around the theme of marathons but then knew you would all get completely the wrong idea and think I had suddenly taken up running! That would be too far away from the truth by far, although no doubt my waistline would think it an excellent idea! Never mind. Somewhere not too far away, a carpenter is beavering away constructing a table tennis table for the youth group and me to enjoy. I’ll get some exercise somehow.
Bemba translation of basic Christian teaching booklets
You may remember this being mentioned before – not being a Bemba speaker my role in the process was to get everything down accurately on the computer ready for printing. There were a few hiccoughs and discouragements along the way but finally we got together one last time, the two translators Pastor Jean and Guy, plus a Bemba advisor, Patrick and myself for what turned out to be a marathon of a day from early morning till 7pm. With some excellent input from Patrick who had experience of the language both sides of the Congo/Zambia border, we were able to dot the last ‘i’ and cross the last ‘t’. A satisfying result. It was only the next day when I got up to go to church that I remembered I had spent 10 hours sitting on a hard wooden chair, barely moving. (I didn’t make it to church though I stumbled slightly over my excuse to the Pastor and his family with whom I usually hitch a ride. Ended up saying I was a little stiff…)
Prayer vigil
These are common in churches here where prayer together is seen as important but often doesn’t fit in to people’s busy schedules (though an intercession group in a church generally has a weekly night of prayer). I confess that they don’t usually feature in my programme but New Year’s Eve is an exception. Like everyone else I had wrapped up warmly with multiple layers. Some people brought mats and blankets and stretched out when it all became a bit much but for once I didn’t struggle as much with the need to sleep. Several choirs animated the event with short messages and prayers taking us through to 5.30 in the morning. There were many exchanges of ‘Bonne Année’ before we all headed home. I had planned a quiet day with the option of a doze in the afternoon but part way through the morning the phone rang. Pastor Fidèle from Scripture Union, was wanting to borrow a flip chart to use at a seminar the following day. He arrived with some of his children in tow and announced that his wife had sent him to take me back with them! I spent a delightful afternoon having lunch and chatting with Fidèle and his wife, with the children and various other visitors coming and going. Much better than snoozing away the day.
Artemisia and sunflowers
I’m always dreadfully impatient when it comes to waiting for things to grow and be ready for harvesting. The abundance of rain at this time of year means that we quickly have luxuriant growth but that doesn’t speed up the food production! Just this week though we have cropped our first Artemisia (the medicinal plant whose leaves are meant to help as a cure for malaria) and the sunflowers are finally bursting into flower. They make a beautiful display and seem to keep the local bee population very busy. Yesterday I ate the first beans and soon there will be maize and maybe some sweet potatoes. There will be no shortage either of people willing to help me eat everything. In my circle of friends are several students who are studying in Lubumbashi but whose families live a long way away. They are never sure where their next meal is coming from. A friend of mine with a year old baby is separated from her husband and other children and struggles constantly with her own depression as well as the health needs of her baby. And then there are my missionary colleagues…
Greetings
I’ve just received the card that many of you signed! It’s lovely to be reminded of you all and I continue to pray for you, glad that you do the same for me!
Love

Bridget

Photos to follow!!

Bemba Bible Masengo trims the leaves off the first Artemisia bush ready for drying in the oven.

Someone has to be the first to try Artemisia tea
Well done, Judith!

And it had 2 spoons of honey in it!

BridgetL — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 12:45:40 +0000

November 2010
Dear Friends
A boubou (left) flew into my house the other day, much to my surprise and that of Nyota, my dog. We’re used to sparrows and fire finches flying in if the front door is left open but this is at least twice the size of a sparrow! Mercifully, he left without putting up a fight and Nyota’s interest did not convert into an early supper.
After discussion with the English conversation group that meets two evenings a week at my house, we now have Bible study on Saturday evenings (in English) and Monday evening is a ‘fun’ evening during which we do anything else the group chooses! Yesterday it was Scrabble with 12 young people divided into 4 teams, pitching against each other to achieve the highest score. The word ‘crazy’ springs to mind. They were highly competitive but it was all good natured. Several of the group have just learned their exam results, and to our great delight, Didi and Ezra were successful, unlike last year. Albert, who was doing a degree in hospital management, is thrilled to have made the grade too. He now begins the long search for work. Dr Moses, one of the group’s founder members, has put together all his paperwork and sadly, like many young Congolese doctors, is heading out of the country to look for work in either Botswana or Angola where salaries and working conditions are so much better than here. He has applied for several jobs in Congo but with not a single response has become discouraged. It still grieves me to see these highly intelligent and dynamic young people leave the country and go off to what they hope will be greener pastures. Some of those who remain behind often become very de-motivated. Moses told us of one girl who he found at home, unemployed and living off her family, after successfully completing 7 years at medical college! A great waste of an education that costs families and the students themselves dearly and also for the country which badly needs more qualified medical personnel.
Clément Musonda (pictured right) works for an environmental project run by the Methodist church. There are two main aspects to the project – to encourage the use of solar ovens and to help people plant and look after different varieties of trees and bushes, (artemisia, neem and moringa), the leaves of which can be used for medicinal purposes.
Always up for a challenge, I’ve purchased 2 solar ovens and am getting the hang of using them. I trust eventually to be able to invite some of the students’ wives to learn how to use them and perhaps they will be able to use them for their small business ventures. To date I’ve successfully baked banana bread and slow cooked two lots of meat, both of which were deliciously tender. Less successfully, I tried a lemon cake but the lid of the oven blew down in the wind and the ensuing uneven temperature produced a cake that tasted fine but looked bizarre. Not sure how much sun we will get over the next 3 months during the rainy season, but if there is enough we’ll have a go. If not, we’ll wait for the dry season.
An artemisia nursery near Lubumbashi
I hope to get some land prepared soon so that we can begin a small tree nursery, then the trees can later be transplanted to areas of the Centre where new development is planned. The welcome rain which fell this morning should make the ground easier to work.
This comes with love, prayers and lots of thanks for all you did for me while I was in UK this year.
Bridget

PS Rob is trying to get the pictures to appear for me so please watch this space!

RobH — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:56:51 +0000

Hi
I am just working on the website at the moment trying to improve what we are doing

RobH — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:50:56 +0000

Hi
I’m just working on the web site to try and improve what we do

Rob

BridgetL — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:50:53 +0000

January 2010
What a diary you must have!
This from a friend who should know me better than to think I can do anything as organized as keep a regular diary. But so she’s not too disappointed, here are some notes from the diary that doesn’t exist…
A day in November 2009
My befuddled brain tried to work out which was worst – finding that I was sharing my bed with a lizard or 5 minutes later on my return from the bathroom, not being able to find the lizard ! Where had it gone? Would I wake up in the night to find it had returned? What kind of lizard was it anyway? Too tired to reach a satisfactory conclusion, rolled over and fell asleep almost immediately. Creatures were clearly on the move. Next morning there was a huge cockroach in my shoe – and cockroaches I do not like. I have tried really hard. I’ve even called them brown beetles, which helps a bit but not enough. I was in the end woken soon after 5am, not by the lizard but by one of the puppies outside, hollering for all it was worth. I crawled out of bed to prepare some warm milk. By the time the milk was ready and I’d made a cup of tea, the puppy had retreated into the kennel, joining the cozy heap of its sleeping siblings.
The next day …
Praise group took the roof off at church this morning with ‘Worthy is the Lamb’ sung in English then in Lingala. Lots of worship songs here are sung in 3 or 4 languages one after the other. It’s sometimes a challenge to know what language we’re singing in!
Guess what – he’s back! Why do I assume it’s a ‘he’? Smart stripy outfit and leering at me from the end of my bed. I refer, of course, to my ‘friend’ the lizard.
Youth group – a December afternoon – making garlands and Christmas cards. Something none of them had ever done. Although you do see Christmas cards in some of the shops in town, there’s no great custom of exchanging cards or gifts at Christmas here. On the other hand, the young people have yet to turn down the chance to do something creative. We had great fun, using all the bits and pieces I’d been able to put together, shapes cut out from old Christmas wrapping paper, glitter bequeathed by some teachers visiting from the UK, felt tips and some pastels that I got on Skipton market… plus oodles of glue! Even the templates got used. The end results were … not bad at all! I overheard one young boy proudly tell his neighbour ‘I don’t do technology at school but I can do this’. In schools here the orientation towards a career starts very young. Secondary school leavers may be primary school teachers the next day or set up their own tailoring, carpentry or car mechanic’s business. Subjects like art, music, drama fall by the wayside or never really happen and then it seems to me some part of who we were created to be remains under developed. At the end of the session, Papa Kas as we call Mr Kasongo, who’s in charge of Christian education at Kawama church, thanked God for his gift of creativity. It struck me that it was the first time I’d heard ‘creativity’ mentioned in a prayer since I came to Congo thirty some years ago!
Week before Christmas
I asked some friends if they’d be doing anything special for Christmas. Okende said that they would try to buy new clothes for the three youngest children in the family and that if there was enough money, they would buy rice for their meal. And, of course, he said, they would be going to church to thank God for having brought them safely through the year. Contrast with Mathy, a young hairdresser friend, who comes occasionally to talk English for an hour. Her family planned to buy rice, 3 kilos of beef, chickens, fish (tilapia), eggs and plenty to drink for everyone – and oh, of course, they would be going to Mass to thank God for having brought them safely through the year…
Christmas Day
Started the morning by joining Debbie and the church she’s part of at Luwowoshi, an area of new development on the edge of the city and a tented church in the middle of a great drift of long grass! The children’s choirs were well rehearsed and gave a lovely performance, far more confident than most children of their age in UK, while the young people did a simple re-telling of the story of the birth of Jesus, the visit of the shepherds and the wise men. Debbie had worked hard with them, including some overnight rehearsals and for once we didn’t finish up with the slaughter of the young children in the Bethlehem area, normally a highlight of local performances.
After church I joined a missionary family who live not too far away, with their two children and a Congolese friend, for a ‘traditional’ Christmas meal with all the trimmings, a Christmas tree (made from 3 upturned palm brooms), presents and lots of silly games!
New Year’s Day
I’d been invited to a service at a ‘Ministry’ in Kamalondo, across the other side of the city. Lubumbashi is awash with ‘Ministries’, small independent groups headed up variously by pastors, apostles, prophets and patriarchs! In this case the pastor is the brother of my good friend Esther, whose family I have got to know well. I picked up Esther and Eben-Ezer (her sister), in front of the Methodist centre and we made our way to another tent but this time one in the heart of a built up area. The service, which included the commissioning of Girls’ Brigade officers and the dedication of the first elders and deacons, started at 3pm or thereabouts and finished at 7pm. The early part of the service was accompanied by spasmodic explosions which had us all leaping out of and back into our skin – not gunfire, mercifully, but left over bangers from the night’s festivities which small children were taking great delight in doing what small children like to do with fireworks! Those who lasted the course of the lengthy service were rewarded with a soft drink and snacks – popcorn, peanuts and ‘crunchies’.
Shambuy came to the door this morning with a small bundle of sticks, dripping with resin. Firelighters Congo style! We’ve had another dearth of daytime power, so the charcoal brazier is back in use. With days and nights of drenching rain, there’s not a dry stick to be found so these will stop Anni having to come up with all sorts of ideas to persuade the charcoal to burn!
(We’ve since had a chance to use them. Amazing. Instant fire. I’ve never seen charcoal light so quickly!)
You probably need to have read this as a 3 part serial. I didn’t realize how long it had become. I should write more often!
Christmas and all your cards arrived again on 15 January. Much enjoyed! I should really take them down though…
Love and thanks for your support, prayers and love,

Bridget

RobH — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:41:51 +0000

Changing the world one life at a time

We will be running a Christians Against Poverty Money Course at the end of January. (Click button on home page for more information) Talking to the people at CAP, one of them was telling me that when someone comes to faith because of the help and friendship they have received a ships bell is rung in their office in Bradford. This is to let everyone who works there know the good news, Not only has someone got their debt under control they have also found a new life in Christ.

I liked the idea so much that I invited the church on the first Sunday of the New Year to do something similar. Being Baptist I didn’t think bells would quite work for us but everyone here is familiar with prayer sticks (over grown lolly pop sticks that you write the name of someone or some cause you want to pray for and carry it with you).

My suggestion was this, that as we journey into the New Year there will be people and places where we will want to make a difference because we love Jesus. So I suggested we wrote the names of those people or places on a stick and when we see God at work and a difference being made in their live or in those places we have named we bring the stick back and place it in the ‘love vase’ (a large heart shaped vase that will be at the front of the church). I told people they could then take another stick and over the course of the year I hoped we would have the joy of seeing the jar filled to overflowing - a testimony to God at work changing lives, one life at a time.

The difference can be big or small it doesn’t matter, it’s just that I believe we as church can make a difference in this world and in our community one life at a time and in doing so change the world.

Rob

New Website

RobH — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:25:40 +0000

Back in June this year I was fortunate enough to be given a three montn sabbatical by the church. During that time I decided that it would be good to do some theological thinking and a little practical work.

The practical work was to learn how to design and build a new website for the church as our old one was getting a little creeky round the edges.

Two months of intensive labour went on during the summer to get the basic site into place and then when I was back in the office things slowed down as I began to fill the site with information.

I am glad to say that as of today it is done, well that is until everyone lets me know what needs to be changed from typo’s to information.

Hope you like what you see