Skipton Baptist Church Blog

Dear All

 The mountain of Chinese cabbage has thankfully subsided and we’re grateful for the tasty recipes we received.  The new glut is grapefruit - it’s probably entirely apocryphal but I understand the name to come from the way the fruit clusters on the trees.  Certainly all the ones in our orchard are heavily laden with fruit and we’re enjoying litres of juice, plus now having a shelf full of marmalade in the store room!  I’ve even managed to freeze some of the juice for use later.  Now all we need is an adequate power supply to keep the freezer running.  That’s a saga in itself.

Earlier this week we were without power but gave it no particular thought to it as powercuts are a feature of life here and some parts of the city which are even more densely populated than Ruashi are worse off than we are.  A year ago, a team from UK came and installed a transformer here at Eau Vive which has greatly assisted the electricity supply.  That was phase 1 of a project, the second phase of which was anticipated for either this year or next.  Since the homes of many of the staff who helped with the heavy manual work are situated the other side of the small river and it wasn’t possible to connect them up last year, the team decided to make sure they returned this year to complete the job.  There is an agreement with the local electricity board that one phase would be made available to some of our immediate neighbours.  To our surprise, some of their operatives arrived out of the blue, claiming they had come to connect up the neighbours.  This despite having said a year ago that our system was unfamiliar to them and that they would be unable to complete their work until the engineer returned to give them additional training on the system.  Naturally we were apprehensive that mistakes might lead to serious damage to the transformer.  In addition, it seemed that far from being our immediate neighbours who were to be linked up to our transformer, it was likely to be a considerable area of Ruashi - which the transformer would almost certainly not support.   We requested they at least wait for the return from a trip to the interior of our mechanic who had worked with the engineer & electricians last year.  He’s due back today!  As of yesterday we were told 56 houses would be connected up to our transformer plus the next door neighbour who’s so determined not to be left out, he’s digging his own ditch all the way along the side of the main road!!  He’s not paid his subscription yet but we assume he will, making the 57th connection.  It’s been quite an uneasy week.  Please pray that things will go smoothly on Monday and that the transformer will survive the experience - also that others won’t try to make ‘illegal’ connections afterwards, a common practice here.

And then the forms!  Afte a relatively quiet 3 months, living on my tourist visa acquired in the UK, it’s now time to fill in all the forms for a permanent visa.  We have bought the necessary forms and I’m working on them today.  They will then need to go to Kinshasa together with my passport as visas are no longer being processed in Lubumbashi.  I’m not someone who enjoys being separated from my passport for great lengths of time.  Having already had one mislaid for 5 years in Kinshasa and another stolen in Kenya, I know how complicated it can be to have them replaced here in Africa!  In addition, my passport is only valid until next October so that I will need to go through the whole process again in 18 months’ time.  Oh joy!!

Finally, a couple of ‘events’ to bear in mind.  I’ve been asked to preach at one of the local churches here in Ruashi on Sunday 3 June (I’m meeting with the pastor, Nday Japheth, on Monday afternoon) and on Saturday 9 June I’m taking the assembly for the Eau Vive primary school.  Both promise to be quite challenging in different ways.  The school assembly is conducted in French (that’s a legal requirement) but the first and second years speak very little French, so holding their attention will be quite something. 

With love to all - keep the e-mails rolling!

Bridget

Dear All

If anyone knows a hundred ways to cook Chinese cabbage, all recipes would be most gratefully received!  I seem to have ended up as part owner of a field of Chinese cabbage together with the family of a medical student at Lubumbashi University.  I’m never quite sure how these things happen.  I’m also the regular recipient of quantities of sweet potatoes and have been given dried beans from one of the fields planted by the couple who lived in this house before me.  It’s a challenge thinking up new ways to prepare food.  I imagine our ancestors had a similar problem when they lived on seasonal vegetables and fruit.   Speaking of which, I’ve just managed to boil over the guavas I was cooking down for guava jelly.  The smell of burning is pervading the house.  You’ll be glad you can’t smell e-mails yet!

Staying with the topic of sweet potatoes … Yesterday I had gone to a church plant about 3 miles from here.  We actually did double the distance because we turned into Ruashi only to have our way blocked by traffic police informing us the road had been closed for a marathon.  That meant saying good-bye to the only decent road and bumping our way through a long succession of deep holes.  Now and again we had to stop to ask if the small lane we wanted to take was currently passable but eventually we made it to the church ‘under a mango tree’ (Rob will like that … v. authentic!).  There were 7 adults and 22 children in the congegration.  The little girl, aged about 3, sitting next to me, obviously found the 2 1/2 hour service a bit on the long side, so wandered off at one point.  She returned a little later, eating a sweet potato, like all children having a spare one in the other hand.  As she turned round, a third one fell out of her back pocket!

The theme of the service was perseverance - I’d gone with one of the Lighthouse Project students who was also the preacher.  It was an appropriate theme.  The church building has reached the bottom of the windows’ level but in the meantime the congregation has disappeared off to a church which already has a building!  The pastor is one of two pastors who have moved to this area specifically to work with their own people group which has traditionally been very resistant to the gospel.  ‘Sheep stealing’ by pastors from their own church community is hardly encouraging!

Today has been a public holiday for those of us who teach (and study), while tomorrow is Labour Day and a public holiday for everyone.  This morning one of the Theological College student’s wives, plus baby, came to the house and we did some baking together.  Then I had the usual recorder session with the young men at the Lighthouse Project.  They’re coming on really well and asking lots of questions.  We’ll be performing in public yet!

This is my third attempt to post this blog.  The 2 previous occasions the hub was turned off on the other side of the centre without forewarning.  I’m keeping this short.

With love - and thanks for all the e-mails.  They are our main form of contact with the rest of the world!

 Bridget