Tuesday 12th March 2013

Monday 11^th February 2013 Leaving Ibambi.

                Can we possibly top the experiences we have had in Ibambi?  Our journey today takes us to the Gamba district of Isiro, a distance of 65 kilometres or 40 miles.   The red Land Rover and dark green Pickup truck arrive after breakfast and the loading of luggage and passengers begins!  

  As seems customary, there are always more people traveling with us than anticipated when contemplating where we should sit!  All legitimately getting a lift; may be a Doctor or Doctor’s wife and children.  We watch our cases being loaded and see extra people appearing and wonder how on earth we are all going to get in or on!  

 As well as a crowd of onlookers, many people arrive to say farewell to us, and to pray for a safe journey and soon after 9am we set off, “packed like sardines”, on what was to be 4 ½ hours of travelling through forests and small settlements on a very bad “road” which was nothing more than a dirt track full of what looked like bomb craters and huge ditches filled with water. The “road” is definitely not suitable for anything other than a 4x4 “off roader”!  

 Sometimes we would stop at a small village community and off load or pick up someone; once it was the driver’s twin babies who may be needed to be taken back home from Grandma’s!  In the picture below you can see one of them being handed up to a passenger on the top of the Pickup!! Notice also the 3 live chickens hanging from the back of the Pickup – meal gifts for Isiro??

 

The drivers are amazing (the leading driver knowing the “road” very well!).  One wonders how these old 4 wheel drive vehicles stay in one piece and don’t break down – well they do sometimes, but we were blessed with an incident free journey despite, at times, having only three wheels on the ground!

  Any repairs would be done on the spot by the mechanical skills of the drivers and/or passengers and/or Congolese men emerging from the forest!!  Actually we had to have a whip round to pay for repairs for the Land Rover before we could use it at all!  And you will recall the picture of Minibus we were about to travel in at Shalom which was without a wheel!

Arrival at the Gamba district of Isiro (HQ of CECCA 16 Church)

                The usual welcoming crowd greeted us and paraded us in our vehicles to the centre of the church’s complex.  As we got out of the vehicles we found our path was covered in lengths of highly decorated material leading us to the meeting area.  This was directly in front of the house which was to be our home for the next week. There followed the customary introductions and celebrations with speeches, prayers, chorales and brass band!   

Tuesday 12^th February 2013

                We were awoken at 5.30am by the sound of a large gong or bell being struck 6 times somewhere in distance.  This was the daily “wake up call” for the village to say “dawn is approaching”!   (I must admit that I used earplugs at night from then on and preferred to wait for our alarm clock to go off at 6am.)

                Every morning, before breakfast, there was a meeting in the church from 7 to 8am and members of our team took turns to give a short talk.  One morning we had some testimonies in place of the talk and we gave a brief testimony and the surprised them by singing a duet!  Throughout the tour and the 100 year Celebration Services we had often heard it said – “and what will the next 100 years bring for the Church and for DR Congo?!  So we chose to make that question a personal one for individuals by singing one of the Male Voice songs – “Where in the world are you going?”  Giving a spiritual challenge to think about their personal lives and the paths they are taking.

                The small church building is old and needing repair, but there is the shell of a partly built new church which was started many years ago but lack of funds have meant that only the walls stand.  After breakfast we met within these walls to hear of the plans for the church. They continue to hope and pray that it can be finished to provide multipurpose facility for the church which would be in use every day of the week!

                Later in the day we visited the church schools where we found that the situation was the same as in Ibambi, dilapidated buildings, underpaid staff, lack of teaching materials etc.  Once again discussions ensued as to how to generate funds through small businesses.

Saturday 9th March 2013

Friday 8^th and Saturday 9^th February 2013 Ibambi

                We toured the Ibambi Maternity Unit, Clinic and Dispensary. They were all in a very bad state of repair, with very old equipment and a limited supply of drugs in the Dispensary through lack of funds. 

 

 Nebobongo is the nearest hospital where cases which cannot be treated locally are sent.  The hospital never turns anyone away even if they are unable to pay for their treatment!!  There seems to be a never-ending cycle of debt and we spent time discussing ways for the church to generate income through small businesses tailored to local need like brick making, dress making, carpentry and metal working.  There is a need for those with the skills to help them in this and also agriculturalists to help them improve the output from their gardens.

                After a visit to the Primary School where the problems were repeated, we were paraded across the road, accompanied by the Church Brass Band, to the small cemetery where C.T. Studd, the founder of WEC and other early missionaries are buried. 

 

              

  On Saturday afternoon the Director of the Bible School, Pastor Kokyakake and his students put on a wonderfully entertaining outdoor drama depicting 100 years of Congolese life from Cannibalism and Witch Doctors to the time when the Missionaries came with the Gospel and taught them a better way of living.

 

 We were then all presented with Tribal Chief’s hats!!!

  

 Sunday 10^th February 2013 Ibambi

                Today saw the beginning of the Celebrations to mark the Centenary of the founding of CECCA16 Church in DR Congo with an outdoor service which included the ordination of 11 Pastors.  We had watched during the week before as the open area in front of the church was covered with a large bamboo and palm leaf canopy.

  Under this sat the congregation of thousands during the four hour long service which included several chorale groups, prayers and sermons, and speeches, including one from the church president, Pastor Modibale and one from Stephen McGoldrick, a WEC missionary. 

  The ordination of the new pastors was very moving to watch as each candidate, together with his wife, had two pastors to pray for them as they entered their ministry.  Then the congregation filed past to congratulate each couple until one of the stewards intervened to stop more folk coming forward!! 

 After the service a meal was served to members of the congregation in the Conference Center.  We were some of the first to be served and as we finished we vacated our place to make way for more to have their meal!!

                Later that afternoon a number of the group walked to see two of the local springs from which water is collected. 

 The first has been protected so that it is easy to collect relatively clean water. The second has yet to be worked on so it is difficult to ensure that the water collected is clean.