Nuru Ya Mapendo   (love's light)

     I don't do well at waiting- never have. 2020-2021 has been an incredible period of waiting. Waiting on DRC to open during COVID-19 so that I could return to the USA. Nervously waiting for traveling to become safer as my re-entry visa to the DRC expired. Waiting through times of sickness and death for family members and friends. Waiting through transitions and change as several close friends moved out-of-state. Waiting through times of great lonliness and isolation bec...

Kasenga sits along the Luapula River and is known for its abundant supply of fish. The primary source of protein for Kasena residents is fish. Fish supplies from the river are really like crops; some years supplies are scarcer than others. There is also a wide variety of fish from the river- catfish, tiger fish, tilapia, Thompson and eels are the ones I’m able to name. There are also large prehistoric-looking fish I’ve seen, but I don’t know their name.

Men fro...

Things are really “buzzing” at Nuru Ya Mapendo. I mean that literally! As I write, the droan of buzzing circular saws are in the background as a team of carpenters is working on sixty desks for the Jane Wise Primary/Secondary School. This begins at 7:30 each morning and ends around 4:00 each afternoon. I’m not sure I’ll be able to tolerate all the noise six days a week for a month!…

December 2018 is the election, the time when the DRC will elect a n...

This is the first posting on our website for a few years. Many problems with infrastructure here prevented us from posting. For the present, all seems to be going well, so I’ll attempt to post updates a few times a month from Kasenga, DRC.

August will be a month of changes for Nuru Ya Mapendo- good changes, bad changes, and neutral changes. Rev. Sylvain, our District Superintendent, is being transferred to Lubumbashi next week. He is like family to me and we have been...

Apparently I created quite a commotion in Kasenga on Friday and Saturday this week when I went outside the compound to paint our security gates. We had purchased paint in Lubumbashi last month, and it was on my “to-do” list since we didn’t have the funds to hire out the work. Wearing a long skirt to climb the ladder was not appropriate for this job, so I put on a “neutral” T-shirt and a pair of loose-fitting Capri pants and hoped that I could complete the exteri...

In Africa, hospitality is the context for relationships. It always involves food and/or drink and is done in the home. Even if there were restaurants to visit, to entertain someone in a restaurant would not be personal enough in Africa. To offer someone to come into your home to visit is to say “I offer to relate to you personally.”

Hospitality is not scheduled in Africa. Spontaneity is part of the hospitality; a special menu or cleaning the house first is not r...

Dorcas lost both an aunt and an uncle this week, and she was preparing to leave for Lubumbashi to attend the funeral. Sylvain was to see her off and so they would not be going to church with me today. As I entered their house, I hugged Dorcas for a long time, which brought tears to her eyes. She was close to her uncle, and this was a difficult loss. As I sat down I looked at Sylvain, who also had tears in his eyes. This touched me deeply, because I saw the love tha...

Nothing like a good healing to begin your Sunday morning…

As we pulled the truck in front of Sylvain’s house to take everyone to church, I heard Sylvain shouting but could not hear the words. The front door was closed (unusual) and I thought perhaps the children had been in trouble and were receiving a scolding.

I started to get out of the truck and Franck said, “No, they are praying. We must wait until they are finished.” Second...

Thank you to everyone who e-mailed birthday wishes and for the 2 birthday phone calls from my daughters. I had a wonderful birthday, with a cooling motorcycle ride to and from church, a hot meal waiting for me, and my African grandchildren singing "Happy Birthday" as I arrived and presenting me with a large bouquet of plumeria (my favorite flower). If you have ever smelled this tropical flower, you will understand that only God could have created such a wonderful fragrance- it filled my bedro...

I had a wonderful night’s sleep in my OWN BED!. The day began like any other Sunday- rising early to wash and dress for church, some breakfast, and the ordeal of air-drying hair. As I bent upside down to brush my hair to catch the breeze, I heard footsteps. I looked up and saw Sylvain and Dorcas approaching the veranda.

“Odd” I thought to myself. “They’re not dressed for church and it’s too early anyway…”