I am on my way to the CONGO….soooo grate-full!
My posture in going into so many UNknowns is captured by a passage from the book of Jeremiah:
“Go steadily on with what I have called you to do and I will guard your life. If you try to guard your life you remove yourself from My protection”
Met with a group of teen moms today who are in the ‘culinary track’ at HOLD learning the art of cooking, finding recipes on line, and waitressing. The ultimate goal is for them to graduate and be able to get a job to support their little munchkins.
A very creative teen mom who is opening up her own ‘beverage bar’….she created her own doorway by using tassels of fabric. No water available….she has to buy jugs of water from street vendors….AMAZING women who are not letting their past wounds determine their future!
Tonight I went to the dining room and ‘just happened’ to talk with the manager about my FRUSTRATION not being able to connect with the internet in my room:(! THREE HOURS LATER ‘the manager’ walks up to me and asked me if ‘this was my wallet/passport/$$$’??? I looked at him in SHOCK ....YES! ‘Where did you find it’ I asked him. He said ‘It was found in the parking lot by one of our guards’....can you believe it???
Just today I had shared with the women at HOLD who have felt like they have been forsaken in the wilderness’ that when Hagar (in the Old Testament) was in the wilderness El Roi (the God who sees me) came to her and asked her ‘Where have you come from and where are you going”. The GOD WHO SEES ME ....continues to ‘show up’ on a daily basis in all of our lives IF we just let Him’🙏🙏🙏
Tailoring is another ‘track’ that the women can sign up for and get into ‘fashion design’....they are STUNNING! Their stories of ‘where they have come from’ are sobering.....being admitted into a cohort at HOLD changes the trajectory of their future🙏
Beautiful women who are being given a second chance by learning what HOLD provides giving them worth and value and launching them into eventually becoming self supporting.
One career track they can choose is culinary arts . . . working in a restaurant 👍
Another is opening up a car wash :)!
Janitorial service at a local elementary school.
Rah (on the lfet) who gives leadership to ‘Sons of Congo’ has such a heart...the entire curriculum is Biblically based.
Then an appointment today with AFRICA NEW DAY was a HUGE encouragement. When you listen to these women’s stories you wonder ‘Why doesn’t SOMEONE start working with THE MEN in this country?’ AFRICA NEW DAY has/is doing just that. I wanted to meet up with them and find out how/what they have/are doing. I know they started with one Congolese man....have developed a 16 week seminar series for men...have had 36,000 men go through their series...they are literally changing the Congolese culture of men ....from being perpetrators of women to becoming protectors of women. A HUGE encouragement. The guy who gives leadership to the program is a ‘man’s man’....I have a copy of the 16 sessions they walk through. They jump start the sessions with a thought provoking diagram of what the culture of Congolese men looks like.
It is a deeply impact-full time....I come back at the end of the day absolutely EXHAUSTED . I have such a compelling sense of mission deep in my soul. I NEVER want to live my life 'just-as-I-am-and-there-I-will-stay as long a I have health and energy :)!
HUGE blessings not to be taken for granted as you know❤️
I am home just ahead of the international Corona virus shut down!!! Was up some 55 hours from the time I left CONGO until I landed at LAX!! Tired yes but BEYOND grate-full....soooo much to share but for now just wanted to thank YOU for your prayers, your sustaining friendship and concern❤️🙏