Compensating Blessing

We went to see the missionaries' homes and make sure they have what they need and take them their support money. None of these missionaries has enough money to be self supporting like most missionaries are.

Our goal is to have each group of elders live in a place that has electricity and running water (either inside or outside, but accessible) most of the time. You would not believe the places they live. This picture is the only way you can get to one of the apartments.

The elders had a good laugh at me as I crossed the bridge. Then two little boys scamped across (just to show me up).Every day is something new here in the Congo. There I am in all my embarrassment. Honesty I was only concerned about not falling into the river of raw sewage below me. These young missionaries are such a joy. We are so lucky to get to know and work with them. They certainly do make me think that the future will be brighter than today.

Last Sun-Mon we were without power for 24 hours. That means that we have no way to cook, no water (water is on an electric pump), no lights, etc. They put in a new transformer next to our house. Then again today it was out for 10 hours. We've eaten a lot of B and J sandwiches this week. They had just set the new transformer next to the old one and it didn't work well. So, they did it all over again. It takes about three to five tries to get anything working right here. The first time it was pretty scary, but this time we were prepared. Here we are in our cool "headlamps".

Instead of scrubbing the floors for preparation day today, I got to read a good book with my headlamp. No water! No scrubbing! Pretty good excuse for not working, if somebody would just come now that the lights and water are on and clean my floors for me. You can hardly see the patterns in the floor for the dust. We have discovered that for every adversity there is a compensating blessing. Reading a fun book by Alexander Smith was my compensating blessing today for a day without power and water.