Matadi

One of our recent adventures was to visit a town near Kinshasa called MATADI. We have a branch and four missionaries there, so it was time to go see the elders and visit the branch. Since this is a mission branch, it's under the direction of the mission president. It's important to visit these isolated branches and missionaries and give them direction and support. Without this direction it's possible for them to get off track and the integrity of the church can be compromised.

The choice for a trip to Matadi is to make a five hour drive down a curvy, dangerous mountain road or to take a one-hour flight on a 15-seat Congolese prop plane. We decided on the plane trip. Again, like our trips to Kolwezi, the choice for me was 1 hour of terror or 5 hours of terror.

When we got to the airport it was just a little landing strip in the middle of the city from which a few small planes take off.

Whenever we travel it's always hard to go through security. We're always nervous. Sometimes they go through your luggage, take out every item, examine it thoroughly and it takes forever. When we got to the luggage check area a man looked at our tags and asked if we were the legal representatives of the church. Why not? So we answered boldly, "Yes we are!" With that they passed us right through security without even looking at our luggage and took us to the VIP lounge. Awesome! They offered us beverages and it was nice to sit in a quiet room away from the crowds of people. A couple came into the VIP room and we chatted a bit and found out that he was a senator from the province where we were heading, Bas Congo. The church rents one of our buildings from him. He gave us his card and phone number, although we weren't quite sure why. It's always good to make contacts with people who can become friends of the church.

The flight was short and reasonable until we were just about to land. They even gave us a bottle of Fanta mid-flight. About the time of landing, I looked out and saw a mountain right in front of us. I honestly wondered if we were going to crash right into the mountain. It turned out that we were landing ON TOP of the mountain. The runway was dirt and went right to the edge of the mountain. We landed in a cloud of dust and all was well.

There was a little cement building and a tower where the "air traffic controller" was visiting with a young lady.

They had a small baggage handler and a waiting place for passengers (a few plastic chairs in the shade of a big mango tree.)

We were met by the branch president who had hired a taxi to take us into town. It was quite a ride. It was about a 45 minute drive down from the top of the mountain on a windey dirt road.

And there, at the bottom of the mountain on the banks of the Congo river, was MATADI.

Matadi is much like any other African town but very hilly. The missionaries teased that you had to walk to and from church uphill both ways.

We visited the branch on Sunday and held meetings with the members.

The church and baptismal font in Matadi

We saw the Relief Society, Primary, YW, Priesthood, Sunday school and Sacrament meeting and many good members of the church in this little branch . There were 99 members there for Sacrament meeting. We have some concerns about things there. It's hard to keep the church on track when you're far from the direction and leadership of the church, but we also know that the hearts of the members are in the right place and we hope to give them support that will help the branch to grow and progress in the right direction.

The next day, before leaving tow, we'd made arrangements to see the missionaries. We called them to come and show us the way to their apartment and when we went out of the hotel all four of them were waiting for us, on p-day, dressed in their white shirts and ties.

Three of these elders come from different parts of the Congo, but Elder LaGuerre, the big guy next to me, comes from Central African Republic. He's a true pioneer and the first missionary to serve from that nation. He's a giant of a man in more than one way. When he returns home soon, he'll give great leadership to his country. In the next few months we'll have two more missionaries come from CAR. There is one branch in Bangui. We hope to get there someday soon.

As we headed out to see their apartment, the elders said it was just a short walk and it was, but it was down a hill that was at about a 60% grade. The walk down to the apartment was a bit of a challenge. I had to be careful not slip on the sand covered cement and slide down the hill on my face.

Coming back up the hill was even more challenging.

The elders we very patient, encouraging and cute with me and we all made it successfully back to our very nice hotel.

After a short meeting with the Branch President, we headed back up the mountain to the airport. We arrived there only to be told that since no passengers had come from Kinshasa to Matadi that day, the plane hadn't landed, but had gone on to other cities. We weren't sure that we were going to get home and it didn't seem for awhile that the workers could figure it out either. However, after making a few phone calls, they assured us that the plane would come back by for us. While we were waiting to see if we'd have a plane to go home in, we watched several goats and a few farmers wander across the dirt landing strip. It was all a little unnerving. About an hour later the plane arrived and we boarded. We headed off toward the end of the landing strip, which also was the edge of the mountain top. We lifted off just as the strip disappeared on the mountain's edge. What an adventure!

I'm pretty proud that I made this airplane trip and didn't have a nervous breakdown in the process. Being a nervous flyer and having a bit of claustrophobia, these trips are a significant challenge to me. But we made it and we were happy to see the landing strip in Kinshasa, imperfect as it may be.

Just another day and another adventure in the Congo!