Mission Presidents' Seminar-November 2011

We just got home from ten days in Johannesburg where we had an extraordinary time. We arrived two days before the mission presidents' seminar because there are no planes that go to JoBurg on Sat. and we didn't want to travel on Sunday. This extra time also gave us a chance to do a little shopping for things we can't get in the Congo. The Packers from Lubumbashi mission (and our past mission president) were also there early. They had a car and, having lived in Johannesburg on their earlier missions, knew their way around and were kind enough to take us with them shopping all day Saturday. We mostly bought staple things that we can't get in the Congo like oatmeal, granola bars, staples and boring stuff like that, but we did venture into the African market and had fun looking at and playing with African souvenirs.

That evening we went to dinner at the home of one of Packers' good friends from their days in JoBurg. It was really nice to be in the home of a real member in South Africa. This was a great family and we appreciated the hospitality of the family.

The Rawlings family- Brigid, Rob, Liam (leaning), Kit, Annie, (hidden) and Katie

Sunday we attended the Ennerdale branch which is located south of Soweto. It is held in a modular church building that they had put in several places in South Africa. It think it's a great idea. It was much nicer than any rented building in the Congo. It was a sweet, little branch and we enjoyed sharing this Sunday with them. We love going to small units.

Johannesburg is so different from the Congo. It's a beautiful modern city and I kept feeling like I was back in the US. We spent most of our time in the upscale areas and it seemed like San Francisco. It was hard to imagine that we were in Africa. There are very poor areas that they call "townships," but I don't think that there is the large scale poverty that there is in the Congo. At least we didn't see it.

We happened to be there when the Jacaranda trees are in bloom and they were magnificent. Trees were everywhere. Some streets looked as if they were covered with purple snow. Beautiful!

This is taken from the area office and home. his is the street in front of the temple.

The real reason that we were in Johannesburg was to attend the mission presidents' seminar. Each year during the month following General Conference the Area Authorities in the South East Africa Area hold a mission presidents' seminar. It's a time of instruction, fellowship and sharing of ideas of the eleven mission presidents in our area. The conference lasted three days and was wonderful as they brought information, instructions and enlightenment from the other general authorities with whom they'd recently met.

We stayed in the beautiful Michelangelo Hotel and held our meetings with the other presidents and the Area Presidency, Elders Renlund, Soares and Cook and their wives. It's a world class hotel and quite stunning, especially to those of us who were coming from impoverished countries. It was a bit hard to even remember that such places exist in the world.

The hotel was connected to the Sandton and Nelson Mandela malls. There were many good restaurants and shops and a fun courtyard where we walked in the evenings. The Christmas decorations were beginning to appear and it was just like a fairyland setting.

But all of this beauty was far surpassed by the seminar itself. Everything else was just frills compared to the meetings in which we were involved. The daily instruction was so helpful and uplifting and we learned things that gave us a new vision of how we're called to help "establish the church firmly" in these new nations. Tracy Watson came from the missionary department in SLC and did excellent training and the teaching of the area presidency was inspiring and motivating in every way. The time just flew by and we wished for more. It was a spiritually nourishing experience and we were honored to be there.

As part of our seminar we were able to go as a group to the Johannesburg temple. It was wonderful to be there and even better to share this experience with these great people. We were also about to go on the extra Saturday that we had to stay on in JoBurg. Going to the temple is such a blessing. Can't wait for the day when the people of the DRC have this blessing.

Our good friends- Packers from Lubumbashi Mission and Woods from Cape Town Mission

We love our area presidency. We also came to love, respect and learn from each of the unique couples who serve as mission presidents and wives in the South East Africa area.

Humanitarian Projects-Club Foot Clinic

We have decided that we need more activities and a little recreation, so last week we went with our Humanitarian missionaries, the wonderful Binghams, to visit a club foot clinic. It's really a maternity clinic in a very highly populated, poor area of the city where 40 babies a day are born at a cost of $15 a birth.

At this clinic they give prenatal tests and counseling, but most of the women don't have enough money to buy the vitamins and good food that are recommended. Poor nutrition and lack of prenatal care cause many problems and a high death rate for infants in the Congo.

This hospital is located down a muddy, narrow, street that was almost too small for us to navigate. But this clinic is a simple, clean and safe place for treatment.

The Neighborhood

The Clinic

This club foot treatment is life changing since without it children would have no more future than to be beggars. These adorable little guys (most with club feet are males) are treated for just a few weeks with casts and then shoes with rods between them and then followed up with treatment.

The process is done by casting the child's legs for a week. Then the mom brings the child to the clinic where they soak the casts in a bucket until it can be cut off. This process is repeated for about 7-8 weeks. They were removing the casts with steak knives until our couple showed them how to do it with a Leatherman tool. It made it so much easier. The Binghams wrote to the Leatherman company and told them about their experience and the company sent 50 tools for them to share with this and other places that have this kind of need. The church also provides the shoes and other supplies used in this practice, which is also a training facility for technicians who are learning this treatment.

These moms were happy to have their pictures taken. None of them spoke French, which means that none of them had attended school. But they were doing the best they can for their children and after is treatment their kids will have a chance for a future. It's a wonderful service.

The most impressive thing of all is that the doctor who runs this clinic is himself disabled. What a great example he is of what can be accomplished. At the end of our visit they gave us drinks to thank us for the visit and help. It was a great outing and a touching experience.

Binghams, Head of the Hospital, Country Social service employee and us

Graduation Day

As we drove though the city the last two weeks, we saw what was apparently graduation time. Two weekends in a row the graduates were all going to their graduation ceremonies. There were two unique things about this. First, many of the people in the car were dressed in the same African print clothes as the graduate. Then there were caps and gowns for the graduate. Secondly, they were also hanging out of the cars, taxis, buses, etc. They were waving and blowing pink and green plastic whistles to share their joy at having made it through school. Some were straddling the widow with one leg outside and one leg inside the car, but most were sitting in the window and whistling to the world. Just another unique custom in the Congo.

Halloween Home Evening

For Halloween we held a family home evening for our office staff and their families. These men are employed by the church in the mission office. It's a very unique situation that exists because there aren't enough senior couples to staff mission offices and because there are legal formalities and transportation, communication and living condition issues etc. that a non-Congolese person simply couldn't do. Young missionaries aren't used either because of insufficient computer and office skills. We would be lost without these three good men.

Theirry, Pascal and Aimé

Thierry is the office manager. He's a magician who's able to navigate the complexities of business in the Congo, secure transportation, facilitate communication, etc., etc. He also works with me on the medical needs of the missionaries. Pascal is in charge of apartments. He can negotiate a rent deal down to the bare bones, fix and find anything you can get in the Congo. They all deliver support money, supplies and missionaries. Aimé is Brent's driver and our all-around helper. His help in getting Brent to places for meetings is invaluable. Although Brent does a lot of driving, sometimes it's impossible for him to find and get to all the five stake centers, 25 other buildings, 17 apartments and many other places that he's required to go in this city of 10 million people. Driving to a place wouldn't be a huge task in the US. Here, there are no addresses, no GPS, no street names posted, and buildings and houses are in hard to places that you wouldn't even know were streets. Plus, the streets are one big traffic jam and blue and yellow taxis are crammed with people who get out without notice and driven by crazy drivers. Driving is exhausting. Amié's also a good shopper. He gets eggs, pop and produce for half what I can. It's the non-African-thing that's the disadvantage.

We decided to have a Halloween party. The biggest attraction of the evening was little Ariel. He's three months old, but spent his first two months in the hospital. Born at 7 months, it was pretty scary in the beginning. But he's looking strong now. We were all very happy to meet him & vied a bit for the chance to hold him.

They had NO idea what Halloween was about. We opted to downplay the scary parts. No witches, ghosts, skeletons, spiders, or bats. The kids are young and there's still a lot of fear and mysticism here in Africa, which we didn't want to encourage. So what was left? We did a power point to show Halloween costumes, pumpkins, trick or treat and Halloween parties and goodies. To decorate the apartment we made due with our Halloween quilt, an orange table cloth, an orange gift bag filled with green and some pipe cleaner flowers and a few assorted orange things.

Before the fun started we had dinner with sloppy joes, pasta salad, fruit, olives and pickles. Only the fruit wasn't foreign food to them, but they seemed to enjoy it and ate it all, except pickles.

We had big bowls of caramel corn for dessert.

We tried to replicate the things we do on Halloween. First came the traditional carving of the pumpkin. This was as close as we could get to a pumpkin and made for lots of fun.

Then it was on to "Color your Trick or Treat bag" and a game of "Don't Eat Jack"

The kids liked both activities. It doesn't take much to please the Congolese. Playing isn't a common thing here. Thierry's boy said, "Dad why do we always just preach a lesson in Home Evening? Let's play games next time."

To get costumes together was a bit of a challenge. I decided just to do hats to make them feel dressed up. There were kings, princesses, Native Americans and graduates from which to choose. All the girls chose princess hats and Jason chose the Indian one. Poor Johan (2) didn't like wearing the graduate hat, so he just carried it around and wouldn't be in the picture either.

The final activity of the evening was Trick or Treating. We had the senior couples go in all the rooms. Then the kids and Dads knocked on the doors and shouted Trick or Treat. A good time was had by all.

But...

Look at the Dads' faces as they went Trick or Treating with their kids for the first time . I'm not sure who liked it best.

The next morning the dads reported that Devina slept with her bag of candy that night. Alicia woke up asking for hers and Thierry snuck in and stole some of his children's cookies. Now there's a great American tradition! Haa! Haa! They all want to go live in the US and knock on doors. It was a very HAPPY HALLOWEEN with children, even if they aren't our grand kids.