First week

It feels like seven months have been packed into the past seven days. Just a week ago five of us arrived in Beni, having flown together over the lush landscape of this corner of east Africa. Cullen, Howard, and Doug return to Entebbe today, then head back to the U.S. tomorrow.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning were the board meeting. Thursday and Friday were the Consultation. Saturday was the official opening of the academic year. Yesterday, Sunday, was church (three services). And the spaces in between have been filled with conversation, planning, sharing, dreaming, learning, laughter, and tears. So, where to begin? Perhaps ...

Doug with Honore´translating

with a teaching that Doug gave us Tuesday morning. Doug is pastor of Second Baptist Church, Aiken, SC. He blessed us with so much this past week--prayer, teaching, love, stories, and laughter. His teaching on Tuesday gave us a theme that has woven itself through much of our conversation this past week.

He pointed out that most of us know the names Joshua and Caleb, but most of us do not remember the names of the other ten men who, along with Joshua and Caleb, were sent by Moses to spy on the land of Canaan (Numbers 13). Then we read Numbers 13: 30-33:

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."
But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. ...We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
 

Back of Community Center

Doug focused our attention on the last bit: "All the people we saw there are of great size. ...We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." Doug talked about the power of naming--naming our expectations, naming our weaknesses, naming our dreams, naming our doubts. That what we imagine for ourselves is what we get. It wasn't an unfamiliar theme. It's a theme of sports psychology and business planning (plan with the end in mind). It's what we tell our children, "You can be/do whatever you want." It's also the theme of damaged dreams ("You will never amount to...").

This vision of Congo Initiative and UCBC is grand. It is audacious. It is easy to look at the challenges and say, "The obstacles are many. The giants too great. The land 'devours those living in it.' "

View from back of Community Center

There are many giants. There are many obstacles. The systems here in Congo do "devour those living in it." There are militia, corruption, grinding poverty, poor education, and broken or non-existent infrastructure. But the people of CI, the faculty, staff, and students of UCBC do not see themselves as grasshoppers. They see the promise of a future, the Jeremiah promise, "I know the plans I have for you; plans for a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).

How exciting to be part of this journey. What a gift to learn from the example of our brothers and sisters who are confident in God's promises and the audacious vision that is Congo Initiative.