Paul's Parables

To fulfill my responsibilities at Editions CECA I depended on Ukumu’s help.  Purchasing paper at the Pan Paper mill in Kenya, traveling through Uganda and importing into the DRC had to be done the only way possible in Africa.  We were able to account for most of the expenses.  With tons of paper on hand the plan to print thousands of hymnbooks in Pazande was realistic.

The tensions between the tribal groups at Rethy were becoming obvious when the Alur would not pay their electric bills since a Lendu was the manager of the electric company.  The manager would not pay an Alur for purchases made for him.  At the press I found the Alur working together and we were able to get things done.

When nothing was the same after the rebellion and looting, being given the same responsibilities at Editions CECA, offered a new challenge.  Working again at Rethy, but unable to fulfill the expectations of all those who had depended on missionary services, was a big adjustment to many.  The radio station became my focus.

We couldn’t help but wonder what had happened at Rethy after our evacuation and the subsequent looting.  Was there any hope of returning to complete the radio broadcasting station that had been started?  While we prepared to return we worked on the old farmhouse and then I went to see.

It wasn’t the environment or the elaborate display of wealth that made the perfect wedding.  It was called a homespun garden wedding by a Cooperstown paper, The Doubleday Courier but rather it was a union made in Heaven by the God of Love.  A three strand chord is not easily broken, and God was in it.

Confident that we had all the firewood we needed, we had three fires keeping us warm at Christmas time.  We tried everything we could to keep us all warm, but the wood supply rapidly turned to smoke and ash.  Our children hauling firewood down the hill in sleds somehow communicated that we couldn’t do it all ourselves

They say location, location, location is the most important thing when buying a home.  Paying cash made permits, inspections, and loans unnecessary. All the work we did together to make it our home built deep family relationships that lasted.  The rather extensive rebuilding and repairs were all made by the family with God given ingenuity.

When evacuated from Zaire, we had a place to go, the ancient farmhouse in which we lived every time we came back for furloughs from Zaire.  We first came to live in New York when Ellen’s brother shot himself in the foot and I got his farm job.  All the work we did together as a family has made it a special home with lots of memories.

Kwanzaa was invented recently and somehow has become equated with a religious celebration of Christmas.  It is far from that!  Kwanza is a Swahili word for first.  Siku ya Kwanza celebrations in Zaire was focused on Kaikpo, not on the birth of Jesus Christ. 

The miracle of evacuating safely all the missionaries who fled from Zaire through Rethy had to be God’s doing.  The small grass airstrip at Araa handled more traffic in a few hours than it ever has, in all the rest of the time since it was created.  In the tiny details, that worked out so marvelously, He cared for as well, showing His love for us and our family.

The need to evacuate fleeing missionaries and their children, using the Ara airstrip, was known by God before the jealous Alure chief even decided he wanted one.  God no doubt prompted the ideas on what we needed to do to be prepared.  He even prepared the mud hole the rebel army under Laurent Kabila couldn’t pass through, until He stopped the rain. 

The second house we lived in at Rethy was a delightful modification of the dormitory where I had lived as a child.  My former dorm parent was the designer and loved building a special place for us with an upstairs.  We moved two more times, to nearby apartments on Dorm Hill before we were forced to evacuate, leaving all our belongs behind.

Two very different men, Silavano and Mbikpa, had very different houses and very different values.  I knew both of them, one had nothing, the other had become richer than any other man in the Rethy area.  The shrewd business man amassed a vast amount of riches, yet God would call him a fool.  The wise worker feared the Lord and received wisdom.

Every culture, certainly those in the part of Africa where I grew up, uses materials that are locally available to build their houses.  Where even nails don’t exist a long-lasting house can be built that offers shelter from the elements, a place to live, and to raise a family. The skills are passed down to the next generation.  Who taught the birds how to build a nest?

Climbing to the top of Mount Aboro was a special activity when I was a child at boarding school in the Congo.  I wanted to share the same experience with the children for whom I was now responsible, as their dorm parent.  The outing proved to be quite different from what I had planned, ending with a spectacular display of a mountain fire against the horizon that night.

I helped destroy a couple forests and started a forest fire while I was at Rethy, yet those were very special places to me when I was living there.  Humans have an impact on the environment, sometimes considered positive, but more often seen to be destroying what can never be restored.  God has given us responsibility to have dominion over what He created.  He made it all green again.

For whom was the Koda hydroelectric plant built on the side of the escarpment? Is destroying a community spring in a valley marsh, in order to sink a well in the muck, a desirable service to the community? People definitely need water to live and liked it pumped up the hill to the hospital, however who needed the electricity, for what? What is built does not last unless God builds it.

Descending 5,000 feet from Rethy down to lake Albert and climbing back up in a day used all the energy we had. The potential energy of water falling down that escarpment was beyond measure and Marr Miller had seen a large falls plunging down from the plateau not far from Rethy. We had checked the falls at VP and concluded they were too small to provide electricity for us.

Exploring the site of an abandoned perfume factory in Zaire was the initial motivation to develop a 400 KVA hydroelectric plant in the highlands overlooking Lake Albert.  During a ninth grade class field trip we did the feasibility study, learning more about potential and kinetic energy than can be taught in books.  Boarding school activities at Rethy stimulated creativity.

This story includes several opportunities I had to discipline my unique boarding school children. What do you do when pet guinea pigs are used by four boys as experimental animals in the development of their hunting skills with a bow and arrow? Evaluating the pleasures of smoking geranium leaves was another situation requiring responsible adult input.

When I was asked to help I didn’t receive specific instructions from the one I was helping.  I knew exactly what needed to be done, took the initiative, and used what I had, to do the best I could. The one I was helping never showed up at the project and didn’t speak to me for a couple days.  From my perspective the job was well done.

This is a continuation of the story of one who refused to retire even after the ceremony was completed.  His friends had forgotten him and sent no "dollards", no letters, no gifts.  Without sugar in his tea he was even too weak to walk.  He was my friend. 

Abrahamu’s faithful work at the school and his ringing of the bell we will never forget.  The ringing clang of Abrahamu’s iron rod on the rusty brake drum was an integral part of each school day at Rethy.  He used the chant to inform us that the bell was ringing.  The bell was ringing, come to school now!   Come, come, come !  Hurry, hurry, hurry!   We needed to come immediately and not delay    A...

Money is thought to be an indicator of value but when the value of the money changes every day how can anyone tell what something will cost when he needs it? With the depreciating Zaire it was certain that the price in Zaires would increase.  

You think I’m kidding. I’m not. Literally, there was no valid money at Rethy and there were forty to feed at Rethy Academy back in the mid 1980s.  So what did we do?