In Which Margaret Comes to Visit

We have a picnic... and some visitors

Margaret teaches the neighbor kids to play frisbee

We attempt to make cinnamon rolls

...and find some more cute babies

This is what it looks like when God says YES.

We are so excited about our baby!

“Drop that heavy load you hold because Mine is light.”

life around here

Occasionally a baby is brought to us, usually so we can entertain him/her while mom is busy with something else. Sometimes we voluntarily go looking for a baby. 

Recently our neighbors put on a party for the kids who passed their school exams. I was commissioned to make lots of paper signs to help decorate with - here is a photo of four of them. But there were many more I didn’t get pictures of. 

Smoked fish in a basket. Some friends came from the village bringing several baskets of fish to sell in town. They spent the night with us, fussy baby and messy toddler in tow. I had quite a bit of cleaning to do after they left.

Mancala - I have taught some of the neighbor ladies to play mancala, which they very much enjoy. It is similar to a Congolese game they already know.

This Child

I was living in Congo the day he was born, and I am living in Congo now - on the day the Lord took him. I cried that day and I’m crying today six years later. 

This child was a bright spot in his little world. Despite his severely limiting illness, he was happy and cheerful and made friends with everybody. 

He gave out hugs and smiles freely and without hesitation.

I am not his family, or even a distant relative, but from the first day I met his parents, I knew we were related somehow. Our friendship was cemented with mud, late-night movies and midnight talks. 

They are the kind of friends that once you have them you don’t let them go. Even though we might feel a million miles apart, I always know they are there for me when I show up outside their door.

So along with others, who are perhaps more closely related, I dare to offer up my thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus for the six years we had this child with us.

The cheerful attitude in the face of suffering, the brave determination, the overflowing joy.

Maybe we wanted more time. 

Yes, we did. 

But remember the birthday parties? The trips to the zoo? Splashing and playing in the river? The picnics? Stories at the library? Sitting around in the living room talking and laughing and watching movies together? Remember the road trips and the late nights?

His parents gave him the best childhood a kid could have, despite the limitations. And he lived it fully, and enjoyed it fully, and showed us what Jesus meant when He said, “abundant life.”

Because we can have abundant life even in this fallen world subject to the curse. Didn’t this little boy prove that to us?

Those years that went by so fast were enough for God’s love to shine through this child and reach out and touch so many others. We wanted it to last longer. We prayed for more time. 

But God said it was enough. This child has done his work well.

He gave so much to us and even with the sorrow heavy in our hearts we can be thankful. 

We have seen the goodness of the Lord, and we will see it again in the land of the living.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

The “Room” is rapidly expanding

The clinic where I go for my prenatal appointments

Waiting for lab results

Small Gardens

My other garden-related project has to do with the small yard inside our tin fence, directly surrounding our house. When we moved here it was a patch of sandy dust, with hardly a green thing in sight. I have made it my goal to turn the whole place green, and create a papaya and flower garden. I started the papaya trees from seeds, and thankfully they grow fast. If they can survive the little boys I think I will have the garden I’ve been hoping for. 

I have also planted lots of purple “sand flowers” and green beans. The green beans had a promising start but recently have been attacked by bugs. We only got a handful of beans before that happened, but they are extra long! See photo.

The flowers are still thriving, and so far only two papaya trees have been hacked up by the boys. One of them has recovered quite nicely. 

Orcxance has gone to work with a will to grow a special kind of yellow flower that eventually becomes a bright and beautiful bush. Despite multiple destruction attempts by the little boys, he does not give up. He has also added some other edible plants to our garden: ngayingayi and pondu, two local leafy green plants.

Recently I took the risk of transplanting some papaya sprouts to our garden patch outside our yard, and we’ll see if they survive. I also planted half the plot with peanuts again.