Lots of Changes

We got new mission leaders! President Koranteng and his wife are energetic, eager to move the mission and Church forward and share their shining testimonies of Jesus Christ. We love them already!

Last month, our sons Daniel and Thomas came to visit us here for a week. Senior missionaries can have houseguests from outside the country. Having them here and showing them this beautiful place and the beautiful people we love, formed a comforting bridge between our life in the USA and our life here as missionaries. Now that some of our children have been in this house, it feels more like a real home. Though we had been looking forward to their visit for about 8 months, I didn't expect it to have such profound effect on me. I suppose I've been a little homesick all along and it helped soothe that lingering sensation.

We saw lions, rhinos, elephants, buffalo, crocodiles, hippos, zebras, giraffes, mongoose (mongeese?) plus an array of birds and 6 different types of antelope. We still haven't seen a leopard and probably won't, since they're hard to spot.

We went up to the area where the gorilla trekking starts but didn't actually trek.

Another set of dear friends, Marc and Pat Ensign, finished their mission in the office and returned home to South Carolina. How we will miss them!

Jeff, me (in an extremely unflattering outfit) Pat and Marc Ensign

As member and leadership support missionaries, we don't proselyte. So when inventory our labors, we don't have any concrete numbers to measure. That is a good thing in some ways, since we never have a sense that we have finished a work. We do everything else, including teaching music, teaching English/language coordinators, speaking in meetings, mentoring the Young Single Adults, training the district to help them prepare to be a stake, training the branch leaders to help them run their branches smoothly, teaching temple preparation classes, teaching "Teaching in the Savior's Way" classes, etc. Lately I've been working on kits for the Branch Primary Leaders to help them teach music and scripture stories to the children. I've made picture sets for teaching songs, puppets, a giant fabric die, to roll to determine what song to sing or story to tell, an Indian headband etc. Once I make 11 lion puppets, I'll hope the district primary will be ready to distribute them and help teach the branches how to run a primary that will engage the children more fully.

He has 10 siblings. It took me three tries to get the pattern right, but I think he's a friendly chap that the children will enjoy.

This week we will participate in another "For the Strength of Youth" conference. We expect to present our "Nephi challenge," probably speak at some sort of gathering, possibly do a workshop or two, but so far, we don't know exactly what they want. We enjoyed doing it in Bujumbura in January and hadn't expected to get another chance. This time there are almost 500 youth registered for the 5 day conference. They will be staying at a boarding school, but we will drive back and forth to fit them around our schedule.

Nevertheless, we are beginning to see some fruits of our labors.

The above is the first passion fruit on a vine I planted in a pot from seed. The passion fruit is so named because the flower reminded the namer of Jesus's crown of thorns.

It seems symbolic that the Passion (of Christ) vine is beginning to bear fruit. He is the true vine, he said. One such fruit of that True Vine came unexpectedly from English class.

In the English Connect 2 class we recently completed, we have a unit about "what I will do in the future." We discussed plans for missions, plans for schooling, and plans for careers. In other lessons, we talked about family and hobbies, travel and memories. After we finished the last lesson (number 25), Fabrice gave us a note, thanking us for teaching him and for caring about him. He was one of the most faithful attendees. The note was written all in English, which was in itself very sweet. He also told us that he wanted to be taught by the missionaries and to be baptized. We had not known that he was not a member!

Last week, Fabrice was baptized. Jeff confirmed him and gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a sweet experience.

Something that continues to trouble us are the constant requests for money. Between individuals, NGO's, and regular street beggars, it averages a once per day occurrence. Our home bishop, Bishop Nehren, recently reminded us from the handbook that missionaries must not give money to the people where they are serving. It even specifies "not even school fees." That must be a common request everywhere, since it made it into the handbook, and we get it regularly.

At first, overwhelmed by the want here, we gave pretty freely. As time went on and the requests, pleading, begging or even demanding multiplied, we became more careful. We began to realize that very few of the NGO's (types of charitable organizations that are rampant all over Africa, and whose founders are in the top 5% of earners in this country) spend any significant amount of money on their "cause." There are even north Americans who run some of these NGO's. Often they engage with the neediest of people by teaching a skill like basket-weaving, jewelry making, or sewing. The market is so swamped with those products that the weavers or sew-ers will make pennies per hour if anything. Souvenirs here are very cheap, but food is not. (That's part of the reason the Church emphasizes that everyone needs to learn English, and supplies the materials for free to anyone who wants to join a class. That's the language of business and opens doors to prosperity that can't otherwise be opened.) The NGO's make their money by soliciting donations from the west and westerners.

We heard of a situation where a tourist began tossing candy out of their vehicle when children held out their hands. The tour guide begged her to stop, explaining that training them to be beggars seriously handicapped them. I don't blame the people for wanting something for nothing, (who doesn't love a freebe?) but it's no way to thrive. We occasionally make an exception for a clearly desperate street beggar when we can avoid being stormed by on-lookers.

At last we see the complete wisdom of the "no giving" policy. Missionaries can't do the work we came here to do if we are seen only as ATM's. We give our offerings through anonymous channels where there is high accountability. It has been a relief to be able to say categorically "no, we can't give you money."

This post is too long, but it should catch you up for what we're up to. I'll write more often from now on.