the coolest entry VISA ever

Bonnie Smith has done a wonderful job of coordinating the Visa applications for the team.

It required finding out what WAS required and then wrangling all the needed information and objects together. The application had to be sent with bank statements and a copy of the tickets and a personal invitation to each member from someone in Congo and a letter of reference from someone here who has known them who can attest to their character and 4 passport photos and each person's passport and a fee....

The part I found most worrisome was sending the passports. Is it just me, or does this seem risky?

Well, surprise surprise! After only a few days, yes days, the passports came back with a beautiful visa laminated right into them. If I were a passport stamp collector I'd want to go there just to have this beauty in my passport. I'm a bit jealous, in fact. I mean, not really... but, whatever.

Thanks Bonnie! Thanks DR Congo Immigration officials! Thanks God!

Eye Witness Accounts

As previously mentioned, this is the first Westside team to enter the DRC. And the permission from the board did not come easily. It has been a process that has taken nearly 2 years. Part of the proposal drafted this year to the board in order to gain permission included accounts from people who know the area who could testify to it's safety. The board needed to know that they were not putting a group of Canadians in a harmful situation.

These are excerpts from a couple of those accounts:

The first is from another church STM leader in New Brunswick who last year began sending annual teams to the DRC:

“The reason we go to Lubumbashi in Southern DRC instead of other places, is to
work among displaced people—people who have fled the danger in DRC’s east.
Southern DRC is safe. Just follow the people. The reason they displaced
themselves to southern DRC is because it is safe.

“Even if fighting does flare up in the East, it’s over 1000 miles away—through
mountains and over terrible roads. The rebels certainly do not have air
capabilities. If they ever did try to come south, it would take them over a week.
News reports would pick that up, and we would simply cross the nearby border
back into Zambia.

“My team did not take extra liability insurance, and our waiver was not
sophisticated. The greatest way to manage risk on the field is to avoid acting
irresponsibly on the field. If your church’s leader acts irresponsibly, then you are
at risk.”

And this next excerpt comes from a man who grew up in Likasi who operates a flight service and travels regularly between the US and the DRC. This is what he had to say:

“You’d be amazed to see how many foreigners are in Likasi. If you go you will
see that the peace is there. You will sense the peace…BIG peace. The challenge
is in going around at night. You just need to find a good area to stay. There is not
this issue of people coming into your house in DRC.”

“The trouble in DRC is the fighting. Uprisings bring trouble. But the fighting has
never gone on in Lubumbashi or Likasi. That is in the Eastern part of DRC. The
Eastern part is scary. It is over 1000 kilometers away.”

Rukang added: “The people are tired of war. Working in Congo is easy because
the people are ready to receive you.”

That last part gets me.

Message from Lynn Chotowetz

We have received an update from our friend, Lynn, who is living in Africa and serving with Hands@Work. Lynn and Jayme went to where our men will be staying to help prepare for the team. This is his email about what he saw:

Hope you are doing well. We have just returned from stepping out dimensions on the exact site where you'll soon spend 3 weeks turning a flat bushy field into a life-giving place of transformation! I think something like approximately one thousand snotty-nosed little kids came to watch us do it, so you can be assured you won't be alone as you work!

The entire project you're working on will encompass 2 classrooms, one office, and a toilet. According to Sal's calculations, you will likely be able to finish one classroom and the office. (perhaps also at least digging the hole for the toilet, as a few of you have experience in that...!). A local contractor has been hired to dig the foundation of the first classroom and office (a single foundation for both), to pour the foundation slab, and to build it up to ground level with bricks. Two locals have also been hired to purchase bricks, cement, stones, and sand and ensure they're on site when you arrive. They will also have lined up sources for the timber, roof iron, and door frames, to be purchased and picked up while you're there. Finally, they will purchase two wheel barrows and 4 - 6 shovels.

Water is available on site at a hand pump well drilled recently by World Vision (now our partners)...but as there is never a line up of less than 50 women and approximately 300 water jugs at any given moment, you will have to plan your water trips!

Margaret and Dominic will drive you from the Farm to the border (Jacob may also have to offer a car to fit you all in), and at the border you will be met by a German missionary friend with a Land Cruiser who will, along with M&D, get you to Lubambishi, where you will have to present yourselves to immigration, and then on to Likasi, where you will also present yourself to immigration a second time. In Likasi, you will stay in a house next to this German missionary, and only 5 mins from M&D's new house. Margaret will arrange food to be cooked for you. Food is expensive in DRC, about 75% more than you'd pay for equivalent items in Canada. Cooking will cost very little, only the purchase of groceries. You will also have to purchase bottled water...about $1.75 for a 1.5L bottle.

Make sense? That's all I can think to tell you for now, other than to say it is a wonderful place. Lots of old colonial urban infrastructure surrounding by very rural villages.

Great News

I have excellent news to post. The tickets have been purchased!

Lisa Dalley has to be thanked for spending hours coordinating a confusing mess of dates and requests and budgetary considerations. She has brilliantly worked through the web of dates and places and times and various travel agents and resources to appease each request beautifully in a most cost effective way.

The team will leave April 1st (except Brent leaving a short while after) and will return on May 2nd. They will be going through Johannesburg, South Africa and then onto Ndola, Zambia where they will check in on the farm where Desi and Brian worked in 2005. Once Brent meets up with them then the whole team will travel on into the Democratic Republic of Congo!

On the return, the flights left an overnight in Johannesburg. They plan to use this time as a debrief period and they will visit the Apartheid Museum together.

With the purchase of tickets, the entry visa application could be sent. We are anxiously awaiting their arrival in the mail.

The Go-Ahead

The process of sending a team to Congo has not been easy. Last year's attempt was painfully unsuccessful. In order to facilitate this year's attempt, the governing body of the church has been provided with a lot of information in an effort to sway the decision in favor of being allowed to enter the country with a team.

This included complete detailed evacuation procedures and plenty of reassurances. The reassurances include letters from local missionaries working in the area, even one randomly found on the internet, answering questions about their comfort level and safety precautions. It has included sending out various scouts to report back. It has included promises to monitor short-wave radios daily while the team is there.

Today, the team is awaiting the last of these "go-aheads" from the board in order to be allowed to purchase the tickets that our agent has tentatively held. We are all anxiously awaiting the moment the tickets are bought and paid for. This will be a long-awaited moment after desiring and praying to be allowed to go to Congo since 2005.

Any moment now...