Dear Friends,

I just returned to Kinshasa after my first teaching trip to Kikongo. I had a wonderful time there and had several adventures. I'll try to tell you about a few of them here.

We arrived in Kikongo early in the morning and I expected to teach classes that day. However, some very creative person moved all my classes to Thursday and Friday. This worked out very well for me. In previous years I have often missed classes due to weather or scheduling changes. Now, theoretically, I could even arrive in Kikongo on Wednesday afternoon and still teach a full week of classes! I don't know why we didn't think of this before. It makes Thursday and Friday very full days for me, but I actually will get more time in the classroom with the students. I like it.

Since I didn't have classes, I spent most of the early part of the
week discovering where everything was packed one year ago and re-arranging the house. Since volunteers have been using the house during the last year, most of our personal things were packed and stored. So with my classes moved, I had extra time to put the house back like I like it and to move in.

Our avocado orchard is doing well. Several of the trees have many avocados and this is a good indication that we will soon have more avocados than we know what to do with. I hope that we can suppliment the diets of the students. Any little bit goes a long way.

On Thursday I taught all my classes for the first time. I had only missed the first week of classes, so we weren't too far behind. I was able to hand out the workbooks that I designed for each class. Then I gave each class a calendar with due dates and the pace for the course. They seemed to accept this strange teaching strategy pretty well.  I'm pretty sure that we will be able to keep on schedule and discuss the
work that they have done when I am there on a monthly basis.

Friday's classes went well also. We began work in the workbooks and my French started to warm up a bit. We have several very sharp students who will do very well at the Institute. I'm looking forward to teaching them this year.

Two highlights this week:

Firstly, on Thursday afternoon, I got to ride in Glen Chapman's powered parachute. He uses this "flying go cart" to fly to nearby villages and to show the Jesus movie. It's a great tool for evangelism in a place where we have no roads. A trip of several days can be done in a morning. Glen took me for two laps around the Kikongo Mission. It only took about 20 minutes, but it was fun to get airial video of the Pastor's Institute and to enjoy flying in a new way.

The second highlight of the trip was seeing Pastor Bugi in Kikongo. He had come into the mission for medical treatment and came by the house to visit. I believe that this was Providential because several folks had given us money for his support and I wasn't sure how to get it to him. God worked it out. It was good for Pastor Bugi as well because he was not able to pay for his medical treatment and was doing odd jobs around the mission to purchase his medications while he was trying to get well.  Pastor Bugi had many stories to tell, but I was especially interested to hear that he's planning to plant a new church in an area where there are no churches. He is already the pastor of 4 churches (At the same time !) and he wants to plant another one. What a faithful servant ! When I saw him in church the next day I noticed that he had new clothes. I wonder when the last time he was able to buy new clothes. I thought that this was a fitting way to use the gifts that he had received from churches: Medications and new clothes. (Later Jill said that he probably bought new clothes for his entire family.) For a village pastor who makes less than one dollar a week, I think the gifts from our churches must have been a great encouragement to him and to his family. Please keep him in your prayers.

Please continue to pray for Jill and I as well. We are seeking to do what God has for us here in Congo. It's not always easy to know what that is. However, we feel blessed to have this opportunity to serve Him here. Pray that we will serve Him well.

In Christ,

Mike and Jill Lowery