I managed to catch up with Nige the other evening following his 10 day visit to the DRC where he went with a Shekinah Church colleague to help prepare a new building for 'Les amis de David' school ready for it's launch in September...
Q: A successful trip then Nige?
A: (Laughing) Well! On arrival in Kinchasa after a very long journey we were greeted with the news that we might not get a flight to Kananga as the government had grounded the airline company we were supposed to be travelling with. Fortunately for us, President Kabila had been there a week previous and some of his staff were still stranded so we managed to jump on the chartered plane being sent to pick them up! And of course once we arrived we weren't too sure how we were going to back so it was all a bit precarious!
Q: What kind of practical things did you get up to while you were there?
A: We decided to get to work a couple of days earlier as we weren't too sure if we were going to have to leave early due to flight problems but we were mainly decorating an old, disused clinic which was previously rented out as housing accommodation. In actual fact, it was a 400 year old Belgian-Colonial building. Things aren't as simple there as we would like, I mean, you can't just nip to B&Q for supplies and at one point we had to wait 2 hours just to get hold of a tin of paint! We were also using homemade ladders and scaffolding made from bamboo. It was great though because as a church we were able to pay 9 men a weeks wages for their labour.
Q: Was your mission accomplished?
A: Yes, come September there is now a new building ready for the older children to move into and continue with their education. Between the 2 buildings now, 350 pupils can be schooled however there are now 300 children in total between the ages of 3 and 8 signed up for September so at some point there will have to be an extension or another building!
Q: The last time you were in the Congo, you came face to face with a kind of poverty that we just don't know about in this country. What, if anything, struck a chord on this visit?
A: The general untidiness and cleanliness issues are always there, you can't get away from them. In hospital corridors there are machines belching out unpleasant fumes, whilst running pieces of equipment. My colleague visited a maternity hospital where old, abandoned cars were just left outside.
Q: Is there a difference between Sundays at the Centre Missionaire de Christ' church and Shekinah?
A: The people desire to be in church even if they have to walk miles to get there. Less than 10% of pastor Willy's church is in work so when the congregation pray for their daily bread, they really mean it!
Q: Whats next for you in the Congo?
A: I was there last year for the opening of the school so I would love to be there next June when some of the pupils graduate. Due to the increasing numbers of pupils on roll I would love to get involved in another school project but also look at the area of health care and see if we as a church or country could help provide their hospitals with more modern hospital equipment, even if it's our old machinery that we can spare due to upgrades. I would also like to get involved with the elderly there are no pensions. I want to be involved in any way that helps the people to become more self-sufficient. It would be great to go with my wife too as she is a nursery manager who could maybe have some input into the pre-school.
Q: And if anyone reading this would like to get involved in anything Shekinah is doing in Kananga?
A: Write or e-mail the church expressing their interest and what they would like to offer, practically or financially, and we'd take it from there.
Write or e-mail the church expressing their interest and what they would like to offer, practically or financially, and we'd take it from there.
Debs Smith