DR Congo day #1

Matt went to the DR Congo in August. I am finally getting around to matching his letters up with the pictures. Feel free to read his letters or just enjoy the pictures... either way it will be worth your time :)


The trip is very eventful. As you know we didn't get our luggage and we couldn't wait for it to come in the next day because we had to catch our other flight that only goes twice a week. We scrambled and found the necessary food. Today we were stopped at a police road block and usually they let us pass, but not today. They held us up looking through our passports, writing all our information down and then waiting for a bribe to let us go. Our drivers are with Catholic Charities and they were granted country rights to not be stopped at these check points so they were furious. We thought a fight would break out with all the yelling going on. They held us for about an hour until one of our vehicles went and got one of our Branch Presidents who works in the local government. He came and yelled at them threatening to report them to their boss and they finally consented to let us pass.

They were being so childish and egotistical. Trying to throw around any ounce of power they had. It was sweet when we drove by them without paying the bribe they were asking for, however we did have to pay a smaller one up front. Being in countries that operate off of bribes and lawlessness clearly demonstrate how useless Satan's plan would be if ever implemented. It would be a universe of inefficiencies caused by selfishness.

That hold up put us behind and we were on the road after dark longer than what we wanted. We spent around 3 hours in the back of a Landcruiser with hard little seats facing each other, like what you would find in an army vehicle. The road was bumpy of course and our rear ends were numb by the end. We're still 2 hours away from Luputa so we're staying in a hotel without running water in another city (Mwene Ditu). They provided us with a bucket of water but Peter and Howard didn't receive one and it would take them 30 minutes to go and get them their buckets. 30 minutes to get water for your hotel room... Do we ever take things for granted. So.. we shared my toilet and I volunteered to be last and "flush" the toilet by dumbing the water in the toilet. Yep, there's a special bond with those you travel to Africa with.

On top of this we ate an energy bar, a pop tart, and some bread for lunch and dinner combined. This is not glamorous for sure, but I sure do love it. It's amazing to be time warped into a totally different world. Millions of people living today without the basic necessities we take for granted. Electricity, transportation, law, a government for the people, and of course WATER. Unemployment is a huge problem and after talking with a sister from the Church it was confirmed this is the biggest burden Church members deal with. Husbands being able to provide for their family and wives being able to take care of their children properly.

What an awesome opportunity it is to represent the Lord's Church and be able to help them help themselves. There is no doubt the Lord is with us and we will be able to capture stories here that will benefit so many in the Church. The greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love our neighbor. To help whenever or whomever you can.

I love you!!

Thanks,

Matt

Here is a very young policeman with a machine gun. He was part of the group that held us up for an hour hoping to get a big bribe from us, but the network of the Church came through again and a local branch president saved us.

The man in the white shirt is our branch president who is talking with the group in charge of the road block. The branch president just happened to work for the local government and had the right connections. The Lord has assembled a pretty amazing network to help his work move forward. So many little challenges like this around the world are eliminated by Church members and friends of the Church despite Satan trying his best to slow things down.

This is a sunset over the African continent taken from our airplane. It's pretty cool how you can see the curvature of the earth. We're right at the equator.