Here we are, in the heart of the rainy season. Things are even slower now than normal around here. When the rain comes, life stops. There are always a handful of small things that can be done in the mechanic shop and the wood shop, so work doesn’t completely stop. The motivation for the workers (and sometimes attendance) is definitely affected, though. Our team is also short in attendance, since the only foreign missionaries here (beyond ourselves) numbers 2. In a couple of weeks, that will drop to 1 for a short while.

I think we are getting used to life here, whether we necessarily like it or not. There are obviously things that we miss about home, and there are things that go on here that we find rather annoying. Some of that is cultural, and some of it is… well, I guess it can almost all be attributed to the cultural differences. People here are loud. All the time. Even though the house sits back a good 150 feet from the road, you can hear every conversation as people walk by. Of course, we don’t understand any of it, but we hear it all, none the less. Almost always, it’s Lingala. We have decided that Lingala isn’t really worth taking the time to learn.

I speak in French all day, every day. I’m not always sure how good my French is, but they seem to understand just fine, and I do get compliments often at how good it is. I tend to think they’re just being nice. In addition to work at the hospital each day, I am giving English lessons 2 evenings a week to a small group (2-5, depending on weather and schedules), for one hour each night. In exchange, Danielle is getting help with her French from the students. Having to remember things like demonstrative pronouns and past participles and then explaining them in French is also helping my grasp of the French language. So, it’s a good thing all the way around.

Michael is picking up a bit of French as well as Lingala, from playing with the neighborhood kids and talking with the guards at the house. I don’t think he even realizes that he is, and that’s just fine. If he caught on that he was learning something, who knows what he would do! He is at the point where he translates for Danielle at the market, and he can have small conversations with people. He sounds like a Congolese when he does it, too. Like them, he goes back and forth between French and Lingala as he speaks. I think they just know both and so it’s easy to do. For Michael, it’s the only way he can string enough words together to get his idea out.

We’ve received a lot of e-mails from many of you lately, and it’s always wonderful to hear from you. We check e-mail at least once a day, and it’s disappointing when there isn’t anything new. Also, we have learned that our Skype account (telephone calling on the computer) allows us to call anyone in the US or Canada for 2 cents a minute! Since our account originates in the states, and we are on the internet (which has no geographic locality), it’s like we are still there as far as Skype is concerned. Last Saturday we had some spare time in the afternoon (your morning), and we made a handful of calls. It was great to talk to friends and family for a bit. We made a few calls that missed people, so next time be home! I think we will attempt to do that as often as we can spare the time on Saturday afternoons. Of course, that might not be more than twice a month.

Each of you are in our thoughts and prayers, and we hope to hear from you and get updates so that we can be current and effective in our prayers. Thank you for your continued prayers. Thank you for your support. Thank you for the e-mails. Until we meet again in cyberspace…

God bless!
Art, Danielle & Michael

P.S. Our Skype account name is art.ralston

P.P.S. If you would like to read some of Danielle’s personal journal entries about are trip here and life here please go to www.goingmissionary.blogspot.com

Hello everyone!

Is it really August already? I can imagine picnics, swimming pools, and fun things like that. Here, August has a little different of a theme to it. July is the month of the caterpillar. Millions of them are harvested from the jungle, and I guess they are then smoked, roasted, or whatever it is that they do with caterpillars. Now, in August, they are all over the place for sale. August is caterpillar-eating season. Frankly, I think I’ll stick with burgers and hot dogs (when we are in the states, that is).

The presidential elections went on with no violence or disruptions to report. Thank God for that. We were a little concerned with the warnings coming from Brazzaville that there were demonstrations and protests going on. Here, we saw military carrying machine guns (not the usual) and we had trouble sleeping at night with all of the campaigning going on in the street. Other than those few things, life was pretty normal (at least what we think is normal so far). Evacuation plans had been formed, but thankfully there was no reason to worry.

Things have been moving along at the hospital. We are working on renovating four buildings at the moment (a Sunday School room, a boutique for selling items to raise money for the hospital, the nursing school, and administration for that school. As soon as we are done, there are other buildings to renovate as well as the constant rotation of failing equipment that we repair daily. Then, there is the question of housing for the soon-growing missionary team here (as well as housing for short-term teams). No obvious solution has presented itself thus far.

Now that the elections are over, Danielle and Michael are back to going to the hospital a few days a week to help out with some inventory stuff in the pharmacy. They also get on the internet and check e-mails and Facebook. Michael is getting ahead a little on his school, and we are hoping that we can get him involved in some small projects around here soon. Danielle is anxiously waiting for her ship to come in. Actually, it’s the boat that’s due here next weekend from Brazzaville. It has her oven on it (and most of the rest of my tools), and she can hardly wait to get cooking again. The cook here, Serge, has also asked her for cooking lessons. I think they are both excited about that.

As a family, we can’t think of any specific prayer requests, but there are always things at the hospital to keep in prayer. Please pray that the nursing staff will be more aware of the level of care that they are providing to the patients. Laziness and an apparent lack of care are perpetual problems here that could cost the life of a patient. Also, please pray for the Lord’s provision of other doctors to help fill in the gap while Dr. Harvey is on furlough, until October. There was a doctor here for 2 weeks, from Kenya. She left on Thursday. Now, Dr. Fuka is the only doctor at the hospital. The load he is carrying right now is quite a lot for one guy to be responsible for. Pray for his strength, as well as his ability to be there for his family, and for others to come and serve alongside him.

Many have asked for our current support level: to stay here 2 years we still need $700 a month.  We have enough funds to stay for a year plus our return flight costs.  To stay for 4 years (our original plan), we need $1,300 per month, our total monthly support need is $2,820.  We know the Lord is taking care of all of our needs and are blessed beyond measure by the support we have already received.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. If you get the time and the urge, we’d love to hear from you (e-mail is good)! We hope to get the time to start sending more personal e-mails soon. We miss all of you!

Together for the Kingdom,
Art, Danielle, & Michael Ralston

P.S.  Oh yeah people have asked for our birth dates and Anniversary date:
Art 2/16
Danielle 1/9
Michael 10/15/97
Our Anniversary 2/2/94
–
Art, Danielle & Michael Ralston
Your Missionaries to Republic of Congo, Impfondo (since June 2, 2009)

www.laborersfortheharvest.com
www.goingmissionary.blogspot.com