Laborers for the Harvest

Hello to all of you!

It’s almost October, and we can hardly believe how the time has passed. We sit here, in the perpetual summer weather, missing the beautiful fall weather that some of you are enjoying back home in western NY. On one hand, it doesn’t seem possible that it’s already fall. On the other hand… what fall? It would be wonderful to see the changing leaves and feel the mild, crisp fall air. Endless summer has its own set of benefits, too. We’ll be okay, but it does make us a little sad to think about it.

School is back in full-swing again for Michael (and Danielle). We have found that he is not quite ready to handle 10th grade math, so we are reviewing 9th grade math this year. It’s not  like he doesn’t have a little room for taking a break. Without the daily struggle in math, everything else seems to be going very well. Unfortunately, because of my work situation at the hospital, I haven’t been able to have Michael spend the time with me that I thought I would. I already have 4 guys looking to my lead, so I don’t have the extra time to spend with him, or the extra space (with the others already looking over my shoulders). Also, because Michael is a self-learner, Danielle is not tied to his schedule; she has a bit of free time right now.

The boat finally came into Impfondo on September 7th. That meant that Danielle’s oven was finally here from Brazzaville. It only took about 6 weeks longer than expected. In that time, we heard a million stories about when the boat would arrive. Every day was a different tale of where the boat is today. I think they were almost all incorrect. We purchased 2 ovens from Volunteers of America that were sent on the last container, that came from TN. It arrived in Congo last August, and then its contents were shipped by truck (like pick-up, not tractor-trailer) to Brazzaville, where they sat in storage at “Hotel Bravo”, Global Outreach Mission’s base of operations there. We pawed through everything that was still there when we arrived in May, and set aside what needed to come on the next boat to Impfondo. In the time that lapsed (the extra 6 weeks), we ran out of gas for the stove, and the town power station was out of gas to generate electricity. The stores were getting a little more bare than usual, as well.

We made it through the waiting period (it was rough), and now Danielle has a nice, shiny, American oven! After swapping ovens at 4 houses, the new ones were all hooked up. Our stove top works great, but the oven was broken. It’s gas, but it’s pilot-less ignition. There’s no knob for the oven, but you use electronic buttons to control it (the heat is still gas). Inside the oven, it has 2 burners; one under to bake, and one above to broil. The broiler worked fine, but not the baking burner. If you know Danielle, you know that is a big problem. In addition to the burner failure, our battery wouldn’t put out enough juice to get the thing going anyway.

The first step was to buy a new battery for the solar system. We kept the old one (still good) and tied the new one to it, to double the amp output. This morning, I swapped out the igniter (built-in thermocouple) from the broiler. Now it works like a charm. I am hoping to get something nice as a reward for my labor, like a cake!

My work at the hospital has been a mixed bag of rewards and frustration. In the last month, I have really begun to feel settled-in as far as my job. I have repaired a few tools, machines, and bicycles. That is rewarding, to feel that I am making a difference there. I’ve also had the joy of being able to identify the problems  with the x-ray machine, large generator (with a little help from another missionary, via e-mail), and 2 tractors. I know that all machines basically operate the same way, but it is a relief to know that I am capable of repairing an x-ray machine! That one had me worried. Then, there’s the down-side: even though I know how to fix all this stuff, now I need to get the parts to do it. Just as an example, the John Deere tractor has been out of commission since the middle of June. It has a bad o-ring in the hydraulic pump. Oil was shooting out like a garden hose. It took all of 15 minutes to find and remove the old part. I am still waiting for the replacement to come from the states. I think that the Harveys will be bringing the solutions to many problems with them when they arrive at the end of next month. I sure hope so, anyway. Please pray that the Lord will make it possible for all of the necessary parts to make it back with them.

I hate to run on and make these updates so long, but there is so much stuff to tell you! The boat also carried many of the tools that I had sent ahead on the container. While the hospital has some tools, there really weren’t that many, and nothing beats using the tools you are used to. Seeing my favorite tools (sorry ladies, it’s a guy thing) come off the boat went a long way toward my settling it at work. It gave me the motivation to get going on some of the bigger projects that I was hesitating to get into. This week, I hope to get the Land Rover up and running, or at least get the problem figured out and call for parts.

As a family, we are feeling settled here in Congo. There are many things that we miss about home every day, but this is where we are. God is using us here, and so it’s all good. I think anywhere can begin to feel like home, if you let it. We’ll never be Congolese, but living here is okay. We would really like to come back to the US next summer if we can, but it’s not because we need a break. If we are going to be here long-term, there are still a lot more things that we would like to bring back with us. And, of course, we would love the opportunity to eat a little pizza and ice cream!

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Thank you for your support, your e-mails, calls, and even pictures on Facebook. We’ve been trying to call many of you, but some people are just never home! Maybe now that fall is here, we will be able to nab a few more of you on a Saturday morning. In the mean time, thanks for being part of this with us. We love and miss all of you.

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

Today is the perfect time to write an update, so I am doing just that. The presidential election is today, so everything in town is closed, including the roads. We actually had to get a permit to use the truck for hospital emergencies today. It’s good that we did, since there was en emergency c-section at 9:00 this morning.

This week has been full of excitement here at the house as well as at the hospital. The brother of one of the workers at the mechanic shop (at the hospital) came to me two days in a row, begging me to teach him English. The first day, I wasn’t sure what to say, so I kind of just listened to him ask and brushed him off. I don’t really have a ton of extra time to be giving English lessons. And, one thing I am learning quickly here is that if you say yes to one person about even the smallest thing, a line forms behind them with a whole bunch of people each asking something of you. It is very important to stick to doing what you are here to do and saying no to most everything else. It’s hard to explain and even harder to get used to, especially if you are a generous person! Then I got to thinking, and I remembered that Danielle was telling me about how badly she needed a Lingala tutor. Then it hit me; a trade. The second morning, when I was asked, I made the offer. He gladly accepted. Now, he comes 3 evenings per week, for an hour each evening. The first half-hour, I teach him English. The second half is spent with him (his name is Openal) teaching Lingala to Danielle. Since he speaks very little English and Danielle speaks very little French and no Lingala, I translate Openal’s French into English for all of his instructions for Danielle. It works great, and I even get a little help with my French this way!

Tuesday had some excitement, but of a different sort. I was on the tractor at the hospital around noon, mowing some grass behind a couple of the buildings that are housing some of the staff that came up from Kindamba. I was finishing up, but I noticed a small sliver of grass under a palm tree behind me. To make less work for Jean-Claude, who was doing the push-mowing, I backed up to get that last little bit and then I was going to put the tractor away for the day. At least, that’s what I thought. When I backed up, I disturbed a wasp nest that was attached under a low-hanging branch of the tree. Within a few seconds, my head was swarmed with wasps. To make a long story short, I ended up getting stung somewhere around 60 times on the back of my neck, my ears, back, arms, and hands. It was pretty painful, but I got over to the pharmacy, where Sarah Speer looked me over. A few minutes later I received an IV injection of 200mg of hydrocortizone, to get the swelling to go down. It did nothing for the burning and itching, but it did help the swelling go away. By Wednesday, I was feeling a whole lot better.

This morning, an Aka man came to the door holding what looked like a small brown ball in his hands. After a minute, I figured out what it was. It was a pangolin. It’s a spiny anteater. They look a lot like an armadillo with a long tail and small brown armored plates all over it that are like a flexible shell. The armor goes from one end all the way to the other. They are actually pretty cute little critters. He wanted me to buy it as a pet, but we are still unsure what is ok to keep as a pet and what isn’t. He assured me that it was a good pet and that you can feed it bread. When I said that I wasn’t interested in any animals right now, he moved on to the sob story about how he was hungry and had no money and no food. The guy just caught this thing in the jungle, and I think it is probably a little harder to get than bananas. If not, he could always cook the little pangolin if he was that hungry. Again, it is hard to turn people away, when you are here to help them. But, these people are good at coming up with stories, and they think the white people are an easy target. It’s still hard to say no.

Aside from all of the fun, there is plenty of work to be done here. I have taken inventory of all of the tools and supplies at the shop and put it all in a spreadsheet, so that we can easily sort through all of it to find things when we need them. I have also begun a routine maintenance schedule for all of the motorized equipment on the hospital grounds. It might seem pretty basic, but none of that was being done before. If we take good care of what’s there, it will mean less money spent and time lost replacing things or fixing needlessly broken things. There is a “to do” list a mile long that was waiting for our arrival. I am whacking away at a couple of things each week, which is about as fast as anything can get done here. In a couple of weeks I am expecting the arrival of the rest of my tools that have been stored in Brazzaville. Once I have those things I will begin to tackle some of the larger projects, including repairing a dead truck and the large stationary diesel generator. In the mean time, I am sticking to what I am sure I can do with the tools that I have on hand. In the next week or so, we will also begin some building renovations to prepare for the nursing school to open (hopefully this Fall).

Danielle and Michael are getting ahead with some school work, while the Harveys are gone. That way, they can take a break when the Harveys first come back. Michael is having fun playing with some of the children around the mission, as well as building with his Lego’s. Danielle is learning how to shop here.  She goes with Serge once a week to the market (a little bit here and there, spread out all over the place), and she is starting to know where to go to get what she needs. She is also learning how to cook here. Things are a lot different, but she seems to be doing fine.

As you keep us in prayer, please continue to pray for our language-learning. We thank God for His provision of Openal in that area, but we do still have a lot to learn. Outside of that, we just ask for prayer for general protection (not that we are in any known danger) and for God’s continued provision and strength to do all that He has put us here to do. Thank you for your prayers and support. Thanks to God for the fact that we are here, all of our needs are met, and that we have the opportunity to be used here by Him. Thanks to each of you for your involvement in that, as well. Until next time, God bless!

Due to the presidential campaign that is currently going on in the Republic of the Congo, there are a lot of extra people in Impfondo and Danielle is restricted to the end of town where their home is and is not able to go to the hospital where they have Internet access.  So she has very limited access to communications for the next several days.

Hello~

We just wanted to send out a brief update to let everyone know how we are doing.  We are well, still lots of day-to-day adjustments, but doing well.  Michael and I have been spending a couple days a week at the hospital helping out where we can.  It has been a blessing to have something to do other than just trying to drum Lingala and French into our heads.  It also gives us the opportunity to use the greetings we have learned in both languages on our bike ride there.  It is about 3 miles to the hospital one way.  There are many children that get very excited to hear either M’bote or Bonjour from us as we peddle by, when Michael talks to the children they all get very excited they tend to jump up and down screaming and sometimes chase us for a little bit.

Many of you have asked how I was fairing diet wise.  I am doing AWESOME!!! The Harvey’s prayed for me just before we arrived in Impfondo, they were very concerned for my diet needs here.  Well I had some things with flour in it and nothing is making me sick.  I have enjoyed pasta, pizza, bread and many other baked goods.  We had wondered if it was the processing or preservatives in the flour at home that made me sick.  Now we are almost positive that is what I am allergic to.  Due to the change in my diet, the 6 miles on my bike at least 3 days a week and the sweating from the heat I have lost a bit of weight and am feeling great.

While at the hospital we have been able to send and receive emails as well as even chat with a few people via facebook.  I have been able to send out updates and have been able to update the goingmissionary blog. I hope to keep that up as time permits.  I pray that it will give everyone a small window to our life here.

We got our bed this week, finally.  Since arriving we have been each sleeping on a twin beds that we pushed up against each other.  This had been a hard thing to adjust to after 15 years of being next to each other sleeping apart makes for restless nights.  Though maybe it was a blessing as we adjusted to the heat here.  We now are the proud owners of a water bed.  Jean-Pierre VanderVoorde delivered and assembled it on Tuesday night.  We now are not only sleeping better being next to each other once again but sleeping on a cool surface, ahhhhhhhhh.  Thank you again for all your hard work and sorry for all the nicks Jean-Pierre.

Jean-Pierre and Ginny VanderVoorde headed back to Canada for a 2 month visit with their family.  While we are very excited for people to be able to head home to their family and friends the team here is shrinking quickly and we will miss each part of the team till they return.  We have quickly adopted them all into our family and feel equally welcome in theirs.  The Harvey’s arrived home in Perry on the 21st and are enjoying time with friends and family.  Please keep Dr. Joe in prayer as he studies for his recertification exams on July 20th.

Thank you for all your emails and notes, we enjoy hearing from everyone and still getting to take at least a small part in your lives even though we are a long way away from you.

Prayer requests:

• Pray for Dr. Joe’s exam
• Language learning for all 3 of us
• Our adjustments to the heat
• There are still needs for Dr’s and Nurses in July, August, September and October

Mbote, Reasoning(s)!

That’s “hello, friends” in Lingala, for those of you who are uninformed in such things. Of course, that included us until only days ago… so don’t feel bad if you didn’t know that one! Our new vocabulary is only one of the many things that are new and different these days. Virtually every aspect of life here in Impfondo is a new adventure. It is even very different from life in Brazzaville, which is a large city.

Our first 2 weeks have been rewarding at times, and very frustrating at others. We have some of the amenities of home here, but with a much more hands-on feel to them. Language is also a roller coaster of accomplishments and despair. I’ll give a few examples so you can understand what I mean. We have electricity in our house. It is a wonderful thing to have power here so that we don’t have to charge cell phones and laptops at the hospital (which is 3 miles away from the house). However, our power is only 12-volt DC solar power. Our lighting is 12 volt florescent, with a switch on each fixture. The battery is in the bathroom, under a cabinet, along with the load controller and the charge controller. Next to the battery is a small 400 watt inverter, which changes the battery power into 110 volt AC power. It is enough to charge the computers and phones, but that’s about it. Still it is a blessing to have that much. We are also lucky enough to have a small kerosene refrigerator in the kitchen. You have to watch the flame level on the burner, keep the chimney clean, trim the wick, and also fill the tank and clean all the parts once a week. And, the freezer works well but you can’t count on the fridge to keep anything cold. It is very temperamental, at best. Once again, it’s a lot of work, but it’s better than nothing.

The language thing is more work than the fridge or the electricity. At times the barrier seems insurmountable. At other times, when our brains seem to be in a French mood, it’s like watching a movie with the sound just a little too low. You get the basic idea of what’s going on, and you have the body language to watch, but some of the words are just too fuzzy to pick up on. That’s a good conversation. Thankfully, the people here are patient with the dumb Americans, so it only goes so bad the rest of the time. During the good conversations, you feel like you’ve arrived at a level of proficiency, and you could do anything. Then you talk to the next  person, and it feels like you are listening to gibberish (with a “Frenchy” sound to it). Sometimes, when I feel lost for a whole conversation, I just want to quit. Over time, it will get better. For now, we know enough to survive.

The road we live on is the main road through town. It is always noisy here. I think it’s noisier than where we were in Brazzaville. There are only a handful of cars and trucks in town, but there are cheap Chinese motorbikes everywhere! I hear that they can be purchased for only about $200 new, but they start to break the day you buy them. It’s a funny thing; the best stuff available here is dollar store quality Chinese goods. Chinese imports to America are ten times better than the best stuff you can get here. Backing up a little, I shouldn’t say the bikes are everywhere. In a city of 10,000 people, there are about 50 bikes. Nobody just rides them; they are the taxis here. I guess many of them are owned by the police officers, who rent them to the drivers. Then they stop and harass the other drivers that they don’t make a profit from. That reminds me of another thing. There is a very visible police and military presence here, all the time. We haven’t seen any issues from it yet, but with the level of corruption here, the possibility is always there.

In the short time we have been here so far, I have seen lives saved and lives lost at the hospital. I have also heard of several who have made decisions to accept Jesus as their savior. You can never truly know the heart of another person, so we can only hope that they have been sincere. But, that’s why we are here. We hope that our involvement here will help the hospital staff in the ministry to the people. We also need your continued prayers as we attempt to do that each day. Please pray for our protection from the chaos and corruption, and for strength as we deal each day with adjusting to life in Impfondo. The other missionaries say that it will take a few months to settle in, so we’ll see how it goes. We are so thankful for your prayers and support. It is a joy to have you invested in this work with us. The Lord is definitely working here. It’s such a privilege to be a part of that, no matter how hard life is here. We trust that He has a purpose for our being here and that he will provide all that we need to accomplish that purpose, despite our weakness. Keep praying, and watch for another update soon!

Together for His glory,

Art, Danielle & Michael Ralston
Your Missionaries in Republic of Congo

Pioneer Christian Hospital:
B.P. 10, Impfondo, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville)

Global Outreach Mission, Inc.:
PO Box 2010, Buffalo, NY  14231-2010(USA)

M’bote!!!  Hello

We arrived here in Impfondo on Tuesday around lunch time and were greeted by many familiar and new faces in the crowd.  We were so excited to see the Harvey family and finally get to meet the rest of our missionary team here at the hospital.

As you can imagine we have had a few days to adjust, to the new environment as well as sleeping in our new house.  I was so excited to finally after months or years depending on the item, of things being boxed up and out of our reach that I was unpacked the first day.  I am still not all that organized but am getting there.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as all the adjustments that we now need to deal with seem very overwhelming at times.

We love you and will continue to pray for you.  Please remember to send your prayer requests to us, just because we are thousands of miles away doesn’t mean we don’t wish to be part of your lives.

In Him,

Danielle (on behalf of the Ralston Family)
www.laborersfortheharvest.com

P.S. It looks like we will be able to retrieve our emails 2 or 3 times a week, so please be patient with our replys and updates.

Hello everyone!

It’s Thursday evening, just past 9:00 pm. Here in Brazzaville, it has been dark for hours now. It still feels like the temperature is lingering somewhere around 75-80 degrees, and the humidity is fairly high as well. It might be a little cooler, but the humidity makes it feel that warm. I am really not a good judge of the relationship between the two yet. Although it feels late, there are plenty of sounds and smells all around. There is a taxi just up the street honking the horn (they do a ton of that). I can hear the crickets, vehicles, distant music and the sound of voices on the street every once in a while.

Our windows here at “Hotel Bravo” have glass in them. They are the kind like in old mobile homes in the States, where they are narrow horizontal slats that flip open together. I am not really sure why the glass is there; I can’t see any reason why you would want to close them. Air circulation is way too important to close the windows when it’s always this hot. There is a small fan on a stand in our room, and it stays on all the time. At night it only does so much to move the air, since the net over the bed tends to block most of the moving air. Oh well. At least we have power! That changes depending on your location in town. Streets with important government or health buildings on them tend to have the power on most of the time. Other streets have frequent outages, sometimes for days at a time. From what I understand, the town power goes off at 6:00, and then it is dark except for where there are generators. We have one here, so we have power all the time. It’s nice. We even have the use of a small refrigerator, so we have cold filtered water to drink, and even can keep juice and yogurt cold.

I should say something about the trip here, and the nightmare that is called the Maya Maya Aeroporte. Then I will get to the taxi cabs and roads. The trip here was a series of small “twangs” as we have come to call them. It’s just a name for the things that are small discomforts that can add up to a serious level of pain and discouragement. We arrived at JFK with Scott Miller (who was volunteered by his loving wife to chauffeur us and our luggage to the airport in New York City traffic in a rented cargo van) almost 2 hours before they began accepting check-ins. We got to stand around for that time, but being the first ones in line ended up paying off very well. There was a bit of concern as to whether we would get all 14 of our containers on the plane. After some questioning behind the counter, we were allowed to check it all in… at three times the price that the website had informed us. We were on our way. After saying goodbye to Scott, we went through security, found our gate, and picked out seats to do our waiting in for the next 3 hours or so.

Our gate got changed, so we had to move to the other location where we spent the remainder of our time before boarding the plane. As a side note, it is a huge racket buying food at the airport. It cost $17 for a hot dog, 2 drinks, and a small sandwich. In Morocco I spent $20 and got even less food. Anyways, our flight left a little early, and we were on our way to Africa. I enjoyed the flight, Michael was too warm, and Danielle felt sick. I was the one who was supposed to feel sick, but I had the last laugh. The only pain I experienced was the swelling and throbbing of the right side of my face, from the abscessed tooth that started hurting the day before (good timing: holiday weekend, no insurance, no time before our flight, and I get a major dental issue).

Each of us attempted to sleep on the plane, but it was just about fruitless. My face hurt too much to sleep long, Michael was uncomfortable, and Danielle was getting kicked from behind by the screaming little girl who just wouldn’t stop.The entire airplane was packed with Moroccans, all speaking in Arabic, and kids were running everywhere for most of the flight. Of course, the parents weren’t paying any mind at all to their children (which drives us nuts). There was plenty of turbulence, but I found that doesn’t bother me at all. That was somewhat surprising to me, to be honest. I found the ride to be comfortable other that my butt getting tired of the seat every once in a while, forcing me to change positions more than a few times.

Seven and a half hours later, we landed at the Royal Moroccan Mohammed IV Airport; at least I think the name was something close to that. It was right around 7 am there, and the air was pleasantly cool stepping off the plane. We were shuttled across the lot and to the airport entrance, where we were to go to Transfers. One problem: my guitar had been taken from me as we boarded in NY to be checked with strollers and things like that. I saw these being brought out as we were whisked away on the shuttle bus, leaving the task of getting it from the baggage claim. As we were told to go to Transfers, we unwittingly followed directions and got eternally separated from Baggage. Nobody at the airport spoke more than a few words of English, they all thought we were trying to go to NY. Somehow, we were directed to go to Gate 26, which ended up being the gate for an Air France flight to Paris. I am still not sure how that happened, but I left Danielle and Michael there to wait as I began the long frustrating journey to retrieve my guitar.

I will spare all of the agony as I retrace my path to success. First, I went backwards through the gate to security, and then on to an information desk. (They really don’t like you going the wrong way through security stations, by the way.) Information was not nearly informative other than to point in the general direction of the baggage claim and send me away without a single useful clue where I was going. I found it eventually, after having to go through immigration to get to it. There was my guitar sitting on a cart of other unclaimed items (I presume).  With my claim ticket in one hand and passport in the other, I stood around for what felt like forever (a few minutes) until a random airport worker walked by and asked me what I was doing. After telling him that my guitar was right there, he said “just take it, it’s yours, right?” It made sense, but I felt like someone needed to know I was taking it and not just wandering off with a piece of baggage. I got tired of standing there, so I took it and off I went. The return trip was another adventure, since I could not return by the same way I had come. I had to go through another immigration station in another part of the building, so I had to fill out my information all over again and get my passport stamped again. The one from 10 minutes ago was not good enough. I wound up at another information desk and was sent off in another direction that sent me back finally to the first building that I had come from. It only took about another 5-10 minutes to get back to Danielle and Michael from there. I was amazed to realize that only a little over an hour had passed all together. I was not at all happy, but at least we were back together.

Our next flight was too far away to be posted on any of the boards yet, so we found some comfy seats and waited, glancing every little bit at the sign to see if it was there yet. Around noon, it appeared, and we moved to our gate and got seats there. From the window, all of our luggage was visible, so it was obvious that this was the correct place to be. At the proper time, we boarded the plane. This time I was allowed to carry my guitar on the flight.

The flight was not direct like the previous one had been. There was a stop in Cameroon, at Douala. We stayed on the plane, and just a few people got off and a few more boarded; then we were in the air again. It was 2 hours to Brazzaville, our final stop for the week. I had heard stories about the Maya Maya Aeroporte in Brazzaville, but nothing, and I mean nothing, could prepare us for what met us there. If you can imagine the hottest, stickiest, dirtiest, tiny airport on the planet, you are getting warm. But it’s worse than that. Let me enlighten you.

We stepped off the plane at 11:00 at night, and the heat and humidity were pretty bad; but we were ready for that. A small shuttle drove us 100 feet across the lot and to the entrance, where we walked through the doors into the arrivals section. There were about 30 or 40 of us arriving, and we were definitely the whitest, most English-speaking people in the place. We were tired. We were sore. We were sweating. While Danielle and Michael stood behind me, I filled out our immigration cards with our passport information. Adolfe (a small, very nice Congolese man) came up to us, carrying a small sign made of marker on green construction paper, with my name on it. He was arranged to pick us up and acquire our luggage for us. He also had our yellow certificates that were  needed to get through the health inspection. Unfortunately, there were 2 drawbacks we would face. The first being that he speaks basically no English at all. The second issue was that our driver had gone AWOL and would not be driving our luggage back to the mission guest house.

As we made it past immigration and then past the health officer, the real fun began. We had been previously told to walk confidently past security, not looking them inn the eye. If they flag you down, say “mbote” which means hello in Lingala, and they might check a couple of packages. Nothing could be further from what happened in our case. Most of the guards were okay with us passing by, but one lady in particular did not like the looks of us, and was going to give us a very hard time. She succeeded, by the way. She started yelling something at me in French, demanding to check our luggage. She started out wanting to examine all 14 pieces, but in the end only looked at 5 or 6. I was not handling the luggage, but I was getting yelled at about it. This is how baggage works there: the baggage claim area is tiny. Along the opposite wall from the carousel is a row of carts that kind of look like shopping carts, but with no basket, just a frame. They are supposed to have 4 wheels on them, but the guys hanging around the airport rip the front ones off so that nobody can really use them. The idea is that you hire them to move your stuff because it’s too much of a pain in the rear for you to do it. It works for them, but they are terrible cart drivers none the less. I watched them dump pretty much all of our stuff at least twice. So there we were. Danielle and Michael were once again standing against a wall, out of the way. Our luggage was on this cart over here, some on that cart over there, some dumped all over the floor, and I was standing in the middle getting hollered at in French. I was totally incapable of processing a single word of it in that setting, that late at night, and that sore and tired. Oh yeah, and it’s really noisy there, too.

After what seemed like a long time, we were allowed to pass through, without losing a single item from our luggage. Praise the Lord! I helped the last guy carry the tail end of our stuff out to the parking lot, where none other than Paul Ohlin was loading  it into the truck. Paul and his wife are missionaries in Central African Republic. He just happened to be in town and offered to help us out. He was such a blessing to us for our first few days here. He leaves Saturday, and we won’t see him again for quite some time, if I am not mistaken. Anyways, he drove us to “Hotel Bravo” and helped us get our luggage inside the house and find our room. Then it was off to bed… after a shower!

The morning found us somewhat refreshed, but still quite bewildered by what faced us for our time here. I was very upset that Dr. Harvey had given us what I felt was a false sense of confidence about how easy it would be here in Brazzaville. We had a few things we needed to do, but we had no idea how much  it would be up to us to get them accomplished almost on our own. Looking back, I am glad it went that way. We were forced to survive on our own, and it made us grow in ways that will benefit us a lot in the future of traveling in Africa without a babysitter. We are stronger for the experience we have had here. Back to the story, well, there’s not much more important stuff to tell without laying out the entire chronicle of our daily events since then. What I can say is that Michael has made friends with another boy over at SIL (some Wycliffe Bible Translators are there), and we have spent a bit of time there, as well as making friends of our own with some of the missionaries there. We are learning that the status of missionaries here is like a continuous carousel, with people getting on and off all the time. Of all of the missionaries here, there are another 30% more out of town on furlough, trips to other areas to work for a few weeks, or on trips to see family in other places for a short time. It’s kind of strange, but we’ll get used to it. Danielle still speaks little to no French, and soon will have to begin learning Lingala. My competency in speaking French is being stretched daily, and my vocabulary grows every day. God has been very good to us here, and we trust that will continue. My tooth was taken care of by a very good, very expensive French dentist here in town- praise the Lord for that! I know I didn’t get to the roads and all of that, but this is getting so long. If you want to know about the rest, let me know. I can fill you in with another e-mail.

The arrangements and details have been taken care of for our departure to Impfondo on Tuesday morning. We should fly out of here by 9:00am and meet the Harveys for lunch. The flight is an hour or two, so not bad at all, and the plane is a DC-9, for those of you who were curious. As soon as we get the chance in Impfondo, we will update you again. It won’t be so long next time, I promise!! I just thought that you might be very interested in what it is like to make the trip. In addition, you might be scared enough to try to get us more support, to ensure that God won’t need to call on you to do this! Of course I am just kidding, but we do still need prayer for more commitments for support to come in. We also REALLY need your prayers! Thank you for your prayers thus far; God has surely answered many of them already! The fact that we are here is more than enough proof of that.

Please feel free to respond to this e-mail. We would love to hear from you. In the mean time, we will attempt to post some pictures on Facebook later tonight for your viewing pleasure. We love you all and miss you very much! Know that you are in our thoughts and prayers continually. God bless you, and we will be in touch again as soon as we can.

Hello~

Now that you have heard from Art, this is Danielle dropping in. You have read about all the things that have happened to us as a family. But I thought you would like to know how I am doing.   I am doing ok, very confused, my lack of understanding French is a huge problem here in Brazzaville.  I can’t do anything on  my own without Art or another French speaker with me.  I was able to go to the Market on Saturday with the care takers wife here at Hotel Bravo.  It was a very interesting experience that I am not sure I will want to have again anytime soon.  An outdoor market in Congo is crowded, loud with both French and Lingala being yelled everywhere, smelly, food being cooked, meat being cut and all kinds of fruit and veggies.  It is very disconcerting to have people yelling Mdella at you constantly, at first I wasn’t sure if this was meant to be and offense or what it was.  I forgot that is just their way of trying to get your attention so you will buy something from them, because after all you are white so that means you have money.  I have to admit it will take me a bit to get used to how you buy food here, there is not a Wegmans or Tops to be seen.

Yesterday we attended a French speaking church service. It hit me that I HAVE to learn how to fit in here and learn the language and fast. Not understanding scripture or worship songs was very hard for me.  I was able to recognize a couple of songs but not 90% of the service.

Being thrown into this life has been a good way for us to learn to adapt quickly.  Michael has made a couple of friends among the English speaking missionaries, however he is rather annoyed to find out most of the kids his age here are girls.  So pray that he will find a few Congolese friends in Impfondo is age.  He will have Noah Harvey to play with, but he is going on furlow soon and will be gone till October.

Well I will end it here so you don’t have to spend hours reading.

With love and prayers from Brazzaville,

Art, Danielle & Michael
Ralston Family Missionaries in Republic of CONGO
www.laborersfortheharvest.com
www.goingmissionary.blogspot.com

From Danielle via email:

“Mbote  HELLO from Brazzaville!  We are here a little worse for wear but
here all safe and sound.  We arrived with all 14 pieces luggage, after
only one mishap and a few heart clenching moments as we went through
customs in Brazzaville.

I will write a full update for everyone about our trip in the next few
days.  But for now know that we are here, and appreciate your continued
prayers as we have hit our first bits of culture shock.

Through Christ alone~

Art, Danielle & Michael
Missionaries to Republic of Congo”