We moved to Kinshasa, DRC on December 19, 2020. It’s been a little over a week, and I have been at odds with how to describe it all. A post could be written about our travel days alone—flying to Africa with a two-year-old and three-month-old during a second wave of Covid cases was an adventure in itself.
My impressions of that process, and now life here is that it has been everything I thought it would be, and so much more. By that, I mean that life here has had anticipated challenges, unfortunate surprises but alongside those things, unwarranted grace and support.
We were prepared well by MAF on what to prepare for and anticipate regarding our assignment here in Kinshasa. There was nothing shrouded in mystery and excitement about how challenging life would be here but I still found myself idealizing what circumstances we would find ourselves in. I think everyone does this to an extent when envisioning what the future will hold.
We have spent the last week working on getting our home as settled as it can be before Elijah begins working at the hangar. We have sat through traffic jams, stumbled through transactions in French, and have begun trying to rewire our brains to adapt to inconsistent electricity or water or both!
Adapting to anticipate completing household tasks without things that I once took for granted has been eye opening. I have realized very quickly that in myself, I am not enough. I have a deep reliance on consistency and control—both of which, we have had very little of since we left France!
Elijah remarked the other day that God has given us just as much “daily bread” as necessary to be consistently relying Him and others for support since we have gotten here. Each day we are here, we come across something else to add to our list of things to fix. Even though we have had a few more unanticipated and possibly abnormal challenges with our home upon arrival, we have been able to “make it work” because of the love and grace that has been poured out for us from our team.
They have hosted us for meals, set us up with basic items to borrow as we await our shipment, helped us trouble shoot problems with our water and electricity, driven us all over town (which is truly saying something) and helped to introduce us to Congolese culture. We expected some of the challenges we are calibrating to but are overwhelmingly thankful for the ways in which our team has served us already. I have been praying for this community for some time and meeting them in person has been the highlight of our arrival. This unmerited favor is a poignant reflection of God’s grace in our lives. Living here is everything I thought it would be…and so much more.
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