ZAIRE

AFRICA
Volume 14
Coordination Update
July 2nd marked the one year
anniversary of our return to the
field. What a year it has been! I
think it would take me a week to
write about all that has happened in
the last 52 weeks.
There have been a lot of ups
and downs for the African Christian
Mission family in regards to person
nel. We have had two families and
two singles resign due to health
and/or personal problems. Mission
aries have taken early or extended
furloughs due to health or family
problems. One missionary has left
ACM to get married.
The churches have had their
share of problems, too. They are
trying to run two hospitals without
any outside aid at the moment. The
government is closing down the
church's schools right and left
because they don't have permanent
buildings - brick with tin roofs.
I have been involved in many
varied activities as Field Coordina
tor. These included coordinating
official visits, clearing contain
ers, clearing aviation fuel, helping
settle disputes with employees of
missionaries, setting up an intern
ship, running an orientation semi
nar, working with the policy commit
tee in writing and implementing
needed policy, planning a prayer re
treat, getting radio licenses re
newed, getting pilot documents for
our substitute pilot, helping mis
sionaries get resident and exit
visas, getting insurance and other
papers on mission vehicles, setting
up continuity plans for furloughing
missionaries, etc.
Mike with 1989 Intern Amy Wn Arsdail and visitor Dean
Speece.
Like I said, it's been quite a
year. I am not patting myself on
the back for being a "busy" man.
It's hard to know how busy God
really wants me to be, maybe I'm
doing things I shouldn't be doing.
Please, pray God will give me wisdom
in managing my time, in deciding
when to delegate jobs and when to
just say "no".
I told Julie the other day
that if I just had a couple of weeks
of completely uninterrupted time, I
might be able to catch up all I'm
behind on. But maybe Jesus wants me
to have a "ministry of interrup
tions". I still feel like I am
sifting out what my responsibilities
and priorities should be. Please,
pray I will be sensitive to the
Spirit's leading in this sifting
process.
I enjoy being at my office in
the CECA Administration Building. I
am there almost every morning and
several afternoons each week. It is
amazing how what the CECA leaders do
on almost no budget. The office
badly needs curtains, file cabinets,
bookshelves, chairs, desks, type
writers, staplers, etc. I am hoping
to help out in this area as funds
allow.
Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Mac
Childress of Ashmore, Illinois, I
have a small Radio Shack computer in
my office. As soon as I learn how
to use it, it will help me catch up
all the official and personal corre
spondence I'm behind on.
One area where I have seen
progress this year is better commu
nication between the church leader
and the field missionaries. Proba
bly the best one and a half hours I
spend all week is my Wednesday
"business lunch" with Mundyo, the
head of the church. Our friendship
and working relationship is growing.
There still are gaps, sometimes
huge, in church's and ACM's cultural
understanding of each other. Many
times we have differences in priori
ties, thinking, and perspectives,
but we do have a good relationship
developing which allows us to work
through our differences.
Please keep praying that God
will bless his church in Zaire.
MUOYO AND MIKE
Julie's Thoughts
This newsletter is LONG, LONG
overdue! The excuse "we've been too
busy to write" has been overused.
We're sorry and we hope you will be
forgiving.
One of the recent books I've
read is Open Heart. Open Home, by
Karen Mains. It challenged me to a
greater commitment of hospitality
with true ministry to souls as Its
aim. To accomplish this in greater
quantity (as well as quality), I was
challenged to get my home and my
methods of doing things in order.
Mrs. Mains has no concept of what it
takes to run a home in Zaire with
water that goes off almost daily,
electricity that loves to shut off
in the middle of supper prepara
tions, house help that doesn't know
that hot and cold water will come
out of the tap at the same time, but
nevertheless, I was challenged to
get my house in order despite the
obstacles! I like a challenge, what
else can I say! Anyway, all this
leads up to say, I am in the back
stretch of the very extensive
project. I still need curtains in
the living room and dining room,
cushions for the living room furni
ture and then I can tackle the
office. I'm one who saves the worst
until last! Piled in my office
(almost chin high now) are stacks of
letters to answer, financial reports
to do, papers to file, and preschool
materials to sort and work on with
Sarah. The task is HUGE but I don't
consider it impossibleGod has
worked miracles in the past and
continues in these times. Please
pray that I will accomplish these
goals quickly.
I am the Mission Treasurer
a job I promised never to touch
again! Oh well! I don't mind it
for awhile but I do hope it won't be
permanent. I have lots of good
intentions and other projects to
start once my "organization project"
gets wrapped up. I have already
told the Youth Teacher, Lwahira,
that I will work with him to get
more Youth Curriculum entered into
the computer and printed for the
churches. I am already lending a
small hand in the Prison Feeding
Program with the buying of corn
meal. I have become involved with a
ladies' group and I look forward to
my involvement growing much, much
more. These are just some examples
of my hopes for the next year.
Another specific goal is to be
a greater help and support to Mike
in his role as Mission Coordinator.
His burden is heavy, the stress is
verv great and he has basically done
it on his own this first year. I
want to share his burdens more, to
brainstorm ideas as a team, and to
reach out to people with united
efforts. I see a number of ways in
which my abilities and increased
involvement could lessen the stress
and enhance his ministry.
Please, please, PLEASE, pray
for us. Satan is working overtime
to get missionaries out of Zaire and
destroy the churches here. Power
struggles within the churches know
no denominational barriers and we
are seeing other missionaries in
other denominations overwhelmed by
the increasing influence of Satan
and his evil forces just as we
ourselves. Please pray for: the
physical protection of God's angels
on the missionaries and African
Christians in this country and the
spiritual closeness to God that will
keep us wise servants.
From the front lines, Julie.
SARAH AND JASON NICHOLS
A VISIT TO ZAIRE - by Iva L. Speece
Since becoming Mike and Ju
lie's forwarding agent in 1983, I
have dreamed of someday visiting
Zaire. On May 13, 1989, that dream
became reality as my husband, Dean,
and I boarded a DC10 at Chicago's
O'Hare airport.
This trip Increased our re
spect for missionaries, our zeal for
missions, and our faith. We experi
enced both the joys and the hard
ships of being a missionary. The
first problem was a flight delay, an
extra night in Belgium, and arriving
in Bujumbura at 2 a.m. We came up
against the language barrier when a
dozen young men flocked around us
wanting to carry our five pieces of
excess baggage. PTL, Mike and Roger
Kibasomba were there to meet us.
After a short sleep in a
Catholic Guest House, we experienced
the potholed roads, the time consum
ing border crossings, and finally
arrived in Bukavu to find out we had
missed our welcoming party the night
before!
One lesson I learned was to be
thankful for water that is safe and
dependable. Why all these buckets
of water sitting in the bathrooms?
About 10 a.m. the next day, I knew.
The water was off and it usually
went off everyday about that time
and stayed off until sometime in the
afternoon. And what a blessing it
is to be able to drink and brush
your teeth with water from the
faucet! In Zaire, it has be fil
tered and boiled first.
And then, Dean began experi
encing excruciating pain. We
thought it was a kidney stone. When
the second attack occurred, it was
decided that to be safe we should
have him exrayed. Mike, two nurses,
Dean and I start for the hospital 30
miles away. Doesn't sound too bad,
does it? Add two border crossings
and 15 miles of the worst mountain
road you can imagine and you will
have the true picture. Then - the
exray machine is not strong enough
to penetrate Dean's bulk! They were
able to see enough to confirm the
diagnosis. The worst was over. He
felt great the rest of the time.
Then there are the nasty
things like intestinal parasites and
jigs that the missionaries contend
with regularly but we won't expound
on them.
Joys. There were many:
church buildings packed for worship
service and people standing outside,
26 baptisms at one service, 23 sets
of parents bringing their babies
forward for prayers of dedication,
women taking time to learn to be
better teachers of other women, a
new church building being dedicated
with 1788 people present, mission
aries and Zaireans reaching out to
those who had lost a loved one,
people working hard to provide
materials to build a new house of
worship, seeing prisoners listen
intently to the gospel message, and
seeing the commitment of men and
women who endure daily hardships to
share the gospel.
As Field Coordinator and Field
Bookkeeper, Mike and Julie are a
part of all this. While we were
there, Mike handled one difficult,
time consuming problem after another
with - if I use the words expertise
and ease, Mike would deny it. They
were not easy and Mike did not
always know what to do, but with
prayer, love, and patience, things
seemed to work out. Julie has
worked hard to make their house a
home and the results are rewarding.
Being Field Bookkeeper takes lots of
time and brings many interruptions.
Hopefully, this will be turned over
to someone else soon and Julie will
have time for her other projects.
They are worthy servants.
Youth Update Program
Things are happening in the
Youth Program! Lwahira continues to
do teacher training seminars, aver
aging one a month. He is also
writing fourth year lessons for our
four year youth curriculum. Julie
is going to help by entering the
lesson texts into the computer. Our
long range goal of printing this
curriculum is getting closer all the
time!
Jay Beeman, our fulltime
printer, and I have been continuing
to help Lwahira and Jean Pierre on a
part time advisory basis. Pray that
Jamey and Charlene Ramey will be
able to raise their support quickly
so they can join us as fulltime
youth workers in the Kivu Province.
We desperately need to recruit
someone(s) to help the youth program
in the Haut Zaire Province. We also
need missionaries to help develop a
children's Sunday School program for
both provinces.
The soccer balls and
chalk/flannel graph boards are slowly
making their way to the churches and
schools. The church leaders advised
us to not hand them out "free" as
they would be appreciated and re
spected more if people paid for
them. We set a low price (about
one-half the actual price) and are
using the income to buy more Chris
tian literature in French and Swahi-
li and guitars for the youth pro
gram. It is exciting to realize
that in some of the closer sections
where we have held several teacher
training seminars, the local church
es now have around 50 books or
booklets in their own library!
Pretty good for starting at zero a
few years ago.
Lwahira has begun to do spe
cial seminars for youth choirs. We
have found that many youth do not
really understand the purpose of
singing in a choir. Some have seen
it as a position of prestige and
have thought of themselves as
"above" others in the churches.
Please pray about this problem.
Lwahira just got back from a
week of seminars in Kilembwe, a new
area for having ten new churches.
Jay and I went down for one night to
show the "Jesus" film. The Chris
tians in this area are excited about
their faith. Pray that they will
develop deep roots in the Word.
I've preached twice in French,
that is, reading a prepared manu
script! I've promised to preach once
in French each month at the Ibanda
Poste church. I hope to someday
help Roger Kibasomba, an elder in
this church, to start a university
student outreach. Please ask God to
open that door of ministry.
Things are happening in the
Youth Program! Praise God and ask
Him to guide the Christian youth and
leaders in Zaire.
Finance Update
We want to share with you our
current financial situation. First,
we want to praise the Lord for
allowing us to purchase the double
cab Toyota pickup. The almost new
truck we bought for $13,500 now
costs $30,000-$50,000 to purchase
new in neighboring countries!
The past year has been hard
for us financially. It took every
thing we had, including using our
retirement savings, to get the truck
and to pay off the $1700 customs
bill be had on the latest container
shipment - soccer balls, flannel-
graph and chalk boards, file cabi
nets, washer and dryer, etc. We
face another big expense of putting
the roof on our garage. We rent our
house from a Zairean lawyer who
agreed to lower the rent by $100 per
month if we would roof the garage.
The time has come to fulfill our
promise. The garage will give us a
much needed laundry room
workshop/toolshed, as well as a
place to keep the truck out of the
rain.
Another factor adding to our
financial crunch has been a loss of
support. Since coming to Zaire, we
have lost one, perhaps, two churches
and two or three regular individuals
from our American support and our
Canadian support has dropped as
well. This left us $375 short on
regular monthly support. Praise
God, one time gifts have kept us
going.
Prayer can change this!
Please pray for Mike's Dad, Ed
Nichols, as he tries to find more
support for us. Pray also that God
will give us the wisdom to be good
stewards and managers of the money
He entrusts to us.
GETTING READY TO ROOF GARAGE
4 t f H t
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F O R W A R D I N G A G E N T S :
U . S . S u p p o r t e r s , p l e a s e s e n d f u n d s t o :
A F R I C A N C H R I S T I A N M I S S I O N
c / o I v a L . S p e e c e
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C a n a d i a n S u p p o r t e r s , p l e a s e s e n d f u n d s t o :
W E S T L A K E C H U R C H O F C H R I S T
c / o E a r l a W e l s m a n
B o x 7 0 2
P i c t o n , O n t a r i o
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p a ^ s a n b a ^ u o ^ ^ a u o ^ s s a i p p y
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N O I S S I W N V L L S I H H O N V D I t t J V
H E L D A D D R E S S :
M i k e a n d J u l i e N i c h o l s
B o x 5 3 4 3 5
N a i r o b i , K e n y a
S J ^ T E S I D E R E P R E S E N T A T I V E :
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P h o n e : 2 1 7 / 9 4 8 - 5 4 8 6
A l l d o n a t i o n s a r e t a x d e d u c t i b l e a n d w i l l b e r e c e i p t e d .
F i n a n c i a l s t a t e m e n t s a r e a v a i l a b l e u p o n r e q u e s t .