Five Years Ago Today…

Today is kind of a goofy anniversary.  Five years ago to day we landed in Kinshasa for our first, short-term, assignment.

I say it’s goofy because it is fairly meaningless.  I mean, we were initially assigned to live in Kinshasa on January 12, 2011.  So, in a way, here has been our “home” since that date.

But, initially, this was a short-term thing.  We were here one year and left again, at that point seeking long-term missionary status with MAF.  Once arriving back at HQ in Idaho, we were accepted as staff but didn’t have an official assignment.

Then we were assigned as management to eastern Congo during our time of support-raising, but being made aware that a more pressing need was assisting current management here in Kinshasa, our plans were rerouted toward Kinshasa once again in March of 2014.  And once again, Kinshasa was our mental and emotional home.  We landed a second time on July 14, 2015 and, minus our trip to the US last fall, we have been here ever since!

So, today marks five years of….something.  Technically, because short-term staff with MAF-US aren’t on the payroll until they get on the airplane for the field, it is also our anniversary with MAF.  But we celebrate it on the day we were accepted as short term staff over a year prior.

A lot has happened in five years.  We’ve learned and experienced a lot.  It’s hard to say what has changed us.  Mostly, I hope it is the Holy Spirit working on our hearts to draw us closer to God.  But I also think I’m more used to cockroaches.  All in five years’ time.

Let’s see what the next five years will be!