Christmas in Pointe Noire

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

from Pointe Noire

The weather here in PN does not feel at all like Christmas, more like the 4th of July. Soon we will have the longest day of the year in the Southern hemisphere. Last year we were in the Alps, this is the tropics. We could not resist the temptation to have our picture taken with Santa. The owner of the store is Indian and when Carma wished him a Merry Christmas he responded that it is not his holiday. For him it is a chance to make money, which is the reason he is here. Christmas is our reason for being here. God sent his son into the world so that we might have life. This life is offered to everyone.

Year-end Giving: Some people may wish to give a year-end gift. Gifts to the Great Commission Fund are used for our support. This pays for our salary, insurance, housing and travel costs.

A gift to Nelson Work- Congo allows us to purchase things that are necessary for our work here. I, Wyman, have used these funds to buy tools, cement and Bibles for distrubution.

A gift to Nelson Outfit-Congo will help us buy things for our house. Items on the list include a washing machine and an air conditoner.

A gift to Nelson Vehicle-Congo will help us buy a vehicle for our work here.

See the side panel for the link for giving.

Problem solved

For the last couple of months I have been spending a lot of my time working on remodeling offices at the Christian Education Center here in Pointe Noire. I finally solved the lighting problem for the space which will serve as the office for the church district.

What do you think of my solution? Now if I could only solve the rain problem.
Actually, I removed the metal roof to fix termite damage to the wood and replace the roof.

Visit to Mboukou

On Saturday morning we found a taxi and we went to an area on the edge of town where you can get an out of town taxi. We took a ride up the National Route 1 which will eventually connect Pointe Noire and Brazzaville (the capital). The road that has been redone is in great shape, but unfortunately, that does not last for long. Mboukou is only 30 miles by road from Pointe Noire but It takes 1.5 hours to get there. Village life is very different than city life. The pace is more relaxed; you might say too relaxed. Our objective was to visit the church there and to get a feel for church planting outside the city. It is our only village church in this area. There are other villages where we could plant churches but we don’t have pastors who want to serve outside the city. Leadership is crucial for any new works so we are investigating ways to train leadership for the future churches in the surrounding villages.

Village life is very different than city life. We were in Mboukou during some of the World Cup matches and missed the US vs. Ghana game. The village does not have electricity but some people have generators, TV’s and satellite dishes. You can watch the World Cup if you pay admission. We tried to rent a TV and DVD player to show the Jesus film but there were none available because of the World Cup. We will try again in the next few months before the rains come.

Moving on up

We spent a busy weekend packing and moving from our one bedroom apartment to a larger upstairs apartment vacated by one of our colleagues. The move was scheduled to happen in July but because of the medical evacuation of the former resident the date was moved forward. Our co-worker is receiving medical treatment in the US and will stay there for at least a year. The first challenge was to pack their belongings and store them. The second was to move our stuff out of storage and from the one bedroom apartment into the new location.Don’t ask how many trips I made up and down the stairs.

I wished to post a photo of our new view towards the port of Pointe Noire. Technical problems make posting photos a challenge. I will try to post the photo soon. We get a nice breeze here and are not dependent on air conditioning like we were in the other apartment.

Looking to the SW we can see the port of Pointe Noire. The port is lit up every night while other parts of the city are dark. The ships line up and wait to be unloaded or loaded. There is a stream that flows into the bay not far from our apartment. There are interesting birds to be seen. A crested hoopoe visits our yard and speckled mousebirds rob our ripe papayas.

Hello from the Republic of Congo!

We are getting settled in Pointe Noire and are spending most of our time learning about the country and this city. Here are some of the things that we discovered.

Where is Congo? What is it like?

The Republic of Congo is found in Central Africa and shares a border with Cameroun, Central African Republic to the north, the Democratic Republic of Congo to the east and south, the small exclave of Angola to the south, and Gabon to the west. It is a little bigger than Italy and has almost 2.5 million people who live in the south mainly in the two main cities, Brazzaville (the capital) and Pointe Noire (the economic center and port). The northern section of the country is mainly rain forest. Congo is located on the equator and has a tropical climate with an average temperature of 75 degrees.

What are we doing here?

Our main priority will be to help the local churches grow and plant other churches in and around the city of Pointe Noire. We will also help the pastors develop leaders in their own congregations. We will work in cooperation with the CEC-PN (Christian Leadership Center-Pointe Noire) in this task.

How can we help?

You can pray for us.

1. We are looking for God’s guidance. We are not sure how and where to start our work here.

2. Pray for our housing. We are looking for housing as well and not sure what to do. We are living in a guest house now which is a little small but larger than what we were used to in France.

3. Pray for your participation with us in the ministry here. You play an important role in all aspects of our ministry here. We are excited about what God will do in and through us as we begin this journey together in the Congo.