Congo Life & Times

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Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:00:08 -0500

“It’s kind of hard for Churches to come to terms with the Biblical concept of cross cultural unity within the body of Christ as it pertains to missions ...
when we don’t even know how to nurture unity within the body of Christ in our own towns & cities, let alone our own country or the world.”

Gallivanting

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 13:06:47 -0400

We’ve spent a lot of time in the car since arriving back in the States . . . it has been a means for many great times with both family & friends in-between diving!

Update on Darla’s Arm

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 11:11:24 -0400

Darla’s arm seems to be doing much better.
Read on to hear from Darla herself on her progress.

Service Agency Logistics

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:00:42 -0400

The following is the text of the letter that our supporters received last month.

100 MPH!

Mon, 10 May 2010 05:00:53 -0400

It is only a few weeks now until we will be sitting on the plane on our way back to the States for our 2010 furlough. Things are definitely in high gear around here, with a long list to be done before we leave. Below I've inserted a portion of a letter that Darla wrote to family- it highlights well all that is going these days.
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"I started laying the bathroom tile last week. It's been slow going as I'm still doing home schooling with the boys. We get done with school around noon, and then it's about 2 or 3 p.m. before I can get to the tile work, so we've had some late evenings. The boys have been good, though. Lael usually falls asleep on the couch waiting for supper. Corban has been helping by preparing the vegetables, etc. for me. Asher . . . well he tries to be a help-but he just thinks the tile adhesive and the bucket of water are much more fun.

Seth is busy keeping ahead of the plaster masons and the masons who are working on the wall on the lower ministry property. To say the least, it's a major construction zone around here these days. I'm afraid it's going to be crazy all the way up until we leave for our furlough. It will be nice to know that we will be coming back to tile after our furlough is done (well, that is if we can get it all down before we leave). It will also be nice to touch ground in Indy and get some rest initially.

Seth is working with some of the key men in the church to get them ready to do the teaching/preaching while we're gone. Thankfully we have the "Firm Foundations" material, and the men seem excited about teaching through it while we are gone. They will need help from Seth through the process, and we are hoping that can be done through email and Skype.

We also did an ongoing Family Seminar each weekend over this past Easter break. Most weekends we had only three of our core families, but it was a great time, and they were all very excited about the teaching and so thankful for it. We met for 4 weekends in total, and covered subjects like biblical communication, husband/wife relations, & child-rearing.

We put the ladies' Bible study on pause for over the Easter break, but are having a great group. One of the weeks we had eight different countries represented (American, Australian, Indian, Malawian, Zimbabwean, Zambian, South African, and Congolese). I really will miss this place when we have to be gone.

The rains are finally over, and our roads are drying out. :) It's nice to be able to head to town without wondering if you'll actually make it or not. A couple of weeks ago I had to go in, and there was a truck stuck on each of the ways we could take. I had to put the Cruiser into low and do some major off-road'ing to get around the one stuck truck. At one point, the Cruiser was leaning at such a steep angle, that Asher fell across to the other side and banged his head (he wasn't a happy camper to say the least)-I guess there are reasons for seat belts even if you're only going 5 mph."

Darla Curtis

Stuck in the Mud . . . Really Bad!

Thu, 4 Mar 2010 03:30:00 -0500

Excerpt sent in an email by Darla --
“Well, when my hubby gets around to doing something he usually does a really, really good job of it. So it comes as no surprise that when it comes time to get the Cruiser stuck in the mud that he would do a really, really, really, good job of that :) which is exactly what he did this morning. He left for town at 10 o’clock, got 5 minutes down the road and did the deed. After the ordeal of getting out, he limped the vehicle back into the driveway 2 1/2 hours later (without going to town, of course). We spent the whole rest of the afternoon taking things apart and cleaning it out - Him cleaning out the engine and me the interior (yes, the interior!). He was in a mud pit that was half way up his door, none of the seals could hold the junk out for that long and before the ordeal was done he was up to his ankles in mud inside the Cruiser.

Here is the alternator which may be dead. It was full of little rocks, pieces of sack, plastic and debris.
(Editor’s note: While doing a powered reverse, with guys pushing, it stirred up all the little gravel rocks, trash, etc. that had accumulated on the bottom of the mud pit over the last several months of rainy season. All of this sludge was being sucked up into the engine compartment that was also submersed (we have an air-intake “snorkel” or the engine wouldn’t have even been running at all) -- the alternator took the brunt of the sludge, sucking in the little gravel rocks and completely freezing it up, & then throwing the belt. I haven’t gotten it to come apart yet, but looks like the little air fans inside are all bent and mangled like “hill-billy” teeth.)
Did I mention he admitted that he was in his “nothing box” when this all happened???
(Editor’s note: In all honesty, I was pre-occupied thinking about what I was heading to town to do, and driving on autopilot in 4WD through all the mud holes -- I came to “the one” that there is a certain side you need to use when crossing, and it wasn’t until I was already down into it that I realized I was doing it wrong -- too bad it was already too late.)

Notice the level the mud came up on the door--our poor speakers :(

We had to pop all the side panels off as there was muddy water trapped in all the cracks (you could actually hear the water sloshing back and forth as the Cruiser was moving).

So that was our day. Our real day was suppose to consist of Seth going in to get our new license plates in the morning and I was going to go to Ladies bible study in the afternoon. Seth got a couple pics on his iphone while he was stuck so he'll have to send those to you. Our concern now is if Seth can get the alternator up and running before Sunday. It had thrown the belt and is all seized up. He's tried to get it cleaned out but hasn’t been able to get it open yet. Pray that we have no emergencies while the cruiser is out of commission. Asher was running a pretty high fever last night but seemed to be doing better today, pray he doesn't come down with something serious.”

Still smiling,
Darla