Paul and Marty Law

Update from Paul and Marty Law - August 2008

(most current listed first if more than one is published per month)

August 22, 2008

Dear Accomplices,

I can’t find Webster’s, but in French the idea of an accomplice is someone who helps a person accomplish or complete something, not necessarily negative. In that sense you are our accomplices as we gradually make progress in our ministry here in Central Congo.

I leave today for our Central Conference in Kananga, but rejoice in having gotten our refrigerator and gas stove delivered and set up for Marty before leaving. That sounds like a simply thing, but nothing could be further from the truth. Saturday a week ago I made a quick trip to Kela to help organize that unloading of the river boat that had finally arrived with our things which were shipped in Feb. 2007. The priorities for Marty were the stove and frig.

It was important to hurry because I was trying to get back ahead of the first big rain that would end the dry season. I knew that if I got caught at Kela with a heavy rain I would have a very difficult time getting back home. The hills are so slick and the quagmires are nearly impassable for a small vehicle once they have been rained on.

The fuel we had purchased was dirtier than I realized and soon into the trip my filter was clogged and I was trying to clean it to keep going. We pressed on cleaning the filter several times. We spent the night in the village of Diwoko where the chief housed us graciously. The next day we arrived at Kela, were able to do our business and depart around 4:30 PM. Early the next morning the rain we had been determined to avoid came and the roads are now virtually impassable for us.

Another note of praise is the apparent influx of students for the Pastor’s School. The director came to see me a few days ago to ask what our limit was for enrolling new students this year. The small scholarship of $20 - $25 per month makes all the difference for so many who feel a call into ministry, but cannot live here without some assistance.

What should I tell the director?? I would like to believe for the funds to support as many as want to come. Can we trust God for the support needed for 25 or 30 new students? We are doing all we can, but we need your help. Is there any way that you personally or your Sunday School class could support one or more students at $25 per month for the next 3 years?! Any gifts you wish to send to the DeRuiter Scholarship Fund should be sent to Appointment Congo and marked for the Pastor’s School students or DeRuiter Scholarship Fund and checks made out to Appointment Congo.

We deeply appreciate your prayers and support and pray God’s blessings on you as we labor together as “accomplices”.

Paul and Marty Law

August 11, 2008

Dear Friends,

Wow! This has been a year of testing, trials and learning to trust the Lord
as never before. Taking care of my folks as their only child did not allow me to be in Congo most of this year. Paul and I were over four and a half months apart and that was difficult.

Yesterday we arrived safely in Lodja and I do not take the word safely
for granted having to fly in the airplanes that we do in this country. The Lord is truly our safe guard at these times, too. I am convinced that our guarding angels work overtime when we fly!

We arrived last Tuesday evening in Kinshasa. We had four intense days of
shopping purchasing groceries and truck parts, fuel, etc. Again, the word shopping does not imply the ease with which we shop in the states.

We have no vehicle in Kinshasa and either depend on borrowing little cars from other missionaries or we have to rent something. Most of the roads are full of
potholes that many times are dangerously deep. These in turn snarl traffic adding to the chaos and bedlam of moving in Kinshasa.(No new roads have been added since the Belgium's were here fifty years ago although the used vehicles keep entering the country!) Much of our time is wasted in traffic tie ups. With no air-conditioning in these borrowed cars, the dust, pollution and sometimes attempted thieving of us, while in a traffic jam, does test our emotional and physical limits at times.

We are thrilled to be HOME again. Pastor Kitambala, Paul's right hand
man, met us at the dirt strip airport and we went to his home for a wonderful Congolese meal of djese, rice and palm oil chicken. I love the flavor added to the food of being cooked over open fires.

When we arrived on the mission we were greeted by most of the station leaders and members of the church as well as many children. Then this morning the workers all came and greeted us with rice, fruit and 6 chickens, which is our main source of meat. During the morning and day many have come to welcome us back.

I am again excited about working with the children and expanding that work. I spent part of the morning with the Director of Christian Education for our Conference, who is not paid nor does he have any budget with which to work. He freely offers his time.

We are discussing who the Lord would add to our children's program as teachers using the 'Through the Bible in Felt' graphics. Please help us pray for the righteous people that the Lord will give us to work with.

I have no budget for the Children's work either so Paul and I are using our tithe for this. We feel it is time to pay a salary to the Director and the teachers that the Lord will give us.

The bicycles for this work are still in Kinshasa on the boat that we loaded them on when we were there the first part of July. We are excited about these arriving one day soon. They will enable this ministry to move forward.

(Just as a side note: our 1/4 of the container that left the states in Feb. 2007
still has not arrived at our nearest river port yet! That is 18 months and counting! The infrastructure of central Congo is virtually non-existent!)

We are excited to be back. Paul and Pastor Kitambala went to 'town' today. Paul was able to purchase diesel fuel for our new vehicle for $10 a gallon. Somehow $3 or $4 a gallon stateside does not sound very expensive!

We are now mostly without electricity (except for 1-2 hours in the evening on the generator) and running water and ice, etc., etc. But you know what-our love for the Congo and our 'calling' to Central Congo do not depend on these luxuries! Our dependency is on HIM and HIS love!

Please remember to pray for us and our Congolese colleagues and the challenges we all face in our daily lives.

Blessings, Marty and for Paul, too

E-mail: paulandmarty@appointmentcongo.com