love in the vein

Spent most of Friday with a group from Minnesota. They are all students at a small college that used to be a Bible college, but is now a liberal arts school. I walked into the computer room at DOCS on Friday and it was full of American college students. It was kindof surreal. The first question their professor asked me (after my name and all that) was, "Are you a Christian?" Second question: "And what local church are you active in?"

It's been awhile since I've been in a place where people are that, um, direct with strangers. Or where a simple answer to a simple question settles everything.

Anyway, after assuring Dr. Doug that my eternal salvation is assured, I met the students, who are majoring in things like nursing, youth ministry, intercultural studies, and worship arts. (Did you know that youth ministry is a major? Does being a summer youth intern count for credit?) This trip is part of what's called "international service learning" at their school; they will spend the next two weeks volunteering with several organizations in Goma.

Then I met their translator, whose first question upon hearing "Texas" was, "Are you familiar with Christ for the Nations Institute?" Yes. Yes, I am. Oh, boy.

They were going to visit Mawe Hai, which I'll write about in another post, and so we did that and then they sang at the revival at the church (oh, yes, this was revival week. I missed most of it. One two-hour sermon in French per week is about my upper limit.) and then C and E had everyone over for dinner at their house. We had a great meal, then Steve (the worship arts major) got out his guitar and we sat around the living room and sang.

It was an interesting day. They came to Congo knowing almost nothing about the situation here (Dr. Doug was surprised to learn that there is a peacekeeping mission, for example). They don't speak a word of French or Kiswahili, which is going to make volunteering an interesting challenge. But all in all they're good kids. They're young. They are earnest and well-meaning. They burst into song. A lot. They sang to three wards at DOCS, in the car on the way to Mawe Hai, on the way back, at the revival, and at dinner. At least three asked if I was a missionary.

When E asked them their reasons for coming to Congo at dinner on Friday night, every single student used the phrase, "need to get out of my comfort zone." This will be an eye-opening, life-changing experience for some of them. My hope is that they'll come to a new understanding of what people here really need from short-term mission trips. I hope they'll learn that the Congolese need food and shelter and clothing and safety and medicine – and that the people they're here to tell about Jesus have already learned to depend on God in ways we'll never understand. Simple answers don't work here.