The Gift of Bibles

One evening, I (Kevin) went to wait at the N’djili airport for someone coming into Kinshasa. During that time, he had an opportunity to tour the Air Traffic Control tower. He was able to see how the tower operated and was able to meet the people he spoke to when flying. The people were eager to answer questions and in turn were quite eager to ask all about MAF. They were quite pleased to learn that not only was I a follower of Christ, but so were all the other MAF staff. And they were thrilled to find out that was the purpose of MAF’s existence. One controller asked me if I happened to have a Bible handy, as he had never owned one. Then another asked… and another… and so on.

When the average worker makes about $5 daily, and the cost of living in Kinshasa is so high (an avocado is about $1), a $10 book is essentially unattainable. Upon hearing so many in need of Bibles, I asked how many worked in the control tower all together - 70 was the response. So after setting a goal of providing 70 Bibles for the control tower, I eagerly contacted the church in which I grew up, Highland View Church of Christ, who immediately pulled through with $1,200 just for this purpose! This is almost double the need, but in talking with the resident MAF IT guy here, we learned of some really cool Bible literature programs that can be put on SD cards. So we used the remainder to purchas 150 of those!

When my parents came to visit, they brought the funds with them. MAF then organized the purchase of the Bibles and then arranged for a trip to the airport for my dad and me. In each Bible, Mark added a stamp with the MAF logo and a sticker with John 3:16 explaining the Bibles were purchased with funds from Highland View Church.

My father and I were able to deliver 25 Bibles during the first trip (the tower has three teams of roughly 25 people each, so not all 70 are there at one time). The controllers were very excited and repeatedly thanked everyone involved in bringing the Bibles to them.

The Christmas Dress

Since being back in the United States on maternity leave, Kevin and I decided that we needed to put our little girl in a preschool program our church does on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We placed her after Thanksgiving and she loves it! Her vocabulary has shot through the roof, her confidence has increased, and her ability to play with other children has bloomed! But today was the last day of classes before Christmas break. As sad as this moment was for us knowing our little girl might not be able to experience such a wonderful program again, there was a bright side. The teachers put together a musical performance with each of the age groups (2, 3, & 4).

Once I found out that sweet pea would be doing a Christmas music program, I wanted her to have a dress. Not just any dress, but a Christmas dress. I decided to hit Facebook and ask anyone if they had one they could donate for the cause. I received three immediate responses! One dress I was able to pick up two days later. That dress was super cute, but a little too long. Luckily, it will fit her next year in Africa without being too hot. The second dress is super dressy so I was worried about her ruining it at lunch before the program. So it is the third dress I wanted to talk about.

There is a ministry partner family of ours that we have befriended who lives in another city. They are a wonderful couple and when I got a response from them, I was expecting a silly joke (the usual). :-) Instead, I was blessed with the news that a dress for our little girl was in the mail and on its way. When the dress arrived, I was floored at how cute it was and there was a note attached telling me of its story. The family had ordered a dress online but had received the wrong size (2T, girlie's size) by mistake. When they contacted the company to see about getting it returned and a replacement sent, they were told to keep the incorrectly sized dress and use it to bless someone. And not too much longer, they saw on Facebook that I wanted a dress, size 2T. This wonderful family knew it was meant to be for us and blessed us with this dress and we are grateful! Thank you so much Leta and Ron Holland for your blessing this Christmas.

Without further ado...sweet pea...in the Christmas dress...

P.S. For those of you curious and want to see girlie in action, here is a link to the video of the program. The program starts around 9:39 with the 2 year old's singing 3 songs. The video continues with the other classes as well and they are all adorable. The school and teachers did an excellent job!!!

A Chat with K.A.T.

Kevin will be speaking at Highland View this evening about our updates. For those of you who will be unable to attend in person, here is a link so that you might watch it live on ustream. Just click on the "Live Webcast" icon 6:30-7:30 EST to watch it.