His mercy endures forever!

Thy mercy my God is the theme of my song,
The joy of my heart, and the boast of my tongue.
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last,
Hath won my affection and bound my soul fast.

Without Thy sweet mercy, I could not live here.
Sin would reduce me to utter despair,
But through Thy free goodness, my spirit's revived
And He that first made me still keeps me alive.

Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart,
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart.
Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground
And weep for the praise of the mercy I've found.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own
In the covenant love of Thy crucified Son.
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine.
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine.

Well, Hallelujah
Hallelujah (Hallelujah)
Well, Hallelujah

(Caedmon's Call, Thy Mercy)

So the news around town is that Nkunda was captured by Rwandan troops, who are now deciding whether they are going to give in and extradite him to the Congolese government. There is a lot of joy and relief, but we are left wondering what 5,000 Rwandan troops are up to on the Congo side of the border. Apparently there are rumors (from IRC staff, for example) of FARDC (Congolese military) sending their wives and children away from their interior SK camps, which usually means offensive or defensive preparations. It's impossible to know whom to trust and who's actually trying to help people, mostly because everyone in power is going after something for their own benefit. Anyway, we'll wait and see and keep praying for peace!

Our country director, and my boss, Michael, got back to Bukavu today (yay!!), and I went to pick him up at the border around 7am (too early for me on a Sunday!). It's great to have him back as I have been really involved in some difficult administration issues on top of my own normal tasks. As I said before, we have some exciting new opportunities for as well as some other smaller (but more complicated) projects financed by UNDP Pooled Fund, so my work life is definitely going to stay busy.

Lately I have been learning about goodbyes. I think about my sister, for whom it is essential to let know when you are leaving, and though sometimes it seems silly, she does have a point. It's definitely always possible that someone won't return...(morbid I know). Anyway, I realized last week that parallel to making sure to greet everyone when you walk into a room, it is important to show people you care about them by letting them know when you're leaving and saying goodbye. I am not quite sure what is "culturally appropriate" in the States, but I've been trying to remember. It's important to me that my close friends feel loved in ways they understand, which means adapting myself to some of the cultural norms. This is why I feel like I should greet everyone with a handshake everytime I walk into a room--even in the States :)

This weekend we have added some new members to our household! Joel and I were joking that if the three new kittens are girls then it will be just him and his harem of six girls...but then all three kittens appear to be boys! (The parrot is a girl though.) On Friday afternoon, after hearing mewing sounds for awhile, I found a box contaning three tiny baby kitties! They are reeeeallllly cute, so when I told Kristee about them, she ran up the stairs and became instantly attached. We think the mom is the cat that runs around the office all the time, but we're not sure. So after (very hesitantly) leaving them on Friday night, Kristee brought them home and has been feeding them a home-made formula from a syringe since Saturday morning. They're supposed to eat every few hours, so it's a big job. Though I like having them around, I prefer not being responsible for feedings all night long. There's one light colored one that I wanted to be a girl and to call blondie, a grey one that looks just like Sophie, and then a black one that is the runt and struggles the most to eat. Somebody made a comment about there being a Muzungu, an African, and a Metis (mixed) cat, and we're still working on names. Tomorrow we'll take them back to the office and see if we can get mom to take them back for awhile until they're more weaned and spend less time crying.

Today at church, we had a reeeeally nice worship time. There are two choirs for the francophone service I usually go to, and then a kind of praise band as well. There are always songs that touch the heart more than others, and today they played one I hadn't heard in a very long time -- since I was in West Africa in 2006! It says: car il est glorieux, et digne de reigner, l'Agneau est souverain. Nous elevons nos voix pour l'adorer, l'Agneau est souverain. Which in English is: for he is glorious and worthy to reign, the Lamb is soverign. We lift up our voices to praise him, the Lamb is sovereign. It's always the songs that God uses to speak to our hearts that continue to hold special meaning later. We sing a lot of songs in Lingala and Swahili as well, and there were some nice ones today that I am starting to recognize. I count it such a great privilege to be able to worship the Lord in various languages, even during the same church service. He truly is Lord of All and has shown Himself to all peoples!

Yay for another day "off"! Though we don't have to be in the office today, there is definitely a lot to do. But working from the couch on the balcony next to Joel and Kristee is much more appealing than being at my desk! This Saturday was apparently the day that Congolese remember the assassination of President Lumumba, and Friday was for Kabila Sr. We have sure enjoyed the time to relax and enjoy this beautiful place with friends. Volleyball at Bill and Sue's on Saturday afternoon was a great way to move around and be outside, and Liverpool Rummy (our traditional card game) is always a fun Friday night activity.

This past week was quite stressful because of the added responsibilities I incurred while acting as Program Director in Pascal's absence. I definitely felt overwhelmed, considering I am also helping coordinate information gathering for a new project we are developing to respond to the USAID 2009 Child Survival RFA. I clearly don't have much background in health projects and interventions, and I am still getting my legs under me in the whole project development, so I will probably be quite busy and stressed until 17 February when the proposal is due.

In the meantime, the Über Shelter could be a nicely compact solution to overcrowding in refugee/displaced camps developed by a Purdue undergrad student. At first glance, the shelter sounds like a great idea (and really cool!), but considering the normal situation of the average non-displacedCongolese family will cause you to wonder what kind of effect the Über shelter would have on both camps and surrounding communities. People living in towns and villages in North Kivu do not have houses nearly as nice, and usually made out of mud with tin roofs. You think people will want to go back to their homes when the war is over if they are getting such nice houses in camps? Interesting discussions anyway.

Ok, back to planning discussions for a compost heap and key-hole gardens in the backyard...I mean, back to work...

The beginning of the Middle

So I've been in Congo for about 8 months now and finally decided that I should be blogging about my experiences. I mean, everyone else I know who lives somewhere besides where they come from shares their life online with the rest of the world. I think partly why I haven't started writing before now is that after the initial awkwardness, everything started to feel so strangely familiar...

If I start talking about everything from the beginning, I think it will take forever, so I'll tell stories as they come to mind, probably very out of chronological order. (But if you've ever heard me tell a story, you know that I can never tell them in order!) This is just an introduction, so I won't write much for now. I want to get some pictures up and everything organized first.

So, enjoy, feel free to make comments, and ask questions!

Oh, and my title comes from a Caedmon's Call song, which says, "My faith is like shifting sand, so I stand on grace." And truly, God’s grace is the only reason I’m still standing at all.