The Hills with HOPE for the Congo

Our Mom's are in the Congo!

2012-02-22T08:48:00.000-08:00

We are having a wonderful time with our mom's here in Brazza with us!! It has been so much fun showing them around town and our new life. Having them here with us has been so encouraging. We are so lucky to have moms that will travel across the world to see us. They have been doing great. Neither one of them has gotten sick, and besides the heat they seem to be very comfortable being here. The heat takes getting used to!

They arrived Thursday safe and sound. Everything went smoothly except a little 15 minute delay at the immigration counter at the Brazzaville airport. They were just trying to get money out of them, but thankfully we had all of our bases covered. We had extra copies of a signed letter they needed. Once we showed this they allowed them through! We advised them to try to stay awake until it was time to go to bed so that they could sleep through the night. Sleep through the night they did! They went to bed around 10pm and woke up at noon Friday! haha We were glad they slept well.

We have walked them all around downtown Brazzaville showing them all the places we shop and like to visit. We have showed them the HOPE office and let them meet all the staff. They were warmly received! They visited 2 HOPE group meetings and got to see the mircofinance in action. We visited the tourist market where they bought a bunch of African goodies. Our church was so happy to have them visit on Sunday. We also took them to the Youth bible study that we attend on Tuesday nights. They have been troopers! We have been doing something almost everyday! Sunday afternoon we took them to the Congo river to see the huge rapids. We canoed across a little water way to get to an island where we could get right next to the rapids. It was beautiful, but definitely hot! We couldn't stay too long in the baking sun.

They have gotten to meet many of our friends here. Tonight we are having several of our friends over for crepes. We have a new found love for crepes with Nutella! YUM! Here are a few pictures of our time here with them so far! We are going to be so sad to see them leave on Saturday.

Shopping in our market.

We play games every evening. It is nice to have more people to play with!

Visiting the office.

Carol posing under her mosquito net. haha

Allie and all her goodies from Carol and Patty. She is very happy.

The Nazarene church outside the building.

Next to the raging Congo River rapids.

Taking a canoe to across a small stream.

Patty was ready to take home every kid in the church!

Sitting in church.

This place has really good wood fired pizza.

The moms with their welcome to Congo flowers.

Our Super Bowl All-Nighter

2012-02-08T02:17:00.000-08:00

The past week has gone well. We are still getting used to all the free time here, especially in the evenings. We have are quickly making our way through the TV shows Lost and 24. We have also been reading some good books, including the Hunger Games trilogy, Twilight books (Allie- who has decided she is Team Edward), and other free books on Amazon for the Kindle. Our Rosetta Stone French version arrived yesterday! We are very excited to be back studying with Rosetta. This will be something else to fill our evenings with.

Next Wednesday our mom's are arriving!!!! We are so excited to have them here and show them our new home. They will be here for 10 days. They are both bringing 2 suitcases with about 3/4 of them full of stuff for us. haha They are so good to us. Our list of things keeps growing as the time nears for them to come too. Please be praying for them next week! They are both a little nervous about the 14 hour plane ride as well as having to change planes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

We met a new friend last week, Markus. He is a 19 year guy from Sweden. He is in Brazzaville as a volunteer with the Swedish Missionary Church, which is supposedly the largest Protestant church in Brazzaville. He volunteers with the church's soccer ministry and coaches kids each afternoon. We had him and some other friends over for dinner last Saturday evening and also invited him to watch the super bowl with us. He is really fun to hang out with. And Nate and I both love the Girl with the Dragon Tatoos books, so we have been asking him all about the books. haha yeah we are stupid. He said that most people in Sweden have read them because they were such a big hit.

One missionary couple here who has an actual house and a TV with American channels invited us over to watch the Super Bowl. We were so excited to find a place to watch the game. The game started at 12:30 am our time and wasn't over until 4 am. Nate took a nap all Sunday afternoon to prepare for the game. He had to get up and go to work Monday morning. I, Allie, was able to sleep in until 1pm. We had a great time watching the game. Nate was so happy to be watching sports. We watched the game with Markus, the missionary couple Gary and Sharon, and our friend Bret. Bret is a hoot. We love hanging out with him. He is here in Brazzaville working on his dissertation for a PhD from Harvard University. Yeah he is really smart, but not weird or stuck up like one would assume. ha Bret is so animated, outgoing, and funny. He is a die hard Patriots fan which made the game fun to watch with him.

I, Allie, have had a rough past week or 2. I haven't been able to find volunteer activities like I thought I would. I do work with HOPE, but the things I do only take up a few hours during the week. I have been bored, restless, and frustrated. Im kind of a busy body and I don't do bored very well. I have had a few leads which have't worked out. One big disappointment was not being able to work with UNHCR- Refugee section of the UN. I visited their office last week with my resume in hand. I was able to talk with someone who informed me I had to go through the process of applying online through headquarters. They said they did have a volunteer position available, but it had to be filled through the "correct channels." I came home that day to fill out the online application and found out I had to be 25 to volunteer with the UN! I couldn't believe it. It has been a long time since I was told I wasn't old enough to do something. Im going to try to call up there one more time and talk with them, but I don't have much hope. I also have 2 other possibilities that I am waiting to hear from. Anyways, please be praying for me. That God would give me patience and trust in the coming weeks. Pray that God would open a door or lead me to a ministry where I can serve.

Random Stories

2012-01-29T12:22:00.000-08:00

Sooo I thought it was about time we just share some of our random and sometime humorous moments we have had since here in the Congo.

Congolese trying to speak English: One day while I (Nate) was at the office, I had to go up to the Secretary's office to ask her a question. When I got to her door I could hear someone else in there, so I decided to patiently wait outside until she was finished. I couldn't help but hear the conversation that continued inside, in English mind you. Xavier, our Director of Operations, was asking Sophie (Secretary) to buy him a diary. This is the word he used for basically what we would equate to a daily planner. Anyways, she was confused when he asked for this. She was wondering why he was asking for a cow product (dairy). Xavier is from Uganda and speak pretty good English, so he decided to explain to her that diary can be two things. It can be used to describe a planner as well as products from a cow/farm such as milk or cheese. Of course, I started I couldn't help but laugh to myself since I knew that these were actually two different words that just sounded the same. He continued to make a note of how he thought it was strange that this word could also be used to describe someone who has to poop alot. I about lost it at this point. He sincerely believed that diary, dairy, and diarrhea were all the same word. He concluded that this is the reason English is so difficult, "the same word can mean so many different things."

Party last night:

Last night we had the Finance Department over for dinner. Most of them speak very little English, so it was good practice for a French. It also brought along some humorous moments. The first one happened when Precy was looking at our pictures. He took a look at one of them and said,"Nate, you used to be very big." We couldn't help but laugh. He definitely did not intend to be so blunt, but it definitely caught us off guard. The second moment occurred while Juvet was getting his food. Allie had prepared a salad, some bread, and vegetable soup. Well Juvet decided to not only put some salad on his plate, but also put the soup on his plate at the same time. We had a bowl for him, but he either did not understand why it was there or decided he didn't need it. The results was a plate with a salad soup mix that he proceeded to eat with a smile. Even the other Congolese had to laugh at this one. Finally, Teddy tried to speak some English with me and asked, "Is it ok if I pass the water." I looked at him with utter confusion. He proceeded to repeat the phrase, but this time in French. I still had no idea what he was talking about. Finally, he cleared it all up in one work, "uriner?" He was asking to use the bathroom. I had no idea, but luckily he was not embarrassed and just laughed.

New Congolese Law:

When we arrived in Brazzaville, one of the first things we noticed was the lack of public trash cans. In actuality there is zero. There is no trash collection services. As a result, most people just throw their trash on the ground. What makes this worse is that there are people all over the city selling small plastic bags of purified water. For about the equivalent of a dime, you can buy 8oz of purified water in a bag. As a result, these little bags were littered all over the streets. The President decided this had gone too far. He could have implemented a new trash collection service. He could have added trash cans throughout the city. He could have implemented a new law that punished those for littering. But no, that is not what happened. Instead, he implemented a law that forbids all plastic bags! This is not a joke. You can be fined now if found using a plastic bag. This resulted in a pretty humorous adventure to the grocery store last week. Because of the new law, the grocery store no longer put your stuff in bags. We had to carry all our groceries by hand into the taxi and to our apartment. We looked like a couple of homeless people carrying cans of vegetables and paper bags full of meat. It was ridiculous.

Bombs Away:

This past Wednesday I (Nate) had a unique experience at work. I was sitting in my office, and it took me awhile to notice it but I eventually realized there were people shouting outside our office, just down the road. I could hear all these men shouting, very angrily. I thought this was strange and began to wonder what had gotten all these people so mad when I head a small explosion go off nearby. I have never actually seen or heard a grenade go off, but what I heard/felt was exactly how I would imagine a grenade to sound like. I could feel the ground shake a little bit. This of course was followed by a lot of screaming and more shouting. I decided it would be best if I just stayed in my office, rather than run into the street to check it out. Well this whole confrontation lasted only maybe 5 minutes. A few minutes later, Manny (Managing Director) came down to explain to me that everything was fine. The confrontation involved a small number of people and it was now over. He continued to mention that I should be comforted in knowing that is was just a confrontation between the military and the police, no big deal. As an American I thought that this was actually a very odd thing for the military and police to be fighting. We don't exactly see that happen very often in the States. Apparently, this is a good thing here though. At least it wasn't military vs. military, indicating a faction. How different things are here. Police fighting military is a good thing. Who knew?!

Getting into a Routine

2012-01-17T11:32:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since we have written. Sorry! Things have been going great. We are now getting into a routine and feeling more at home each week. We had some visitors from HOPE this past weekend. Peter Greer, the HOPE President, and Dave Wasik, the VP of Operations, were here Saturday until Tuesday. It was Peter's first visit to Brazzaville and the HOPE Congo office. We were happy to have both of them here. We got to eat several dinners with them. It was nice to share about our time in Brazzaville so far and to receive great insight and encouragement from Peter and Dave.

HOPE Congo hosted a dinner for Peter and Dave to meet the pastors that HOPE Congo partners with. HOPE partners with local churches in order to use their facilities for reimbursement meetings. There we around 20 pastors present and they all got to network, hear more about HOPE's mission, and express their thoughts. It was a delicious dinner at a nice hotel in town. We have a few pictures from the dinner, but sadly none with Peter or Dave. :( Funny story....Sophie, the HOPE Secretary, asked Nate if he owned a tie! haha She has noticed he never really dresses up and was worried that he would show up to the dinner in a polo. So she asked him to please wear a tie. Allie laughed really hard at this. We had to look really hard to find them! We were a little worried they were lost, but thankfully got him all dressed up for the dinner.

Last night at dinner, Peter brought up the topic of a HOPE Congo basketball team and we all started laughing. A few weeks ago, Nate asked one of the loan officers (Chancy) if some guys in the office might be interested in playing basketball sometime. He mistakenly took this as Nate wanting to form a team. Well Nate couldn't say no so apparently there will be a HOPE Congo basketball team coming soon. Peter loved the idea and even said he would personally pay for all of us to have uniforms with one condition...we had to be name the HOPEfuls. He said that HOPE Int'l had a team one year called that. The team went on to finish 0-10 that year. HOPE is still looking for their first victory. Nate is not sure if it will come with this team, but it will still be fun.

The management team! Xavier (Dir. of Operations), Manny (Managing Director), and Nate

All dressed up!

Peter, Orlane, Manny, and Xavier. Orlane was awarded as the "Loan Officer of the Year"

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in Congo!!!

2012-01-01T06:47:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed the holidays here in Congo. We definitely missed our family, but we were blessed with great friends here who made us feel at home. Christmas Eve day we spent all day with the youth group from our church. Around 15 kids ending up going! We went out to a village about 30 km outside of Brazzaville. We stopped at a hospital/clinic and gave toys and clothes to some of the kids and mothers who were in the hospital. The kids enjoyed handing out the goodies and talking with people in the hospital. We then walked for about an hour and a half on a desolate dirt road to get to the village. We were SO hot and tired after this trek and the kids weren't even phased! haha Made us feel old! When we got to the village Nate and the boys played soccer with some of the village boys, and Allie played games with the girls. The youth pastor wanted the youth group to spend time with the kids from the village. They were supposed to be showing the love of Christ and sharing about God. Ww then ate lunch and sat under a tree as the youth pastor gave a devotion. We also got to walk around the village to different homes and give out more clothes and toys. The families we met were very appreciative. We found out that this was the first time most of the youth group had been to a village outside of Brazzaville. It was a first for all of us! The village was primitive with no electricity or running water. We enjoyed the time getting to know the youth group better. We were very tired and sun burned after this long day in the heat and sun!
Christmas Eve night we were invited to our friend Ann's. She cooked a great dinner and we played cards after with 2 couples. Christmas Day we were invited over to eat dinner with a group of missionaries. We went over to Ron and Ruth's apartment which was only about a 15 minute walk from our place. We had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and other great food! We then played games and did a white elephant gift exchange. Nate got chocolate truffles and I got a hand held electric mosquito killer! All the missionaries highly recommended it.
For New Year's Eve we decided to host a party of our own. We invited everyone from the office as well as a few other friends we have met so far while here in Brazza. The idea was to host a party for those at the office whose family lives elsewhere and have no other plans for the holidays. It turns out that nearly the whole office wanted to come. We had a full house to say the least. About 20 people showed up for food, fellowship, and games. We had to pull out the extra bed from our bedroom to use as a sofa. It was a little crowded but a lot of fun. Allie made macaroni and cheese as well as a chocolate cake. Some of the ladies from the office brought some food as well. After eating, we played a big game of mafia. Nate facilitated the game with one of the loan officers as his interpreter. The group really enjoyed the game and everyone had a great time. Most of the group left around 10pm, but some of our friends stuck around to play cards and welcome the new year! The holidays were very different without family around, but we had a great time getting to know everyone here better. To all our family and friends, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We miss you all very much!

Some of the youth group meeting at the church

The long hot road to the village.

Pretty views of the countryside along the way

The youth pastor (left) and youth worker (right) giving a devotion

The kids resting during the devotional. They were tired from a long walk and a hour long soccer game.

Christmas day at Ron and Ruth's Christmas dinner.

HOPE staff at our New Year's Eve party

Clement, HOPE accountant, and his son.

Rachel, Allie, and Alix. These girls are both HOPE Loan Officers.

Nate, Angie, Remi, and Bret at the Party

Recent outings and activities

2011-12-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

We have been keeping busy the past couple of weeks. Last weekend we went to our 1st Congolese wedding. It was an ALL day affair. It was for HOPE Loan Officer, Fabrice. The HOPE Congo staff did not inform us that even though the invitation says 1:30 they really mean it starts at 3:30! We were a little bitter! haha We got there at 1:20 and sat around until 3:30 when the bride and groom entered. The wedding did not end until 5pm. The wedding was beautiful. It was full of singing by an awesome praise team. But getting to the church at 1:20 made for a long day! At the end of the wedding the guests formed a long greeting line down the church aisle. Everyone brought their gift to give to the bride and groom. The HOPE staff put their money together and bought a refrigerator for the couple, and some HOPE guys actually carried the fridge up to the couple! They were champs. Another family brought an oven and carried it up to the front of the church too!

Nate preached at church last Sunday and did a great job! He is a natural. We were also able to take a picture of the front of the church with Rev. Antoine speaking. He is the pastor of the church as well as the DS of the area. The Brazzaville Nazarene church is the only Nazarene church in the area and is only 1 year old. We are glad to be apart of this church. This Saturday we are helping out with a youth event. It will be a full day of prayer walks around the city, playing sports with some neighborhood kids, as well as delivering some gifts to some families. They also asked Nate to bring his video camera. We will probably get some interesting footage!

Last Sunday we got invited to visit "Villa Washington." This is the US Embassy recreational facility. We can only go if a US Embassy employee is with us. There is a pool, work out facility (with really nice equipment!), and a basketball court. We enjoyed relaxing all afternoon with our new friends Joshua, Somei, and Jonathan. Joshua is the IT guy for the embassy and his wife and little boy are so sweet! We enjoyed getting to know them and playing with little Jonathan in the pool.

Allie made Christmas cookies Tuesday evening with her friends, Ann and Angie. Angie and Allie brought the Christmas cookie cutters and Ann provided the cookies and icing. They are pretty proud of themselves! The cookies look good and taste good too. Allie was also busy interviewing clients this week. Everyday she went out into the field to meet with clients and take pictures of their businesses. She really enjoys going to see the different districts of Brazzaville and meeting all the clients.

We have made some plans for the Christmas and New Year's holidays. We will update everyone with pictures after the holidays! We are definitely missing our families during this time, but God has blessed us with some wonderful friends. We have had many invitations to different events over the holidays. Everyone is making sure we don't get lonely. We are so very grateful for God's provision.

Christmas Cookies!

Congolese Wedding

Nate in the greeting line

HOPE staff carrying the present to the bride and groom

The Nazarene Church and the DS Rev. Antoine

Jonathan at the US Embassy Pool

Allie at a HOPE group meeting

My God is Faithful

2011-12-13T02:29:00.000-08:00

I, Allie, got up at 5:45am this morning to go on a 3 mile walk with my new friend, Ann. Nate thought I was crazy and warned me not to wake him up! haha Ann has been a missionary in and around Congo for 20 years. She fluently speaks English, French, and Lingala (a native tribal language). I walked to the outdoor market with her yesterday and she was chit chatting with everyone along the way. Everyone knows her and loves her. She has been so welcoming to both Nate and I since we arrived. She gave me some of her extra Christmas decorations. Now it looks a little bit like Christmas in our apartment! When she invited me to walk with her this morning I was a little hesitant because of the time, but I decided to go ahead and give it a try!

It was a wonderful time and food for my soul. We walked all through the city. Since it was so early, the city was still quiet and peaceful, unlike the usual constant honking of taxis and people everywhere. I got to see many new sights and areas of town. Ann new people all along the way. We first passed a homeless man that was sleeping under a tree. Ann said she has been praying for him for a long time. He would never talk to her when she would say hello and then one morning he finally did! He sat up and said, "Well hello old lady!" haha She said she has never been so happy to be called old. Now he will wave at her when she passes. Next we passed several Congolese boxers. They were training and doing all kinds of exercises on the road. We walked a huge circle and ended up walking right next to the Congo River. The view was beautiful. The sun was coming up, the water was dark, and there were skinny canoe like boats all over the river with men throwing their nets out to catch fish. The city line of Kinshasa, the capital city of DRC, was right across the river.

Ann and I exchanged our stories of how God had called us to the Congo, and talked about her days of growing up in northern Canada. As I walked along listening to Ann and gazing at the Congo river I felt full of God's presence and peace. Like he was telling me "You are right where you need to be, Allie." God has been so faithful to Nate and I through this whole transition. He daily gives me what I need and has blessed me with some wonderful friends. I thank God every day for putting Nate in my life. He is a constant source of encouragement and love.

God has proven this verse true in my life, Psalm 25:10 "The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands."

Picture from around town and HOPE clients

2011-12-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

We have been able to take more pictures of the city this week. Matt, the senior accountant with HOPE, went shopping with us on Saturday. We went to Marche LaPlane (sp?), an outdoor veggie market, and bought fresh produce and went to Park and Shop (our favorite American like grocery store). We also walked around the downtown area for a while. Many of the roads downtown are paved which is nice. When going outside of the downtown area all the roads become dirt. Now during rainy season the roads can get pretty nasty. Taxis still try to drive through some parts, but the mud definitely slows people down.

A few people from HOPE are visiting this weekend and next week. There are 3 guys from corporate and the Managing Director of HOPE DRC. We had a nice pot-luck dinner with everyone Friday evening at our apartment. Marie and I both cooked several dishes. It was a great time of fellowship. We also got to play Dutch Blitz with Marielle!

Allie was able to interview 2 clients on Wednesday. It was an enjoyable time for her. She loves to hear about the lives being changed by the ministry of HOPE. Nkomo is the owner of a barber shop, La Benediction (The Blessing). He took out a loan with HOPE to make necessary improvements in his shop, including new swivel chairs, razors, sterilizer, air conditioner, and window panes. Nkomo said he is now able to help support his nieces and nephews by paying for their needed medications and school supplies. She also interviewed Nkounkou, but will not be able to take pictures of her business until next week. She owns a small retail store where she sells various products. Nkounkou used to receive loans from another organization, but she has decided to work with HOPE because she feels HOPE is much more organized and dependable. Both of these clients were very grateful for the loan they had received from HOPE.

We found out this week that we will each be able to receive French tutoring! We are very grateful and eager to begin. Please pray for our French language learning over the next few weeks and months!

Matt and I in front of a monument downtown Brazza

One of the several 6 way circles in downtown Brazza

Monument of a President

Central Bank

HOPE Client group meeting with Loan Officer, Chancy (far right)

Typical inside of a church (where HOPE meetings occur)

NkounKou is a small business owner and client of HOPE's. I was able to interview her last week.

Typical street (outside of downtown)

We are currently in rainy season. This is what many of the roads look like this time of year.

Nkomo, the man giving the boy a haircut, is the owner of this Barber shop.

Nkomo in front of his business. I was able to interview him last week as well.

Pictures of art and apt. decorations

2011-11-27T06:51:00.000-08:00

Our apartment is finally starting to feel like a home. We spent all day yesterday shopping for supplies, decorations, and unpacking the MANY suitcases we had. Everything is finally in its place and the suitcases are out of sight! We put up 3 pieces of artwork that we bought as well as set around pictures and decorations. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Our first load of laundry. Thankfully there is a washer, but here is our dryer!

We love the ones with women carrying stuff on their heads.

All the art is so colorful!

The kitchen.

I put up the painting grandma painted me!

Our little Safari table.

Finally settled....sort of

2011-11-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

We have finally arrived in our permanent apartment today! We are so happy to be able to unload all of these suitcases and truly call a place home for a change. Today has been a very busy day for us. We got up and packed all of our stuff, and then went grocery shopping while our new apartment was being cleaned. The grocery store we went to is called "Park and Shop." We have come to love this place. First of all, it is air conditioned so it is always a great break from the heat. Second, it reminds us so much of the grocery store back home, even if some of the prices are much more expensive. A loaf of sliced bread costs $10. Third, the place is like a club....no lie. They are constantly playing American Hip-Hop and R&B. Today, I am pretty sure we heard Akon, Usher, and Justin Bieber. We love it. Today we had to pick up alot of items that we needed for our home such as cleaning supplies, tupperware, and a few skillets. We also did our grocery shopping for the week. After that we came home and moved all of our suitcases from one room to another. Nate and one of the security guards, Udu (sp???), moved all of it down one flight of stairs, across the compound, and up another flight of stairs. It is the most Nate has sweated since being here. Udu is a very sweet man that is always willing to help around the compound.

After that it was off to do some more shopping, as Park and Shop didn't have everything we needed. We first walked to this street just a couple of blocks away that a bunch of local artists sell their pieces. We bought a carved elephant for $12 (retail $45 at Disney's Animal Kingdom) and three gorgeous paintings. It was amazing how cheap the handcrafted items are here. Family and friends be prepared to receive some African merchandise for Christmas and such!!

We then headed to Azia and Casino to finish off our shopping for the day. When we finally arrived back at our apartment we were very tired, but happy to have had such a fun day in the city. We promise to take some more pictures around the city soon. Unfortunately, both of us are very bad about remembering to bring a camera.

Allie had her first English class yesterday. There was probably about 12-15 employees in the class! Going forward, Allie will teach two classes a week. One will be for beginners and will take place on Wednesday morning. The other is for more advanced students and will take place on Fridays. The employees love having this class. They are so eager to learn, and Allie is having a blast teaching. She even taught them the word "y'all" yesterday!! Last thing we will mention because we know this blog is getting long. Last night the power went out and we thought we were going to have to sleep without the fan on. Thankfully, it came back on around 9:30 to which Nate exclaimed, "Victory!!" He might have woken up a few neighbors. Please continue to pray for us, especially with the language learning. It has been particularly frustrating so far. Love you all!

Happy Thanksgiving! and the first week of work

2011-11-23T11:29:00.000-08:00

Nate started work this week! It has been going well so far. He is enjoying working with his staff and getting the hang of things around the office. He loves his office (more than home probably) because it has an air conditioner! haha He is having to get used to the on again and off again and not so good anyways internet connection. It makes it hard to do work at times. Allie will begin teaching her first English class on Friday. The staff seem excited about it and she is definitely looking forward to getting to know the staff better. We went to see our first microfinance group meeting today! We went with Chancy, a loan officer, and he was a wonderful host. Thankfully Chancy spoke English so he could help us understand everything that was going on. We got to sit and watch him conduct 3 meetings using the 5 W's method. The meeting goes through 5 steps...Welcome, Worship, Word, Work, and Wrap-up. We also got to practice our French a lot by talking to the clients asking them about their business, their families, and Brazza. Allie met a women that wants to do an interview with her. HOPE has asked Allie to also interview clients to find out their stories and take pictures of their business to use in marketing and development back in the states. She will be going back with Chancy next Wednesday to the meeting to meet with the women.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends! We are very thankful for you.

2011-11-19T12:54:00.000-08:00

Our temporary apt. is the one Nate is standing in front of.

This is the entrance to the complex and a huge mango tree!

Our adopted dog while we are in Congo. Espresso is precious.

The HOPE truck that we get around in and another view of our building.

Building #2

The out door laundry room!

This picture is in honor of Jim Hill. :) Beautiful flowers here in Brazza!

PIctures around our Apartment complex

2011-11-19T12:40:00.000-08:00

We moved in to a temporary apartment in the SIL apartment complex we will be living in. Next Saturday we will officially move into our permanent apartment! We are VERY ready for this. The bags are still not unpacked! Here are some pictures we took this afternoon. We had a good day. We went on our first shopping excursion with the Palis', studied French, played Wii with Marielle, and explored the complex. It is not really that big. There are 3 buildings. 2 Apartment buildings and one building with offices and a meeting room. We met the apartment dog! She is SO sweet and her name is expresso! haha Tomorrow we are going to the Nazarene church in Brazzaville. Rev. Antione is coming to pick us up in the morning! We are looking forward to it.

We made it!

2011-11-17T11:25:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Brazzaville today! We had the first test of our patience in Philly when we went to check in and couldn't find Allie's ticket! After a 15 minute freak out a wonderful woman name Maggie found Allie's ticket! Something had gone array with the way the itinerary was loaded into the system. The trip was very smooth other than that! We flew 13 hours to Addis Ababa and then boarded a 4 hour plane ride to Brazzaville. All of our 8 pieces of luggage made it, which we were very worried about. Sophie, the HOPE office secretary picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel. We have a very nice room and we will stay here until Saturday when we move into a temporary apartment at the SIL complex. Then the next saturday we will move into our permanent apartment there at SIL.

We had a wonderful evening eating with Manny, Marie, and Marielle (their daughter). Manny is the Managing Director of the HOPE office in Brazza. He has been working in microfinance for over 20 years and will be a great mentor technically and spiritually for Nate. Allie, Marie and Marielle already have plans to go shopping together as well as learn how to make our own bread (safe/ clean loaves of bread here are very expensive). Allis is looking forward to spending time with these 2 girls.

We are going to meet the HOPE staff tomorrow morning and begin setting up our life, including: getting cellphones, connecting our computers to SIL's internet, registering at the US embassy.

Thank you to all that were praying for our travel! We were shocked and thankful at how smooth everything went. God has been with us every step of the way. We are blessed to be here and already have met some beautiful people.

Officially beginning our Blog!

2011-11-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Sorry it has taken us a while to get to this. We have had some friendly reminders lately from a few people to start blogging....so here we go!

We have been in Lancaster, PA (place of headquarteres for HOPE) for 2 weeks now. We have been busy training and meeting everyone in the office. The HOPE staff have been so welcoming and hospitable. We have constantly been invited to dinner or lunch almost everyday. Everyone here is giving us tips on living in Africa and surrounding us in prayer. We are very grateful and encouraged to work in such a Christ and prayer centered organization. Jim and Patty (Nate's parents) are here in Lancaster until we leave. We enjoyed a great weekend with them in New Jersey last week visiting Uncle Kenny, Cousin Kevin, and Cousin Barbara. They will be taking us to the airport this Wednesday at 6am to see us off! We are grateful they made the trip to come see us off. It will be nice to see a familiar face before we leave as well as have someone to leave some extra stuff with! haha Our poor parents have been amazing through this whole thing! Always helping us with whatever and willing to keep all of our junk!

We will arrive in Brazzaville Thursday at 11:40am. Our apartment is not available until November 22 so we will be living in a hotel when we first arrive.

Please be praying for Nate and I as we prepare to leave Wednesday morning. Please pray for our peace of mind and safety as we travel, families back home, and visa situations once we get there. Again we give God all the glory for his amazing blessings and presence in our lives.