Training, Banks, and a busy week!

Week of September 8-15

This has been a very busy but good week for us.  Both of us wrote something thinking the other wouldn’t have time.  Therefore, we will include a little from each of us.  

 

First of all, we told you that we were going to join some of the other couples for a night out for ice cream.  Last Saturday evening we joined President and Sister Jameson, Elder and Sister Smith, and Elder and Sister Moon at Nice Cream.  One of the other couples told us that if you google things to do in Kinshasa, Nice Cream comes up as a place to go.  Well, it was a very busy place on this night.  There really is no place to sit down so you wait outside until everyone arrives, you go in and order, and then you come outside to eat your ice cream.  It was very good ice cream and very enjoyable with the other couples.

 

 

               Laraine writes:  Last Sunday, we had our first Sunday School class taught by a very handsome Congolese, Bob Dolongo.  He’s about 38 and looks like a recently returned missionary.  He’s never been in an English speaking country and is self-taught and speaks better than many Americans.  While he was serving his mission in the DRC he lost both his father and mother and 3 siblings.  This seems to be more common than I realize.  We have not met very many older people.  The average life expectancy is 54 here.  (I’ve probably mentioned that before!)  He’s a very accomplished teacher and it’s wonderful to hear the gospel preached by a Congolese and really understand how great their understanding is and how strong their testimonies are.  I’ve felt it when they speak French, but to hear it is incredible.

               We also had a lot of people set apart in ward positions since we’re a new ward.  A young man who frequents the PEF Office, Roger, was set apart as a counselor in the Young Mens Organization.  We found out after church he’s only 17.  He comes in our office to use the computers.  He wants to serve a mission and then come home and get a PEF loan.  We’re realizing more and more that getting a PEF loan is a huge step for these young people and gives them such hope!

Hal writes:  We indicated that Thembinkosi Howard Mkhize our PEF Area Coordinator from South Africa was coming to teach us and help us work through some of the problems we have found in the PEF records and files.  We knew some of the issues because Elder and Sister Stagg left us notes and we had found copies of emails trying to work thru PEF and Thembinkosi, the finance department, and the banks.  Many things happened this week which hopefully moves us in the right direction.

Laraine writes:  Going back to Thembinkosi, I just want to tell you, he too is about 38 and a young man full of life, energy and joy.  He joined the church in his later youth as he watched a good friend who was doing a lot of things wrong and then he joined the church and Thembinkosi saw such a change in his life.  He wondered about a church that could make that much of a difference.  He investigated and has been a member since the late 1990's.  He’s a tremendous force for good in South Africa.  When he started as Area Coordinator, PEF was only in 4 countries in Africa.  Now it’s in 11.  While he was here he received word that the 3rd black stake president had been called in South Africa out of 11 stakes.  He was very excited!

This is Thembinkosi (left) and Thomas (right) as they had dinner with us.  They had taken their ties off to be more comfortable.

 

 



Hal writes:  We are working to resolve a banking issue that has been going on since last October.  PEF encourages students to open a bank account and set up an automatic transfer to pay back their loans. PEF gives them an incentive to set up an automatic payment, but the bank we work with has had trouble and has not made transfers from student accounts to the PEF account so that we can track and apply a student’s progress.  Also, since the church is growing and expanding into new areas of DR-Congo, the church has been looking for a banking relationship which has the right footprint and the ability to accommodate the different needs of the Church and PEF.  Therefore, we had a meeting scheduled with Banque Commerciale Du Congo which is a bigger bank than Ecobank that we have our PEF accounts with now.  I didn’t know what to expect since our only experience directly with the bank thus far is cashing checks and we have already told you about that.  But the meeting was a very good meeting as our finance department tried to present the needs of the church and we explained what we are doing with PEF.  We listened to how they could accommodate our needs and discussed timing and ways we could make things work.  Some things sounded very good but some of their services come at a cost.  We were able to present out needs and the bank is going to give us a more concrete proposal, but it will be the finance department that will have to analyze cost/benefit to see where this might lead. 

 

This is Tommy Mulhemedy our area finance director who we have worked closely with not only with the banks but with handling PEF finances.

 

 

Thembinkosi flew in Monday.  I am glad we didn’t have to pick him up at the airport.  Even he says that the Kinshasa airport is the worst in Africa.  As we have worked with regional PEF we have found that there are certain policy issues that needed to be covered with priesthood leaders.  Therefore, we had scheduled a meeting with all stake presidents at 4:30 pm to train and get their support.  We had to pick Thembinkosi up at the hotel after our banking meeting and get him to the S&I building which we barely made.  I didn’t realize that our meeting would be with not only the stake presidents but also Elder L. Jean Claude Mabaya, newly sustained Area Seventy from DR-Congo.  We were impressed by the way Thembinkosi respected Elder Mabaya’s position as the presiding authority and had him conduct the meeting even though we had called the meeting.  It was a very powerful meeting as we discussed the mission of PEF, the need to administer it in an orderly way following the guidelines, but at the same time we felt the love and concern these leaders have for all members as we listened while they expressed the great need to help not only the young people who fit into the parameters of PEF but all members to break the bonds of poverty and improve their lives.  We think that is why priesthood leaders and institute directors have been asking for exceptions for many falling outside the parameters of PEF.  They expressed that PEF is really the only program they have available right now to help, and they realize that they have used the exceptions as a means to help more people.   It made us realize how much the church does, but at the same time it brought into focus just how grand the need is here in Africa.  We were very humbled and honored to be part of that meeting.

Tuesday, we met again with finance to talk about procedures that can be implemented to avoid some of the accounting problems we are having.

Wednesday, we met with Institute coordinators to explain and train in policy as had been discussed with stake presidents and implement some procedures decided on with finance to help avoid some of the issues PEF has faced.  Another great thing about Wednesday was that 23 new PEF loans for DR-Congo were approved in Salt Lake.  We had 23 of the 52 loans from Africa Southeast that were approved.  Yes, the work goes forward.

Thursday was a day spent with Thembinkosi teaching us things that we hadn’t had time to even get into yet.  We are grateful that we have volunteers that we have asked to follow up on some of these items, and they have been willing to do them.  Thursday evening we invited Thembinkosi and Thomas who works in the area finance department in South Africa and had flown to Kinshasa with him to dinner.  We had had Thembinkosi to dinner on Tuesday and felt badly that Thomas had been left in the hotel alone.  It is always great leaning about how these people came to join the church.

Friday, we were on our own again.  We had a meeting with Ecobank to find out their progress on our transfer issues.  We also wanted to find out if they can better accommodate our procedures making our accounting for payments easier.  Laraine didn’t want to go because she didn’t feel she gets much out of these meetings.  The banker was coming to the finance department at 2:00 pm.  I tried to go alone even though I don’t like to be in Congolese traffic alone, but the bank officer got stuck in traffic and rescheduled for 4:30.  Therefore, we closed the PEF center at normal time, and both of us attended the meeting.  It was a good meeting.  The bank promised some things especially if we can provide some information early Monday, so we are going to be busy Monday.  We finished the meeting about 6:00 pm, came home and ate quickly so Laraine could do some wash because our Saturday was already scheduled.

Laraine writes:  Saturday Elder Robinson and I went to our office with Sister Billings and were able to assist her as she gave a presentation on family history to our stake presidencies.  It was fun to see their excitement in putting their families into New Family Search and have grandparents come up.  They all seem very excited about preparing themselves and their ancestors for the temple in Kinshasa. 

Hal writes:  Laraine is going to be such a help in preparing members for the new temple here.  She is so good at helping people get into New Family Search and PAF and allowing them to have hands on success.  She adds so much to what Sister Billlings has started.  We are so impressed with how willing these leaders are to attend so many meetings each week.  We ourselves met with stake presidents twice this week.  It was a great time and Laraine interacts so well even though there is a language issue, not only with those attending but with them signed on and using French programs. It was a great meeting.  I was the weak link there.  Laraine worked with our stake president, President Ilunga, and found he was born in 1974.  Also Thomas, who had dinner with us Thursday evening was born in 1974.  She noted many great people were born in 1974 emphasizing that our Ryan was born September 13, 1974.  We wish him a very happy birthday.

 

The International Francophonie Organization (OIF) is holding its14th summit on 13-14 October in Kinshasa.  The government has been doing much to clean up the city to make a good impression.  We have been told that things look so much better now than they did just months ago.  Some question if it will stay this good after the conference.  One thing we see constantly is the sweeping of the streets but now with great big truck sweepers but with brooms.  We just can't see that you can keep a city clean only witth brooms.

 

 

Speaking of brooms, every morning when we leave we greet a man who cleans the parking area of the USAID building (where we live).  He uses a broom which is the branch of a tree tied to a stick to sweep the leaves every day.  Sometimes it is a short stick and he is stooping over sweeping the whole area.  We can't believe he can stay stooped over for so long.  Sometimes he uses a longer broom.  We found these two leaning against the tree and couldn't help but take a picture.  We wish we could get his picture.  He has the greatest smile and is always so kind to us.

 

This is a photo of a beetle that we find even on our balcony.

 

 

               Thank you for your prayers and your support!!