ZAIRE (D.R. CONGO) ETUI JUNGLE

We had taken video of this pygmy chief and played it back for him to see in the camera view finder.

Moments later he became very agitated. He thought we had captured his soul in that little box. His warriors gathered around with their tiny bows and poison arrows.

I had picked up some little bars of perfumed soap at the Nairobi, Kenya hotel a few nights before. I offered them to him as a peace gift.

He debated a bit and then took them and the crowd left.

Phew!

Later I mused about this chief "selling his soul" for some pretty smelling soap. Pretty cheap.

Both a sermon and a personal reminder about selling our souls.

KINSHASA, ZAIRE: EASTER SUNDAY SERVICE

It was my honor to preach this service.

From about a block away we could hear the singing and dancing and shaking and rattling anything that could make noise.

It was worship--uninhibited, total-being worship--that was thrilling. These people had experienced the life-changing power of God. Their walk of faith had taken them through hard places I had never known.

The offering included eggs, chickens, garden vegetables and a few coins. They gave out of their own poverty.

This Kigome church really moved me.

PAULIS, BELGIAN CONGO (NOW ISIRO D.R. CONGO)

I shuddered the first time I stood at this monument. It marked the place that uncounted people--both black and white, many of them missionaries and ministers--were murdered in an uprising.

ISIRO, ZAIRE (NOW D.R. CONGO)

Students walked as much a ten kilometers of jungle trails to attend this school. One of my favorite projects was to build a permenant school for the children of the area. One of my boyhood heroes, Missionary Jay Tucker, was martyred near this site. The village was named Paulus then.