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| Nina Lanctot and Deborah Kankolongo quilting on the 2013 CCC Auction quilt, Silverwood Mennonite Church, Goshen, IN |
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When I remember a rich summer, what stands out most are SOUL
TIES.
I love those moments of sinking
into the present, listening deeply, and engaging in heartfelt
conversation.
Sometimes there are
words.
Often.
But there are also the times when an email, a
photograph, or side by side working together also take on that quality of
presence that makes me feel part of a huge, multivalent and fully alive world.
While pastoral conversations and spiritual direction and
wise meditations in worship might be expected to elicit such soul ties, who
knew how many would arise at Camp Friedenswald during family camp? Or during the July Sunday hymn sing? Or as I lay in my hammock in the early
morning and heard the serenade of the birds?
But maybe most improbably, who would think that in one week
wave after wave of soul ties with Congolese brothers, sisters, daughters and
friends would flood my soul? Such was
last week.
Rev. Damien Pelende, former leader of the Mennonite Brethren
Church in DR Congo (membership about 100,000) brought words of grace and
affirmation as he greeted Florence Church on Sunday 4 August.
While we had met at the first Congo Cloth
Connection Market in Pittsburgh (2009), a fresh wave of connection now was
possible.
When he shared that he
finished his term of leadership “leaving the church in peace,” and he affirmed
Florence for calling a woman pastor, I could hear layers I never would have
known when we dreamed of Congo Cloth Connections (CCC).
Tim Lind, his host, added that the MB Church
in Congo led the conservative MB denomination in the US and Canada toward
ordaining women by forging that significant road of ministry first.
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| Mama Felly, Papa Francois, Deborah, Nelson and guest in Kinshasa. |
The next day was my reunion with my “Congolese daughter,”
Deborah Kankolongo.
Nancy Myers and I quickly had
adopted the charming Debo when a guest of her parents, Pastor Francois Tshidimu
and his wife, Felly.
In our May 2012
trip to Kinshasa their open armed hosting of our threesome cloth delegation
created the soul ties we normally feel with family.
It was easy to be drawn into to Debo’s dreams
of education in the US and to practice English with her back then.
Now we had the privilege of hosting her in her first week in the US and en route to study at Hesston College, KS.
This week we met, of all places, in the Kitchen Cupboard
Restaurant in downtown Shipshewana.
And
at the table, the Fellowship of the Cloth once more convened, with Nancy and
Vic Myers bringing Debo from their home as well as Rev. Biracara, vice
president of one of the other major Mennonite groups in Congo.
Jeanne Heyerling, one of our “quilt queens”
treated us to lunch as the conversation moved back and forth between Congo and
the US.
Sure enough, Rev. Biracara had
met Nancy and me during our 2012 stay in Kinshasa, even present when I preached
and the Ngaba congregation.
Small, small
world.
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| Rev. Komuesa
(president CemCo), Rev, Biracara (vice president), Nancy Myers, June
Mears Driedger, Pastor Francois Tshidimu (our host), Pastor Azir (our
translator). |
The Myers’ next stop with our guests was Menno-Hof, and the
BIG PICTURE Anabaptist story – from our perspective in the US.
I remember the same tour with our first CCC
guests in the US, MarieJeanne Mujinga and Gaston Nkole.
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| Gaston Nkole and MarieJeanne Mujingo at Menno Hof (2009) |
For DR Congo, attending the
Congolese MennoniteCemCo Centenniel, as Nancy did last summer, would be the only comparable way to tell
their story.
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| Congolese Mennonite Centennial (2012) |
Wednesday through Sunday the 18th, Deborah was
our Congolese daughter in our home, along with newly home, Rachel! Soul
ties twined when Debo ate a “cookout” with CCC friends, or lunch with Rachel
and the GC grounds crew, visited Calendar Garden with the grands, helped Donald
with boat trailer repair, or played “Bop It” with Rachel and me.
All week Deborah anticipated
seeing her brother, Arsene, who came to the US to study in 1998. She had not seen him since. Saturday we cleaned and cooked and set the
table for his noon arrival, and waited. An
ache can also be a soul tie. I ached for
her in the unknown of waiting and admired her for her confidence that he would
arrive.
Yes!
At 7 pm Arsene,
now another new son the same age as my second, came beaming into the front
door.
Debo, unsure of just what to do,
finally flung herself into his arms!
And
oh, my, the chatter we heard as they ate dinner in the next room was worth
every second of waiting!
French,
Lingala, Tchiluba, laughter, and deep groans of satisfaction danced through the
air.
After dinner, Arsene proved to be
his father’s son with hours of great theological reflection about church in
Congo, Toronto and the US.
We wore Debo
out.
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| Henry and Sara Braun, Deborah Kankolongo, Rachel Lanctot, Vic Myers, Arsene Tshidimu |
You would think there could be no better culmination than
having my Congolese daughter sing “You are my very breath” in worship on Sunday
morning.
Her heart had now caught up
with her body and her brother and us, all in one place, made soul ripples that
could be caught by Mama Nancy on iPad.
In a final circle of blessing, we could send our own Naomi and Ruth on
their pilgrimages, US to Congo and back again.
But there is more!
News
came in the midst of all this hosting, giving and receiving, of a precious
birth.
Leya and George were given the
gift of a precious baby girl.
Suzanne
wrote:
Our MCC Baby has arrived, and she is beautiful. She
was born yesterday
morning by c-section and weighs 3.5 kg, about 7 pounds. Her little face
is
that perfect mix of pink and brown. She has lots of soft, dark hair.
I think her name is going to be Jenova (pronounced with a soft J and equal
emphasis on each syllable), which is a shortened form of "Jésus notre
faveur" = Jesus our favor. Her "little" name will be Favi
("faveur de Dieu"
-- I don't know if we would say "God's favor" or "favored
by God." But in
any case they feel strongly that God has given them a great favor and/or has
favored them with this child.
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| Leya, "Favi," George (Kinshasa, August , 2013) |
I remembered clearly when Leya and George lost their second
baby at childbirth.
When we heard the
news, it seemed something must be done.
So Christine Nofsiger, Mama CCC, pieced together a comforter for
Leya.
We knotted it in church two days
later, and sent it in Dr. John Marten’s suitcase on Monday to Kinshasa.
Yes, surely this is a soul tie.
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| "Leya's Comfoter," designed by Christine Nofsinger, pictured here with David Wenger. |
“Every stitch a prayer” has been our Congo Cloth Connection
motto.
I would say, every visit, a
quilt!
Every baby, a comforter!
Every conversation, a wondrous weaving of
soul ties.
God indeed can accomplish far
more than we can ask or imagine.
(Ephesians
3:20)
“…infiniment plus que tout ce que nous
demandons ou pensons…”
