Flory's mom and the TEAM

God is at work.  This is a picture of the team with Flory's mom.


From left to right
Jerry Penick ,Bolini... Flory's mom, Roy Hori, Willy...Flory's good friend ,  Denee Anderson


This is a photo of the team BEFORE they left.


From left to right.
Denee Anderson, Flory Buki, Diann Anderson, Jerry Penick and Roy Hori

Thursday update

Today was another incredible day!  We started today at World Vision headquarters in Kinshasa and participated in their staff devotions. Then we heard an awesome presentation about the importance of World Visions work in the Congo and how incredible the Gemena Ledia Area Development Project is.  A typical project starts with a goal of sponsoring 1,000 children and its its final stages ends up sponsoring around 4,000 children. In Gemena, we started by sponsoring 6,200 children in under a year. This has been an incredible experience for World Vision to partner with us and they are very grateful! It was neat to see how powerful this mutual connection can be!

We visited a community farm that is now a sustainable project with pigs and crops that they share with people all over that area. It is allowing these farmers to send their children to school and save money to purchase more land.

Then we visited a ADP that has been around for a few years and saw the school that World Vision built. We had lunch over looking the Congo River with the World Vision team. It was breathtaking!

When we arrived home we were able to greet Flory Buki's mom. Flory is a member at Naperville Covenant that was born and raised in Congo.  His mom was able to get her visa in Kinshasa and will be returning with us to Chicago next Friday. Praise God that all the details came together! 

Your prayers are felt.  I personally continue to feel an indescribable peace about being here. Our team is so grateful for your support!

Tomorrow we hop on our MAF flight to Gemena at 8am and spend the rest of
our time there. We will do our best to send updates when we can.

Blessings,

Denee and the Team

Relax and Enjoy the Journey

As I write I am sitting on a flight headed to Brussels and then will board a flight to Kinshasa, Congo. The journey has begun.  I have been preparing, anticipating and getting excited.  I was at peace about going to place that was unknown, unsafe and uncomfortable.  I have felt God's clear call.  Yet in that process, my humanness hit me in a way I wasn't expecting.  A few days before departure, I started to question and felt that peace was becoming more illusive.  I still could feel very excited about the mission and people awaiting in Congo and still wanted to personally experience that but Iwas getting nervous.  I prayed for God to calm my fears.

This morning the words came back to me from my devotion on the day I committed to go.  "Relax and enjoy the journey?"  They were God given words to me at a time  I needed to be reminded of them.  After pondering and praying, I felt a sense of calm come over me.  I can relax and  trust in a God who is faithful.  I am comforted by so many who have committed to pray for our team.  The  journey is not only about the physical trip there.  It is about the process of allowing God to touch and transform me.  It is about  how lives can be impacted by the hope only God can bring to the poorest people in the world.  The journey is also about the amazing things that can take place after the physical trip is completed.

Thank you God, for your reminder to me to relax and enjoy the journey.

Note:  This was written on Monday but I wasn't able to post it until now.  We arrived safely at the guest house in Kinshasa late Tuesday night after leaving on Monday morning.  We had an incredible day being shown around Kinshasa by the leaders of the CEUM, the Covenant church in Congo.  We visited a clinic, schools, a house church, had lunch in a pastor's home and even spoke at a church service where everyone person present (around 100) spoke and shook our hands.  It was an amazing day!  Thank you for your prayers, and oh yes, I am relaxing and enjoying the journey!

We have arrived!

"We are safe and sound this morning in the Kinshasa Guest House after a few flight delays and one flat tire (on a van in Kinshasa )." - Jerry

"We spent the day in Kinshasa, we were lunch guest at a family's home.  We had an amazing bonding experience.  I got to hold the hand of a 2nd grade girl, that had pierced ears, just like my daughter Ava."  - Denee

"Greetings from Kinshasa! After a few hours sleep we spent all day touring Kinshasa with pastors of the CEUM covenant church. It was an amazing day with much to take in. We toured schools, a clinic, churches and much of this wild city. We ended the day at a service of church leaders where each of us spoke and personally greeted each of the 100+ people in a receiving line. Tomorrow we leave at 7 to tour World Vision." - Diann

The team also meet at the local missionary CEUM (picture below) to hear about how God is at work in DR Congo.

Thanks for everyone's prayers so far.

Leaving today

Please be praying 

for the Congo team, Denee Anderson, Diann Anderson, Roy Hori and Jerry Penick as they leave today 

for Congo.

Tomorrow begins a new chapter in my life

Tomorrow is the day… wheels up at 1:00PM.  We've had all of our vaccinations... we have our Visas, we have spent more money than we ever imagined on items that we would not need here in the US but just might need in the remote villages of Congo.  We are excited-about what God is doing in us, our church, and how we might be used to help people on the other side of the planet.

So far, this has been quite a journey and we have not set foot on a plane yet.  The first phase lasted a few weeks - the initial elation about getting to travel to the Congo and be part of the good things happening in that war ravaged country.  And then came the realities of the costs.  Cost measured in time, finances, and emotions.  Finances were the area that loomed in front of us as the most challenging. Looking back, it was the area that came together the easiest. It had been a very long time since I asked anyone for a dime, let alone for thousands of dollars.  God used this situation to bring me to a new place and learn to rely on others while trusting Him to make it all happen.   I am so thankful to the generous families who have sacrificed and given money that was probably earmarked for other needs or projects.  Once the miracles began to happen… and I mean miracles with finances, the next phase was study.  All of us on the team began to devour hours of You Tube video, books on the history of the Congo, books about working in third world countries and how to deal with what we will encounter.

And now we are here thanks to dozens and dozens of generous people from around the country who have made this trip possible. We were “commissioned” by our church today and had the opportunity to give the congregation a status update. 


This has all been a process… phases woven in and around hours and hours of prayer and contemplation.  Second guessing reasons, motivations, dangers, and anything that can be imagined about a place so foreign to our way of life, but confident about our mission.  We are ready, energized, and excited about the next two weeks… stay tuned.

To see the team's pre-trip videos follow this link to the Covenant Kid's Congo Web site:
Covchurch.org Blog

Creating Something New and Better

In five days I board a plane that will take me to the Congo and I am thrilled about it!  My worries have turned to wondering what God has in store for our team.  My fears are at a minimum because I boldly ask Him to take those away. That was NOT how I was feeling on March 1 when I agreed to go.  It's funny how God can shift your perspective so drastically but at the same time so gently.  I didn't shift from fear to excitement over night.  It happened over a couple months and by spending time with Him.  He spoke peace and trust into my heart through my time in the Bible, prayer, and even through the encouraging words of friends and family.

 I keep coming back to a devotional I read in February from Jesus Calling (based on 2 Corinthians 5:17).  Sarah Young writes, "For I am making you a new creation, with old things passing away and new things continually on the horizon.  When you cling to old ways and sameness you resist my work in you. I want you to embrace all that I am doing in your life, finding your security in me alone." This is what causes me the most excitement right now.  God is stirring my spirit, creating something new and better. That is a thrilling place to be!

And when the worry creeps in and I question if I'm really the right person for this or if I can really handle what I'm about to see I pray Hebrews 13:21, "May he equip you with all that you need for doing his will.  May he produce in you, through the power of Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to Him.  All glory to him forever and ever! Amen!"

Please remember to pray for our team, for the final details, for our travel, for our families that stay behind, and pray that God would equip our team with just what we need to do His will.

Blessings,
Denee

This is a re-post from Veda Penick's personal blog  "La Dolce Veda"  April 30, 2013

Saturday's Breakfast

It wasn't an ordinary Saturday, that's for sure. Anything but. Admittedly I was a little nervous. I get that way when I am about to meet new people. Believe it or not, I am a bit of an introvert. Stop laughing, it's the truth. I'm shy, kind of. Anyway, we had plans, a 9:00 AM breakfast with my husband, 2 other couples--involved with his Congo trip and 2 couples who were retired missionaries. I really didn't know what to expect. How old were these people anyway? Were they going to be boring, tell scary stories, talk my husband into moving to Africa? Seriously, all these questions and many more flitted through my mind as we drove into the city. That's what us locals call Chicago--those of us in the suburbs, we're cool like that.




We got there early. I am phobic about being late. Most likely because my husband is the exact opposite. He'll be late to his own funeral. Really, I promise you! So there we were 1/2 hour early, we parked the car and then saw that our friends had arrived early too. They were there to put our names in for a huge table of 10. We had time to kill while waiting for the others, so my friend thought it might be a good idea to give me a tour of Northpark University--for some reason she thinks I might be attending seminary there in the near future. The campus just happened to be right across the street from the restaurant. Interesting how that worked out! I instantly fell in love with the quaint campus, its old brick buildings and warm fuzzy atmosphere. Ugg. I did not want to like it there. No, I wanted to kind of not like it there. More on that later though. This is about the missionaries. Just remember this part about the university for later updates. We'll see, yes, we will see.



When we all had arrived we were escorted upstairs to a large table where we could all sit, get to know each other and have breakfast. First off, let me tell you, it was the cutest little Swedish restaurant, with 2 stories and also an outdoor patio. Next time I'm eating out there! There was also a Starbucks down the street. And as much as I wanted to head strait there--I knew there would be plenty of time for that later--down the road--as in, another time when I might be attending seminary. Oh brother.



We decided to split up--men on one end, women on the other. I was much more interested in hearing about the good, the bad and the ugly of visiting an African village than hearing about water treatment facilities. Hey, just being honest here. So there I was sitting at the table with 2 women from my church who had volunteered to go on this trip and 2 women who had volunteered to not only go--but to live in Africa. And not on a short term basis either. One had lived there for over 40 years, raised her children there and would go back in a heartbeat. The other had lived there for over 30 years and had arrived in Africa with a 4 week old baby in her arms, and she wanted to go back too! It was then that God began to speak to me. Quietly, oh so softly.