Blessed E-Book

Jean-Luc Lézeau

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Accepting a call to go as missionaries to Africa, and attending a Mission Institute, Eileen and I, thought that we were ready to face any problems. Two days after leaving France we were wondering if it was really God's will after finding ourselves with two small children, no plane tickets on hand, thousands of miles away from a school in the middle of nowhere. Nevertheless, all along our uncertain journey we have seen His hand, His protection, and His miracles. May His name be praised.

Leseprobe

From the same author:

« Strategic Church Finances: A Biblical Approach” by Jean-Luc Lézeau and Benjamin C Maxson. Stewardship Department of the General Conference of SDA.2008

« The Abundant life » Serie of 50 of 30mn program. Stewardship Department of the General Conference of SDA.2009 https://www.youtube.com/@gestionchretiennedelaviepa6246

« The Abundant Life » 2012. JLL Publishing.

Contents

Prologue

Good Start?

Lukanga

Ad Interim

Going to Market

Meanwhile

School rebellion

New Year in Korora

A Switchover

Songa

Head Wound

Extra Vacation in Lusaka

Visit in the Middle of the Bush

Yearend Grades

See you next time or adios?

Cameroon

Douala

Moving

Back to France

Beating the Inflation

Language Courses

Angola and Mozambique

Epilogue

Acknowledgment

Prologue

I never knew my father. I was born three months after he was killed in the famous battle of Monte Cassino near Rome during World War II. My father was a medic in the Army. He did not really have a choice: the status of conscientious objector was unknown at the time, and enlistment was required for everyone, pastor or not, as was his case.1 Not wanting to bear arms, he opted for the best way to help his fellow men: to be a medic. After saving several of his fellow soldiers, he was wounded and died on the battlefield.

That idealistic picture of a father who worked in a foreign land and gave his life to save others was what motivated me to become a missionary.

A rendering of a Medic on a battlefield. Desmond Ford Memorial. Collegedale, Tennessee.

Years later, my wife Eileen and I received our first call: to teach in our secondary school in Lukanga, Zaire.2 We were eager to discover where that was. At the time Google Earth did not exist, and we had to look at an Atlas to find where Lukanga was. In fact, it was so small that we could not find it on the map (to this day it does not show up on Google Earth). We were told that the nearest town was Butembo, which was not on the map either.3 Goma was the only town large enough to be mentioned, but that was 300 km (185 miles) away! Welcome to nowhere! The second discovery we made was that there are a surprising number of schools, hospitals, and mission stations around the world that are located in places that are almost impossible to reach.

I also soon discovered that serving as missionary was like enlisting into the French army. After basic training, the Sergeant asks each recruit: “What trade have you trained for?” If the answer was mechanic, he was assigned to work in the kitchen. If the answer was baker, he ended up as a truck driver, and so on. Similarly, I was asked to teach all kinds of subjects except the one I was qualified to teach. I soon learned that a professor had to be two lessons ahead of his students.

To be somewhat prepared for the cultural shock, we attended the first Mission Institute held outside the United States by Drs: Gottfried Oosterwal and Russell Staples. It was a month-long seminar which took place at Newbold College in Binfield, England.

Dr. Oosterwal on the far-left and Dr Staples on the far-right.

1 Antoine Paul Lézeau was a pastor in Algeria at the time.

2 Now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

3 It is only recently that Butembo shows up on Google Maps.

Good Start?4

Our journey to Africa started on Thursday, September 4, 1975, at 6:40 a.m. at the railway station in Thonon les Bains, France, where we lived. We arrived at the station in Paris Gare de l’Est at 1:30 p.m. and took a taxi to Roissy airport to fly to Brussels, from where we would then fly to Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire. We could have flown out from Geneva, Switzerland, which is only 40 km from Thonon, but apparently somebody had decided that it would be too easy for a family with two small children to start their missionary service that way.

Our baggage allowance enabled us to carry essential items we would need to live on for the next 3 months while waiting for our crate. Eileen and I, with our two children aged 3 and 4, checked our three metal trunks and our two suitcases prior to boarding our aircraft. We arrived in Brussels on time and queued up to board our connecting Sabena flight. To our surprise, we were told that our missionary tickets would not allow us to take that airline! Pleading that all our luggage were checked to Kinshasa, that we had nothing with us, and that we had two small children with us was…of no avail. The agent told us that the only solution was to put our names on the waiting list for the next Air Zaire flights, which were full. Our journey to nowhere started well and our resolve to serve in the mission field faltered in our hearts. Was it really God’s plan for us to go to Africa? What were we supposed to do? I had just graduated from university, had not received my first paycheck, and in fact, I had no idea at all how much I would get paid. It was not the type of question to ask when leaving as a missionary, and now I was supposed to find a hotel in one of the most expensive towns in Europe! We took the train downtown to the local Conference office and explained our situation to the treasurer. He called the Division and quickly changed our tickets and found a hotel for us. The next day, we took off in good spirits to continue our trip and discover where Lukanga was. Our enthusiasm soon cooled off when, after waiting most of the day—no time to shop for some essentials in town—we were told that the first flight was full, as well as the second and the third one! The procedure had to be repeated the following day! By that time, I had phoned the treasurer to make sure our room was still available in the hotel, and we spent our second night in Brussels. The following day, a Friday, we were told that at long last an aircraft with four seats was available and leaving that night.