Ellen and I had been at Rethy since 1968 and here it was 1998. We were the senior missionaries at Rethy, but since there were only the two of us, it wasn’t a very prestigious position. Others who had been working in Zaire at the time of the rebellion also had a desire to return to complete what they felt the Lord had called them to do. When they came, we had the privilege of having them in our home as they set up their own places to stay.

Gloria had been working as an RN at the Rethy hospital and the team at the hospital were keen to have her come back. She had worked with Carolyn Saltenburger for a number of years and had both the language and medical skills to blend in right away. The house she had shared with Carolyn had not been looted at all and the hospital administration made it available to her. She lived with us for only a short time before she moved into her own house.

Uli Michael, a DIGUNA missionary builder, had been working on an extensive upgrade of the hospital complex. All the funds for the project had been approved, but there was still a lot of interior work needing to be done in order to complete it. Uli lived in our home, using the room that had been Jeff’s during his vacation. It was nice to have him with us for a while. Maybe he could complete the project.

The Herman’s returned as well and fixed up the Steve McMillan house. He was skilled in building and made his own repairs on the house. We began work on the house where Sheila had lived, as it was in fairly good condition and could be used for a teacher. There was interest in seeing what we could do about the school, since there were a number of missionaries that had returned to Bogoro where DIGUNA was based. They were assisting CECA church ministries, offering technical help in a number of ways including transportation for the evangelistic outreach. They had a number of children who had been at Rethy just before the rebellion, and would like them to continue their schooling with us, rather than having to fly to RVA.

Debbie Wiesenberger felt called, to continue helping in the education of MKs and was planning to return so we began looking at what was left at the school. She was collecting teaching materials and books for the primary school classes. It would be a long time before the academy could again function as it had, but there were thousands of books that hadn’t been destroyed.

Ellen began sorting the mess at the school, cleaning and organizing books. Gloria joined her. It was amazing how much could be saved. The idea was to fix up the house, across the road from us, for Debbie, add beds in our home, so we could offer facilities to board some children and set up classes in a nearby missionary house.

Some of the former dorm workmen had taken the initiative to care for the remaining cows that had provided milk and meat for Rethy Academy. They were probably still thought of as belonging to the dorm but there were no formal decisions yet made, as to what was to be done with them. Silavano, the wise foreman who had been faithful in his service to the dorm for so many years, may have set up the rotation of those who cared for the animals. He was around when Ellen discovered a snake in the school while sorting books, and he helped get rid of it. There were lots of things unfinished and Silavano would no doubt be involved in deciding what needed to be done.

My daily responsibilities were concentrated on building the radio studio behind which stood the broadcasting tower, waiting to be connected to the equipment that would be moved from the temporary broadcasting site near the press. Mboligihe was the manager of the RTK ministry, and assigned me a program, “Treasurers in Heaven” to be presented every Thursday. Things at the press ran smoothly, though it was likely that our earnings were falling behind our expenses. After the rebellion, very few things worked at all.

The new government was apparently also in need of money to make things work. The old “Nouveau Zaire” was soon to be replaced by the Congo Frank, but it was still in use. Marking dollar prices on the bookstore items, and having Ukelo calculate the daily prices according to the current exchange rate, seemed to be the best solution. A well-dressed young man appeared at the Editions CECA office and I was called in to deal with the situation.

It turned out that he took strong exception to our posting prices in dollars, which was not the currency of his country. His self-advertised responsibilities included inspections into situations where merchants were arbitrarily setting prices to take advantage of the public. My efforts to explain why we used the dollar as a reference were not acceptable to him. He was determined to collect a fine. The discussion went on and on.

I then thought of a current printing order from RVA, the government agency in Bunia that was in charge of the collection of customs and fees at the airport. I showed the young man the $50.00 price that I was required to print on the document. Surely, if the authorities had me print a dollar price on their form, I could mark the prices of our bookstore items in dollars as well. It was only a reference. The people knew the exchange rates. We did not require that the items be bought with US dollars.

From his pocket he removed and folded a square of white cloth with which he wiped the perspiration from his face. He then carefully dried his underarms, beneath his shirt. He had lost his cool, and the expected receipt of a large fine from Editions CECA was dashed. I told him I appreciated his service to the people and assured him we did not charge unfair prices. I then gave him a ream of paper to help him do his work. I didn’t want to make enemies for Editions CECA.

I guess word got around that the press was still working and that a rich Muzungu was making money off the people. The three that came from Bunia in a Toyota Land Cruiser appeared to have much greater authority than the young man. They had arrived to collected the unpaid taxes on all the sales we had made during the last five years. The documents and forms they pulled from their briefcases certainly looked official. They wanted to see all our receipt books and they would help us with the calculations.

I became very uncooperative, stating that there was no way we could pay such a tax when we had never been told that it had to be collected. Were they interested in forcing us to stop serving the country? Didn’t they know we did print jobs for any who came and sold to the people whatever we had available? Did they want hymnbooks or Bibles? They weren’t interested. I was disgusted and said, “Maybe I should just leave the country and let the press die.”

I didn’t want to do that, I wanted the press to be able to run independently forever. I proposed a solution. Editions CECA would mark up all the prices in the store by 5% and begin collecting taxes. They must, however, formalize the order to collect taxes, and I could explain to our customers why our prices had increased. I would then post a copy of the order in the office.

I proposed that we take the last two months’ receipts from the bookstore and calculate the tax from that information. I had just returned to Congo after the rebellion and could do nothing about the time before that. I guess they were getting impatient with me, as the discussion had gone on for several hours. They finally agreed.

Our accountant, Kakura, went to the bookstore and came back with several receipt books. They made a big show of adding and calculating and then headed to the bookstore to see what money was in the safe. The government men were becoming more and more impatient. What was found in the safe proved to be about half of the calculated total.

We began counting and verifying the packets of filthy, worn, Nouveau Zaire bills. The men didn’t bother to fill out an order for me to collect taxes for the Kabila government, and I saw no reason to insist on their doing their job. It became apparent that the money being collected was nowhere near what they had anticipated.

I insisted that we needed a formal receipt so we would have evidence that we had paid our tax. The one who had shown me the documents, proving their authority, pulled out a receipt book, one that automatically made three carbon copies. I was encouraged that the men weren’t out to cheat the ones who had sent them from Bunia.

We tied up the money into bricks with twine and put it in a cardboard box. It was nearly quitting time at the press and I thanked Kakura for all his help. The men departed.

Kakura showed me the receipt. It looked very official. I told him to enter the expense in our miscellaneous expense account. I wondered how much cash had survived the collection and was still in the safe. I also speculated how much had immediately been advanced to our press workmen before the tax men took what was left. Kakura was wise to the ways of government authorities, and noticed what I had missed. A thick sheet of paper had prevented the creation of automatic copies of the receipt so the evidence of the amount collected could be forged in later.

We quickly made a photocopy of the original receipt and sent it to the CECA office in Bunia, reporting that we had paid the Editions CECA taxes at Rethy for the year.

Ellen and Mbolifulani’s Bible study group began doing projects together, knitting and crocheting items for babies with the goal to sell the final products to earn money for what they planned to purchase. They wanted to buy matching Kikwembies for their singing group presentations at church. They also asked Ellen to shop in Kampala, the next time we were there, to bring back some cookware and even crock-pots. We had the feeling that we again belonged at Rethy and that we would be there many more years.

Since I was the department head of Editions CECA, I was called to a meeting of the CECA executive council in Bunia. There we discussed the needs and priorities of each department and sought how to better serve our Lord together. The church organization had grown tremendously to the point where foreign missionaries had less and less prominent roles.

President Etsea, vice president Lalima, and Mbanza held the top offices and were providing godly leadership to the church. The number of departments had increased considerably, from Evangelism, Christion Education, Bible schools, and education; to include secondary education, the Women of the Good News, and ISTB, the theological education at the college level in Bunia. Services were expanded from the printing press at Editions CECA to now include the Koda Hydroelectric plant, the RTK radio broadcasting stations, and a new veterinary school was proposed to be based at Rethy. Gregg Lewis represented the missionary department, now very much depleted after the rebellion. Was the traditional role of the foreign missionary now completed?

The sad news of the increasingly bitter hatred, and division developing between the tribes in the Rethy, Linga, Blukwa, Bogoro, and Nyankunde areas was only briefly mentioned. The efforts of the former CECA president, the reverend, Dr. Pierre Marini, to take over the assets of the church, initially registered as CECA-20, was not officially part of the agenda, though there were things discussed using tribal languages during the tea break times. Marini, now having been somehow made a bishop, had gotten a new identity registered that was called CECA 20 reformée. I knew of the stress at Rethy with the Lendu already trying to take control of the Rethy church assets and leadership positions in CECA-20.

It is fairly easy to decide when a building made of rock, cement and bricks has been completed. We had an inaugural date with lots of ceremonies when the Koda Hydroelectric plant was switched on, but I never did get to add the other three elements to the antenna mounted on top of the 110-foot Puu hill tower. I think it was done by someone from DIGUNA, but I don’t know. We can only do the small part God gives us to do.

We know some of the details of what has happened in the church in Congo after we left, but if we know or not, God is the one Who builds His church. He is the one who completes it.

May we be faithful in the small part He gives us to do.