Roy Medley - Day One

Sixteen hours of flight time -- that was the length of our flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg with a one-hour stop over in Dakar, Senegal, for fuel and a crew change.

As we flew across the Atlantic I was treated to hearing a number of languages – a reminder of the rich mixture of cultures that would await me in Africa. Often I have wondered how I could preach meaningfully in such diverse cultures from my own. What I have found is that the stories in the Old and New Testaments communicate widely and, in fact, are sometimes better understood in cultures that are more similar to that of scripture than our own.

We are in Johannesburg just for the evening Early tomorrow we fly to Kinshasa where we will be met by Baptist leaders and missionaries. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has more than 200 African ethnic groups. About 70 percent of the population is Christian (50 percent Catholic and 20 percent Protestant).

The per capita income is $700/year for a population of around 65 million people living in a country one-quarter the size of the United States. The capitol city, Kinshasa, has a population of more than 6.5 million people. For 2006 the inflation rate was estimated at 18.2 percent.

The life expectancy is just under 52 years. The infant mortality rate is 86.6/1000. Roughly, 66 percent of the population is literate.

The country has been wracked by political unrest in recent years, both from inside and outside of the country. Things are relatively peaceful now, though one never knows when other forms of terror, such as the recent outbreak of Ebola virus, will erupt, shaking this society.

The full breadth of ABC mission: evangelism, medical, educational, and agricultural is present here. Dr Fountain (retired) was recognized by the United Nations for his pioneering work with village-based health care. Even now his work is a critical link in the health delivery system here. When the recent outbreak of Ebola surfaced, our medical missionary Dr. Bill Clemmer was on the frontline, helping diagnose it and initiate public health practices to contain the outbreak.

This will be a rich visit. I look forward to the statistics becoming faces and friends.