« Wantok Bilong Mi | Main | What Is That? »

MBI Reunion

This morning a group of South African women came in to use the computers. I helped them get started with their web-based e-mail. They also had a computer with them that they wished to use, so I scanned it for viruses and registered it for use on our network. Later I was sitting outside the tent, and I started talking with one of the ladies who had just finished with her e-mail. We were looking at the tent, and talking about ideas for making it darker inside (so laptop screens will be easier to see during the day) and also cooler. We have some outdoor mesh screen coming from the US, the kind you use to cover patios. Then we started looking out my living tent. She was curious about that, and especially to see how I had made a waterproof floor, which has the sides going up and over a 8" wide board. The floor of my tent is like a tub and unless the water rises to a height of 8", I'll stay dry. Then we started talking about the UN base camp being
constructed, and who would have offices and/or live here. At that point I mentioned that we had put the 'net cafe here at the request of Air Serv. As we walked around the camp, she asked me whether I was with MAF or Air Serv. I hadn't said anything about MAF, but she knew about it. There is an MAF-South Africa, and Air Serv also works there, and because of that she is familiar with them both. I told her that I live in Shell, and she knew where that was, because many years ago she and her husband had read the book "Through Gates of Splendor". To make a long story short, she and her husband were at Moody Bible Institute thirty-five years ago. He was going to be a missionary pilot, and she was in the avionics program. Before that, her husband was a chemistry professor. In the end, he decided he liked teaching more than flying, and he eventually ended up as a professor at Prairie Bible Institue in Canada. He is from Belgium, and she is from Zambia. Now she is a doctor and works against the AIDS crisis in Africa. When disasters happen, she works with Global Relief as a doctor on location. Wow! What a place for two MBI grads to meet. For me, the world continues to be a small place.