Bill and Sonia Shaw Assemblies of
God missionaries to the people of Africa since 1985Current
assignment: Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Hello, everyone.
This is what our new contact card looks like. With our change in ministry
assignment now official we needed to print up some new ones. A thirty-five
pound box of these cards arrived on our doorstep, fresh from Missions Linked, a business started
by MKs (missionary kids). They do great work and we suggest you check them out
by clicking on the highlighted link should you need any printing
done.
We visited many
churches during our transition to the DR Congo, so our new contact cards were
not available. If you would like to have one of our new cards click here to
send us an email and we will get one out to you. (Please include your snail mail
address!) Yes, it is obvious Sonia makes the picture...
Some of you did
not receive our first E-newsletter so the news of our change in field may
surprise you. Next week we will send you another email explaining what we are
tasked to do in Lubumbashi. Our target is to come alongside our Congolese
partners and together build up the training infrastructure in the Eastern
Congo. Our primary goal is to train the professors for the ten new Bible
schools scattered throughout the Congo. This is why we are both finishing our
MA degrees from Northwest University. More details to come next week.
Our website is
still in the process of being revived and there are several pages in the early
stages of creation. More video clips have been added to our YouTube account
and you can go there by clicking here.
There are clips from the Bible school campus in Chad and the trip Bill took to
the DR Congo in February of this year. Our website is designed to be a one-stop
location for all things missional regarding our work so pray with us as we
develop the site. Click here
to check out our website.
We are currently looking for
youth groups who will consider partnering with us to raise funds for the
Speed-the-Light extended cabin pick-up we will need once we are on the ground in
Lubumbashi. This will be our third STL vehicle in the
twenty-seven years we have been missionaries in Africa. The first one, in 1987,
was a Nissan Patrol/SUV and was provided by the Montana District youth. 
Tim Barrans was the main promoter of that project and we thank you,
Tim, for the vision and leadership you provided. This first truck gave us two
terms of hard use and A LOT of miles all over Ghana. It was a GREAT tool for us
as we did church planting and leadership training.
Tim Barrans was the main promoter of that project and we thank you,
Tim, for the vision and leadership you provided. This first truck gave us two
terms of hard use and A LOT of miles all over Ghana. It was a GREAT tool for us
as we did church planting and leadership training. It was such a good
car that after 8 years of solid service we were still able to sell it for a good
price and put that money toward our second vehicle that was purchased by the
Northwest Ministry Network youth. In those days (1998) it was Troy Jones, now
the pastor at Renton New Life Church, who made the effort to put those funds at
our disposal. Again, thank you, Troy, for making this happen. We had our
Toyota Landcruiser shipped down from Gibralter Toyota. It arrived in a
container in the port of Douala, Cameroon, so Bill spent a week in the city as
our clearing agent worked on the importation paperwork and then another week
driving through Cameroon to cross the border into Chad. The road was SO bad!
(How bad WAS it??) It was so bad that for nearly two days we never got above 13
mph. Yes, Virginia, we were having an "adventure." Take a look at a map of
Cameroon and trace our route-
Douala-Baffousam-Tibati-Meiganga-Ngaoundere-Garoua-Figuil. It was outside of
Tibati where Bill nearly jumped from the bouncing and jostling STL Landcruiser,
refusing to spend another minute submitting his kidneys to the
"Cuisinart Cameroonian Road Test."
Unfortunately the customs clearing agent's contact at the
border had gone to a funeral so the bush tour was delayed at the customs border
post for three days. Bill kept guard over the brand new Landcruiser, sleeping
in the sand next to the car, until the agent found the customs officer in a
nearby village. This was another one of those "experiences." The border
crossing was several miles from the nearest town, so eating required a walk into
town to buy a few meals and then a motorcycle taxi back to the border at night.
A young man, no
more than sixteen, returned Bill to the car one night. He took the road at
great speed, enough so he was told if he splattered missionary brains against a
tree when he lost control of the motorcycle Sonia would come looking for him.
This ellicited only a grunt, a nod, and another twist to the throttle as the
Honda 125 screamed to its destination. Getting off the bike at the border, the
color returning to his knuckles, Bill demanded why the great speed, and why he
did not slow down. With a shrug and in a most matter of fact tone the young man
said, "I had to go fast through the forest, or the bandits would have jumped out
and robbed us." Hmmm...
So, a
Speed-the-Light truck is a VERY GOOD thing. If you would like to partner with us let us know. 
We
are more than ready to partner with you, spend time with your youth group and
infuse them with a vision of making a difference in this world. Our project amount is $35,000 but this can be divided up
into more bite-sized pieces.
We
are more than ready to partner with you, spend time with your youth group and
infuse them with a vision of making a difference in this world. Our project amount is $35,000 but this can be divided up
into more bite-sized pieces. This is a picture of the
Toyota "double cabine" (as we say in French) pick-up we would like to purchase.
Where we live they stay nice and shiny like this picture for about five
minutes. Just after buying our first vehicle in Ghana Bill was driving a group
of pastors to check out a site for a new church plant. They got stuck on the
edge of a lagoon between Denu and Anloga, in the Volta Region. Both axles of
the truck were high-centered so it took a small army of men from the village to
dig, pull, push, and lift the truck out. All the kings horses and all the
king's men did indeed get the truck out of its muddy grave. 
Bill sighed in relief when the truck was safely on dry ground, seeing
there were no serious scratches, dings, or bent whatevers from the rescue. To
his chagrin, he called for a group "victory" photo whereby our new friends and
rescue squad jumped all over the truck for the picture. In this case the
patient survived the surgery but got beat up in the recovery
room!
Bill sighed in relief when the truck was safely on dry ground, seeing
there were no serious scratches, dings, or bent whatevers from the rescue. To
his chagrin, he called for a group "victory" photo whereby our new friends and
rescue squad jumped all over the truck for the picture. In this case the
patient survived the surgery but got beat up in the recovery
room!We cannot underline the
importance and value of our Speed-the-Light vehicles over the length of our
missionary mandate. These two workhorses proved their mettle over and over
again. Without them we would have been severely handicapped in the work and
fewer churches would have been planted, fewer pastors trained, and the limits of
the Kingdom would not have been stretched as far. Please pray with us that God
gives us favor with several youth groups who can rise to the occasion and join
us to make a difference, this time in the DR Congo.
Until next
time,
Godspeed.
USA
address: P.O. Box 1521 Port Orchard, WA
98366
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