The human pinball. That is what it feels like to ride in a car in Congo. I feel like someone is getting points every time we ride through a bumpy patch and I hit my head on the ceiling. I can hear the “BING” “BING” “BING” sound as 200 points go up on the board and Robin who is driving yells back to those of us clutching what we can find – “Poli Sana! (I’m Very Sorry)”.

I think to myself, “Robin! Poli, Poli! (Slowly!)” – lest I become another high score in this game of human pinball.

One of our pastor friends here talks about how the roads in Congo used to be good. They were so good in fact he said you could drop a french fry on the ground and pick it up and still eat it.

Driving around Congo now feels like visiting a place that time forgot. The infrastructure has deteriorated so much in the city we are in that the potholes we try to avoid in America are the norm and any even terrain is a blessed reprieve.

But it has been a good reminder that things in Congo were not always like this. This used to be a major tourist destination. You can still see the big houses people probably used as their summer homes. But being here, meeting the people, getting to know new friends, and to see the work that they are doing – I know that it can be like it once was.

The challenge is to look at it with a different set of eyes. I try to see Congo from my low human perspective. Sometimes all I see is the bumpy road, the victimized women, the destitute children – and I wonder can it be fixed? But I am looking at it with my own eyes. From my perspective on the ground.

What if I could see it from God’s perspective? What would I see then? I might see that the work that the people we are meeting here will indeed make a difference. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But slowly (Poli, Poli) – I believe that it will.