African quick and Nasty CWEATURES No.4

We have just had a visit from our  Missionary Friend from Faranah Guinea. She teaches Missionary children for Bible Translators. Well she showed me this humongous Scorpion from Guinea. These nasties inject enough poison to kill a young child. She said she was bitten by a small scorpion on the foot. It was like being hit with a cattle prod. Then poison travelled to her groin then to her throat and she found it hard to breathe. Some time elapsed before the Poison dispersed and she felt well again. have you been bitten then you will understand that these are little nasty cweatures.

Then we have "Fire" the guard with an amazing 23 cms Snail the likes of which I have never seen myself. This equals the Guiness Book of Records. How would you like this big little critter munching on you lettuce in the veggie Garden.

African Cweatures No 3. A Mongoose

African Mongoose

Often a mongoose which was caught during a hunt or in the rain forest would become someeone's pet. A cord was tied around it's waist and then it followed its owner just like a dog.
Here is a link to a Mongoose vs Indian Cobra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdg9gkmWsEA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongoose

African Cweatures No.2 black Army or Soldier Ants

These ants are approximately 1.5cm long and black. They can bite and sting like fury. It feels like a red-hot needle. The big problem is that they work together and usually walk in a column of three metres in length and have a couple of hundred in their army.

Soldier or Army Ants -black

These black soldier ants are not the driver ants which travel in  lines of Billions protected by their soldiers alongside their columns.  sting. They take days to pass and can only be stopped by spreading ashes and coals from a fire in their way.

Driver Ants reddish in colour

One day a Missionary was riding his bicycle home the two hundred Kilometres from a Business meeting in Katanga. As he descended a long hill he was unaware that the deep sand had accumulated at the bottom and he fell off in the deep sand right into the middle of a Column of Army Ants. They hiss to warn their fellow soldiers and then go in for the kill.

This missionary was in the middle of them and they can really sting. He yelled and out popped his false teeth into sand as they got up his legs. He  needed to get his trousers down in a hurry hoping their wasn't any African children in the bush nearby. What a sight!. He eventually got his trousers back up and his false teeth cleaned off. He picked up his bike and his precious briefcase of Business meeting minutes and sore and weary headed for home. He would be more wary next time at the bottom of a long hill.

Soldier ants can sting

Congo's quick and Nasty CWEATURES

There were some very quick and nasty creatures that were around our house while we lived at Mission de Kipushya, Kasai orientale, Democratic Republique of Congo in Central Africa.

The first is the Mamba. Around the Mission we generally encountered the green Mamba which was long and thin around the neck but was very quick. It was generally hunting birds in the high acacia trees around Mission. It could climb up a solid mud brick wall with ease.
One day my wife, Esther, came in to say that she had seen a snake on the stick fence outside our home but she added, “It was only a green tree snake.” I quickly warned her that it was a Mamba and they are very deadly.

In the backyard of our Mission house there was a Kipanda Mpodi. A large thatched roofed structure which sheltered us when working outside on a rainy day. Well someone had yelled “snake! snake!” (“Nyoka, Nyoka”) in Kisonge. People came running from all around into our yard. They were looking for the culprit who had quickly hidden. While they were milling around the Kipanda Mpodi  a young slip of student saw the tip of its tail poking out the thatch . Without telling anyone he whipped it out of the thatch and hurled it into the middle of the crowd of  searchers. They all levitated and took off post haste. Remember to move quickly and know what you are doing when handling a Mamba. Our House help, Eshiba, knew what to do. He would pin the neck with a stick then roll the stick up close to the head and then pick it up behind the head and take it home for dinner.
Eshiba’s brother was running up the ridge shouting 'Nyoka' one day after turning on the water-pump in the valley. He was being chased by a huge black Mamba. His father, YaShimbanyi killed it with a bamboo. It must have been 8 feet long.

A black Mamba

African Cameleon

Mamadou asked,"Can I be forgiven?"

Typical African Market.

In the downtown Market in Pita, Guinea, West Africa, we had a stall. There amongst the shoe sellers and odds and ends we had books in French, Arabic as well as cassettes AND Bible society comic books about Abraham, Elijah – the Prophet of Fire, The Life of Jesus etc.

Many young people would come and chat. We often spoke of the Good News of Isaa. (Jesus in Arabic) One day as we were sharing the Good News with a small group of people, this one young man, a school teacher, asked, “Can I be forgiven?

He explained his situation. I have made my girlfriend pregnant. I love her very much but the family will not allow me to marry her. What am I to do? Can God forgive me?” By this time he was very distraught and tears were welling up in his eyes. We explained to Mamadou that Jesus came to died on the Cross to take our punishment and reconcile us to God. If we confess and forsake our sin He will forgive us our sin and cleanse us for all unrighteousness.

The only answer to our sin and undoneness is to turn away from sin in true repentance. Then to turn to Jesus, the One and Only Saviour, in true Faith, believing that He will forgive us because of the Cross of Calvary.

“There is Salvation in no other, for there is no other Name under heaven whereby we must be saved.”

CAN I be forgiven by God? YOU SURELY CAN!

Wherever you are THE Message is the SAME. Turn to Jesus and Be forgiven!!!

Protecting the Children from Drowning

When I was a boy during World War 2, our family visited my Uncle and Auntie at a lettuce farm at Wacol Queensland. There they had a large dam with cement sides for watering the lettuce which were flown to the American Troops in the Islands. My mother was afraid that I would fall into this dam and drown. The family had been swimming there during the hot summer afternoons. I was about three years of age. My mother took me to the dam and held me under for a few seconds enough to frighten me away from it.

Andy, Robbie and Jenny in the Congo

Now back to Africa the year 1975. David Rowlands  just older than Andrew had fallen down into a half empty 44 gallon drum (200 litres.) head first and was miraculously saved by the house boy name Ya Seba.

Our Andy and David Rowlands

This was a warning to Esther and I as at our back door were two water drums for catching rain water. They were also filled from a pump down in the valley. Often they were half - empty. Robbie and Jen just loved to play in the water leaning over the side of the drums which were lower down. The girls could stand on the verandah and reach in to splash in the clear water. The near accident with David Rowlands reminded me of my childhood. Yes, you guessed right.

Esther took the girls and dunked them under and held them there upside down for a few seconds just to give them the needed scare and make them keep away from those drums.

The girls came up screaming and yelling their heads off. At that moment Andy was in the bath. He heard his sisters screaming and climbed up in the window ledge stark naked and yelled at his mother in protective elder brother language, "YOU NAUGHTY MUMMY, YOU NAUGHTY MUMMY!!!" The girls never played in the drums again.

Off to the local river

They did have lots of fun down in the river with tyres though.