Annnnd we’re back. We crossed the border, had just a few hiccups (as in two confiscated passports, a wild goose chase to recover the passports, a canceled visa and in the end, two new visas… to say the least) Either way though, it’s so good to be back!

Over the last year it’s been such a journey that builds up to this moment. We took a step back from full time Congo life to focus on our foundations both as a newly married couple and still as a new organization. Creating something that lasts isn’t something that happens overnight. This I’m learning. It’s a deep work building foundations and structures. It’s a lot of boring work at times, often not the glamorous stories that we share from a stage, but it’s what moves you from lasting a few years to lasting several decades.

Over the last little while we’ve been developing strategy for how to use education in a way that literally changes culture and raises up agents of change that can implement structures of peace.

Rather than planting schools at whim, we strategize to maximize our impact.

We’ve been sitting with papa God and dreaming with heaven and we’ve been sitting at our computer, pouring over research.

UNESCO statistic says “Doubling secondary student enrollment from 30% to 60% has the potential to half the risk of conflict.”

(Ummm, right!?)

So in this next season we’re excited to be building! We see education as a profound tool to see transformation in communities.

Primary Education.

Secondary Education.

Mentoring.

Discipleship.

Health classes.

Family and parenting workshops.

Education is so much more than just learning to read and write. Education is teaching a new way of thinking. To come out of war and poverty, we need to see some shifts in mindsets and behavior patterns.

On our last quick trip to Congo, we ran into various security problems. “Cassandra, there have been more abductions in the recent month than ever before.” My Congolese team shared. They went on to explain the increased dangers and the risks, more than we’ve seen before, that we would have to overcome to complete our work.

We weighed the risks but like always, we tucked ourselves in the arms of our God and pressed forward into the unknown as we know risks are so worth it if we get to see even a handful more people experience peace and the presence of God.

On the road to the village we found ourselves “just missing” raids time and time again. The last time we were almost to safety when we were stopped on the road. A group of people were gathered, they said a raid was happening as we spoke and they had just managed to escape. After talking for a while, we climbed in the car and sped off. No more than 2 minutes and we were stopped again. This time by a man waving an AK-47 in the air. “STOP! A raid is happening right now! You cannot go forward. So many soldiers. They outnumber you too much!”

With only a second of hesitation, our driver threw the car into reverse and sped off in the opposite direction. We had nowhere to go though. The only way out was forward. Through the army of soldiers.

We stopped and started to pray. Switching from a mindset of defense to offense. “If we meet these soldiers, then they will meet Jesus!” Standing firmly on the scripture “Greater is he that is in me than he than is in the world.” He is our rock.

After waiting maybe 10 minutes we pressed forward full of faith and thankfully, didn’t encounter any more malicious activity on the road.

We have a handful of “close call” stories, but for those who live there, this is their norm. Rape is a common occurrence among women, raids that pillage entire communities have become the usual.

With saying that, I’m more motivated now than ever that the time to act is now.

As we press on in implementing some of our developing strategy, we’ve begun construction on our newest secondary school and are already dreaming for the next! As we do, we would love to give you the opportunity to join our ROOTS Community. It’s one of the incredible things we’ve developed this year, a growing network of individuals who want to stand for peace and transformation now able to follow the journey a little closer.

ROOTS partners give monthly and in return get an exclusive inside look on what we’re up to, get free Justice Rising swag and an opportunity to travel to see the students you’re impacting! Sign up here!

Thanks everyone for following our journey! This blog has gone from solely my blog to now Edison’s and my blog. Excited to post a thing or two from the husband in the coming months as well!

I go back to Africa tomorrow! I should have written sooner. I’m suppose to be packing now and instead I’m blogging—opps.

I was also suppose to be blogging every week for the last month though, another oops.

A few explanations. One—it was the holidays. It’s tough to focus through the blasting Christmas music and food comas.

Two- Post holidays, it was actually a pretty hard month. I wasn’t going to blog about the difficult parts but I don’t do well with glazing over my emotions. In her books, Dr. Brene Brown (one of my favorites) writes about being raw and how we weren’t meant to compartmentalize vulnerability. Being real about one thing and masking another, it doesn’t fully work and we end up with an unauthentic, watered down version of who we wish to be. (the general gist)

So, I won’t go into details to what happened, but in the end, in a moment where adjusting to my American life was feeling difficult, (sometimes it’s a larger culture shift than I anticipated) I was blindsided with an unfortunate betrayal. Or backstabbing, I guess. Am I aloud to say that?

Again- no details, but within the last couple of years I feel like I’ve been surprised with these issues a few times. And with my heart strewn across the floor, I got the privilege again, of picking up the raw pieces but couldn’t seem to organize them for a blog.

My turning point came the other night. I had one of the most healing moments of the last month just sitting down to dinner with a dear friend and aid-working veteran, sharing war stories. Not literal war stories, (which is also a common occurrence in my life) but talking about life’s imperfections and unexpected pains.

When I first got married (like… yesterday. Haha.) I kept asking married couples “What’s hard about your marriage? What are your differences? Your ups, your downs?” Because suddenly I was married and faced with “Oh my gosh, marriage is better than I ever dreamed BUT, as two strong individuals- we have a lot to learn!”

This felt similar. Sometimes when we’re navigating unfamiliar waters, or in this last month’s case- hurt and well… irritation, sometimes we’re just desperate to hear someone else say “It’s normal. It’s happened to me. You’ll be ok”

So for a quick second, if you don’t have that kind of dinner date scheduled, —for anyone who has felt knocked down, if you’ve tried and felt like you’ve failed, if you’ve been betrayed, backstabbed, lost everything, been robbed, bankrupt, or fallen down and are afraid you can’t get back up….

It’s going to be ok. You’re going to be alright.

And not only that, you won’t just come out alive, you’re going to be better than you would’ve been before, as the wisdom and humility you’ll gain is worth much more than the pride you would have kept without these lessons!

It was interesting hearing my friend talk about moments in her life that knocked her down. And I mean like, beat her til she was unconscious (not literally) and my first response was an instinctive- YOU ARE SO BRAVE. The courage it took for her to get back up was more impressive than had everything gone smoothly from the beginning. And with the experience she gained in navigating her heart, the things she learned from seeing what works and what doesn’t and preparing for the next round, she’s now developing a foundation that is more solid and life changing than she could have had before.

People are messy. And everywhere in life there are people. You can’t control whether the young prostitute returns to sell her body, even if you did risk everything to rescue her. You can’t control the young soldier who returns to fight in war, you can’t control the homeless man who just took your dollar and used it to buy alcohol and you can’t control those around you into making honoring decisions. But you can control your heart. Your response, and how you rise again, to risk it all and say yes to love.

“Failure” is such an inappropriate label. Stamped on our hearts so often when things don’t work out like we planned.

If you risk great, you could fall great, but that is not failure.

This month actually wasn’t that terrible. Papa God has been such a boss in his response. It just made me ask a lot of questions, and in disappointment choose how I was going to respond to betrayal now and the lingering taste from it before.

A semi-strange blog right before going back to Africa, but before I reach my excited “Everything is wonderful and I’m so excited to be back in the Congo!” I wanted to give you a taste of both sides to a complicated story.

This is getting long so I’ll stop rambling, but I hope that in whatever capacity you lead and live, that you never stop loving greatly, believing whole heartedly and dreaming unreasonably.