Homecoming!

March 12, 2023 

            

    

We made it back to Eastern DRC!  We have been in-country now for about 3 weeks.  It has been a huge blessing to re-connect with our friends and colleagues, and church family.  We had been missing our pets so much.  Our parrot Smeagol stayed on my shoulder for an entire afternoon and wanted to eat everything I was eating.  Birds are very social-it was heartwarming.  Our two dogs are in good health-our puppy has grown by leaps and bounds and our basenji appears to have “shrank.”  Emmanuel found his long lost chameleon in a bush in the yard-we are pretty convinced that it is the same one we set free 6months ago! We have found our village in a state of relative peace with some promising changes.

 

We are seeking the Lord regarding our next steps.  Coming here is like putting on an old pair of shoes. It feels like the same birds are greeting us.   We share fellowship with the same Congolese brothers and sisters that we been through difficult times with.  We are always learning how to trust Him daily, with our daily needs, for wisdom, for community, for confirmation of His plans.  

 

Two lives remembered 

Sometimes things happen in life that make us stop in our tracks.  I want to share something that happened this week in our village that has the power to bring people back to the church, to saving faith.  This happened in a context where tribe is “identity,” and almost the strongest influence in people’s life.  A young man of prayer in his 20s died of natural causes.  He was found in his house with his hand on his Bible and had written the verses from Ephesians: 4:1-7 .  He had no family or tribe here, and was displaced from his birthplace due to violence.  His parents are deceased.  He was a choir member of a church in the village and well loved by his church family.  This hit the church hard on many levels- a man without family connection, dying so young.  There was a delay as the church called people together to pray.  Meanwhile all the Brethren churches in the area came together and >1000 people came out to show love and support to him.  

 

This has been talked about widely in the area, namely the loving care shown to him and his memory.  His few extended family members came for the funeral expecting to need to contribute financially, but they found that everything had been taken care of.  It was shocking.  We have head that people are discussing returning to the Brethren Church.  People are stunned to see the love shown to this man, to see that his Christian family was his true family.  His Christian family was more binding than tribe.  

 

I have attended many funerals here and sometimes for displaced persons.  The hospital and local Brethren church puts together whatever resources are available for a proper burial.  But I have never seen something like this with so many people coming together to show love.

A long-time missionary, Dr. Ruth Dix, passed into heaven last week at the age of 88.  She spent much of her life here in this village and even in her later years she returned to come alongside the Congolese to rebuild the surgical work.  She and her husband Rich welcomed us into their home, to eat at their table.  Now this is our home and place of work.  We are grateful for her faithfulness to the Lord and His work that allows us to work here.   I opened my Swahili hymnal in church on Sunday and found her name “R Dix” inscribed in it.  Rest in peace, dearest sister.

   

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.  O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant; you have freed me from my chains.  I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD.”  Psalm 116: 15-17

 

The young man who died this week was meditating on Ephesians 4 which says “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord, one father, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”  This is an exhortation for the Church in eastern Congo:  there is one true family and Father over all.

All that to say, God is not sleeping over this area.  Continue to pray for fruit from this young man’s life, for people to find their true identity as sons and daughters of the Living God.  Pray that the church would be united in love.

Lindsey

 

    

From Warren

It has been wonderful being back at Nyankunde. We still have lots of questions about the future, but it has felt like coming home.  

I’ve had the opportunity to deal with some very difficult and rewarding cases.  We have been seeing a lot of endoscopy cases.  We are the only facility in the area which is able to perform these procedures and we see many people who come in vomiting blood and near death.  It is gratifying to be able to do a (relatively) simple procedure and stop the bleeding.  Another recent procedure we performed was on an 11 year old boy who could not swallow because of a stricture of the esophagus. I was able to use a balloon dilator to open up the stricture so that he could eat and drink. His father was so happy when he left. We don’t practice medicine in order to be thanked, but it feels great to have such a happy and thankful family. 

Other challenges have been a baby with hypertrophy of the pylorus, on whom I was able to operate and essentially cure.  I’ve had skin grafts, a perforation of the stomach, and several difficult orthopedic and urologic cases. One particularly difficult case has been the treatment of a man who broke his neck and basically dislocated the cervical vertebrae. I was able to put him in cervical traction. It is a miracle that he did not die. These cases are an opportunity to tell patients about the love of God and the tender mercy that he has for us. 

So, I’ve been busy enough. Not too busy!  I’m not at the point in my life when I want to operate day and night.  I’ve got too many other things going on!  I’m also Emmanuel’s school teacher on Tuesday and Thursday and I want to feel like I have the time to do this.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us in this interesting and challenging transition. It feels like it has gone as well as possible.  We are taking things one step at a time and and we are trying to be open toward the calling that we have felt in this place. 

   

 

 

Cooper Family’s Year in Review

 

Memories of James Cooper

December 7, 2022.   MEMORIES OF JAMES COOPER

 

Greetings this Advent season!  Many of you already know that Warren’s father “Jim” passed into heaven on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 89.  He was an incredible man who lived courageously to the Lord and taught his children the same.  He was a missionary sent out during a time of great revival and calling overseas.  He developed a written language for indigenous people in Vietnam during war time, so that they would have the Word of God.  He continued to work so that people would know that they were beloved of God.

 

Our son Emmanuel was born the day after his grandfather, on August 24, 2022, in Africa.  Emmanuel took his grandfather’s name James as his middle name.  James is also the name of one of the disciples of Jesus, a fisherman and a teacher.  I have fond memories and videos of grandpa Jim singing to Emmanuel when he was a baby.  I am so thankful for the times we shared together, even the quiet days in the last few years.

 

Warren was able to travel to Switzerland to give his eulogy.  It was a beautiful tribute written by all three siblings.  Here it is:

 

 

In Loving Memory of James Stephen Cooper (1933-2022)

 

Firstly I want to transmit my greetings from the friends and family in the US who could not be physically present.  Secondly I want to thank this church.  You knew Jim, you were friends with him and shared fellowship together.  You showed extraordinary kindness to him.  I think that you also enjoyed partnering with him in ministry here in this church.  

 

For those of you who didn’t know much about Jim, here is a brief synopsis. 

 

James Stephen Cooper grew up on Rum Creek, near Logan, West Virginia, the second oldest of 8 children born to a coal miner, George (known as Dan) and Lena Cooper.

 

He became a Christian through the ministry of Jewel Sterling and with her guidance attended Wheaton College near Chicago, followed by Fuller Seminary in Southern California. There he met Nancy Boehle from Tuscon, Arizona.  They graduated on a Thursday, were married on Saturday, and started linguistic training with Wycliffe Bible Translators the following Wednesday.

 

In February, 1961 they set sail on a freighter leaving from San Francisco for their first assignment with the Kalagan people in the Philippines.  A year later they began a 13-year translation project with the indigenous Halang people in Vietnam, many of whom were displaced from their tribal villages because of the war. 

 

The communist takeover in 1975 steered them, now a family of five, into a series of assignments in Nepal, the Philippines, Neuchatel, Switzerland (to learn French), and finally to Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire.  In 1984, as empty-nesters, they moved to the village called Awabo not far from Abidjan.  This became home base for the next 11 years as they learned the Attié language, deciphered its grammar, taught literacy throughout the region, and worked with an ecumenical team of native scholars to translate the scriptures. Nancy died in 1995 just as the translation reached completion. 

 

The following year, Jim met the artist Anita Lichtenberger-Berset while she was visiting a friend in Côte d'Ivoire. He fell instantly in love, proposed within two days, and subsequently followed her back to Basel Switzerland to await her response. They married in Bern and then celebrated with family in Kingsport, Tennessee.

 

Anita continued her work as an artist while Jim supported various translation projects from Côte d'Ivoire to Uzbekistan. In 2000 he retired in Basel where he and Anita were glad to share in the ministry of Basel Christian Fellowship.

 

Jim was a storyteller, a teacher, a competitor, a fixer of many things, a lover of Schubert and the opera, not to mention computers and gadgets, theological arguments, orchids, Rembrandt, WD40 and duct tape. He was a linguist who reveled in puns and spoonerisms and malapropisms.  He was also the kind of improper American who talks to strangers—even on the tram in Basel. And when you told him something couldn't be done, he'd take a peculiar delight in proving you wrong. Most of all he was a lover of the Scriptures which he considered God's love-letter to the world and of Anita from whom he could barely tolerate the briefest separations.

 

During the last years of his life Jim suffered a series of strokes which disordered the precision of his thinking and took away much of his independence and ability to communicate. But even a severe stroke couldn't steal—and in some ways it further revealed—his hope, his humility, his sly sense of humor, his dignity, and his generosity of heart for all who were around him including nurses and visitors. For that we were are thankful.

 

He died peacefully in his sleep on (American) Thanksgiving morning on a day when his children were celebrating the holiday together.

 

Jim is survived by 3 children, Alice, Keith (Kathy), and Warren (Lindsey); 2 step-children, Christian (Rebecca), Denise (Raymond); 7 grandchildren, Jamie (Yonas), Julia, Dylan, Emmanuel, Reubens, Simon, Lillian; 2 great-grandchildren, Juana and Lioriel, and 2 siblings (Mary, Diane); also by the many many visitors to their apartment on the Turnerstrasse, or as he called it, "the best restaurant in Basel" and a home away from home for travelers and students from around the world. 

 

 

 

As the youngest child I am going to say a few personal words.  You all knew Jim as an elderly man, and that’s a bit sad to me.  I wish you had known him as his kids did.  He was always energetic, always dreaming up some scheme or adventure.  He seemed utterly unintimidated.  He seemed able to fix anything, even things that weren’t broken.  In fact, the first thing he always did with a new appliance of any kind, was to open it up. He told me it was so he would know how to fix it, if it broke.  I think he just wanted to know what was inside.  Maybe that’s why I went into surgery.  He seemed to know the answer to any question I had, even before Google and smart phones.  I think it was evidence of his great curiosity and love for learning new things.  It was something that he passed on to us.  

 

My father and my mother went to the mission field as “Jungle Jim” and “Nervous Nancy”.  She was the perfect complement to my father.  She was frugal, pragmatic, cautious, and detail-oriented; all the things he was not. They served God in some very difficult settings, with faith, diligence and joy.  As travelers on the earth, they taught us that we are strangers and aliens on this earth, and instilled in us their desire for an eternal home.  

 

After my mother died, Jim returned to the mission field in Cote d’Ivoire.  We said goodbye to him, wondering what would happen.  He just was not the sort of person who would do well alone.  Nothing could have prepared us for the blessing that God had for him.  That is when he met Anita.  We all thought he was crazy to propose to someone he just met, but that was one of his great skills; the ability to make a decision and to act.  Anita, you were an incredible gift to my father.  You helped him to see things and experience joys in a new way.  I know that living with him was not always easy.  Thank you for the time that you shared with him, put up with him, cooked for him, and for the love you show him.  God brought not only Jim into your life but all of us Coopers.  

 

I think it was not coincidence that our Father passed on what we Americans celebrate as Thanksgiving day.  For us it was not an occasion of mourning, but of thanks to God for the life Jim lived, and the new life that he is only beginning to live.  He is now in the presence of our Lord, enjoying a new life, a body that works.  Perhaps he is chatting up a storm, greeting old friends, telling jokes and stories and making up for the last years when he was mostly silent.  Maybe he is enjoying having a thousand tongues to sing his great redeemers praise.  Maybe he is silent with awe.  

 

For our part, we will miss him, but we look forward to seeing him again.

 

 

 

Shared by: Dr. Warren Cooper in the presence of Basel Christian Fellowship

Basel, Switzerland on December 3, 2022

 

 

 

We will update you all on our activities and ministry plans soon.  We are doing well.  God bless you!

 

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;

On those living in the land of the shadow of death

A light has dawned.”  Isaiah 9: 2

 

 

With love,

 

Lindsey for the Coopers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Radiant Appalachian Fall

October 24, 2022 

             


Fall Colors and Many Projects

Greetings from the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains!  Everyone in these mountains says we experienced a radiant fall this year, the best in years.  It has been enchantingly peaceful, hasn’t it? For us it is the first fall we have been in the USA for 10 years!  One day I woke up to the morning yellow glow of the forest coming in our picture window (more on that window later).  It looked like a life-size wall photograph!  It is a reminder that fall is my favorite season.

 

We are enjoying new experiences and making new friends!  Emmanuel is finishing up his soccer season with a more confidence and some new skills.  He is working on his bicycle kick and jinga moves to be like Pele.  This has been a way for him to make new friends and integrate into life here.  It has been a blessing and fun for us to connect with other soccer parents, old and many new friends.  We even joined the club of parents with glider folding chairs.  If you aren’t familiar with gliders, check them out as they make spectating more enjoyable. Emmanuel is talking about learning how to downhill ski or snowboard, so now we are trying to figure out how to do this.

            

   

We are enjoying experiences in the woods, fall photography, hiking, and I (Lindsey) have joined a masters swimming group.  We have more freedom of movement in America and take every opportunity given to us.  Our church has been a wonderful community to fall back into.  We continue to meet with a similar group of people as we did when we first went overseas.  It is lovely to see Emmanuel feel like he belongs in the children’s programs here.  We were able to reconnect with our friends the LaRochelles who are visiting from DRCongo.  It is fun to see the joy on their faces as they play together again.  My dear friend Erin came out for a few days over fall break and we went up Grandfather Mountain, enjoyed the fall colors, and went to an indoor waterpark.  What fun we had!!!

  

         




My friend Mel and I climbed Calloway Peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It was an 8 mile hike round trip, through the fog to a rocky crag looking all the way to Tennessee.  Interestingly there is still a remaining plane wreckage from 1978 on the trail near the top.  Muted lighting made for striking photographs of moss and fungi, etc.  There were so many shades of green which I tried to capture on camera.  At one point we were sure that we weren’t alone (!), with strong smells and muddy prints all around.  We never saw the bear, but we felt quite sure that he saw us!  They say trust your instincts right?  

     

   

             

We always enjoy working on projects when we are back in the US.  Warren is very handy around home so we are able to do a lot ourselves.  The home renovation project that I was most impressed with (and that also gave me a heart attack) was removing a picture window that had accumulated water deposits on the inside.  Initially it seemed like Warren was calling around for estimates/advice on replacing the window.  Then I came home one day and found that he had taken the HUGE 6 foot window out and already separated the two panes of glass.  This was a moment where you can’t exactly go back to what you had before.  We cleaned both sides of the glass and re-glued it together and it is still holding together.  We have enjoyed the trees changing from this vantage point in the living room…a true picture window.  We are renovating a duplex unit he has had for many years which has included new flooring and countertops.

End Times

We are studying the book of Revelation in church.  I am relieved that God will be in control of all of the events in the end times.  It will be terrible day to witness the destruction that will come on the earth and those who rebel against God.  Yet, destruction is necessary to re-build a world that is so incredibly broken.  There are angels that bring destruction…the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls.  There will be worldwide destruction and chaos. Imagine the world going silent and dark as with the seventh sign.  There are multiple prophesies in the Old Testament talking about end times, “revelation awaiting an appointed time.”  Even Habakkuk 2:20 says, “But the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth be silent before him,” as with the famous seventh seal.  Yet God in His mercy is in control of it all and does not want all to perish, but to repent and believe in Jesus.  Yet not all people will do this, leaving no choice for Him to judge the earth.

 

Even today as I read Psalm 94, I am reminded of the terrible injustices in the world.  It feels like the older I get the more I see the twisted, proud, hateful, deceitful heart of man and injustice that seems to reign in the world.  How many innocent children have been affected by senseless violence?  How long, O Lord?  How long will people abuse their power over others, as if there was no consequence to them?  I think immediately of Ukraine, DRC, Yemen, and countless other places.  In this world we are not truly free to live as God created us to.  But this injustice and suffering is not unnoticed by God and this will come to an end someday.  Then everything will be made new and there will be no more curses, sickness or pain and I will be out of a job!

 

Psalm 94:1-7; 20-23

 

“O Lord, the God of vengeance,

O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth!

Arise, O Judge of the earth.

Give the proud what they deserve.

How long, O Lord?

How long will the wicked be allowed to gloat?

How long will they speak with arrogance?

How long will these evil people boast?

They crush your people, Lord,

Hurting those you claim as your own.

They kill widows and foreigners

And murder orphans.

“The Lord isn’t looking,” they say, “and besides, the God of Israel doesn’t care.”

 

Can unjust leaders claim that God is on their side-

Leaders whose decress permit injustice?

They gang up against the righteous 

And condemn the innocent to death.

But the Lord is my fortress;

My God is the mighty rock where I hide.

God will turn the sins of evil people back on them.

He will destroy them for their sins

The Lord our God will destroy them.”

 

We appreciate you friends and family and we enjoy hearing from you!  Pray for us as we are living in intentional community in North Carolina this fall.  Pray for Emmanuel’s studies, friendships, and spiritual nourishment.  Pray for wisdom for us as we look to returning to Congo in 2023 and in the meantime as we are encouraged by time with family and friends.

 

With affection,

Lindsey