MOM’S MEMOIRS – IRENE LOUISE (NEE KUCKKAN) MUELLER
(Continued)
Mom’s Autobiography – Chapter 17 – In Book, Page 40
Furlough 1969, Man on Moon, Dick’s Dad Died, Deb and Dick Left in States, Back to Zambia via Lisbon and Nairobi, Welcome to Lusaka by Cockroaches, Barney and Friends, Walking with President Kaunda, Kathy Bushaw, Evening Out, Susie Burned, Naked Thief, Christmas Trees, Christmas Worship
FURLOUGH TIME – 1969
There still wasn’t a furlough house, so this time we lived in Jefferson, where Dick’s father was pastor of St. John’s Ev. Lutheran Church. We lived in a big house whose owner, wonderful Mrs. Habeck, who had helped our African missions, had been carried by the angels to heaven, shortly before we came. It was exactly as she left it. Our children attended the parochial school where I had once taught.
Dick again was very busy preaching and lecturing about our mission work in THE LUTHERAN CHURCH OF CENTRAL AFRICA. This time he let the people know the need for a Church Extension Fund from which our Lutheran Africans could borrow money to help them build their churches. Again, the Lord blessed richly.
WITH GOD NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!!! On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong gained the distinction of being the first man to take a step out of the Apollo 11 lunar craft onto the moon! His words were, “That’s one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.” Edie Schneider, a nurse who had been at the Lumano Lutheran Dispensary in Africa, invited the missionaries, their wives, and families to her house in Millersville, Wisconsin, to watch (on television) the first man to land on the moon. It was very exciting for all of us, as well as for the whole world.
But, a very sad thing happened during our furlough. We were not there at the time, but Dick’s father went to the Bon-Ton Bakery in Jefferson for an apple pie because we were coming on Sunday. He then went to the church (he was semi-retired) on Saturday to prepare for preaching on Sunday. Dad’s Mom waited, but he didn’t come home. She called Pastor Lauersdorf, the other pastor, who went across the street to the church and found that his soul had been taken by Jesus to heaven. He had a massive heart attack. It was quite a shock for all of us. It happened on September 6, 1969, the day before Dick’s birthday. He was only sixty-six years old. His Dad knew an old Pastor Plocher who had died in the church, and expressed the hope that he would like to pass away that way. Fortunately, Dick’s Mom had a home to live in. They had built a little house in Jefferson and moved out of the parsonage about nine months before that.
Dick(ie) enrolled at Northwestern Prep while Dick’s Dad was still alive. I can still see Dick’s Dad walking with his arm around Dick(ie) there, so happy that his grandson was going to attend there. The Monday after he passed away, he, Mom, and we were planning to drive to New Ulm, Minnesota, to enroll Debbie at Dr. Martin Luther Prep. But the Lord had other plans. We took Debbie to Minnesota without Dad, after the funeral.
What would all of us do without prayer? The hardest thing I ever did as a missionary’s wife was, when furlough time came, to leave Dick(ie) and Debbie behind in the States, 10,000 miles away from us. Yes, I admit it, I cried. But, our hearts were in Africa, and still are. They say Africa gets in missionaries’ blood, and that is so true. I relied on the Bible passage, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). It was God’s plan that our children receive a Christian education here in the States.
So, our furlough ended, and again we headed –
BACK TO AFRICA – 1969
On the way back, we decided to fly to Lisbon, Portugal. From Lisbon to Rome, Italy, we had a plane ride we will never forget. We flew through a storm – up – down – up – down – there was lightning all around us. Even the stewards and stewardesses were hanging on for dear life. Thank you, God!
On the way we also went to Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. We thought we would go to the Game Reserve near Nairobi. The car the guide took us in was definitely for tourists. It was a Cadillac. So we very comfortably saw the animals. The children were actually a little bored because they had often seen animals in a Game Reserve. It wasn’t until the African guide started chasing the animals that they got excited. Can you imagine jumping up and down on bumpy dirt roads chasing wild animals IN A CADILLAC through the African bush? Our children loved it, and so did we!
Again, our dear Lord preserved us, and we arrived safely in Lusaka. The mission house on Mambulima Road (it was Suffolk Road before Independence) had not been used by a missionary for some time), so when we came into the kitchen, we were greeted by hundreds of cockroaches in the kitchen. YIKES!!! It was apparent that we could not live with them in there, so Dick, Stevie, and I stayed with Missionary Orlin Wraalstad, Timmy with Missionaries Elmer and Ginger Schneider, and Susie and Stephanie with Missionaries Don and Clarice Fastenau until the old cupboards were ripped out and new ones put in. Then we moved in.
As soon as we drove into the driveway at the house, our African friends were there to meet us. How happy we all were! And when I opened the car door, our dog, Barney, a very big Alsatian (German Shepherd) by this time, jumped right up into my lap, licking my face! What a welcome!
It was great getting settled again after living out of suitcases for so long. We all missed Debbie and Dick(ie), and sometimes I would catch myself calling them to come and eat. Timmy and the African friends missed Dick(ie) a lot. The friends would come over to our house sometimes looking very sad, but they still had Timmy with them. And we all knew that God’s angels were watching over Debbie and Dick(ie) for us.
There was a 10-Mile Nutrition Walk in Lusaka. President Kenneth Kaunda headed the nutrition walkers as they left the Civic Centre in Lusaka. Timmy, Susie, and I decided to walk (Dick was teaching at the Bible Institute and Seminary. Stevie was too little). We have pictures of Timmy and Susie walking next to President Kaunda which appeared in the TIMES OF ZAMBIA. Oh, yes, it was not uncommon to see the President of Zambia among his people. Dick and I saw him once near us at the Agricultural Show. He definitely is a people person.
Kathy Bushaw, a new nurse, was staying in the house on Storrs Road which the nurses were using for orientation on tropical diseases at the Lusaka hospital before they went to the Dispensary at Mwembezhi. One night she called and said that someone was trying to get into the house by taking off the burglar bars. I told her that I’d call the police, and Dick would be right over. By the time Dick got there, the burglars were gone. But Kathy was so scared. We invited her to come and live with us. She would lie down with our children in front of the TV. In a way, she was filling a void which was left by our dear children now in the States.
Sometimes Dick and I would go to the 20th Century Cinema , or and walk up and down Cairo Road window-shopping. And,.sometimes, the missionaries, their wives (and children) would come into Lusaka for an evening out. We would all dress up, and go to the Ridgeway Hotel or the Hotel Intercontinental for dinner for a six-course (European style) meal. One time I remember my hair almost caught on fire when the waiter lit a Crepes Suzette at the next table. However, all of us had some very enjoyable times together. Before we adults would go out, I would make sure the children had a good meal too.
The last paragraph reminds me of what happened to our Susie. About a block away from where we lived, there was what our children called “the bun man”. He would sell “rock buns”, sweets, and a few other things from his bicycle. One day Susie went there to get a bun. Still a child, she saw a barrel lying on the ground. “Look! Horsey!”, she said, and started to jump on it. She screamed! Her hands were burned, and almost her legs were burned! Unbeknown to her, the Africans had started a charcoal fire inside the barrel to keep warm. She came screaming home. Dick called the fire department, and the fire truck went there and put the fire out – in the barrel! We took Susie to the doctor, and it took quite a long time before her hands were healed.
One night Dick was turning the car out of the driveway, and saw a pile of something in a corner of the English-speaking church in the next lot. He walked over there and it was a pile of clothes which a thief had stashed while he was robbing other houses. Dick called the police. While the African policeman was looking through the clothes, he started laughing. The thief’s clothes were among the clothes. The policeman also found tools in a pocket which the thief used to rob houses. Then he told us that sometimes thieves took off all their clothes, oiled their bodies (yep, that’s right), and go into houses to rob completely NAKED! Can you imagine yourself trying to catch a naked greased thief??????
When we first got to Africa, we went to a nursery with a pot, picked out a tree, and planted it in the pot to be used as our Christmas tree. They weren’t very big trees, and were very scraggly. After that we had an aluminum artificial Christmas tree which we brought from the States, but we couldn’t put lights on it. Then we had an artificial pine tree shipped after our last furlough from the States that we could put lights on. It seemed more like Christmas.
Our children participated in the Children’s Christmas Service in the English-speaking church – reciting, singing, and playing their recorders. I taught Sunday School in our home, and we had children of many nationalities participate in telling the people of the wondrous birth of Jesus, our Savior. The following is from a letter Dick wrote to my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kuckkan, on January 3, 1969 – “On Christmas Day we went to Matero and had a little service there. Our children and some of their African friends took part. Did that ever make the people happy. And that is what we have been doing every Sunday since, and will be doing for the next two Sundays. We have nine congregations to go to, so by the time we are finished, our children will really know their parts and never forget them. This is the way we are trying to show the people in the places we serve what they themselves can do. Next year they will too”.