Barbara Thomas

Through the Outhouse Floor: and Other Real Adventures of Missionary Life Barbara Thomas

In 1986, Barbara travels with her husband, Paul, to the Zairean rainforest on a mission-to translate the New Testament into the language of the Komo people. Of course, simply getting there is an adventure-traveling with an infant and two-year old through a civil war, pot-holed roads, bureaucratic regulations and customs. Trying to stay in the country has its challenges as does trying to get out, which the family has do to twice with urgency. Ms. Thomas recounts the numerous and often amusing stories as she faces the challenges of raising two boys without electric power or running water, in a mud and pole house, in the middle of a rainforest. A perfect environment for raising boys, she states, "plenty of mud, water, and trees". Through it all she gives insights into their cross-cultural struggles and triumphs among the initially exasperating, increasingly understandable, and finally lovable Komo people.