Jambo!
On Friday the team returned to the new school site at Katuba home of Bethsaida Church where a lot of progress had been made since Monday. The team moved bricks and played with the kids teaching them how to count to 10 in English. Samantha received a gift of a grasshopper from one child. It was a long day of hard work, but the team was in good spirits at the end of the day. Caleb is feeling much better and resumed activity with the group on Saturday. Yay! We missed him.
Saturday we were surprised with a rest day where breakfast was brought to us at the guest house. We were able to shop at the supermarket, and we were next to Pastor Celestin’s kids’ school and the Mazembe Soccer field. The team is a favorite of Esperanze and Jeremy’s favorite team. It was the nicest store we had seen in Lubumbashi. We were happy to be able to pray with the employees there. We went to the zoo after that and saw tons of monkeys who pulled our hair, an eagle, ostrich, zebra, antelope and several crocodiles. We got a behind the scenes look at a lion and tiger. They were the biggest we had seen anywhere.
At the guest house we’ve done debriefs in the evening and planning for the next day. Jacob and Caleb usually serenade us with music at night. Jeremy taught us a new card game called Sister Cat that’s kept us occupied at night. We learned to adapt to cold showers and bucket laundry. Nothing bonds a team more than this. Thanks to Deron’s handiwork we have a place to hang our laundry, and he unclogged our shower.
Sunday we experienced our first church service here at the Bridge Church – Pastor Celestin’s church. The team was split into two to lead Children’s and Adult Sunday School classes. Niko led the adult Sunday school lesson with a great message on Job and the many trials we might face in our Christian journey. Team testimonies from Carly, Meg, Kirsten, Jacob & Niko were woven into the message and the congregation was blessed by them.
Children’s Sunday school was led by Rachel. We had animal puppets that we wanted to integrate in the message so they told the story of Noah’s Ark and Creation with the help of a translator. They gave out candy at the end. There were 100 kids there. Everybody went to the service after and it lasted 4 hours total! There were a lot of different choirs from several churches in the area and lots of dancing. Deron was invited to speak and preached about us being salt and light in the world and wherever God has us serving – Matthew 5:13-20 which was well received with the help of Pastor Celestin’s translation. Jacob led us in worship and we ended with a fun Congolese version of Jesus Loves Me.
Up next is a return trip to Bon Samaritan Church in a nearby village. Tuesday we will be visiting the school built by former LoveWorks teams in Katwatwa. In the following days we will have a baptism service and will hold a conference for the youth on Compassion and AIDS.
Some are feeling a little under the weather so prayers are appreciated.
