April 27th, 2023
Good evening from the mission house. Another amazing day in the field. Today we had a camp in Likangala. I was reminded as we were in the field of the last first time I was in this particular village.
The church wasn’t inhabitable, as part of the front of it had collapsed, and there was standing water in the remaining part as well.
Needless to say, the church has been rebuilt, and is doing well.
We started our day as we always do. Quiet time in the word for everyone, followed by the Word of God, today we closed out Joshua 2, and of course before we head out, we all pray.
The ladies got to drive themselves again today, no issues at all with their driving. However, finding the “road” that led to the church was another issue all together.
We were able to find the church, and see the truck that brought the all the people and items needed to do a camp, but we could not find the road to it.
We were directed to what appeared to be a single, yes single walking path between a tree and building, which was the alleged road. They even seem a tad surprised when I questioned them about it being a road.
Never the less we made it in as they were in the process of stamping the children for lunch after the games. After everyone was stamped, we went into the church for worship, then broke into three groups [Samuel was with us today].
Karey and Leah teamed up on one group, Mark took another, and Janine took the women to a different area to do a bible study with them. If you know my wife, you know that is her heart.
Make sure you read Janines blog about the women’s study time, she received quiet a few interesting questions that show they have been studying their bibles.
This was followed by a great time of games. Mark led one team, Karey led another and Janine the third. You have to watch the videos that will be posted about some of the games, they were a riot.
Lots of laughter, intense competition and just a ton of fun was had by all. By the time the fun wrapped up, it was lunch time.
Mark and I got to man the handwashing stations, while the girls [who left the games early to help the women that were cooking] assisted with handing out the food.
Once everyone was feed [less than 300 today were registered] we had enough to feed 34 women that happened to be there as well. After everyone else was fed, the team got to eat as well.
Doreen & Liness [Stanley & Samuels wives] are the ones that head up the cooking along with women in the villages. I don’t have words for how hard these women work making lunch for over 300 people each day we have camps.
And they don’t eat until everyone else has eaten and things are cleaned up. These are truly some amazing women.
After lunch we headed back into the church for a short time of worship and a message from Mark. I have noticed this trip how amazingly gifted Mark is at teaching and interacting with youth.
I have witnessed this before in Staten Island, but it seems to be so prevalent here due to the large number of youths that we encounter on a daily basis.
After the message, a call was made for those that wanted to acknowledge their sins, repent, and seek Christ as Lord of their lives.
And yet again, a large number of people stood, a wide age range as well. As we always do here, we did our best to talk them out of it. That sounds and looks so strange on paper, missionaries trying to talk people out of accepting Christ as Lord of their lives.
But due to the culture here, it has to be done. Yet they all remained. We know as always that some littles [each time] have no idea what they are doing, they are just there because someone else was.
Again, there were those older children and young adults that were actually engaged. But again, we find our contentment and joy in just sharing the gospel of Christ Jesus.
It is almost 6 pm here now. We are all back at the mission house, we will have dinner soon, followed by our debrief, and discuss Friday. Another camp, this time back into a village we are familiar with
This is Stanleys village, his mom is the chief and we were there this past Sunday morning. Ntiya 2. This one is closer to home, yet the roads are still impassable with the van so it will be two cars again.
Excited to see what the Lord has in store for us tomorrow.
Thank you for your prayers, and just a clarification, Karey is the one that was struggling with migraines, not Janine. She is doing much better now, but please keep praying.
As we near the half way mark on our trip, tiredness will set in on a whole new scale, and different things pop up, so we appreciate your prayers.
This team has been such a blessing, willing to jump in and assist with anything. Nothing is sacred, I even heard that one of the team members was taking selfies in the remote restrooms in the villages [LOL], but I will let them share if they want to.
Until tomorrow.
Blessings in Christ,
Brother Ed