Month: August 2014

First day in Lubumbashi

Monday, July 28th, 2014

Bryce and I arrived in Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo) airport about noon. Bertin Mwanya (the president of the DRC church conference) met us with two other church leaders.  We took a quick ride to our hotel.  My stomach was not feeling well, and the smells were getting to me.  Although I had slept a little on the plane, I was still quite worn out.

After a nap I felt a bit better, and Bryce and I left the hotel on foot, looking for a place to buy bottled water, and a bank for him to exchange some Mozambique currency for Congolese Francs. I was so glad that Bryce was able to accompany me on this trip, since I do not know French. The banks were closed, but we did manage to find a supermarket, so we came back to the hotel with four 1 1/2 liter bottles of water.  Later, we went out again and purchased a loaf of French bread at a bakery, and came back to a meal of peanut butter and jelly on that French bread. 

About 8:00 pm, Bertin  arrived with nine other men.  These would be the trainers that we would be teaching throughout the week.  We had some fellowship time getting to know each other  outside our hotel in the dark, since the hotel did not allow visitors to enter its compound after 7pm.  I introduced myself to the group (with Bryce interpreting in French), and we talked about what we would be doing during the week.  Then we prayed for each other, and they left. 

Our hotel did not offer many of the accommodations that Americans are used to, but it had doors and windows which locked, toilets which actually flushed, cold showers, and beds.  Of course, we were both in jet lag, so I’m sure neither of us got much sleep that night.

The next day, our plan was to gather at El Shaddai church and begin the lessons.

 

Christian Family Fellowship–Johannesburg

Sunday, July 27th, 2014 – pm.

By the time Bryce Whiting and I had arrived and processed through immigration at the Johannesburg airport, it was about 5pm.  We were picked up by pastor Julius Goredema of CFF: Christian Family Fellowship, and his assistant, Michael.  It was cooler than I was prepared for, so the first thing Michael did was loan me a coat from the trunk of his car.  This was only the first of several acts of kind consideration that we experienced from these wonderful people.  Although we were only there for a short while, and on our way the next day, still they went out of their way to welcome us, and celebrate our relationship.

The men took us to their church sanctuary and showed us around the building.  It is in a well developed area of the city. Part of the property had been a school previously, a Julius plans to open a bible school there.  For now, Julius serves as a principal of another school in the area. 

The sanctuary itself is L-shaped with seating coming from two directions facing the pulpit.  There are musical instruments to the side of the pulpit – this feature reminded me of the set-up in many of the churches in the Philippine cities. 

The meeting we had this night was with some of CFF’s ministry leaders.  It was an opportunity for Bryce and myself to get acquainted with these people, and share a little about our work.  After we spoke, several of the leaders shared about the ministries that they had been involved in recently.

• We learned about a  recent women’s conference the church sponsored, empowering women who had suffered abuse to repair themselves in Christ. The theme was based on the book of Nehemiah. 
• The head of the men’s fellowship spoke about how they are working on funding projects for new worship instruments. 
• The finance director of the church talked about their project for helping local orphans.

I was really blessed by this brief meeting.  I saw the passion to make a difference in Christ’s name here.  Seeing that is itself worth the trip.