Sunday, June 8th and Monday, June 9th

Sunday, June 8th
Church!  All three churches met at church #2, here at the orphanage compound.  The service went from 9:30, Congo time,(which = 10:00, American time) until 1:00pm.  It is awesome to see a completely different culture worship, the very same God we worship, in a very different way.  273 people packed into a building about half the size of our church building in Fair Oaks.  Choirs from each of the 3 churches encouraged the believers with a concert of songs.  Congregational worship, preaching, prayer and exhortation filled the remainder of the 3 hours.  What a great group of people.  I can’t wait till heaven when we speak the same language so that the relationships can deepen.  I was asked to preach.  I picked 1 John 3 & 4, the verses about loving one another.  English was translated into French by Pastor Didier and then translated into Swahili by Pastor Mickey.  My 25 minute sermon took about 1 hour 15 minutes to preach.  What an experience!

Monday, June 9th
This morning we met with the Chief Executive for Social Affairs for the Katanga province of the DRC.  We were asked to give testimony to verify that Didier is running a corruption free orphanage, and that the children adopted through Compassion for Congo are being well taken care of and are actually thriving and well in America.  We gave this man a photo album showing each of the 14 children that have been adopted out by C4C.  With recent adoption corruption developing in other parts of the country, there has been a lot of scrutiny of all the orphanages.  Many have been closed. Several people have gone to prison around the country for trafficking and corruption.  Didier’s reputation was bolstered by the meeting; in a culture where there is a lot of unwarranted suspicion.  It was also the first time Didier had the opportunity to meet this particular official.

Please be praying that President Kabila of the Congo would soon open up the country to adoptions again, as in immediately after the investigations are complete and new laws are written.

BTW – If you ever want to see an orphanage that is well run, where the workers love the Lord, as is evidenced by the love of the children that he has but into their care, then you must come visit Congo.  These faithful servants not only care for the bodies of these kids but tend to them just as much spiritually.  Watching Pastor Stephan teaching them to read, and teaching them to pray, and to see joy in all the children’s faces as they play games and sing and dance is wonderful.  Of course having parents is best for a kid, but if you must live in an orphanage this is the one!

Pastor Stephan teaching orphans

Until next time,
Hope you enjoy the pictures,
Gabe, for us all