Loving Before Leaving

[Blogger's note: Please pray for our team as they take their luggage to the airline tomorrow morning (Bangui time). Pray that the luggage will be checked all the way to Cleveland and for great flights and timely connections. And if I were a betting man, I would bet that Heidi will NOT be canoeing on Saturday. Sorry, RAD. Also, for the future history books -- I was the one who started the tradition of having my hair "braded" while in Africa. It looks great, Jeana!].

Thank you all for praying about the water situation at the guesthouse. The pipes were filled with water around 10 am…the exact starting time of our “Appreciation Tea.” God was definitely working and the praise goes to Him!

During the “Appreciation Tea,” we served cookies, brownies, muffins, and snack crackers, along with tea and coffee. We even had the privilege of hearing Zac sing in Sango for everyone. We also spent time singing a few hymns in Sango. Jeana thanked all of the employees for their hard work and servant attitudes. Then, Mr. Zokoe thanked us for coming and loving the Central Africans with unconditional love. He also said our love for God is evident in how we showed love to those we interacted with while here.

In the afternoon, we helped Tom & Sue Peters teach an English class to some of the ICDI employees. Tom teaches the advanced students, and Sue teaches the beginners. We helped in the beginner class, and spent time one-on-one with the students. The previous week’s homework had been to learn to say a prayer in English, so each student prayed at the beginning of class time. Their English wasn’t perfect, but it was still neat to hear them try. The lesson for the day was the Feeding of the 5,000 in John 6. During the class time, each student had to write a sentence about 12 pictures that depicted the story. It was really encouraging to see how the one-on-one interaction helped each student gain a better understanding of English.

After the English lesson, we gave gifts to the ICDI employees that we spent most of our time with. These employees had seen us give gifts to all of the orphans during our visit, and this afternoon it was finally their turn to receive a gift given in love. They were so pleased and felt so appreciated. Their smiles were priceless, as seen in this picture of Nestor. He is one of the school tutors/teachers for ICDI. We gave him pens and a highlighter (among other things), and he immediately put them in his shirt pocket!

Barb stuffed her backpack full of medical supplies for Nurse Rebecca. This backpack enables Rebecca to take medical supplies with her when she travels to see each orphan group. Until this time, she could only take a few supplies with her. Even though Rebecca doesn’t fully understand English, she completely understood how much the backpack will help her and the children. She kept saying “thank you” over and over in Sango. We all enjoyed providing encouragement and support to these employees. The work they do is inspiring!

In the evening, Jeana and I got our hair braided, so that we can look like Africans. As Sue Peters says, “When in Africa, do as Africans.” It was hard to sit still for hours, but our hair looks great! The price we pay for beauty :) While we had our hair braided, Barb went to the prayer meeting at Heidi Sisson’s for the local missionaries here. She had a great time singing hymns and praying with the missionaries. Zac spent time helping pack…it’s a good thing we brought a boy along. :)

Please pray that we easily get through customs and make all of our connecting flights tomorrow

Thanks for being faithful readers of the blog!

Heidi- on behalf of team