Foreign Affairs and More Churches!

Dear Friends, Family, Churches, Supporters,

We are approaching the end of our stay here in Kinshasa! We are still as busy as ever, so here is an update on last night and today's events.

Last night we met a pastor named Mutombo who felt compelled to show us some hospitality, so he invited us to come with him to meet the Congolese Ambassador to Canada, who usually is in Ottawa, but is visiting Kinshasa. We were a little unsure of what to think of the offer, but it's pretty bad news to turn down any kind of invitation here in Africa, so we accepted. It turns out that he works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for DRC here in Kinshasa. He is a coordinator of State Protocol, which apparently is a part of the ministry that welcomes and coordinates visits from foreign VIP's (e.g. delegates, ambassadors). He took us on a fairly thorough tour of the entire Foreign Affairs offices. One hilight, was visiting an office that focused on keeping in touch with immigrants from DRC. They offer services to connect people who have left the country to friends and family still in DRC, to help these immigrants if they are unable to visit the DRC embassy in their country, they even help Congolese people who have left the country to find Congolese food in their own country! It sounded like quite a unique service.

It is getting very difficult to keep track of all the church services we are attending! There are many churches here that hold multiple services a week (e.g. Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday worship services). This is great for us since it lets us attend one everyday! It really helps us to see how there are many different types of churches and worship styles: congregations of sizes 15 to 60+ people, accapella music or full band music, translations in various languages, constructed concrete buildings or a rented outdoor courtyard. There are also many similarities: there are often common worship tunes (we're finally starting to sing along to some of the trickier lingala songs), there are always shouts of AMEN from the congregation, and everytime the whole congregation comes to shake our hands at the end.

Last night and tonight we attended church services conducted by pastors who are students at the School of Missiology (the school which Emily described in the last post). It was insightful to sit with these students in their class at the school, and then see them applying their studies within a very real ministry setting outside of the classroom. Speaking of which, both services were outside, so they were really exciting and relaxing experiences. Also, we had the blessing of not only giving testimonies from our team, but also hearing testimonies of God's work in the people's lives from each of these services. We were very encouraged when Pastor Jean-Claude at Bethlehem Church expressed how thankful he and his church is that we have taken time out of our busy lives, raised money, and come so far to spend time in Kinshasa; he realizes that many people would rather go on a vacation, or just stay at home, but we chose to come and meet him and his church. He said that it is especially good to see young people. It's incredible how just the act of meeting together for a couple hours of worship can bring so much mutual encouragement and blessing.

There continues to be some sickness in the team, but as of tonight we are mostly all well or at least recovering. As we move into the final two full days, we are starting to debate who will win the « Healthiest Team Member Award ». It's looking like if she holds strong until Saturday, Emily will be the winner!

Friday we are having a bit of a get-together / party. We have invited a couple people from every place we've been, a total of about 40 invitations! Prayer for this event would be much appreciated. We are unsure how many people will actually be able to make it, and also we are a little nervous since this is the first and only event that WE are hosting! That being said, most of the preparations will be graciously directed by Jean-Baptiste and his family.

Also, incase we don't post again before Saturday, prayer for our flight leaving that evening (mid-day Ontario time) and entire itinerary would also be appreciated. Although another unexpected stopover in Kenya, or somewhere else might be a fun adventure, I think we'll be much more content with a complication-free travel home!

Merci et dieu te bénisse!

> Jacob with the DRC ACTION Team