Church in Africa

On Sunday, we attended 2 services in Luena. The first one was a Children and Youth's Sunday School that David and Myriam established on Easter Sunday 2005. They had 30 kids attend initially and now have between 70-100 kids attending. They have trained national Angolans to teach the classes and now have 13 teachers that teach each week. They sang many songs led by a very gifted Worship Leader named Veronica. I am so impressed with how the Angolan people sing so beautifully. After worship, the children broke into small groups based on age for their lesson. Afterwards, they recited their memory verse. It was so sweet hearing thier little voices recite the Word of God in Portugese. I was able to videotape the service and the children ranging in age from 4 to 16 years old. I can't wait to share the video with you all.

Afterward, we attended a service at a new church plant that David and Myriam established in another part of Luena. It is called the Church of the Carpenter because it is held in an old Carpenter's Shop, with sheets for walls, a dirt floor, and a corrugated tin roof. That was established June 1st of this year. They hope to find a more permanent location soon. They are also praying for a pastor to take over services and until then they rotate the preaching duties. David did an excellent job preaching last week. We were invited to share our testimony and a song with the group of 28 members. Craig was very eloquent in sharing but I got choked up and couldn't finish. I get so emotional hearing the people sing with such love for the Lord and share their faith so openly. Ian read scripture from Isaiah and we sang "As we gather" as a family. It was a wonderful experience.
The day before, our neighbor Petra, had the youth from her Brethren Church come over for fellowship. We had about 10 young people gather in our backyard for ping pong, volleyball, and a chat with Craig about America. They were filled with questions about our home country. The young people are very open about their faith here and readily want to talk about the Bible too. I read some scripture from a Choque (a Tribal language) Bible that belongs to our friend Prince. They laughed hearing an American pronounce their language. I thought it was great!
We hope to be able to post some pictures before we leave but haven't been able to yet. We will keep trying so you can share in seeing all the sights. Please continue to pray that the Lord would use us to minister to our friends and the Angolan people while we are here.
In Christ,
Nadia and Family