Retreat, Retreat

Our second night of worship with Glen!

Sunday Morning worship with a very innovative drum set.

I just spent the last two weekends with the Youth in our church here in Congo, The International Protestant Church of Kinshasa (IPCK).  I feel privileged that I get to be involved in their lives and enjoy these times with them.  The High School had a desire to go beyond just having a retreat and actually doing more of a mission outreach.  One of the High School students took this on as her project saying that she felt a little jealous of the students in America who get to go on short term mission trips.  So she asked Mission Aviation Fellowship if there was a way that we could charter the plane for a weekend and take a trip to a mission station in the interior of Congo and mingle with the people that live there.  What was amazing was how this was the students' vision and they did most of the planning.  There were many complications and delays but we were finally able to make this mission trip as I shared in my last blog.
Glen Chapman, the missionary at Kikongo was our speaker and he shared with us the theme, "Light to the Nations".  The first speaking opportunity was to take us at night down a dark path that led to a hut by the river.  He shared the contrast of cultures.  The obvious clash in cultures is between Western thought and African thought. But there is also the clash between Christian thought and the World's thought.  We are a light in the darkness to those who do not know Jesus.

Meeting the Delegation from the Village on the other side.

I loved the way he shared how we can reach out to others and our ministries become a safe haven to others.  Kikongo was built out of the African jungle but is becoming a settlement where people can go for safety.  He gave us a LOT of food for thought during those very quick three days. 

We also had opportunities to reach out to the community around us in Kikongo although I felt often that they were reaching out to us.  There is a pastoral school  and a hospital and the people there know how to serve God in a very difficult time and place.
 It wasn't all work though, we had time to go swimming in the river and hiking on the other side of the river to a falls where we met the chief and others from the village on that side of the river.

The Streets near my own home in Kinshasa.

The second retreat I was involved in was with the Middle School Retreat which had the theme of "Outreach".  Jean Senga was our speaker and he spoke on reaching out to others in love.  One thing that really stuck with us is that if we do any kind of ministry or great sacrifice but do not have love we are like a clanging cymbal or noisy gong. I Corinthians 13
After a night of heavy rains in our tents we got up to make sandwiches for the traffic police at one station here in our neighborhood.  Traffic police are not well loved here in Kinshasa so we were all reaching beyond our comfort zone.  Jean had emphasized that loving usually costs us something.  We were going beyond those that we found easy to love and reaching out to those beyond.

Jean's son, Micah leading and teaching Sunday School

On Sunday Morning we visited Jean Senga's church, Source de Vie (Source of Life).  One of our students, Sam, dressed in a Lion Costume and he and a couple other boys rode in a truck around the neighborhood to invite children to Sunday School.  Our students also were able to share through singing during the service.

Our Middle School Team with Leo the Lion of Judah (Sam)

That morning I was doing my normal Bible Study but the passage became very real to me.  It spoke of the people gathering for the feast of booths and living in tents for one week out of the year.  I felt very much like I was living that study.  Then it also spoke of them opening the scriptures and translating it into different languages so they could all understand.  During the church service Jean spoke in French and had a Lingala translator and then Deborah, Jean's wife stood up and translated that into English.  I don't know why but God wanted me to live the Feast of Booths over this time.  I love it when God orchestrates living lessons for me.

Who I Worship With

Sunday School singing in front of the congregation

On Sunday I got to teach Sunday School to the 4^th – 6^th grade in our church.  I love teaching this group of kids.  They are from all over the world but what I really like about them is they want to learn from the Bible.  They ask intelligent questions.  When I tell them they should bring their Bibles, they do it!  Many of them work at memorizing their weekly verse.  (We won’t talk about the candy they get for these two tasks *smile* )

There are times I get frustrated because I think I just want to go to church and sit in the pew and worship.  God has been teaching me that worship is not about getting a fuzzy good feeling from going to church. I have known for a long time that worship is something that happens minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.  Sundays are when we all come together as a church body to worship TOGETHER.  So, I don’t participate with the adult congregation once the intercessory pray and sermon start.  But I have discovered a secret, IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW OLD THE WORSHIPER IS, worship is about the audience, GOD.

Some adult worshipers at a special occasion

I get so blessed by these students.  In the beginning I sing with the whole group and I am blessed by the tiny preschoolers who get the rhythm and mouth the words with enthusiasm.  Before church I study the lesson to teach it and attempt to apply it to my own life, so even before church starts I am being fed by God’s Word and His Holy Spirit.  Then as I teach the students I am asked questions like, “Is Jesus God?”, “How can I know I can get to heaven?”, “Is God soulful?”,  or “Is it a sin to overeat?”  Boy do I need to know scriptures in order to answer these questions.  I can assure you, kids have no problems asking tough questions.  Sometimes I have to ask the students to let me think about a question and get back to them.   

 I only have a last year picture to add.  This was preschool.

God has given us each gifts of grace from the Holy Spirit.  I border between a gift of knowledge of scripture and a gift of teaching.  God has blessed me with opportunities to study His word that I have thoroughly enjoyed and now I get to thoroughly enjoy teaching it too.  This next week I have a partner who will be teaching the kids so I will be worshiping with the adults.  I will miss the kids but it is good to check in with the main body on occasion.