I'm writing this very late today.
We left Bernadette's at 7 am. Our time with her has been too short.
We arrived at the church at Ile at 10am, had a 3 hour service with them and
then a 5 hour meeting with their elders. Lunch was also served.
They have an amazing pastor whose name is Antonio Ualize. We met various
other church leaders and elders during the day and finished well after dark
(no electricity here).
The frisbee worked well to break the ice as did the pictures of our church
and congregation. Libby and Nicki made Christmas stars with the kids during
a break. Each of us did a short piece in the service (more about this
later).
They were amazed to hear that we had come "from the other side of the world"
(equatorially speaking) and that despite our good-looking church have no
minister and declining numbers of youngsters.
We listened to their problems of poverty and administrative woes.
Pastor Ualize runs 12 churches, all of them have around 50 members.
We are thankful for meeting and discussing with these amazing, honest people
who carry their love of God deep in their hearts.
We pray that Bernadette can finalize her preparations for her vacation and
that she can enjoy a relaxing and well deserved break with her family in
South Africa.
We also pray for pastor Ualize, his family, congregation and colleagues,
asking that their problems of poverty can be resolved.
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