Outreach Week 2
Playing "Let’s Go" with the neighbourhood kids
The cool thing about being a family team is that the villagers can easily identify with us.
We have a wonderful mix of team members. We have an older couple on the team – Jim and Sue with their youngest child, 11 year old Simon. That gives us inroads to pastors, elders and generally the older folks. In a culture where elders are highly respected, having Jim and Sue with us has been a great advantage. The rest of the couples are the same age as us and we have 5 preschoolers between us – that is a sure way to win the hearts of the villagers!
Some of the women that we spoke with last Sunday at church turned up for the Women’s Group. We had a cooking session where Sue taught the women how to make “No-Bake Oat Cookies”. Gin led the women’s group and got everyone to share a little. We hope to share God stories and conduct some food and culture exchange during this time. Our desire is to share what God thinks of women and how He values us as women. It’s amazing how God is using the way He has gifted us to reach the people. For example with Gin and Sue who enjoy cooking and baking, this is such a great platform for us to reach the women! Our great men did their part by entertaining the children with a Veggie Tales video while the women enjoyed their cooking time.
During our Wednesday village walkabout and prayer time, we had the opportunity to play with the kids. They taught us a local game called “Let’s go!” – super complicated. We had to play it several times before we go it! Watching them play reminded me of my childhood days playing with my cousins. The children really open the door for conversations with the adults as well. Some of the kids we played with that day turned up on Thursday on the base. We originally planned for a Youth Club but looks like we might end up doing a Kids Club instead. One man that we spoke with turned up for the Men’s Devotional Group on Wednesday night.
The Ni-Vans (the locals) are extremely relational people. Everything happens thru relationship. That means that we really need to spend a lot of time talking to people and hanging out with them. It’s not like back home where you advertise for a seminar and loads of people turn up. No one will turn up if they have no idea who you are over here. It’s a change of mindsets but I think we’re getting the hang of things.
God’s been doing some amazing things in our group. Little Elijah Freestone lost his little precious bunny (again!) for about two days and was distraught. He didn’t sleep well at all. He’s had that little bunny since he was born! Anyways we prayed and his older brother Toby prayed a wonderful prayer and the next day the bunny appeared out of nowhere! God listens when little kids pray! The kids are learning to pray.
It’s not been an easy week but it was a good start. Praise the Lord!
P/s: Em and the two boys are down with stomach problems today. Pls do keep them in prayer. The rest of us are well. Also, we’ve uploaded more photos on Flickr and Facebook so do check that out.