Hello from Brazzaville! We had a joy-filled first day in
Brazzaville. We had a quiet morning with
everyone getting caught up on sleep. The
guest house where we are staying is run by SIL, Summer Institute for
Linguistics. One of SIL’s primary
ministries is Bible Translation work, and one of the Pastor (Pastor Gustav) of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Congo is here working with missionaries
to help translate the New Testament into his native language! Praise God for Pastor Gustav’s willingness to
serve in this way!
We had a delicious lunch at
President Mavoungou’s home and enjoyed visiting with him and the other church
officers. His wife Victorine is a
wonderful woman of God and she enjoyed many of the ‘New Englandy’ gifts we
brought for her. Thank you to everyone
at church who donated these items!
St. Augustine’s parish hosted a
Vespers Service today at 4 p.m. that was full of joyful music and prayers. What an honor it is to partner in ministry
with these dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
It was such a joy for me to see friends that we made two years ago, and
it was a great joy for my teammates to praise Jesus with their brothers and
sisters from the Congo. What a blessing! And praise God for Missionary Fred Reinhardt,
who not only is a great encourager of the church leaders but is translating for
us as well! Please pray that God
continues to give Fred wisdom, strength and perseverance in his translation
efforts.
We had a planning meeting this afternoon with President Mavoungou and
General Secretary Jean Pierre to plan the ministry activities in Pointe Noire. We will be having a drama and creative arts
workshop with church pastors and leaders, a workshop for Sunday School teachers
and youth leaders, a time of prayer and encouragement with pastors and their
wives and more. We fly tomorrow morning
at 9:30 a.m. to Pointe Noire and will be there until Friday evening.
Please pray
that God will use us in Pointe Noire to encourage and equip our brothers and
sisters in Christ and spur them on in their ministries of proclaiming Jesus’
love!
We love you all and thank God for
your prayers, matthew
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