October 12th – A Day of Rest: Not at All!

(Mark Nash) Sunday services and rest were the schedule for our second Sunday in the DRC.  Sounds simple right?  No way!  We had another four hour church service that didn’t seem anywhere near that long; other than the opening prayer that lasted more than ten minutes.  Six offerings were held for various causes for the 899 people in attendance on this Sunday.

And very similar to last week, this congregation took up an offering of food to give to us; their very special guests.  Included in the pile of food was papayas, bananas, tomatoes, pineapples, a few fruits I have no idea what they are called, sugar cane and a chicken.  Yes, I said that right.. a live chicken.

After church they hosted a short reception for us were we had Coca Cola, Orange Fanta, and Cherry Soda.  We stood under an awning made of palm fronds among the many motorcycles parked by church members before the service.  Just as we have seen so many other places since we got here, the children crowded around.  We asked their names and took pictures with them, there was lots of laughing.

As many of you know, in the afternoon we held a communion service from the church around the corner from Rev. Bonanga’s house.  As a part of this service we used a video streaming service over a satellite back to First Christian in Edmond.  The picture and sound wasn’t so great at our end, but the people in attendance thought it was magnificent.  And the report we got back from Edmond was that picture and sound were actually pretty good at that end.  So, Frank chalked it up as a success.

While we were attending the communion service, Carmen and Jacques worked with six of our drill team members to move some equipment to the second well site northeast of town.   They determined the best spot to drill and quickly cut a two meter hole which actually included rock and laterite.  This meant that we have a good opportunity to learn ahead of us.  Our team will get to use the remainder of the tools while we are here after all.