Some exciting things have been
happening in Saint Louis these last couple of weeks. The day after my trip to Mirebalais was a
Sunday. To be honest, I woke up and did
not want to go to church. I had spent over
24 of the last 72 hours on a bus, van, truck, or motorcycle. The thought of sitting on the hard benches
for 3+ hours sounded miserable to me.
However, God told me to go, so I did.
I am so glad that I listened! One
of my friends came to church for the first time! Her son is part of our nutrition program and preschool,
and her daughter goes to outreach therapy after having a clubfoot surgery in
October.
This event was very exciting, but what
is more exciting is that she was baptized last Saturday! She, two other nutrition program parents,
three boys from the orphanage, and three other members from the church were all
baptized. I had the honor of being the
Marenn (like the godmother) to four of the baptisms. I am so excited for all of these people who
made this next step in their faith. I am
thankful that they had truth spoken into them and the opportunity to accept
Christ. I pray that they will be
examples and lights in the nutrition program, orphanage, and community. Here are some photos from the baptisms.
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| The nutrition program parents |
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| The boys from the orphanage |
Since I’ve been back, I have been
working a lot with one of the families in the nutrition program. I started
working with them because their two year old son, Benji, was 9 pounds. Benji had been born early and has always
struggled with sickness. They also have
another little boy, Alandieu. He was
born less than a year after Benji. As
you can imagine they were very overwhelmed.
In the last two months, we have gotten rid of Benji’s tapeworm, and he
is finally starting to gain weight. In
the beginning, Benji spent most of his time lying around almost lifelessly without
expressing any emotion. Today we have a
completely different story. Benji loves to
babble, dance, and give everyone fist bumps.
While there was an obvious need for
physical help, this family also needed spiritual help. Benji’s dad was one of the people who
accepted Christ at conference, and he was baptized on Saturday. Last week I was sitting in the nutrition
program, and Benji’s mom came up to me.
She has just started selling popsicles to try to save a little money for
her family. Selling popsicles is no
joke. She carries a very heavy cooler on
the top of her head and stands in the sun selling other people something cold. She wanted to show me what she bought with
her hard-earned money. She bought a new
skirt so that she could go to church on Sunday.
She is SEVENTEEN years old and the first thing she bought was a skirt
for church. I cannot even explain my
feelings of joy and inspiration to see her sitting in church on Sunday.
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| Benji's mom and little brother after church |
I am so thankful for these exciting
things happening in Saint Louis. Please
pray with me for these new Christians and church attenders. Pray that they would not lose their
faith. Pray that they would be an example
for others.
