AH! Africa. We were invited by Rev. Sidiki and Fatmata Kamara, (pictured above), of GEM ministries to Sierra Leone, Africa, to minister at their week long conference during the day and Crusade in the evenings. They planted and oversee 24 churches. The other ministers scheduled to preach with us had their flights cancelled, so we found our preaching schedule doubled. God is so faithful a midst these circumstances. Below is Pat preaching at the daily conference.
Every evening Terry would preach at the crusade. They spoke English, but the accent was so diverse that he had an interpreter.
On Sunday, while Terry ministered at one church, Pat was sent to two different churches. Pat's first church was a new plant in a very poor neighborhood. Below is Pat's path to that church.
Below is the new church plant building, where they had one bongo drum, singers and paper bags for the offering but this group sang from their heart and danced before the Lord so passionately it brought a cloud of dust in the air.
As we visited many other churches, the children were running to us in the villages so excited yelling "opoto" which means "white man." Something they don't often see.
A school that has been established at one of the churches. These children are studying for their exams coming up.
The children running to us as we visited the villages.
Below are pictures of the neighborhood that surrounds the church where we stayed. We loved that the church was right in the middle of this neighborhood and a great witness to the community.
Here is Pat sporting an African outfit that one of the pastor's wife helped her pick out.
Another awesome opportunity was that the church had their bible students living right in the church. When we weren't preparing for our next service, they would request times of fellowship with us. It was so enriching for all of us.
Thirty years ago God planted a dream in our hearts of going to Africa. We had no idea at the time that Sierra Leone would be the first country we would visit. It was a joy to work with GEM ministries and we left with our hearts full of the love of Africa.
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