I'm trying to post every day - however, internet isn't always available at our hotel. Two computers in the lobby and many guests trying to share the internet connection - very slow, almost impossible to upload photos.
Great news - after our first full day of ministry (Monday) we had 1289 first time professions of faith - 2600 gospel presentations were made in neighborhoods surrounding the new church sites!! Here's a pic of our church planting team. Pastor Hurbert is on the far right. To his left is the mother church pastor. Dan is the muzungu in the middle. John Apostle to Dan's left. Simon is final left. Last guy on left got switched to a different team.
The pastor at our new church is wonderful. He is a great speaker and is great with the people. His name is Hurbert. I am working with a translator named Simon. Super nice guy. Just finished his bachelor's degree at a seminary in Kenya. Will be moving to Uganda soon to do some missions work then he hopes to get his master's degree in the U.S. Dan's first translator's name was John Apostle. As you might guess, Dan could absolutely not remember his name. He spent the whole first day calling him John Baptist.
I attended the President's Prayer meeting at his home on Sunday evening. He led worship on 3 songs. A gospel choir sang off and on for 3 hours. We had dinner. I sat next to a Burundi Parliament member. Too bad he spoke zero English and I speak less than zero French.
It rained really hard this morning. So hard that we couldn't leave the hotel until it let up a little. Since we're working in the suburbs of Bujumbura, we have paved roads to drive on, but the roads we walk on during the day are unpaved. Today they were slippery and muddy. Lots of fun puddles to jump in. I had a death-defying experience - we were following someone to their home to share the gospel with her whole family. We came to an elevated area - there was a solid wall on my left...there was a shoe-width path running parallel with the wall...to my immediate right was a huge pit - about half a swimming pool - filled with water and uh, corncobs, and, well, trash, and other things not to ever be spoken of again. Anyways, I literally had to hug the wall to my left and put one foot directly in front of the other so I wouldn't fall to my right. My translator later said he wished he had taken my picture. I guess I was a pretty comical sight.
I'll try to post a lot more photos tomorrow. Wish me luck.
