Saturday

Our chaplain at the hospital and our neighbor has been going to another small village about 5 km away from us on Sabbath and meeting with a group of people. They just finished a 2 wk "evangelistic crusade?" (I say that because I guess it was mostly videos that they watched of various things and all in French so only the educated would understand) and one Sabbath during that time a lot of our church went out to show support. Then last Sabbath they all came to our church and then we went to the river and had a baptism. There were 12 baptised but not all of those were from this other village. Anyway, today we went out there again and Steve preached, Gary translated to French and then another translator into Nangjere (local dialect). K&C got filthy afterward (and before - we waited at least an hour for them to start and we were already "late") playing with the kids in the dirt. Cherise is a real native and wants to be in the middle of the action or more like the center of the action. Well, they always have to feed us afterwards and it was very gritty boule (bougalie in Congo - basically porridge made so thick they shape it into a ball. Then you dip into a sauce and eat with your fingers from a common plate). Our sauce was chicken and fish, so we just ate the grit and then later they brought a vegetarian sauce made from sesame seeds. It was a bit bitter or kind of the flavor of tahini. So, the kids fell asleep on the bike on the way home and the road is very thick sand, so Gary had quite a job as we had the chaplain as well! But then the kids woke up when we got home and then didn't want to sleep. Kaleb finally did go to sleep, but no luck with Cherise! She will go to bed early.

Well, since lunch was grim my big boy is begging to eat, so guess I better run. Hope we can send this soon and to hear from you all too.

Much love,
Wendy

Friday Night

This last week we invited everybody here for Friday night. I didn't realize that this inluded a meal; I was thinking vespers, but this same boy had stuff for tacos/haystacks so I cooked beans and we actually found lettuce and tomatoes in the market (they are pretty hit and miss - mostly miss! lately), so it was really yummy and a wonderful treat. The girl who does most of cooking was sick with malaria, so I still had to oversee everything but the other girls helped, and the guys even rolled out tortillas.