IBBC Mobile (Bible Institute)
It’s always
so exciting to see God working! In each
location, God has provided for great times of teaching and fellowshipping! Sparky has mentioned several times how glad
he is for the two men God has called to work with us in this ministry (so far)! They both obviously have the gift of
teaching, and both seem to have such a heart for God and His work. God has also provided for several “surprises”
along the way that have been such an encouragement!
We all felt
the mobile Bible Institute classes went well in both Dibaya and Idiofa. When the team arrived in Ilebo, however,
there was a bit of a disappointment. There
was a miscommunication, resulting in far fewer students than expected. They also found out that the transport to the
last location was going to cost about 3 times more than they had been told to
plan for. We prayed! Within 24 hours, God worked miracles!
Answer to prayer #1: People came to the IBBC Mobile Bookstore to buy
materials; many more people than expected, to the point that Sparky had to
start turning them away in order to have supplies left for the last location. Because of this, even with the low number of
enrollment in the “program”, the materials, as well as Bibles, have gone out!
Answer to prayer #2: The sale of these materials brought in finances that
enabled them to start looking at transport options to that last location. God
provided a motorcycle to purchase…for little more than it was going to cost to rent
motorcycles to get them to and from the next location. Having this motorcycle for IBBC will save on
traveling costs in the future as well! (They
will bring it back with them in the dug-out canoe…see photo below and let your
imagination do the rest…)
Here is the
break-down of students for each location:
Dibaya-Lubwe:
9 full-program, 1 short-program, 8 observers
Idiofa: 7
full-program, 13 observers
Ilebo: 5
full-program, 5 observers
So far: 48!
First IBBC Mobile trip up the Big Kasai River
Our Local Church
The Building project has begun! Our church has “work day” every Wednesday,
and has since last spring. Each week, women come with buckets or jugs and walk
all day from the river to the church, about a mile each way, hauling water (we
usually have 3-5 at a time; together they carry about 150 gallons of water in a
day!). Meanwhile, the men dig out the red clay, add water, and pack the clay
mud into a mold to make bricks. In October, we arrived at the target number of
these mud bricks, so building began! In the last 3 Wednesdays, almost half the
bricks have been laid. The women still
have to carry the water to make the mud-mortar, and the men are doing the mason
work. It has been so exciting to see our
church people volunteering their time and energy to get involved in this
building project!
Looking Ahead
Plans have
changed a little. Instead of us hosting
the ELBC Director’s Committee meeting here in Dibaya, the meeting’s location
has been changed to Kinshasa. This took
a lot of pressure off of us, and now one less thing to prepare for. It also
will allow for “wiggle room” in the time needed to get our “exit/return” visas
in Kinshasa, so we can get back into the country in August.
We still
have some dates open for furlough meetings.
We will begin working on the schedule again as soon as Sparky
returns. Please continue to pray that we
will schedule wisely and be good stewards of the time the Lord has us in the
States. As always, you can check out our
calendar on our blog site.
What our next few “seasons” look like, Lord willing:
Nov 10 IBBC teaching team travels to Mweka (nearly 100 miles)
12-23 IBBC Mobile
classes in Mweka
24-26 IBBC teaching team travels back to Dibaya-Lubwe
(the
100-mile
dirt road back to Ilebo, then in canoe back to Dibaya)
28 American
Thanksgiving Day (SO much to be thankful for!)
Dec ? Excellent’s
wedding (marrying Miss Germain)
2-21 Sparky presents/teaches the next 2 classes
to Papa Muna and Papa
Excellent…that they plan to teach in the same 4
locations while we are on furlough
AND…pack everything we own in as humidity/rat/termite
resistant containers
as possible
25 Christmas day (celebrating Christ’s coming
with our church
family in Dibaya
29 Last Sunday in Dibaya and saying good-bye “see you again soon”
Jan 1 or 2 Leave Dibaya, heading toward Kinshasa
3 Submit our
applications for “exit/return” visas
6-9 ELBC
Director’s Committee meeting (in Kinshasa)
16-17 National DRC holidays (praying our visas
will be done!)
20 Leave
Kinshasa
21 Arrive in
Boise, Idaho (late evening)
26 First Baptist Church of Notus, ID
“To everything there is a season, and a time to
every purpose under the heaven”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
Time in Kinshasa