Early beginnings cover the time period of 2008-2009 before the creation of the association Espoir Congo, when we and other volunteers helped orphaned children in the Kinshasa area and conducted other missionary activities with the German association Aktive Direkt Hilfe. (See Espoir Congo Presentation Video Part 1)

Easter Program with the Kisenso Orphans:

Just before Easter, we went to visit our orphaned kids in Kisenso, to distribute the usual food packages, and also to do a special program for them. Our jeep had just broken down, so we took a chance and drove our other car, not a 4 x 4. We did our best to avoid the roads that were too flooded, while praying that we would not get stuck in the mud.

We were still doing well until about 25 meters from the orphan center… In driving over a grassy patch, we did not see that it was hiding an actual ditch, and our wheel fell in…Thank the Lord, we girls were able to walk to the orphan center, while Dominic stayed by the car, and tried to get help to pull it out of the ditch.

Sweet villagers came to the rescue, and got down on their hands and knees to dig our wheel out the mud. Another man loaned us a precious plank of wood, which we were able to fit under the wheel, and after a couple of hours, the car finally pulled out of the ditch. What an adventure!

After this experience, we knew for sure we would not be able to drive that same car to Mokali for our next program, where the road is much worse, and practically non-existent.

Thankfully, this incident did not keep us from spending time with our orphans. Unaware of all we had gone through to come and see them, they only asked how come my clothes looked all dirty, ha! (In trying to push the car out of the ditch, mud had splashed all over me!).

Coloring is such a special activity for them that it’s always hard to start the next activity afterwards. But when it was time for the Easter play, it’s enough to say that these kids adore acting! They loved dressing up and acting out the story of Easter, and they had a great time!

 

Easter Program at Ngaliema Medical Center

We wanted to do another program for the children at the Ngaliema Hospital, after the positive response to our program last Christmas.

We had performed here before at Christmas time in 2008, for the children in the hospital’s general waiting room. Whether the kids were waiting for medical treatment, or only accompanying a sick family member or a relative, these children would most often be there for hours. Our program was held in an attempt to give some cheer to the kids spending part of their holidays in the hospital.

With the theme of Easter in mind, we set the date to the day before Good Friday. The director happily agreed to us holding another program, and helped us with necessary preparations, including putting up a poster in the waiting room, advertising the event!

To gather the children, we began with a short Video on the Life of Jesus.

A friend of ours had kindly printed and made many copies of a beautiful colouring page for the children. These were distributed to all the children as they listened to the story behind the picture they received, a parable to the Easter message for children, called ‘The Little Red Hen’.

When the story was finished the children all eagerly repeated with us a prayer to ask Jesus to come into their hearts and stay with them forever.

After the prayer, we passed out crayons and helped the children to color in their pictures.

One little girl said that she didn’t have crayons at her house, and we knew that this wasn’t uncommon. These kids thoroughly enjoyed their chance to color.

It was difficult to get them to put their coloring pages away when the time came for our next activity-a lively action game.

The next event was an impromptu play of the Easter story, with all the children as our enthusiastic actors. We had brought cloth with us that was quickly fashioned into costumes.

Without a rehearsal, the children performed marvelously. The parents and the others in the waiting room all loved it!

Afterwards, we passed out tracts to everyone in the waiting room, as well as serving cool drinks, provided by the hospital, to the children.

We hope that this Easter will remain a memorable one for these children, and we look forward to more programs here in the future!

–Natalie Volpe

 

Easter Program for the Orphans at Mokali:

The water pump broke on our jeep just 2 days before Easter, making it impossible for us to visit our dear orphans on Saturday, the day before Easter, as planned. Finding parts for a land rover is no easy task here in Kinshasa, and we are still searching… But the Lord led us by chance to meet a very dear man, Mr. Faustin, who accompanied us with his 4 x 4 the following Saturday. Dear Mr. Faustin ended up being my partner for the day along with Theo, translating the activities in Lingala for me, and helping to distribute the food.

Another dear man had just donated a variety of things for the children: water bottles, dollies, balls, medicine for the children, as well as the plastic bags we need to prepare their food packages.

The kids were so happy with all these special goodies, and also had fun acting in the play, and with the other activities we had prepared. It never fails to touch our hearts to witness how the Lord always comes through for the children!

Medical Assistance:

A nurse from England, Cindy, heard about us through a friend in the UN. She was very interested in our projects and wanted to stay for a month to participate.

She met the orphans and spotted a few that needed medical attention. Because of her involvement, we were able to get medical checks for them, thanks to the generous help of Dr. Jean-Claude and Dr. Simba. Two orphans had a problem with their legs that needs medical attention. Another has heart problems, one has appendicitis, and another a thyroid problem. After diagnosing the problems, we have contacted two associations that may be able to help with the leg operations and heart problem. There are still some steps to take before this can be accomplished, as we need to get the agreement of the caretakers. We are expending the effort necessary to bring these children the medical assistance they need.

 

 

Teaching 12 Foundations Bible Course at UPN University

About 4 months ago Madlen and Fisca went to a nearby University (UPN) to see if any of the students would be interested in taking our Bible course there, called the 12 Foundation Stones. They met a very sweet Christian man who is a UPN English Professor. He was very inspired about the idea and asked them to go back in about a week to see how many students would be interested. So Madlen and I returned the next week and introduced the course to approximately 50 students. 25 of them signed up for the course on the spot, and others are continuing to sign up as they hear about our program.

They were encouraged to hear that the course would be in English, that way, at the same time as learning about the Bible and “faith life” they can also perfect their language skills. We agreed to meet once every week for an hour and a half at the University. The school gives us a free class room, where we can gather with all those who are interested. The idea and objective is that once the students complete the training, they will take up the challenge and start teaching this course to others. It’s a golden opportunity to put into practice what they’re studying, as most of them are at the University to learn how to become professional teachers.

At the end of the course, the graduates are provided with a diploma, as well as a teacher’s book and other supplementary materials, which can help them in teaching and can be used for their own spiritual feeding as well.   The course is for free, the only charges are for the different materials (study books, teacher’s book and other supplementary reading materials).   The responses were very positive so far and many students expressed how much this course is helping them to understand God and His words more. One of them commented: “I didn’t think I needed something like that, as I thought I knew the Bible pretty well, but I thank you for coming, because it’s true that lately I’ve neglected the Lord and His words. These classes help me to get back on track.”   By Marianne Mako

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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