Saturday, July 11, 2009

Reflections on Orientation

As Loyd and Carol (the coordinators for the Winnipeg Action program) say our team is the largest and most diverse as far as age and experience. We are the first team to have professionals going in a professional capacity. So this poses unique challenges to our team but nothing we can't overcome with love and humility relying on Christ's strength and grace.
Our first week and a half of orientation has been good. I feel as if it has given us tools to equip us in transitioning between cultures. For the first week we had twice daily sessions on topics from evangelism to listening prayer. We also had powerful worship sessions. During the evenings we did team bonding activities like rafting or floating down the Roseau river, square dancing. Our days quickly filled up with team times, intercession prayer time and logistics meetings.
Most of the groups flew out on Thursday but our team and the Peru team spent some extra time here. Our team flies out on Sunday the twelfth at 6:00pm. We did language training because most people speak French or lingala. So we tried to learn a few key phrases.
Tonight we tackled team packing and somehow we managed to fit everything that needed to go into our bags including medical supplies donated to the clinics. We were all so relieved when the packing was done.
Today we Skyped Jean Baptiste the local pastor that we partner with. I think I speak for the whole team when I say we are so excited to just be in the DRC. Only one sleep and close to 28hrs of air transport stand between us and the DRC.
God has blessed us with a team filled with amazingly talented and gifted individuals on our team. I cannot wait to see how God shapes and forms each one of our lives during this trip and how He will use our journeys to impact and encourage others.
While it is getting late and I should try and rest before we fly out.

I'd like to leave you with a few prayer requests
>Unity and humility within our team
>Safety while traveling, Paul, our leader is flying out a week later so He is flying alone and we are flying without him.
>Pray for patience and grace as we adjust to living life within a new cultural context
>Pray that we can encourage and lift up the Congolese people that we meet and interact with

Merci Mingi (thanks so much) for your prayers and support.

Brittany on behalf of the Congo team

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