Sunday's Church

For the past few Sundays, we have been attending a small Dinka Baptist Church that is being started by one of my supervisor’s workers. This Sunday, however, one of the national men my supervisor has been training (whose name is actually Sunday) has started up a church about 10km from town and wanted us to come visit. Curious to see what state this new church is in, we journeyed to the small village of the new church plant.

We were pleasantly surprised to find the church near a cozy village set in the middle of a small clearing under a mango tree completely surrounded by green. I was in awe of the beauty and the tranquil setting. As in all things, when they say church starts at 8, it really starts at 930-10, so the missionaries were of course the first ones to arrive. But when those drums started beating, signifying church is starting, one by one people began to emerge from the bush ready for church. Surprisingly, there were a lot of young men in attendance (which is very rare), and they were not only there, but they were actively participating. Overall, the new church looks like it is off to a good start. They are receiving sound teaching from scripture and have a good group of believers who are hungry for the Word.

We left church this morning feeling encouraged, that national believers are reproducing healthy churches without being completely dependent on local missionaries or organizations! Praise God! Please pray that this church continues to grow spiritually strong, and also for Sunday, the pastor, that he will faithfully shepherd this small group of believers into becoming passionate followers of Christ who strive to become more and more like Christ.

These are pictures of us waiting for church to start.