Cal's Report on Saturday's Activities

I promised the second part of an update from Cal, via Stacie, on how their Saturday went. Here it is:

Saturday, July 21: Celebrating the safe arrival of all 17 people to Gemena on what Cal calls "Africa time", which means the flight was scheduled for 7:30 a.m., then they were notified on the 21st it would be at 3:40 p.m., but it actually left at 2 p.m. It was a larger plane than they expected, and was scheduled to be a nonstop, but in reality they did make a stop in Mandaka, a city right on the Equator, for 30 minutes.

ITINERARY: Sunday starts the conference with Pastors and their wives from the Congo, and some from Rwanda. Linda and Martin will speak at this conference. Cal begins his time at Tandala hospital on Monday and Linda and Martin together will join Cal there on Thursday or Friday.

Cal is very encouraged by all of the connections he has already made with the Africans who are attending the conference:

1. A physician from the Tendala hospital has helped Cal to define his work while he is there ...

• Teaching -- especially discussing follow-up on providing medical care and evangelism
• Consulting on patient cases

2. Two EV Free Church Pastors in Kinshasa

3. An EV Free Church Pastor from Rwanda

4. A Congolese man who heads up LIFEWIND, an organization that provides medical outreach and evangelism

The hope for connecting through Skype to have a "live" presentation of church services in Africa during Elim's service on the 22nd and 29th is turning out to be iffy due to lack of generators. There is still some hope for this happening, as they are working hard to improve the situation. The team has hit "one snag after another" with technology ... problems with generators, cell phones, etc. All three team members have different cell phone plans and none of them are working, though they have borrowed phones and have each made contact with their families on two different occassions.

What do robin-blue choir robes, soccer balls, syringes, medical gloves, needles, operating room sponges and drapes have in common? Cal stuffed 48.5 pounds of these items into a huge suitcase the Kopacz family leant us at 9:30 the night before departure. (Yes, this was after our homemade repair efforts had failed on our broken suitcases.)

I look forward to hearing how some of the items the team members have brought over for the Africans will be received -- those mentioned earlier, and also balloons, bubbles, bright and cheery-patterned baby layettes with matching blankets lovingly sewed by Chris Bailey and our Church's branch of the White Cross. Moms and babies laying on hopital beds that may not even have mattress pads will certainly enjoy those layettes and blankets that they get to take their babies home in!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, financial support, advice, the White Cross items, technology support, encouragement, the soccer ball donations, the medical equipment donations, and suitcase donations. This is all so overwhelming and yet, the trip is happening successfully thanks to God and all of His very many children working together for the big Kingdom picture!