Friday, July 16, 2010

Photo Story

We have not had internet for the past week and a half. I don't have access to all the pictures so
I chose a few that I hoped would show the beauty of the people in Kinshasa. My goal before I left was to make sure that my photographs would tell a story. The story that I would like to tell is the faith that was evident in so many of the people that we met and how
they trust God for everything. Below are just a few pictures of a few of the people we met. I could add many more pictures and may do so once we get back home and I have some time to go thru them. I have been blessed by the experience that I had in Kinshasa. People have shown me what
true faith is and how Gods love in unlimited. I hope that I will be able to use the pictures I took
to give people a real understanding of what the Congolese people are like, not what they read in the newspapers or see on television. I look forward to being back home and sharing these experiences with you.
Ray

One of the boys drinking a Coca. This would become one
of our main drinks during the weeks that we would be in
Kinshasa.
Here is one of the church familys that invited us into their home
for a meal. All the people were so welcoming and we felt very
loved and cared for during our time in Kinshasa.
Here is a picture of Laurre ,Jean's wife with one of here big smiles.
We all said that we thought she just radiated God's love and just had
an aura about her. She told us that she prayed each day that God
would take away anything from her that was not Godly.
God was good to us and blessed us on our trip thru the Naroibi
game reserve. We came upon these lionesses and followed them for almost an
hour while they were hunting for some food. This was the one animal all of
us hoped we would see and not more than 15 minutes into the park we
found these lions.
The boat drivers name was Peter. We are on a lake in Kenya
and he was our guide. He took us on what was to be a one hour
boat ride but it stretched out to be almost two hours. He took
us to an Island that was a home to many animals, got a guide for
us and waited while we walked among the animals for the next 45 minutes
or so. Here again was a person showing
God,s love to us ,a group of people from Canada.
This was Sarah. She had just recieved a promotion before we
left and when we congratulated her and said she must have
worked hard and been good at her job to get it. Her response
to us was that it was God that got her that job. She showed us
how deep a faith she had and how she trusted God in all things. What
a great testimony of how God was evident in her life.

This is Jean's family. They were wonderful hosts and welcomed us as if we were family. We had a wonderful time at Jean's home visiting with his lovely children, Manuella, Anyell, Ben, Joanni and thebaby Mallika. Gods love truly shone through this family.

Here are the two people that had a vision for the partnership between
our church and the church in Kinshasa. What an unlikely pair to be connecting
to get this done, but it was great to watch Paul and Jean as they talked
about different things and worked on the schedule for our group. Paul definitely has a good understanding of the culture and it was fun to watch him interact with the many freinds he has made in the Congo. They have
a great relationship despite the difference in cultures, age and countries. God is
truly the same everywhere.
This is Joanni, Jeans beautiful daughter she is what you would call
a papas girl. I had a lot of fun trying to get her to come to me and my camera turned out to be the ticket. She loved to be on pictures so I would take some of her and she would
come sit on my lap and we would look at them together. She always had a
smile on her face and loved to be in pictures. It was wonderful how she
was accepting of us despite the fact that we were white, didn't speak the language
and were from a different country.
Mama Jullien, her assistant, Mama Sophie, sitting down was Laurre.
I have been the photographer for this trip and have enjoyed it immensely. One of my goals was to use my photos to show the beauty of the Congo despite the fact that their is a lot of poverty and tough living conditions there. I have found that the people here are warm, freindly and very welcoming. I hope that some of my photos can show this thru their faces and the scenes I have captured. God has blessed us richly on this trip. He has allowed us to meet many wonderful people who share the same God as we do. God has showed us that he wants us to trust him in all circumstances and he most certainly has placed people in our path that believe this. In the photo above there is a blind lady Mama Julliene who traveled down a very difficult road to Jean Baptiste's home just to say goodbye to us and bring us some gifts that she had made for us. She had spent almost eight days making them and made the difficult trek to see us off and bless us and tell us that she would be praying for us. Also in this photo are Jean's wife Laure and his mother in law Mama Sophie. They both were shining lights for Jesus and radiated his love. Despite having to go to work and look after five children Laure sewed us each an article of clothing even though it meant she had to get up at night to do some of the sewing while the children were sleeping. What a picture of a person with a true spirit of giving.
Ray

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