Progress - Appolonie's sisters are baptized

Each week we have the privilege of seeing men, preparing, blessing and passing the sacrament. None of them have been in the church longer than three months. Vianey (17) and Thomas (Vianey's uncle and a former pastor) prepared the sacrament together, under the tutelage of Elder Tshituka . It's a touching experience to see them as they perform their tasks with a feeling of true understanding of the sacred nature of what they're doing. Fathers & sons, uncles & nephews, all of them newly ordained priests, preparing and distributing these emblems together with tenderness and reverence that is unique and wonderful. Their attitude is so touching that it brings tears almost every Sunday and makes this experience even more meaningful.

Today we had our first baptisms of 2011. The pool is repaired at Sun Safri Hotel so we held them there. It's nicer and much more private, but it's also quite a distance from the church and we have been instructed not to transport members in our truck any more. Our good Brother Willes, who works for the American Embassy and lives at Sun Safari, arranged for the bus from the hotel to pick up our members. We filled a bus with supporters & our trucks with elders. Usually they would have all walked the several miles to the baptism, so this was a real treat.

Emery has three cousins who were baptized earlier. With his baptism, the priesthood is now available in their family.

Izadore heard about the church from Prosper, one of our earlier converts. It would have been perfect had Prosper been the person to baptize him. Sadly, Prosper is recovering from a serious knife wound received as he tried to stop two men in his neighbored who were having a confrontation. He is lucky to be alive but will take some time to recover.

Odette and Dieudonne are such a cute young couple. They have an adorable eight-month-old son. It's a somewhat unique and very special to see a family come into the church together.

Annie and Nanas (both dressed in white) have already been baptized. Now Menos joins them in the church. Their mother (in orange), who is not a member yet, was so cute. She ran to her son and joyously embarrassed him after his baptism. Such sweet demonstrations of public affection and support aren't common in this culture. It was very meaningful. It takes time here to get a whole family to be baptized. Usually the man joins first, then eventually, he brings his wife and children. I used to be very troubled by it, but I have come to think that it's the way men protect their family. They come and then if it works well, they invite their family. In this case it was the daughter, Nanas, who made the first step, after being invited by Annie. We believe that someday this family will all be in the church.

Each person is shown with Thaddee, who did all the baptisms. He was baptized on November 21, 2010. You could feel all the members pulling for him to do well as he performed these sacred ordinances for the first time. He did a wonderful job. It's truly a blessing to see those who are new to the church stepping in to give service and doing the work of the group. The more they can do without us, the better it is. It's much like teaching your children to be self-sufficient and strong in preparation for the time when they leave your home. All the missionaries will leave someday and the members need to be bonded and strong without us, both spiritually and as a functioning unit of the church. That's our goal.

This brings our number of members to 51. We began three months ago with 8 official members. Weekly we see them growing not only in numbers but in strength and unity. It's awesome!