St. Joseph's Well, Dance Night and PEF with Kinshasa Couples' Klan

Last weekend we spent a great Friday night and Saturday morning with the couples in Kinshasa. It was like a fabulous P-day! There are three WONDERFUL American couples with whom we work! You couldn't ask for a kinder, better, more devoted, more fun to be with group of people than this group. Each couple is doing a great job in their assignment and have given us and each other tremendous love and support. We feel such friendship and unity here. It's a great blessing to serve with and learn from them.

The Hatches (left), our office couple are from New Mexico. They keep things running smoothly and efficiently as they work with the office staff. But, they go way beyond that by showing love and concern to everybody. They're doing so many good things with members. Elder Hatch wanted to start something worthwhile with the young men. He was encouraged by Elder Renlund to begin implementing and building the young men through the Duty to God award program. On Friday evenings the Hatches lead out in having a dance class for the young adults. Last Friday they invited us to go along with all the other couples. Elder Bingham drove us for about an hour into the city to get to the building. He's fearless in his driving and his comments are worth the trip! It's amazing that you drive through miles and miles of typical African neighborhoods.

Then suddenly we come upon a beautiful Mormon church.

It's wonderful to have such a place for the members to gather.

The young people there had a great time learning line dancing and even a little waltzing, taught by Andrew, a young man who's here on an internship for the US Embassy. It was so good to see our youth in that good setting instead of out on the streets of the city that we'd just driven through. Without a word of French, the Hatches directed things beautifully. It was an amazing sight to behold. We even got into the dancing and had a great time.

The Binghams (on the other side of us in the picture) are from California and are humanitarian country directors here. They have all kinds of projects going. They're as courageous as they come as they drive out across this vast city, looking for places to do projects and supervising the projects that have been started. They're working on wells, wheel chairs, club foot repair, and neo-natal resuscitation projects and probably a lot more. Both of these couples do their jobs WITHOUT French, which is totally amazing to us. It speaks well for the language of love that they do speak very well.

Saturday morning all the couples were invited by the Binghams to a well "turn-over ceremony." The church had built a well and water tower for St. Joseph's hospital.

Pictured is water tower and those who had worked for the church on the project.

This ceremony is done to help the people understand that now the gift we've given them is "turned-over" to them. The group will now be expected to maintain it. It's a finalization of the church's work and helps the recipients to feel that they now have responsibility for the project's use and repair. I've heard about these ceremonies, but now we have had a chance to be at one. Sister Bingham says that they have the best job in the church. They just "give things away every day." In actuality, they work very, very hard to chose, petition for approval, organize, supervise and see to conclusion some of the most important work done by the church. It opens many doors as we show people of the world the love and concern that we in the church have for them. The turn-over ceremony was well organized, ran smoothly and was so interesting to attend.

Before the ceremony a group of young boys were preparing for their part, which was some traditional African singing and dancing. Sisters Bingham and Hatch got invited to join them in a little dancing before the show started.

At the beginning of the program the young people wowed us with their singing and dancing.

After the dancing, there was a speech by the Monsignor, who then blessed the well and water tower and sprinkled them with holy water.

Then there were more speeches by hospital administrators, project managers, and a church representative. Next, many people from the hospital, community and church joined in the ribbon cutting and took a drink of the fresh water as the tap was unveiled and the first water flowed. TV cameras were rolling and the event was on national television twice in the next couple of days.

A meal was then served-rolls, peanuts,salami and as always, Fanta.

The traditional dancers returned for the finale. It was fire dancing! Quite an ending!

We were so happy that the Binghams invited us to join them at this wonderful celebration.

The last couple (on the far right in the picture) is the Staggs. They are starting the PEF program here to aid young adults in getting an education that will help them to find employment. They're located in the new CES building and there's a great deal happening to help our young adults. The new young adult center (complete with ping pong tables) will be a great place for the young people to mingle. The Staggs are doing a great job of starting a new PEF program that can be life changing here in the Congo, as it provides training for employment for young members of the church. Since they live in a society that has an estimated 90% unemployment, getting a job is the major concern of every returned missionary with whom we've visited. They're all counting on PEF to help them find a better life.

We sure love these folks, as well as our couples in the Republic of Congo and Cameroon, and see the good works that they do every day. "There is work enough to do e're the sun goes down" for every skill cultivated by every person who's willing to give the Lord some time. These folks are a blessing and a great example to us and we love them dearly.