Five Zone Conferences for 100 Missioaries in Kinshasa

The day after we got back from our trip to the outlying cities we began our Kinshasa zone conferences. Can you say "Groundhog Day?"  Every other day we had a zone conference in our home with from 14-26 missionaries in attendance. I brewed up huge batches of rice and chicken a la King, 100 Rice Krispy treats, gallons of punch and Jackie made a mountain of coleslaw.  Brent went out on the street to Virginia, the bread lady, early every morning to buy fresh baguettes for whoever was coming that day. It was quite a process.

 Every zone prepared a song for us. Oh how these Africans can sing. It puts Americans to shame. It puts the Tabernacle Choir to shame.  It was so sweet of them to prepare this special gift for us. Nothing could have made us happier than to hear them sing.

   We tried to feed them both physically and spiritually. They're such spiritual people. You can really feel their strong spiritual nature when you teach them. As they left, we shook hands, bonked heads, kissed cheeks and gave a hug to every one of them.    

           

This experience definitely qualifies for the phrase, "parting is such sweet sorrow."    But it's also time to tear the band-aid off quickly!   Too many goodbyes, although I think we have still a few more to go.