Nsango Na Bomoi, part 1

Some of the primary school students at Mayele Na Bomoi;
 photo courtesy of Christine Grings.

I started to make this just one post but I took SO many photos and want to tell the whole story, so I am going to break it up into two or three posts.

On Sunday we visited a local church called Nsango Na Bomoi (news of life).  The pastor is our good friend Dan Grings, and the church, along with a school called Mayele Na Bomoi (wisdom of life), was planted here by his uncle Mark Grings.  The service was almost entirely in Lingala with a few French words thrown in here and there, but we still enjoyed meeting the people and worshiping with them.  I recognized several ladies from the Bible study group!  Here are some highlights and photos.

building project

Currently the church meets in the school building while they are building the sanctuary.  It is slow-going because this is a poor neighborhood and the members are paying for the building themselves, but when they finish, it will be theirs. 










This shows the ground floor.  The second story will be the actual sanctuary and will stretch back to the hill side behind the project site.

There are twelve classrooms in the school building, which are also used for Sunday School.  

Classrooms

We estimated the classrooms to be about fifteen feet by fifteen feet.  From morning til noon, 800 students from kindergarten through sixth grade meet in those twelve rooms.  During the afternoon, the younger students go home and another 800 students from 7th grade though high school meet in those same rooms.

one of the classrooms

There are no textbooks. Everything is written on a chalkboard and copied by the students.  This is pretty typical of any school here in Congo because there is such a shortage of schools, teachers, and supplies. Mayele Na Bomoi is required to use the government curriculum, but at least the school is also allowed to teach the gospel.  Pastor Dan conducts chapel at the school for all the students.

Chapel
photo courtesy of Christine Grings

The community the school and church serve has not had city water in at least a month and the people have to walk a long way to get water each day.  Please keep them in your prayers.

To be continued.....