Pete and Cindy Ekstrand
October 5, 2010
Dear family and friends,
What a great month September was! Thank you for your participation through prayer. Here are some of the highlights we'd like to share with you.
CHE Seminar The Community Health Evangelism (CHE) seminar we led in early September went very well. Listen to these comments from the participants:
“I was pleased to learn that CHE puts the accent on the holistic dimension of the person in a community."
“I learned about holistic health which encompasses all the areas of life to improve the conditions of life in the community. I learned about working together and accepting the input of all the participants.”
"I was encouraged with reading the many verses that speak of the integration between physical and spiritual aspects of a person.”
We enjoyed leading the training, though it was a stretch preparing and getting all the lessons into Lingala! Thankfully there was someone else to do all the translations and additional people to type them. We led most of the lessons over the four-day seminar, but everyone who had previous training in the US also led one or two sessions. Everyone really engaged with the material through the participatory teaching style. The role plays for starting the lessons were great fun as the Congolese got into their roles much more than we Americans had during our training in the US. The nearby photo is of a role-play scene about a witch doctor and village - note the creative costumes and props! More news and photos of the training are posted on our blog. There is also a recent article on the Covenant website.
Seeing fruit many years later The Lord continues to bless us with visits from former students, teachers with whom we worked, and others we helped years ago. Over the past two weeks we've had two such interactions. Jacques Gbadana Moya graduated with distinction with a Masters in French from the university in Mbandaka recently. We attended the celebration party Saturday before last. In his comments of appreciation to those in attendance he said, "I am a product of the church. It was not me. God enabled me." Pete was on a committee that gave him a partial scholarship to university over 20 years and Jacques also recognized this help. Thanks Lord.
Mangi Menace visited just a few days ago. Mangi graduated from the agriculture school in Gemena where we taught for six years. He now works for an integrated agriculture development program with village faming associations. As we talked, he related lessons learned in our class many years ago which continue to influence his village development ministry today. Thanks Lord for this encouraging visit.
House Update
We also thank the Lord for the great progress on our furniture and kitchen cabinets this month. Only one cabinet in the kitchen, a bookshelf and a desk to go. Pictures will soon be posted on our blog and facebook.
Other news:
- Our truck arrived safely mid-month. It has air-conditioning and now on a really hot day we are tempted to find something that we just "have to do" in town. HA. The church leaders prayed over the vehicle 2 weeks blessing it for our ministry.
- Sarah's travels through Europe went very well. She visited with a number of family and friend connections, i.e. free lodging! She is now studying at the University of Chester in England.
- The CEUM and we are in the last week of planning for the visit of Covenant President Gary Walter, World Mission Ex Minister Curt Peterson and his wife Martie, Rev. Harold Spooner, Regional Coordinators John and Letha Kerl and Keith Gustatson. They will tour the CEUM from October 7-14.
- We have finalized our overall travel plans to Sudan and Kenya. We fly to Kenya on October 20. We visit the Evangelical Covenant Church of Sudan (ECCS) from Oct. 21 to Nov 2 after which we visit the ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Kenya (ECCK) from Nov 3-13. We return to Kinshasa Nov 14 and back up to Gemena Nov. 17.
PRAISE and PRAYER Items:
Cindy's ear is much better. Thank you for your prayers. Continue to pray for her daily struggles with allergies.
Pray for safe travels for the US visitors and good discussions with the CEUM leadership during their visit. Pray for safe travel to Kenya and Sudan and around the country. We will travel by boat to visit two other conferences in Sudan.
Pray for the discussions with the ECCS leadership about planning, vision, project management and reporting.
Pray for Sarah as she settles into life and school in England A good balance between our personal life and work responsibilities is a continual challenge. Some days are better than others. We'd appreciate your continued prayers.
Carl's company moved him to a new job in Phoenix this month. Pray for good work relationships and friends in a new city.
Rachel and Ryan moved this weekend to a different apartment about a mile away from their old place - praise God for the many friends that helped them and that He protected everyone from injury. Pray for them as they settle in and for Ryan as he runs in the Chicago Marathon next Sunday, 10/10/10. He is running to raise money for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
We give thanks to the Lord for you regularly. Knowing of your love and support is a great encouragement.
Thank you for continuing to pray,
Pete and Cindy
October 5, 2010
Dear family and friends,
What a great month September was! Thank you for your participation through prayer. Here are some of the highlights we'd like to share with you.
CHE Seminar The Community Health Evangelism (CHE) seminar we led in early September went very well. Listen to these comments from the participants:
“I was pleased to learn that CHE puts the accent on the holistic dimension of the person in a community."
“I learned about holistic health which encompasses all the areas of life to improve the conditions of life in the community. I learned about working together and accepting the input of all the participants.”
"I was encouraged with reading the many verses that speak of the integration between physical and spiritual aspects of a person.”
We enjoyed leading the training, though it was a stretch preparing and getting all the lessons into Lingala! Thankfully there was someone else to do all the translations and additional people to type them. We led most of the lessons over the four-day seminar, but everyone who had previous training in the US also led one or two sessions. Everyone really engaged with the material through the participatory teaching style. The role plays for starting the lessons were great fun as the Congolese got into their roles much more than we Americans had during our training in the US. The nearby photo is of a role-play scene about a witch doctor and village - note the creative costumes and props! More news and photos of the training are posted on our blog. There is also a recent article on the Covenant website.
Seeing fruit many years later The Lord continues to bless us with visits from former students, teachers with whom we worked, and others we helped years ago. Over the past two weeks we've had two such interactions. Jacques Gbadana Moya graduated with distinction with a Masters in French from the university in Mbandaka recently. We attended the celebration party Saturday before last. In his comments of appreciation to those in attendance he said, "I am a product of the church. It was not me. God enabled me." Pete was on a committee that gave him a partial scholarship to university over 20 years and Jacques also recognized this help. Thanks Lord.
Mangi Menace visited just a few days ago. Mangi graduated from the agriculture school in Gemena where we taught for six years. He now works for an integrated agriculture development program with village faming associations. As we talked, he related lessons learned in our class many years ago which continue to influence his village development ministry today. Thanks Lord for this encouraging visit.
House Update
We also thank the Lord for the great progress on our furniture and kitchen cabinets this month. Only one cabinet in the kitchen, a bookshelf and a desk to go. Pictures will soon be posted on our blog and facebook.
Other news:
- Our truck arrived safely mid-month. It has air-conditioning and now on a really hot day we are tempted to find something that we just "have to do" in town. HA. The church leaders prayed over the vehicle 2 weeks blessing it for our ministry.
- Sarah's travels through Europe went very well. She visited with a number of family and friend connections, i.e. free lodging! She is now studying at the University of Chester in England.
- The CEUM and we are in the last week of planning for the visit of Covenant President Gary Walter, World Mission Ex Minister Curt Peterson and his wife Martie, Rev. Harold Spooner, Regional Coordinators John and Letha Kerl and Keith Gustatson. They will tour the CEUM from October 7-14.
- We have finalized our overall travel plans to Sudan and Kenya. We fly to Kenya on October 20. We visit the Evangelical Covenant Church of Sudan (ECCS) from Oct. 21 to Nov 2 after which we visit the ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Kenya (ECCK) from Nov 3-13. We return to Kinshasa Nov 14 and back up to Gemena Nov. 17.
PRAISE and PRAYER Items:
Cindy's ear is much better. Thank you for your prayers. Continue to pray for her daily struggles with allergies.
Pray for safe travels for the US visitors and good discussions with the CEUM leadership during their visit. Pray for safe travel to Kenya and Sudan and around the country. We will travel by boat to visit two other conferences in Sudan.
Pray for the discussions with the ECCS leadership about planning, vision, project management and reporting.
Pray for Sarah as she settles into life and school in England A good balance between our personal life and work responsibilities is a continual challenge. Some days are better than others. We'd appreciate your continued prayers.
Carl's company moved him to a new job in Phoenix this month. Pray for good work relationships and friends in a new city.
Rachel and Ryan moved this weekend to a different apartment about a mile away from their old place - praise God for the many friends that helped them and that He protected everyone from injury. Pray for them as they settle in and for Ryan as he runs in the Chicago Marathon next Sunday, 10/10/10. He is running to raise money for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
We give thanks to the Lord for you regularly. Knowing of your love and support is a great encouragement.
Thank you for continuing to pray,
Pete and Cindy
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