The Hills with HOPE for the Congo: Recent outings and activities

We have been keeping busy the past couple of weeks. Last weekend we went to our 1st Congolese wedding. It was an ALL day affair. It was for HOPE Loan Officer, Fabrice. The HOPE Congo staff did not inform us that even though the invitation says 1:30 they really mean it starts at 3:30! We were a little bitter! haha We got there at 1:20 and sat around until 3:30 when the bride and groom entered. The wedding did not end until 5pm. The wedding was beautiful. It was full of singing by an awesome praise team. But getting to the church at 1:20 made for a long day! At the end of the wedding the guests formed a long greeting line down the church aisle. Everyone brought their gift to give to the bride and groom. The HOPE staff put their money together and bought a refrigerator for the couple, and some HOPE guys actually carried the fridge up to the couple! They were champs. Another family brought an oven and carried it up to the front of the church too!

Nate preached at church last Sunday and did a great job! He is a natural. We were also able to take a picture of the front of the church with Rev. Antoine speaking. He is the pastor of the church as well as the DS of the area. The Brazzaville Nazarene church is the only Nazarene church in the area and is only 1 year old. We are glad to be apart of this church. This Saturday we are helping out with a youth event. It will be a full day of prayer walks around the city, playing sports with some neighborhood kids, as well as delivering some gifts to some families. They also asked Nate to bring his video camera. We will probably get some interesting footage!

Last Sunday we got invited to visit "Villa Washington." This is the US Embassy recreational facility. We can only go if a US Embassy employee is with us. There is a pool, work out facility (with really nice equipment!), and a basketball court. We enjoyed relaxing all afternoon with our new friends Joshua, Somei, and Jonathan. Joshua is the IT guy for the embassy and his wife and little boy are so sweet! We enjoyed getting to know them and playing with little Jonathan in the pool.

Allie made Christmas cookies Tuesday evening with her friends, Ann and Angie. Angie and Allie brought the Christmas cookie cutters and Ann provided the cookies and icing. They are pretty proud of themselves! The cookies look good and taste good too. Allie was also busy interviewing clients this week. Everyday she went out into the field to meet with clients and take pictures of their businesses. She really enjoys going to see the different districts of Brazzaville and meeting all the clients.

We have made some plans for the Christmas and New Year's holidays. We will update everyone with pictures after the holidays! We are definitely missing our families during this time, but God has blessed us with some wonderful friends. We have had many invitations to different events over the holidays. Everyone is making sure we don't get lonely. We are so very grateful for God's provision.