Clean Water & Packed Out Churches. . .

. . . Neither of which are a problem!

The team was able to visit the village of Chiimba (Chee-ihm-buh) that our own church member, Dave Lyle, had felt a special call toward.  Over a year ago, he worked hard on raising funds and making the dream of a new water well come true.  And now, not only were he and the rest of the team able to see it in person, they also witnessed the joy and excitement of the local people because of it.

The new well is being shown off by a couple of their local friends.

The old well produced yellow water and was the cause of 6 cholera deaths last year.

Everyone attended a church service that day in Chiimba.  After a while, the church building began to get so crowded they had to move outside under the shade of some trees.  Praise the Lord for packed out churches!

View of the congregation from the platform.

View from the back of the church before it became too full.

Pastor Les was able to teach the people of Chiimba for a while and, of course, entertain them as well.  After the service, lunch eventually arrived.  The team from Eugene First ate with three other visitors and the missionary couple, Wellington & Hellen Obbotte.  The local people did not eat with them.  While that was a little disappointing to our team, they quickly were explained that it is a cultural difference - it is important to them that the guests eat before anyone else.

After lunch, the team had lots of school supplies and small treats to hand out to the children in the village.  There were so many of them (about 300) that the line had to move pretty quickly, but children were very blessed and grateful.  The very young children received only two pieces if "penny candy" each while all the kids who were in school received two pieces of candy, a ballpoint pen and some notebooks.

Afterwards, while the children were still lined up, Pastor Moore spoke to them.  He reminded them of God's love for them, of our love for them and of the prayers that are said for them by people of Eugene First Church of the Nazarene.  Each age group's teach was then presented with two soccer balls!  This is a gift that exceeds anything else they presented them.  They love soccer!

As Pastor Les told them, let's remember to pray for those kiddos today and in the future.  Perhaps many of them will be part of that seminary graduating class in several years?  God has big plans for each one of them!