WE TOOK OVER THE AFRICAN INLAND CHURCH LAST SUNDAY

Last week we were invited to teach in a small branch of the African Inland Church (AIC). This church is a huge draw in our Eldoret area. We brought our guard with us to translate. The church was a small mud building with a concrete floor. The AIC meeting went extremely well. The children loved all the activities and lessons that I taught. They colored a scripture person puppet from the Friend and we put them on straws. I'm not certain they ever had an opportunity to do that type of an activity before. The children learned the new theme song for the 2012 Primary Sharing Time, "As A Child of God" and participated in a lesson about the gift of free agency!

So in Africa the children walk to a Sunday School class all by themselves at 8:30 AM. They leave at 10:00 AM and the adults come to hear a sermon from 10:00-12:30. Elder Babcock gave a tremendous 1 1/2 hour talk on Romans 12, initially he was told it would be 2 ½ hours (whew).

Here are his words from an email he sent: William Kipsang, a head school master in the same village area as well as a pastor on Sundays invited me to speak and Sister Babcock to teach the children today. I inquired how long I should plan to speak, he said, "Two and a half hours on the 12th chapter of Romans." I wasn't about to share the meeting time with him or anyone else so I prepared a nine page talk. He requested I not speak about the Prophet Joseph, the Restoration or the Book of Mormon. Having complied, somewhat, we have been invited back again, I quoted several scriptures from the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants and we didn't get thrown out. It was a great and wonderful experience for us, one I shall never forget. Turns out my material lasted one and a half hours which was perfect per the clock. William was very happy with my message and so were the other elders in this AIC congregation but when the take was scattered on the table and the coins rattled around in front of the congregation William took his coins, I received nothing, not even gas money. It was a great day.

It is still like a dream that we are here in Africa, loving the people, growing even stronger in our testimony of the restored gospel, and find ourselves speaking to an African congregation this past weekend. It is beyond any ideas of what I thought a mission would be!