Here is the latest report from GBIM board member Miriam Pacheco, who is currently in the Central African Republic assisting GBIM missionary Barb Wooler in ministry with orphans and Pygmies. For a more complete report and photos from the Women of Charis website, click here:
We’re getting into the orphan part of the ministry time here. Yesterday we visited a couple of the ladies who are on the Project Hope & Charité to check about getting their orphans together to get pictures and start gathering their bio information. Neither of the ladies was home, so we left messages. The usual convenient ways of communicating with people in the States are not too prevalent here, so it takes a lot of running around to get things set up and get ready to do what you want to do.
There are some refreshing things about living in Bangui. We usually are able to go to the American Ambassador’s residence and swim in the pool. But when the trouble started the Ambassador left, and so far no one else has come since the war. But there is a sports club place that has a pool and we’ve been able to get memberships there for two weeks, so we’ll be enjoying the pool for awhile. A couple of the other missionary gals have memberships, too, so we’ll all go together. It’s right on the river and the view is spectacular ~ we can see across to Zaire, or Congo as it’s now called.
There is a nice veranda with lots of shade and picnic tables that look out over the river. When we went yesterday it was so clean. No grit on the deck around the pool or in the dressing rooms. “No grit” is very difficult to accomplish during the dry season when the dust is everywhere and the wind takes it into any crack or crevice.
We went to a French restaurant last night to celebrate Janet Varner’s birthday. Les Relais des Chasses has little gazebo-type places under grass roofs, or you can choose a table on the veranda. Their food is excellent!
TUESDAY~ MARCH 1: What a wonderful time we had this afternoon visiting a new orphan group! We got there to see 23 well-behaved kids sitting on mats waiting for us. There were all ages. We got pictures of all and bios for most of them. And of course we drew quite a crowd of other neighborhood children who wanted to see what was going on. For the last half-hour I had the fun of doing some puzzles and matching games with them. They are sharp kids and we learned several things that will help us in working regularly with these groups of kids.
The heat is building again and it’s draining our energy. We did have a slight shower this evening, but not enough to cool it down a lot. Thanks so much for your interest and prayers. Pray that we will be able to connect with all the orphans we need to get information on before we leave the end of March.