Our GBCC students loaded up on the yellow bus for a weekend outreach March 20-22. We expect our students to work with local congregations during their student teaching experience May-August, and this was part of the effort to prepare them for that role. They have been meeting on Friday nights for training sessions, and the weekend outreach was the culmination of their preparation.
Sixty students divided into groups of five each and ministered to twelve different village congregations. The bus dropped the groups off at their assigned locations on Friday night and picked them up again on Sunday afternoon.
The students spent the weekend going door to door in the village communities holding Bible studies and inviting anyone who was interested to attend special meetings on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Some congregations had prepared lists of members who were sick or needed special attention, and our students visited and prayed with those people.
Many students admitted to being a bit frightened at the idea of the weekend outreach. When Angela unloaded her things on Friday night, she turned to director Kenneth Siaziyu with wide eyes and cried, "You're just going to leave us here! Only God knows what will happen to us!" But by Sunday afternoon Angela was glowing with excitement and full of stories about her experience.
The statistics are impressive: On Sunday morning 139 individuals in the 12 congregations requested prayers or were restored, and 13 were baptized. The average combined attendance at the 12 congregations is 690; on March 22 there were 1,297 who attended.
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