We recently had the honor of being invited to a dedication in Amamonta, a village that’s approximately two hours away if you are on foot—a walk that some of the residents make two times a day, five days a week! My good friend, Steven, who many of you may be familiar with from other posts and stories over the years, invited us to be a part of this celebration. Steven invited us for a couple reasons: for one thing, it’s his village and his church; but also he invited us and the Schlote family (in the pictures with us) because of the part that we got to play in helping them.
We felt like welcome giants when we first arrived. All of the kids swarmed us with joy, but none of their parents had come out to see us yet, so there were just laughing kids everywhere!
Prior to this event, the only dedications that I had ever been a part of were for babies and buildings. Well, this dedication was specifically for this sound system (see if you can find Steven) and for all the school aged kids in the village. There was a worship band, lots of speeches and prayer, and even food at the end. There were even printed programs that were handed out! That’s not an easy feat in a place were printers are even more rare than electricity. This sound system will most likely be run off of a generator whenever it is used.
One of the areas of work here that I get to help with is connecting local churches with available work that we have at our missions center. Usually I don’t ever know how a church uses the money that they receive for work done. In this case I knew that Steven was working with multiple churches in Amamonta to fund a sound system that they could all use and share (Side note: just a few short years ago the different denominations in Amamonta did not get together or work together. God is moving in this place!). The Schlote family had a hand in the logistics of actually purchasing the sound system and getting it here. It was so great to see this plan dreamed and realized! Please pray that God will use it as a great tool to extend his church in Amamonta and the surrounding villages—in unity!
Before coming, I thought that the dedication was just for the sound system. I’m so glad that it wasn’t! It was so wonderful to see their community circle around these kids in prayer. This was truly my favorite part. You could clearly see how much they valued these kids and how much they valued praying over them corporately—believing that the Lord’s blessing was critical to their success, growth, and safety. Needless to say, we all have a lot that we can learn from each other. What a blessing!
It was sweet enough that they brought us all chairs to sit in (something that they typically don’t use themselves), so we were very humbled and grateful to receive bilums (the string bags around our necks) and food afterwards. Thanks to all of you who continue to partner with us and pray for us and make ministry like this possible.