Worship - To the Glory of God!

Note: We made it home to Atlanta safely on Wednesday, March 6 but I will continue to chronicle our trip and add pictures.

Sunday, March 3 - Worship to the Glory of God in Aba

Sunday, March 3, we made the one-hour trip to Aba, a city of about 2.5 million people, to worship with the church at No. 5 Ndoki Rd. WOW!  The auditorium is a two-floor building with seating for about 300-400 on each floor and the pulpit located to one end of the center aisle at the "mezzanine" level. 

Ken - Preaching in Aba

Listening to 700-800 people singing exuberant praise in Igbo and English at the same time was truly an experience of a lifetime.

The Men Seated on the Left Side of the Balcony 

Listening to the tender prayers for the concerns of the church was memorable as we prayed with joy for a new baby that was born and even sang a song requested by the parents, but we also prayer for a father who lost his daughter and a mother who lost her baby. We prayed for a man who has begun a new business and we welcomed a young lady who has come from another city to be a member and a young man  who was baptized this week.

Alan Moore Leading Prayer

 During this trip we have had several opportunities to help Susana Homes make deeper connections with surrounding churches and today was another of those opportunities. We took about a dozen of the children with us to church and they did a great job of sitting still through a service that lasted for three hours.

Beautiful Children in Aba

After the service we were warmly greeted by everyone, but were especially touched by many children, perhaps a hundred, who came to shake our hands and spoke to us so politely.

Our Susana Homes Children - Waiting Patiently for Lunch

We were then ushered upstairs for a wonderful home-cooked meal of rice and salad served by several of the ladies. The Susana Homes children sang for several of the church leaders who joined us for the meal, including one of their elders and their minister.

Minister - O.B. and Pleasure Akokwa at Church of Christ in Aba

And, as we loaded back onto the school bus after a great lunch, the generous church gave us three very large bags of rice and several other things which will be useful to Susana Homes. It is extremely valuable to make these connections and we are so thankful for the generosity of this faithful church.

We only have two more sleeps before we head for home. It is really going to be difficult to say goodbye to these children and the wonderful staff at Susana Homes and Right Steps Christian School. But, it will be good to get back to a cooler climate!

Thank you for your love and your prayers! Enjoy some of the other pictures we took of the day!

Our North American Ladies in Traditional Dress

The Igbo Hymnal

Church in Aba

Loading Bags of Rice

View of the Area Around the Church

Steve Watson Speaking