Hospitality Team Update

Since our first short-term team has come and gone, we now have a much better idea as to what hosting a short-term team involves. This is helping us tremendously as we think about the best ways to train the Hospitality Team. They will be doing our job of hosting when we return to the states in 2012 and we have a lot of work to do to get them each ready for that.


One of the main things the Hospitality Team will be doing for short-term American teams is cooking their meals. In the past several months, we have figured out some delicious meals that can be made with all local ingredients and are very similar to American meals. This is an important part of our job as we do not want to drastically change the way things are done in this culture and make sure that hosting American teams is something completely sustainable after we leave. Using only local ingredients to cook for teams is very important for sustainability.

So, last Saturday we had a taco night with the Hospitality Team. We had them all come early to actually learn how to cook tacos since it was a completely new recipe for them. Afterwards we enjoyed a meal together.

Sarah showing Simplice how to cook tortillas

As we explained the different parts of the meals and asked for volunteers to help us, Sam, Michelle, Aaron and I felt a little like we were on a cooking TV show. We made sure to get everyone involved in making the meal, even though most men in Congo do not cook.

Mandaba attempting to roll out a round tortilla and Nono learning when to flip the tortilla

We enjoyed spending a few hours with our team outside of the English classroom. Aaron and Michelle even took the opportunity to teach them how to throw a Frisbee while we waited for the meat to cook.

We always enjoy sharing new food with our Congolese friends and in the past tacos have been a success. It was successful once again with our Hospitality Team and is also one of our favorite meals to make here.


Please pray for the following things related to the Hospitality Team:
• One of the ladies on our team, Jose, moved away in early February because her husband got a job in a different village. The church leadership is in the process of selecting another member to replace her. Please pray that the Holy Spirit leads that decision and that the new member picks up English quickly and is a great fit for the team.

All of us with Jose the day before she moved

• We will soon be assigning specific job roles to each team member so we can start one-on-one training. Pray that the whole team has discernment about this decision and that each member gets to use their strengths in their specific job.
• Continually pray for Bebe, Nono and Simplice as they learn English. (Mandaba is already fluent in English). Being confident in English is a vital part of their job and English is a hard language to learn (and teach!)