Encourage one another

One of the villages that Riverboat Team C visited already had a small church established. The pastor would travel four hours away to work as a carpenter during the week, come back late on Saturday, preach on Sunday, and then head out early Monday morning to return to his job. On top of this, the number of people who were coming to the church were dwindling. The pastor and the church were in desperate need of encouragement.

During the week, we were able to go house to house, checking up on members and sharing with those who weren't, helping the pastor's wife with outreach. One of our guys, Carter, offered to preach on Sunday to give the pastor a break... the pastor graciously accepted his offer. During Sunday's service and Carter's preaching I looked over at the Pastor and saw him smiling, truly smiling, while he reached up his hand to wipe his tears. He had not only desperately needed a physical break, but also to be filled with the Word from another believer. He was so encouraged, clapping and dancing with the music. We've learned a lot about our different roles here, encouraging being one of those. We love to see how the Lord is using us to encourage those who really need it.

-Carrie Grace, Riverboat Team