Village Bible Church || Aurora | Indian Creek | Sugar Grove | IL

David: On Sunday we were able to see a lot of things happening in the church., but on Monday we got to see the work being done in the ministry compound. The first day after the earthquake 15,000 refugees arrived on the compound seeking some place to stay. The compund is only 20 acres. There are now 20,000 refugees staying within these walls each night. The man that oversees the compound also oversees 200 churches. His name is Bishop Joel Jeune. He is basically a pastor who is supervising 200 churches instead of just one. Monday morning we visited the boys' orphanage within the compound. We were able to spend time with the boys and hang out with them. We were able to talk back and forth because we had a translator with us. It was cool to be able to encourage them and play games with them and bring smiles to their faces. It’s funny because whenever children see us the first thing they notice is that we’re white and so they always say the word for white, which is “blanc” or blank. Another section of the compound is the widow center and it’s kind of like a nursing home. We were able to give supplies to widows such as medical ointments, wraps, and various things to do.

Emily: After that we went to another section of the compound and David was able to teach a lessons on Daniel not only to the orphans in the compound but also with the street kids ran after us as we arrived in the bus. When we got back to our portion of the compound, we’re actually staying in the girls’ orphanage portion of the compound; we visited a hospital that’s part of the compound. It’s a very solid building due to the “Zero Safety Code Compromises” so they didn’t take any short cuts in the construction of the building.

David: So they were unable to get a whole lot of people in there yet, which is good because if they had taken short cuts to save money to make it open and operable sooner it probably would have collapsed on all the people in it. It’s completely in tact and we were able to go on top and see the view of the compound from there. You can actually see it in one of our videos.

Emily: The view was beautiful. We were able to also see the mountains and the oceans. That night after dinner we met a congressman from Car Four and he oversees about 1,000,000 people in Car Four (that’s the city we’re in) and he told us that he would rather America send missionaries than the military. He sees that the missionaries are more sympathetic and compassionate. The military has been helping, but the missionaries seem to be doing more good.

David: The money that goes to the military and the expenses that they have to take care of the peace does help, but more work has been done by the missionaries.