Christmas Service at Rainbow CC

Today our family had the privilege of attending the Christmas worship service at our church, Rainbow Community Church.  Three other churches joined ours for one big and blessed Christmas service.  At least 4 village chiefs were also in attendance.  How amazing to see hundreds of Malawians praising our Savior and celebrating HIS birth!  (We were the only nono-Malawians in the service)

Five pastors shared brief messages with the congregation followed by singing, praying, and worship.  Here are two of our Rainbow pastors.  Pastor Nasson and Assoc. Pastor Martin.

One of my favorite pastors!  Jeremy was blessed to share a message.

Pastor Nasson and Jeremy getting the drinks ready to serve the congregation lunch.

One of the senior village chiefs and his wife.  This is Chief Nkhangamila.

Another village chief's wife.  

Chief Nkhangamila and his wife both wanted their picture taken with J.  

He was the little star of the service!

Lots of Coke, Sobo, and Fanta!

Everyone helping get the lunch prepared.

Our lunch consisted of rice, nsima (think extra fine grits without salt or butter), chicken, and biscuits (cookies to the Americans).  

There was a TON of nsima!  It's the staple food in Malawi.  No meal is complete without it.

Glory getting ready to serve!

Chicken!

Ida and SM

J decided to join the Rainbow Praise Team

AJ playing with Mamma's camera

A blessing over the meal.

The chiefs and their wives and special guests are served first.

Patiently waiting for food.

The children were served from a separate line outside.

Hey, there are some really pale kids in that pic!  Wonder who they are?

The kids serving line...

Jeremy and J

The Kyser family in front of our church.

After the chiefs and special guests are served the men are served next.  After the men are served the women are served.  

After the service AJ and Justina (her bestie at Rainbow) goofed around.

CJ and the boys!

Jumping rope.

SM and Ida sharing a book.  

What a blessed Christmas service that we will always remember.  Thank you Lord for your presence today!  It was truly felt!  To God be the Glory!  

Merry Christmas from the Kyser family and Rainbow!!!!

Jeremy preaches at Rainbow

We are blessed to attend a traditional Malawian church that is associated with Rainbow CDC/ orphanage.  The church is called Rainbow Community Church.  The pastor is an ABC graduate and he has asked Jeremy to preach a few times over the last three months.  These are photos of last Sunday's service at Rainbow.  

The younger Rainbow kids shared a couple of songs at the beginning of the service.  

This is the ladies choir.  They share a few songs each Sunday morning.  The great thing is they start singing sitting in their seats in the congregation.  Then they slowly rise and start marching/dancing towards the front all while singing.  Then when they are all in place they start their next couple of songs.  There is no music except an African drum that one of the kids plays from his seat in the back.  The ladies sing acapella and they keep rhythm with their dancing/movements.  Each song has a slightly different dance that goes with it.  They are amazing!

And speaking of amazing....here is the Rainbow praise team!  These are some of the older Rainbow kids and a couple of staff members.  They lead our worship and choruses each Sunday.  They are simply amazing. And as you can see they sing directly from the heart, lifting their voices to our Lord in a glorious song!  

Prayer time

The sermon this Sunday was delivered by Jeremy and Pastor Nasson (he is the head pastor and an ABC graduate) translated the sermon into Chichewa.  When Jeremy is not preaching Pastor Nasson still delivers the sermon in English (for our family) and Martin (a current ABC student and the girls house parent) translates into Chichewa.  

We have a great church where there is much work to do and many opportunities for spreading the Word!  Praise God!

Baptism at Rainbow!

Words cannot describe the amazing day we had out at Rainbow yesterday.  Rainbow Community Church (the church we've been attending for the past few months) and the village church plants that were started from Rainbow held their annual baptism and Lord's Supper service.  Throughout the year, any new believer who desires to follow the Lord in believer's baptism is discipled and ministered to throughout the year and the baptism happens on the Rainbow orphanage grounds every June.  Nearly 90 new believers were baptized from 3 churches. It was such an amazing experience.  The choirs were singing, the prayers were going up to the Heavenly Father, and there were cheers and yells as the saints followed their Savior in obedience through believer's baptism!  

After the baptism everyone shared in the Lord's Supper.  How wonderful to share in this precious event with our brothers and sisters in Malawi.

The man with the Bible is Brother Scotty McDowell.  He is the man who started Rainbow.  He comes over once a year with a team of people from all over the Southeast to minister and love on the children. We really enjoyed getting to meet him and talk with him about the ministry and the needs that Rainbow has.  Our family is so blessed and excited to be a part of this work of the Lord.

After the service Bro. Scotty's team and a bunch of the Rainbow kids (and half of the Kysers) hiked up Bunda mountain.  

What a blessing this day was for us.  God is truly at work here in Malawi and at Rainbow.  We are so blessed that He is allowing us to be a part of HIS work here!  If anyone feels led to come and serve at Rainbow for a week, a month, a year....then please let me know.  There is plenty of room and plenty of need!