Our first Sunday has arrived. We were able to share this special day worshiping with the community at Glad Tidings Church in Victoria, BC.

We started off bright and early at 6am, getting everything ready for the long day ahead. We were at the church by 8 to setup our tables, do sound checks and get media running. We performed at both of Glad Tidings’ morning services at 9am and 10:30am.

Funny enough, Amanda had met Kirsten Blackstock (Glad Tiding’s Communications Coordinator) at the Echo Conference in 2009. At that same time, Amanda met Nadine Feser and subsequently began working with Pamoja. Now, by complete surprise, Amanda and Kirsten were brought back together by Pamoja and the En-kata Tour, getting to work side-by-side running media for Sunday’s services. It really is amazing how God is bringing things full circle on this tour, connecting and re-connecting friends from around the world.

After the morning services, we were blown away by people’s response to En-kata. We completely sold out of all 60 books that we had brought with us to the church and had to send Natasha back across town to bring more. The people simply fell in love with the En-kata mission, and in return, we fell in love with the community at Glad Tidings.

Pastor Ron took us out to lunch, at which we ran into several people who had been at the church services. We also had to continually apologize to our waitress because we could never remember which language we should be speaking. She may have gotten a few orders in Swahili, and then English when we realized we were being met with a blank stare of confusion. But in the end, the Maasai decided that they rather liked Swiss Chalet.

We returned to Glad Tidings in the evening for their Adore services and walked into a completely transformed space. What was a bright, sunshine filled room had been darkened and multiple large projection screens had been installed on the stage. This was most definitely a more media-emphasized service with a young creatives crowd. The Maasai watched with eyes full of wonder at the projection show that Amanda and Kirsten were putting together. Then, they were filled with excitement as the seats all filled. Tonight would be a packed house.

The choir definitely drew some energy from the crowd as they rocked the church!

And a little fun after the service…

An audience member randomly had a mullet wig, which he shared with Yona (or should we call him James Brown?)

Another Pamoja volunteer, Kirsten Hitchcock came to visit us!