A Get-Together before the New Jerusalem

On the last day before the Wilmarths and I were to leave Congo in September, Kara was singing to her friends in the back of Didier's car. Didier explained she was using the tune of a song from church but she was singing words he had never heard before, but he thinks she made up. The words were (in her language) something like "Some of us are going, some are staying here, but one day we'll all be together in the New Jerusalem." Not bad for a 2-year old!

Kara had seen her friends Jordan and Jaime leave the orphanage the last time a white person was there, and she knew she and her twin brother Brandon were about to do the same while others would remain at the orphanage, including the little guy Matteus who was also there as she sang (pictured in the middle of Kara and Brandon below).

Last weekend saw Kara's sweet song realized (or previewed) in ways beyond what she may have realized at the time she sang it in the presence of her parents, Didier, myself, and Matteus. On Saturday all those same people were reunited, not in New Jerusalem, but in the new home of the Loucks, with her Congo friends Jordan and Jaime and the little guy Matteus above, and new siblings. There were a bunch of adults there but here's just the kids (Laytons, Loucks, Wilmarths - Matteus on far left)

Once again, my twin brother Didier is wearing the same shirt as me (I didn't even know he had the same shirt till I showed up wearing it that night!) In case you can't tell who's who because of the same shirt, Didier is on the left.


I mentioned the song Kara sang that last day in Congo in one of my Sunday morning messages and played the clip of it on a Sunday evening after I had returned in September. After that message a sweet lady in our church wrote me a note: "When you told the story of the 2-year-old girl at the orphanage realizing that some of them would go and some would stay, I remembered this song from former years ;)

Then she enclosed a copy from an old hymnal of this gospel song "In The New Jerusalem" written exactly 100 years ago by C. B Widmeyer:

When the toils of life are over, And we lay our armor down,

And we bid farewell to earth with all its cares,
We shall meet and greet our loved ones, And our Christ we then shall crown,
In the new Jerusalem.

Refrain: There'll be singing, there'll be shouting When the saints come marching home,
In Jerusalem, in Jerusalem,
Waving palms with loud hosannas As the King shall take His throne,
In the new Jerusalem.

Though the way is sometimes lonely, He will hold me with His hand,
Through the testings and the trials I must go.
But I'll trust and gladly follow, For sometime I'll understand,
In the new Jerusalem (Refrain)

When the last goodbye is spoken And the tear stains wiped away,
And our eyes shall catch a glimpse of glory fair,
Then with bounding hearts we'll meet Him Who hath washed our sins away,
In the new Jerusalem (Refrain)

When we join the ransomed army In the summer land above,

And the face of our dear Savior we behold,
We will sing and shout forever, And we'll grow in perfect love,
In the new Jerusalem (Refrain)



If you're an adopted child of God, you have a much greater and more glorious gathering to look forward to in the New Jerusalem with God's multi-ethnic family (Revelation 21-22). But I was thankful for a small-scale picture or preview God gave us this past Saturday with human families of Chinese, Belgian, African, and European-American elements that God has woven together. Alleluia.

From left to right: Wilmarths, Jim Hagen, Didier, Laytons, Paul Anthes, Bob Wheatley holding Jamie Louck, then rest of Loucks family, including Grandpa Loucks. Jim, Paul, and Bob are the Compassion for Congo ministry team that has helped make all this possible