Sunday, February 10, 2008

IRC News links

Some Internal Rescue Committee (IRC) news links related women in the D.R. Congo:

An ongoing crisis: Mortality in DRC

The Congolese people have been victims of war for over a decade. The most recent conflit caused:

  • Mass displacements
  • Collapse of health systems
  • Food shortages

All of these have contributed to a major increase in mortality ... deaths equivalent to the state of Colorado or country of Denmark ... all in a decade!

In addition to the video below, please read the IRC's special Congo Special Report: Congo in Crisis.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

February Prayer Focus - Elementary School

Elementary school at Mulungwishi

Pray for the Elementary School ... for Principal Phillip Mwembo, the faculty, and the children.

The Elementary School serves about 450 children from Mulungwishi station and the nearby villages. For many of these children, especially the girls, this is the only formal education they will ever get.

Monday, February 04, 2008

As we travel ...

Donations fund transformer repairs!

What a great God we serve and what great brothers and sisters we have in the Lord!! Our prayers have been answered. The money has been raised for the repairs for our transformer at Mulungwishi. We want to specifically thank 1st UMC Stillwater, OK; Ardmore UMC Ardmore, OK; Reynoldsburg UMC Reynoldsburg, Ohio and the Pillsbury’s in Ft Mohave, AZ for their gifts. Praise the LORD!

Pacific Northwest Conference visits

We have just completed visiting churches in the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference. We appreciated so much the welcome that we received in those churches. We also had wonderful visits with so many who had visited us in Congo. It is so exciting to be able to connect with people who have caught the vision of what the Lord is doing in Congo and are taking it back to their local congregations. Some have returned two and three times to Congo. We were also in contact (particularly Mike and Terry Hobbs) with those who loaded and put together two containers for projects in Congo. The items for Mulungwishi are already there. Cartons of baby clothes and material for the Women’s School are in our living room waiting for us to return. Can’t wait to celebrate Christmas in March.

On to Northern California

We are now starting our itineration in Northern California. From here we will spend a couple of days in Southern California in Churches we were not able to visit last year. Our tour ends up in Arizona from mid-February on. We return to Denver in March to pack up and return to Africa.

Story of one seminarian

We want to share the story of one of our new students in the Seminary. Kambongo Longesa (Jean-Marie de Dieu) is married and has 3 children. He was born of Christian parents in 1962. His wife’s parents are also Christians. He grew up within the church and as he grew older took more and more responsibilities within the church. Kambongo was influential in the construction of two churches, Jerusalem and Tshiwengo. He became disillusioned with the church because of the conduct of the clergy (both Catholic and Methodist).

Later on he was wooed back into the church by the activities of the youth group, choirs and scouts. It was in a retreat lead by Pastor Sul-A-Nawej (one of our Mulungwishi graduates) that Kambongo received his call into the ministry. The verse from 2 Timothy 2:2 is the verse that inspired him to follow Christ and become a minister of the Gospel: “and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit them to faithful men who will be able to teach others also”. Pray for Kambongo and his family as he starts his studies to fulfill the all God has put on his life.