Burning bricks for the Kingdom

As we celebrated graduation at the end of June, and watch our graduates go out to their designations, we always feel like parents when their children break from the nest and head out towards the world! It is a happy –sad time and we are always in prayer for our graduates, their families and their ministries. Two years ago, we wrote about our graduates and how far they would travel to reach their designations, and what mode of transport they would use to get there. After we returned this year, we have been contacting some of them and wanted to share their stories … their testimonies.

Considering the continued instability of the country, the economic downturn, which has been very serious for Congo, because of the stop in mining, and the places to which they went, torn by the war and tragedy, they have been living in the midst of miracles! It is with great joy and praise to our Lord, that we share what He has guided them to accomplish! We want to call this “Burning bricks for the Kingdom!”

Rev Kabambe and Mama Ilunga

Rev Kabambe and Mama Ilunga went out to their first church assignment using train, steamboat and bicycles! The journey took three weeks and 250 miles. They were sent to Mulongo where there is a strong Methodist presence. They found a congregation of 250 members and a foundation for a larger Church! With vision and tenacity the Church family is burning bricks for the new sanctuary and also a pastor’s house. They are also trying to raise money for the roofing. Despite having been wiped out during the war, and returning to nothing, people have started to rebuild their lives. At the same time, Rev. Kabambe is teaching at the local extension of the national university in the College of Education. The graduates of Mulungwishi are highly sought after because of their academic preparation.

Mama Ilunga is sharing the knowledge she gained at the Women’s School with the women in the area and hopes to start a women’s sewing center. The Church is also working to organize a local kindergarten. Together, they are doing a great deal of counseling with victims of the Rwandese Rebels. Many women and children were raped and families torn apart and have lost everything because of the conflict. There is also a local radio station and Pastor Kabambe gives a weekly message on forgiveness, reconciliation and peace. So in the midst of devastation the Good News is being shared and lived out through Rev. Kabambe and Ilunga.

Pastor Timothy Numbi Lukengo and Mama Banza

Pastor Timothy Numbi Lukengo and Mama Banza were designated to Kyolo where there was no church building! It took them more than three weeks to get to their appointment using the train, steam boat, canoe and finally bicycles! They found a small and struggling congregation. During this past year, they have built the congregation to 500 and have made a temporary structure in which they are worshipping! Due to the incredible growth, they also are burning bricks in order to build a permanent sanctuary and a parsonage. The North Katanga Annual Conference has also provided 80 sheets of roofing. Pastor Timothy also teaches religion in the public school and classes at the Brethren Bible School.

Mama Banza is teaching women in the area knitting and other skills she learned at the Women’s School. Pastor Timothy is also working in a program of evangelism in partnership with the Church of the Brethren, the other Protestant Church present in the area.

Pastor Robert Kalau and Mama Umba

Several times in our letters we have shared about Pastor Robert Kalau and Mama Umba. They had been on route for more than a month to get to their appointment at Kongolo because the trains were not running as they should. They found a foundation for a large church and the existing Church filled. They went to work burning bricks to continue with the construction. A month later, Bishop moved them to Nyunzu where Robert became the District Superintendent. Again, it took them 7 days, on the back of an old truck, to reach their destination. Their work has been greatly involved with bringing reconciliation in the district because of the conflicts in the region with the Mai Mai rebel group and other armies from Rwanda and Uganda . One of the Mai Mai leaders, who was involved with so much witch craft, has become a Christian and is now the lay leader of one of the churches! Praise the Lord!

Other leaders, challenges

Other churches are being established with other lay leadership. It is difficult to describe the depths of the horror, death and destruction the local people have lived through. Now, with very little, their people are making a comeback! They are mainly building with mud brick and grass roofs , digging new gardens ... and trying to find some way of doing commerce locally including sending produce by train. However, these last three months the trains have not run and the prices of salt and other staples were incredible! Can you imagine having to pay $2 for a small glass of salt! It will take awhile to renew the land but also heal the memories of horror and loss.

The Lord is faithful and just this last week, Robert sent us a message that they had baptized 170 pygmies this past week, from a Church in his district! Besides his ecclesiastic responsibilities, Robert is also teaching at the local university extension in the college of education . Umba is taking nursing courses at the university and teaching women in Churches during weekend.

In each step of the way, we have asked for your prayers and you have been involved with support, encouragement and prayers for these ministers. Isn’t exciting to see more of the Kingdom realized! God through His people is bringing healing, redemption, and New Life! Thank you for being apart and for reaching out to people you do not know but giving in faith!

The reality is that not only are they burning real bricks but these young Pastor families are helping to build the growing members of the Lord's Kingdom! Thank you for praying and being faithful. Keep praying! We give the Lord all the praise and glory!

In the news

A few recent news media stories related to the DR Congo...

• Violence against women (World Council of Churches News Release)
• Rapes by Army a growing problem (Human Rights Watch report)
• Mineral firms fuel Congo unrest (BBC)
• River blindness can be beaten (BBC)

Beware -- email scam

Two of our faculty members, Kongolo and Nkonge, are in Senegal giving courses in our Masters of Leadership program. While there, they visited a cyber cafe to check their email.

Somehow their email address and passwords were pirated along with their address list. People on their list are now getting fake emails from them saying that they are stranded in London and could money be sent by Western Union. This is a scam.

Both Kongolo and Nkonge are getting new email addresses.

Pastoral student dies

Yesterday was a difficult day. We lost one of our second year Seminary students to liver cancer. Longesa was complaining of abdominal pains in March and we sent him for an echo[cardiogram] to see what it was. The Doctor diagnosed it as liver cancer. We then sent him to Lubumbashi to see Dr. Delgado, a good friend and 7th Day Adventist Surgeon. After consultation, he did surgery taking out over a third of the liver and a very large tumor (generous gifts from Hobbs, NM were sent for the surgery.) A graduate, Rev. Chal, from last year’s Masters degree, has a Church near Delgado and his congregation helped the family with donations of blood, food and transport. It has been different for us, as the culture here will not tell an individual that he has a terminal disease as they feel this would shock the person and he would die prematurely!

After recovery from the surgery, Longesa returned to Mulungwishi. For several weeks now, he had been going downhill. A week ago, we and the chaplain called in the family to talk with them about the situation and to prepare them for what was to come. We were able to have prayer with the family and with Longesa several times in this past week.

Longesa passed away around midnight on Saturday. His funeral and burial were on Sunday afternoon. Parts of the family and church people from all over the area have come to celebrate his ‘ homegoing’. The ‘kilio’ or wake will be three days. People stay all night and sing and pray. He is the first student that we have had in pastoral student to have died while at school. He is survived by his wife and 8 children. Please pray for them as they face the future.

At the same time, we have lost a sweet good friend, Vicki Owens, a pastor’s wife from Bear, Delaware. She also suffered from liver cancer. Please be in prayer for the Owens family also. We are so grateful for the hope of the resurrection that we have in Christ.

We thank you so much for your continued prayers and we always enjoy hearing from you.

Visit by Minister of Higher Ed

We want to thank you for your continued prayers and standing with the people of Mulungwishi in the things that are so pertinent to our lives. In the past few weeks, God has done wonderful things in putting pieces together.

Electric hope

In terms of our electricity, the railroad has ended its strike and there is hope that they will be bringing in another transformer to replace theirs that was burned out. We have ordered a new more powerful transformer for the mission station. It is being assembled in South Africa and we should have it in Congo within 6 to 8 weeks.

College of Agriculture too?

The Minister of Higher Education came to visit the Universities in the Province. Mulungwishi was on the agenda. Everything that he was looking for in a University, he found at Mulungwishi. He said, “The hope for Congo and its educational system is found in the private Christian Universities.” He also wanted us to start a college of agriculture. He commented that our library was probably the second or third best in the country. The Minister also visited the graves of Bishop and Mrs. Springer, who started the Methodist work in this part of the Congo, Mom and Dad Bartlett and Congolese pastors.

Lori destined for TV?

The Women’s School was a revelation to him and he insisted that Lori be interviewed for national television. Over supper, David gave a speech outlining Mulungwishi’s past, present and future. He mentioned the problems of miners wanting to take over the Mulungwishi hill with the cross. That hill is a symbol to the Christian community and an historical site containing the caves where Msiri, a chief who opposed the Belgians, hid during the colonial period. Below the hill is the underground river which is the source of the station’s water supply. David also mentioned the abandoned farm across the road which belongs to the state mining company. Since the minister is pushing us to open a college of agriculture, this farm would be ideal for this project and could the government give it to us. The minister wanted to take all this information and take it back to the capital to the members of the Cabinet.

Be in prayer

We have put together dossiers on the hill, the farm, accreditation for our Masters of Leadership and also accreditation for the College of Public Health at our extension in Kamina. Dr. Kasap, the President of the University, and Bishop Ntambo have flown to Kinshasa to present these dossiers to the various Ministers concerned. Be in much prayer that the Lord would intervene and give us grace in the eyes of the authorities.

More photos

I've completed scanning and posting of the 2008 Graduation period photos. Also, Esther, a volunteer from Switzerland, was kind enough to mail a CD of some photos from her visit to Mulungwishi in July and August, 2008.

The photos are mostly about the Nutrition Program, Doris Bartlett Women's School, and of children, but there are a few others. Included in the newly posted photos are ones of kids at Fungurume, a town about 18 miles from the Mulungwishi campus.

David says, "It will soon be a boom town. There are fantastic copper and cobalt deposits and they are just beginning the production. The big investors are Phelps Dodge out of Phoenix. They have just been bought out by Freeport. But it is an impressive setup and one that would make Americans proud. They really care about safety and the environment. I won't go into details, but it is mining done right and with concern for the population."

• Doris Bartlett (Mama Doris) Women's School photo gallery
• Nutrition Program gallery
• All of the new photos

Post-Easter news

We have just celebrated Easter and we rejoice in the truth of our risen Lord! What a hope we have. Our local Mulungwishi Church celebrated with special music and baptisms of three babies, eleven children, and thirteen adults and then received thirty-two into membership.

Lori's aunt died

This Easter was particularly meaningful to us as a family this month. We lost Lori’s Aunt Joan on Palm Sunday. She was Lori’s mother’s younger sister and died at the age of 86. Aunt Joan was like a second mother to Lori, particularly when she was separated from her parents when they were in Congo. All through the years she has been encouraging and always had good counsel. She was a wonderful person and we will surely miss her. On Easter Sunday evening, Lori’s second cousin on her father’s side, Kyle, passed away from cancer. She has been battling this for several years. She was in her 40’s and leaves behind her husband and three children. It has been a hard week for the Family. Truly the resurrection brings us hope in the midst of these losses. As Paul says, “Death where is your victory?”

Internet access is intermittent

We also need to catch you up on several items that we asked you specifically to pray about. We have to explain that even though we now have Internet in our home, it does not always work! Smile! Also, we need the generator running … sometimes we think the Internet runs when the power is not on and stops when we put the power on! So we are not always able to keep up with your emails. Keep praying for patience! Wish we could send our parrot, Isaiah, to tell you about everything because he picks things up and makes comments all the time!

Bandits may be under control

First, our concern with the armed bandits that had come on the station several times and have beaten people and stolen their money. Part of the problem, was one of the local chiefs, who was also the police chief for the area, and has a real alcoholic problem. He had come on to the station, out of his head with all kinds of accusations and didn’t make sense at all. He was angry and threatening to anyone who tried to help him. As he got angrier and he said he was calling for soldiers to come and destroy the station and also he wanted to shoot our Dean Emeritus, Dr. Kajoba! Finally he left. It was that night that the first bandits came on the station. So there was a real sense that his people were behind it. The following day police from outside the area came to make an investigation and we called in all the local chiefs and explained what happened. They were appalled and that evening he was arrested and removed. It put everyone in a state of insecurity as we have not had to deal with people with arms before. The District Commissioner and head of the police came and brought a new police chief. We have two policemen, patrolling with arms, on the station and we also have students patrolling from time to time. Things seem to have quieted down but we remain vigilant. Thank you for your concerns and prayers. We trust these were isolated incidents.

Electricity problems

Our second and more complicated problem is that of electricity. The Train Company remains on strike! As you know, our own newer transformer was blown. Then from time to time we were lent one from the Train Company … paying rent for a lesser one and yet it was their fault that ours blew! Then with poor maintenance the small transformers blew also! We need a new one, with more power, than before, as the University keeps growing! We wrote all this up as a project, as well as construction for new dormitories. This project was presented to the Governor of Katanga in mid-February. He gave the order that we be given $50,000 for the project ($25,000 for the transformer and $25,000 for the construction). Will wonders never cease! However, knowledge of his letter and his gift was kept from us by his staff for several weeks. Finally, we got the message! Yea! Dr. Kasap, the President of the University, went to Lubumbashi to follow up on this and get the money. It took him a month to get it! (Kind of like paperwork in our government! ) The lower echelon of government people were not interested in parting with so much money if they did not get something also! Dr. Kasap held firm and didn’t lose his cool but persistently kept pushing to get the money. They cooked up many hurdles to get through! (Someday, we should write a book!) They finally had the money for him. Praise the Lord for answered prayer and using people we did not expect help from!! In a real concrete way, He is bringing light into our darkness!!! We are now working with engineers and people in South Africa, to order the best transformer that fits our needs. Our guess is that it will take two to three months to get it!! Also, we have to have the Train Company up and running and work with the Electric Company. This will mean more leg work and paperwork and getting the right people to work on installing! Keep praying!

Everyday news

On the everyday home front, we keep teaching classes and answering the hundred needs at the door. With the world financial crisis, people, here, are struggling even more than before, if that is possible! The mining groups have closed most of their places for now, waiting for copper to go back up! Soooo much malnutrition and children hurting for help! Thank you, to all those who keep the nutrition program going.

Prayer request

Again, we want to thank you for your continual prayer support during these difficult times. Indeed, God’s presence in these times and your standing with us is a great comfort to us and to all living at Mulungwishi. We are very much aware of the financial crisis in the States and what you are going through, so it means even more, to have your faithful gifts and support! Keep praying!