Congo Team Issues Mission Report

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Leonard Kiswangi

Report on the recent Mini Mission to Kikwit Mennonite Church, Ndeke, Congo

This mission was initiated at the request of the Mennonite Church of Kikwit III to encourage the parishioners to evangelise their neighborhood.  Leonard was asked to motivate the congregation and encourage them and their Pastor. 

Most of the inhabitants of this suburb of Kinshasa are farmers.  The main activities are teaching, farming and trading, but because of the context of the country, there are very few jobs available .  The senior Pastor, brother Khelembo was finding it difficult to build up the Church due to a lack of contribution from the parishioners.  There are between 70 to 150 people at Sunday services and these are mainly women and children.  Leonard encouraged more anticipation and motivated them to evangelise the community, by telling them the Good News of the Gospel and bringing them into the Church. 

After discussions with Pastor Khelembo, a program was decided upon to start the next day.  So the next day  Leonard and Pastor Khelembo set off for the Church on the Pastor’s means of transport - a bicycle!   Such an experience, but it was fun, says Leonard as they shared the Gospel while riding.   Unfortunately, the bicycle had a breakdown and for the next day’s meeting, a taxi had to be hired.  Because of the terrain the taxi could only go a part of the way and then there was a half-an-hour’s walk.  Again, says Leonard this was a time of fun and joyful sharing.

Because of testimonies from the first meeting, there were a number of new people at the next meeting and many experienced the wonderful healing power of Jesus Christ.

To wrap up, there was an intensive time of intercession for the congregation, the city and the completion of the Chapel.  It was realised that the Lord had backed up this mini mission but there was need for many more similar events.

A sad note for Leonard was hearing the Pastor witness that for the first time they had collected 1000 CF (about US$2) during the second day of the meetings in which there were more than 100 people!  This is indeed an extremely poor area.

Leonard praised the Lord for allowing him this opportunity as in spite of feeling the pain with which the Pastor renders his service to the Lord, there is hope for a glorious future for this Church and this community.