Pastor Mtenzi has just completed the most recent training session of 46 church planters. Some have been selected to begin work in a new areas planting churches.
Barry Mosier and family leave for DRC on August 17.
Keith, Tammy and Nathan will return with some visitors on September 23.
Barry Mosier-Aug 1- Columbus SDA Church, Nebraska-11am church service
Keith and Tammy Mosier-
Aug 1 -Meadow Vista SDA Church, California-11am church service
Aug 15-St Helena SDA Church,California-11am church service
Aug 22-East Ridge SDA Church-Tennesee- 11 am church service
Aug 29-Greenville SDA Church-Tennesee-7pm vespers service
Sept 5-Eastwood SDA Church-Columbus, Ohio-11am church service
Sept 12-Detroit Lakes SDA Church-Minnesota-11am church service
Sept 19-Thief River Falls SDA Church-Minnesota-11am church service
Today we taped a television interview at 3ABN regarding our work in DRC. They Plan to air the program world wide on Aug. 1 2009 at the following times 1am 8am 2pm 10pm. Times reflect Central Standard time in the USA.
The interview will be of Keith & Tammy Mosier (married just 9 days now) and Barry Mosier. We just wanted to let you know in case you or those you know would like to watch it.
As we meet people on the street, we never know what pain they may have suffered in the past. Coming from a time of war here in Congo, many carry with them the horrible memories of the past.
Yesterday we helped a Rwandan woman whose little son needs hernia repair. She is haunted by the horrors of the past. The smallest reminder brings back a flood of painful memories. She wept bitterly as she related her story. We will share only a little.
When the genocide swept across Rwanda in 1994, she was only in her mid teens. Suddenly, one day their village was surrounded by the rival tribe armed with machetes and spears. As she ran with other teens she could hear the screams of her family and fellow tribesmen who were brutally murdered. Soon realizing that there was no escape, she laid down amidst the bodies of the slain. Finally, the perpetrators left, confident that their evil work was complete. Seeing all of her family was dead, she fled with the little money she found in the pockets of the victims.
She and a few other survivors ran day and night towards the border. She remembers being so hungry that she ate dirt. They feared to meet anyone lest they be betrayed. Finally, she crossed the border into Tanzania and eventually married a Congolese man. Now that she lives in DRC, she still fears soldiers and people of the rival tribe. She leads a broken life with her husband and children- haunted by painful memories.
April Mosier has made friends with the daughters of our landlord here in Kisangani. Now that they are friends, they finally confided in April some of their memories of the war here in Kisangani in 2002. They were trapped in their school when the fighting broke out. They remained there for days without food as the sound of bullets and exploding mortars filled the air. When they were finally rescued, they made the mistake of looking around while they walked home. Now they too are haunted by the memories of bloated bodies on the street, including a pregnant woman who had been dismembered. At home they found part of their home (where Nathan Rittenour now lives) destroyed by a bomb.
Last week, one of our church planters came for help with his twelve year old sister Angela who lives with him and his wife. Angela had just been raped by the son of a high official in their town. When he went to the official to seek justice, he was told, “Get out of here! If you make an issue of this, I’ll kill you.” We helped to get the sister sewn up after the brutal assault. However after a week of futile efforts, he has given up trying to get justice in this corrupt society. Sadly, the national disgrace of ongoing rape continues, and this little girl can only ask Jesus to help her forget that terrible day.
We have spared our readers from many gory details in these stories and many more stories could be shared. As we pass people day by day here, we can only guess what sadness and pain lurks under the surface from Satan’s assaults. We praise God that we can bring the hope of a soon coming Savior to hurting people. Only through Jesus can people let go of the pain and bitterness. His love is enough to bring healing and peace. Please pray for us as we minister to wounded hearts and bodies in DRC.
Most of our existing church members live to the south of Kisangani. Fifty and sixty year ago, SDA missionaries came to those areas bringing with them the light of truth. Sadly, after the foreigners were driven out in the 1960’s these new members backslid to a greater or lesser degree. The war years brought additional discouragements and hardships.
Remembering the reformations instituted by Nehemiah for the Jews in Bible times, we traveled there for a four day series of meetings with all church leaders and pastors. What a welcome awaited us!! We were met at the outskirts of the town by church leaders and members. Then, we became a parade. We walked the half mile to the church followed by singing members waiving their arms in the air. Local people joined the grand procession, cheering our arrival-the first white missionaries they had seen in over forty years. Needless to say, we were completely overwhelmed.
We taught lessons about tithe paying, family worship, Sabbath keeping, evangelism, unclean foods, adultery, etc… We were surprised at the situation among our people. In a predominantly Adventist town, pigs roamed everywhere. I was surprised to be asked after my stewardship presentation whether or not tithe should be paid on beer production.
Some of the topics were well received and others were harder to accept. Change is difficult. We knew that the local field had no financial base to pay pastors since the tithe paying had slipped such a small fraction of the members. However, as we taught, we saw a spirit of repentance in the congregation.
By the time we left, people were sharing testimonies in favor of the teachings. We believe that if these reformations are sincerely followed, the Lord will be able to bless the church members in a mighty way once again. For us, it was heartwarming to be so well accepted. We will continue to pray for God’s Spirit to be poured out on His people.
An interview with Keith Mosier, President and Nathan Rittenour, Development Director
Ques: Congo Frontline Missions is constructing a new campus five miles north of Kisangani. How is the progress going?
Nathan Rittenour: It is going well. When we look forward, it seems overwhelming. However, when we look back, we see the bulldozer clearing the campus, building a road, and bringing the campus up to grade. The two containers with building materials have now reached the port in Matadi.
Ques: What will be the functions of the buildings on the campus?
Nathan Rittenour: The buildings include a classroom, cafeteria and dormitories to train church planters. In addition, we will build staff housing, a shop, an administration building and greenhouses.
Keith Mosier: The purpose for our school will be for training in evangelism, health and agriculture. The focus of all activities will be evangelism.
Ques: Have you had any unexpected blessings up to now?
Nathan: Yes. Right on our 125 acre property, God provided gravel, sand and clay for construction and road building. We also have water and good farming soil. So far, we have made over 30,000 bricks and have some of the wood on our property to fire them.
Keith: So many blessings. People who have built campuses around the world gave us valuable advice and building plans. Others gave us funds to acquire land, a 4 ton truck and a pickup. Nathan Rittenour joined our team to make the development possible. Someone offered to pay for a bulldozer to clear the land and build the road. We received some generous gifts like a skid steer loader, trailer and cement mixer, along with a container to ship building materials from America. However, the biggest blessing has been the donation of steel frames and roof sheets for 22 specially designed buildings from the One Day Church project. We will be the first “One Day Institution” and we’re excited about it! It’s hard to list all the blessing, but we praise God for them!
Ques: Do you still have some challenges ahead of you?
Nathan: Building supplies in this country are very expensive. Some supplies are just not available here in Congo. We’re scratching our heads to figure out which country might have them.
Keith: Cement is so costly. We are praying for donors who will help us buy cement and other building material. We are short of money to complete the campus. We are also grateful that a few qualified people have offered to come and help us build, we could use more volunteer carpenters, masons, plumbers, etc for the construction project.
Ques: Does CFM still have some specific needs to make the campus a reality?
Keith: Yes we do. We need, funds for cement, windows, doors, plumbing and for finishing the buildings. A big hurdle for us will still be bringing in electricity from about 2 miles away. We continue to move forward in faith. God has led us to this point and we know He will see the project.
We praise God for the blessings we have seen during the first year of Congo Frontline Missions’ existence. Since our first lay training session, we have established our 17 church planters in areas near to Kisangani and to the East. We have learned much about the area and how to improve our methods of working.
We are thankful for the results of the first field-wide pastor’s meetings as well as the revival meetings we had for churches to the south. With unmistakable evidence of God’s leading up to now, we feel the time has come to advance boldly to the west (along the Congo River) and the north. This means moving into areas of the Lingala language where the truth has not penetrated.
We are planning our next lay training session for the months of June and July, 2009. The training will be done in the Lingala language. The final corrections to the Lingala Bible studies have been completed and we anticipate Light Bearers Ministry will soon print the new lessons. Recently, we have hired two full time pastors to assist pastor Mtenzi in his work of teaching and supervising the church planters. One will be a regional supervisor for church planters in the remote northern area. The other will assist locally and become a trainer in our evangelism school. After the training session we plan to send out church planters to these vast unentered areas.
In February, we drove west along the Congo River and conducted baptisms in our Yanongi and Yaoseko church plants. At Yanongi, our four new member had to cross the river by canoe to meet us for their baptism. As local villagers witnessed the baptism, they were deeply impressed and requested us to bring a teacher to them so they could be baptized, too. At the time, we felt their interest was more connected to our foreign faces than to a sincere interest.
However, they have persisted in their request and we now believe they are sincere. We are planning to send a church planter soon to their village in answer to their call for help. Jesus longs for us to finish the work of sharing the gospel to all the world so He can come and take His people home. Thanks for your prayers and support as we carry the message of hope and truth to the remote regions of the Congo.
Two of our church planters–Mikendi and Clementina walked from house to house in the village of Six on the outskirts of Kisangani. As they approached one home, they heard the terrible screaming of a young girl. After a loud knock, a lady opened the door and just beyond her, they saw the father beating his young daughter mercilessly.
“Why are you beating your daughter?” they asked.
“I found out she’s a witch and I want to beat this witchcraft out of her,” answered the father in a rage. “She’ll tell you herself. She’s a witch.”
Soon little nine year old Jenny had recovered her senses. She tearfully explained. “I was living with our relatives in the capital city a year ago. They used witchcraft a lot. Soon evil spirits threatened me and I started doing witchcraft with my aunt. I was afraid to stop or they would kill me. When I returned home, I never told my parents. Secretly, I sneak out of the house on certain nights to meet other witches at our meeting place in the graveyard. We did many powerful and bad things in the night. Last night before we started our chants, two shining white beings appeared to us. We were afraid, because they were so bright and seemed so much stronger than us. They said to us, ‘Jesus is coming very, very soon. He is just outside the door. You need to get ready. This is no time to be practicing witchcraft!’ After they disappeared, we all agreed to leave our witchcraft and warn people about the soon coming of Jesus. When I told Daddy what happened, he started to beat me.”
“There! You see! She admits to bringing witchcraft into our house,” shouted the father as he prepared to resume the beating.
“Wait! Don’t hit her,” shouted Mikendi. Don’t you see that she is already converted. She wants to follow Jesus. He helped her to leave witchcraft behind.” As they reasoned with the father, he calmed down. Finally, Clementina dressed Jenny’s wounds and they got some medicine to help her. But best of all, they are studying the Bible with Jenny. She is excited about her new hope in Jesus.
Most of all dear reader, she wants YOU to know just how soon we will see Jesus coming to take us home. Let us let go of the things in our lives that will hinder us from rising up to meet Him in the air. Please listen to the warnings of these angels. Thanks for your prayers and support for our church planters here in the heart of darkness.
Msafiri Mtenzi slammed on the brakes as he rounded the corner in the road. The mud from the heavy morning rains caused him to skid a ways before stopping. On his way to do revival meetings with two of our church planters about 100 miles from Kisangani, he was not prepared for what lay before him.
Only minutes before, an Isuzu truck loaded with much cargo and many people had lost control due to excessive speed. Now, the truck lay sprawled on its side across the road, with passengers and cargo scattered everywhere. Some of the injured were still crawling off the road through the mud as they tried to assess their own injuries. Others were being helped by uninjured passengers and early passersby.
Mtenzi, a man of action, leaped from our land cruiser to assess the situation. In consultation with others, he learned that three people were apparently dead already. Others needed to get to a hospital as they lay shivering from the cold rain. Quickly, he offered to take as many of the injured as possible back to Kisangani.
Soon seven injured passengers were squeezed into the cruiser. As Mtenzi turned to get into the vehicle, he heard a faint, “Help me! Please help me!” Turning toward the sound of the voice, he saw in the ditch the crumpled form of a woman. His heart was touched with pity as he saw that her left shoulder was badly injured. She lay curled into a ball, shaking with pain and cold.
“But there’s no more room in the car,” he heard one of his helpers say.
“This one goes on my lap if necessary, but she is going with us!” he stated. Mtenzi pressed the accelerator fearing that the lady might not live long enough to reach help. His silent prayers were answered as he reached the hospital in time. Soon all were getting medical help.
After returning home to wash some of the blood out of the car, he was soon on his way to the revival again. The meetings were successful over the weekend and two people were baptized. Two days later, he was thrilled to return to the hospital to find all eight people still alive.
“God sent you to save our lives,” called the woman as he entered her room to visit and pray with her. “We all want to start coming to your church. May God bless you!”
We hear other voices calling faintly from the jungle, “Help us, please help us.” Millions of people in the jungle still don’t have the joy of knowing their Savior. Consider sponsoring a church planter to help carry the gospel truth to unentered villages for $70 per month. Thanks in advance for your prayers as we continue to reach deeper into the jungle with the light.
This week there was a shout of joy when the rented bulldozer reached our property. We had been waiting a long time for this great day. It will fix the road to our property and clear the brush and trees from our new campus.
We are always amazed at how God blesses in so many ways. We had planned to cut the jungle with slashers and machetes, but a friend of Congo Frontline Missions offered to help pay for a bulldozer to speed up the work. What a blessing!
Another special blessing was to find not only deposits of sand on our new property, but also sizable deposits of gravel. Now, we have enough gravel to repair our road and cover all our construction needs. We see more than ever that God prepared this property especially for our mission station!
The One-Day church buildings are on their way crossing the ocean as well as a container with building supplies and equipment. Nathan Rittenour is busy making plans and arrangements for construction.
Soon our new campus will be a reality! Praise God.
The mighty Congo River weaves it way through the jungle on its thousand mile journey from Kisangani to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Eagerly, it swallows up its tributaries to become the second largest river in the world. Along its route, hundreds of unreached villages are passed by.
Years ago, the gospel was opened up in the Amazon River basin by the Luzeiro medical missionary boats. Could the Congo River basin be opened to the Gospel in a similar way?
At our annual board meeting, we found out that we were not the only people with this dream. Gary Roberts, one of our board members, is also a pilot in Chad who helps open up missionary projects in Africa. This year he brought a guest to our meeting, Dr James Appel, who operates the Adventist Hospital in Bere Tchad. We found these men had similar visions of seeing medical missionary work bring the gospel to the Congo jungle.
We made plans to seek medical staff that will be willing to start this work in our humble dugout canoe. We don’t really have resources to begin, but we know we serve a mighty God. As Jesus looks down on the millions of His lost children in the Congo jungles, we know He has a plan to reach them with the truth.
We trust the Lord will reveal His will to us as we seek the best way to reach these jungle people. Last May we placed two church planters along the Congo River. Just two weeks ago, we baptized thirteen people in the villages of Yaoseko and Yanongi. We can reach these two villages by car, but we are almost at the limits of where cars can go. Please pray that God will open the way to reach the remote people in the Congo River basin.
As recently as last November the prospects of peace here in Democratic Republic of Congo seemed bleak as rebel factions continued to fight the government. Peace seemed far away as negotiations reached a stalemate. However, we are thankful that man’s ways are not God’s ways. God has a thousand ways.
Recently, joint military actions between the DRC and Rwandan armies have greatly stabilized the eastern part of the country. Although peace is never a sure thing in this country, we thank God that the current situation looks very encouraging for long term stability.
We continue moving forward trusting in His divine protection. Surely, political peace is a precious gift. Peace in the souls of people is even more precious. We keep praying for both in DRC.
All thirty four pastors from Upper Congo Field (our local field) gathered for two weeks of special training recently here in Kisangani. The training was a combined effort from the division, the union, the local field and Congo Frontline Missions. Some of the pastors have had very little training and some had no idea how to conduct evangelistic meetings.
We requested these meetings last fall as we saw the lack of training evident among the pastors. The division leaders from Kenya came to launch “The Year of Evangelism” which is a special project world wide where each church will conduct an evangelistic series. According to the pastors this was the very first field wide pastors meeting in their history. Many of their wives attended and now feel much more a part of God’s work.
Topics included preaching, church policy and teachings, evangelism, stewardship, self support, etc…. As they left many said they now feel informed about their duties. Prior to this, many were discouraged.
Congo Frontline Missions also gave out spiritual books for them to add to their libraries at home and help in their soul winning work. The pastors were thrilled to receive Spirit of Prophecy books in their own language. We believe these meetings are a big start to building a solid foundation for future growth for this field.
During Keith’s Stay in America he became engaged to Tammy Rittenour of Northern Minnesota. She is no stranger to mission service having served with the Mosier family as a student missionary in Tanzania. Amazingly she felt God calling her to serve as a missionary in Congo years before she and Keith started courting. She will be graduating as an RN in May. Her brother Nathan is currently on staff in congo. Their Wedding will be July 19, 2009 in Dodge Center, MN. All are invited. They are so excited to be following God’s call together.
We want to thank Light Bearers Ministry for helping us to set up our newly translated Bible study lessons in the Lingala language. We have also submitted a proposal to the Union to start a colporteur ministry. We believe the printed page will do a mighty work here in DRC.
