Monthly Archive for August, 2010

Plans for Evangelism

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keithmosier
on August 27, 2010
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Board members who attended out meeting in February

We were grateful for the board members who attended our annual meeting this past February. Gary Roberts from Chad, William Abbott from Nebraska, Dr. Tim Rittenour from Minnesota, and Pastor Makulambizia from Goma joined the rest of us here in Kisangani to chart a course for the upcoming year.

This past year was heavily devoted to campus development. Although we still have some construction to do, much has been completed. Currently, the walls are going up for the men’s and women’s dorms, as well as the cafeteria. Soon we will add a classroom to the houses and shop buildings that are already completed. These One Day Churches look nice out here in the jungle.

We are thankful for God’s blessings. At our annual meeting we set a course for evangelism this year. Our plans include over 30 evangelistic meetings with our 33 church planters. In addition, we made plans to purchase land for churches, houses, and small farms in each area. Our goal will be to make the church planters as self sufficient as possible. We have moved forward, trusting the Lord to provide funds to accomplish the work. According to God’s blessing we plan to add 30 more church planters later this year, including 10 to the Pygmy people.

By God’s grace, we baptized 175 people in the first four months of 2010. Many of these are in the Lingala speaking areas that were just started late last year. Thanks to those of you who are assisting the work with your prayers and support.

Men's dorm Women's dorm mostly completed
Men’s Dorm                                 Women’s Dorm, mostly completed

Shadows of the Past - Hope for Tomorrow

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keithmosier
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Shadows of the Past - Hope for Tomorrow

Barry standing where Pastor McMillan was shot The bullet holes that riddle the walls of many houses here in Kisangani are a constant reminder of a grim and not too distant past. We are thankful that relative peace has sprouted out of the rubble of war.

Back in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, there was a large population of foreigners in Kisangani. In fact, there were a number of Belgian families living along the road passing by our mission. Now all that remains are the stones from the foundations of their houses, which are sold for building material.

Most of them fled the country in 1964 when the Simba rebellion erupted, and many people were anxious to push foreigners out. Who could blame the Congolese after so many years of oppression from foreigners? It was a violent time. Eventually, 1,600 foreigners were captured and guarded in the city with plans for execution. A daring rescue came late in 1964, when foreign troops and paratroopers managed to save a large majority of the hostages.

An American missionary named McMillan lived in the village of Batiambale, less than one mile from our current mission station. He had started a large and

successful church school for children. He watched most of his foreign neighbors leave as he bravely carried on with his school. He refused to leave in spite of impending

violence.

Last week, as I chatted with an older villager, he related the following story which

he witnessed with his own eyes. “One day five rebel soldiers came to his front yard

Memorial school only one mile from our campuscalling him to come out. Leaving his wife and children inside, he asked them what they wanted. They told him that they had come to kill him and asked him to come closer. He approached them and asked if they could wait a little bit while he prepared. He read for some time from his pocket Bible and then spent some time in prayer. Finally, he told them he was ready and they could do what they wanted. One of the cruel soldiers raised his rifle and shot him in the chest, killing him.” Later that day, a helicopter came and evacuated his family, including his 6 year old son Ken.

The family must have questioned why the rebels would kill a man who had come only to help. The villagers tell me that Ken is now a doctor in Canada. He didn’t want his father’s death to be forgotten, so he came back for a visit and built a primary school as a memorial to his martyred father.  We will always remember the dedication of Pastor McMillan as we pass by that primary school in Batiambale.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus came to this earth to help mankind. Violent men executed him. Today we have the privilege of telling people that Jesus not only died for their sins, but longs to live in their hearts. Although these shadows of the past still haunt DRC, we see a bright hope for the future in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Let us be faithful to do the work God has called us to do.

Destroying Angel of Satan

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keithmosier
on August 27, 2010
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Zabilema and Family ready to move to their new villageThe year 2010 started with great challenges for one of our church planters. After his evangelism training at Congo Frontline Missions, Zabilema and his family accepted a call to plant a new church about 15 miles from Kisangani. The family members were very excited to move to this un-entered area. However, on arriving at their new post of duty, the villagers did not welcome them as they had expected. After some time, they realized that some villagers were practicing strong witchcraft and did not want Christians to live in their village. It was not easy for the witches to force this new family to leave because they had the permission they needed from the government to stay at this village. One evening, Zabilema and his family were enjoying the cool evening breeze outside their house. Suddenly, they saw fire inside the house. They quickly raced inside to put it out before much destruction happened. It was a strange fire in that there seemed to be nothing to cause it. The next morning some people explained to them that the witches had started the fire to scare them away. Nevertheless, this man of God trusted the Lord and was not ready to give up. A few weeks later, a more serious threat came. Early one morning, Zabilema’s wife unlocked the door to cook breakfast. She was shocked to discover a trail of blood encircling the ground around their house.

When they asked the villagers to explain what this meant, they said, “Your home has been cursed. There is no escape. Someone in this house will die.”  They further discovered that the witches had given them one week to leave the village or else the destroying spirit would come to kill part or all of the family.

This was a big test to the man of God. Instead of leaving his post of duty allotted to him by the King of Kings, he prayed earnestly and decided to stay. When the mercy period ended, the destroying spirit came to accomplish his evil mission of death. However, instead of destroying the Zabilema family, one of the family members of the head witch died.

The people of village were shocked. They were sure the missionaries would die because the witches had always done whatever they wanted before. This miracle of the Zabilema family opened a new page in this village, which was a demon headquarters. Now, Zabilema has six people worshiping the true God with him and three have already been baptized.

“Satan’s armies are many, and God’s people must spread over all the world, planting the standard of truth in the dark places of the earth and doing their utmost to destroy Satan’s kingdom” {Evangelism, p. 18.2}

Please pray for the thousands of church planters all over the world, that they may have protection from God against the spirits of Satan.

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