By Melody Rittenour

I went to the Friday night meeting knowing that we should be praying because Pastor Mtenzi was going to make a serious call. Before he went up to preach he told me he was scared. I asked him why and he said,

“I don’t know exactly, I’m just scared.” I told him that I would pray for him.

Close to three hundred people attended the meeting, with over a hundred kids sitting behind the screen or in front of it. Pastor Mtenzi had an extra long sermon teaching people the importance of Sabbath observance. At the end he made a powerful call and people began to come forward. The Bible workers started busily writing down the names of these people. For awhile the choir was singing as pastor Mtenzi continued to call people forward.

Suddenly, toward the end of all the excitement, I heard a loud, “bang, bang” sound. That scared me. What was that? “Maybe it’s guns?” I thought! People started running out of the building. A serious call had just been made, one that sometimes makes people, and especially Satan, get mad! “What was that noise? Maybe it’s rocks? I thought.” I got down on my knees. This would be safer–especially if it was guns.

April Mosier got down on her knees too. I started praying for God’s protection. Bang! Another loud noise pierced the air. By this time I thought it was probably rocks being thrown on the tin roof; at least that’s what it sounded like. Then someone told April it was rocks. Now, I was pretty sure I knew what the noise was, but even if it was rocks that didn’t necessarily mean safety! April was scared too and put her arm around me as we knelt there. We both decided to just stay down on our knees next to the equipment and pray. Thoughts were going through my mind about missionaries who had suffered for their faith and even died. I also thought, “if God wants to keep me safe, He will. We are here doing God’s work so this is the safest place for me to be.”

As we crouched next to the projector and PA system someone told us the stone thrower had been caught. Off to one side I saw an excited group of people carrying a young boy of about 11 years of age. As the guilty boy thrashed around trying to get away, I thought, “They probably will beat him.” In Africa, sometimes accused thieves are burned to death right on the spot by angry crowds. I hoped the boy would be okay.

As we drove home that night Pastor Mtenzi filled us in on the rest of the story. The small boy had been hiding under a tree at the back of the church. After he threw the first couple rocks, a Bible worker caught him, and immediately brought him to Pastor Mtenzi, saying,

“This is the guilty boy, he threw the rocks. We want to beat him, to teach him a lesson!” Pastor Mtenzi told them clearly,

“No, do not beat him. Let him go. You will ruin the meeting and the message presented if you beat him.” When they let the boy go he said he had been sent by the pastor of another church to disrupt the meetings. As it turned out, we weren’t in danger, but it sure made me pray earnestly!

During the ride home that night, I contemplated our numerous blessings. Of coarse He kept us safe, but perhaps what blessed me most was being pushed to a deeper level of prayer and faith. This makes me ask myself,

“If I would just pray with more sincerity and earnestness all the time I wonder what would happen?”

When I pray to the God of heaven, I want to learn to pray more earnestly. The verse comes to mind that says,

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16. This “grace to help in time of need” can go much deeper then mere safety. It can go to the depths of the heart.  We can come boldly to the throne of grace for help in every problem we have.

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At the end of this evangelistic series 46 people gave their hearts to Jesus and were baptized. One of these converts has a story worth hearing.

Eugenie is an old lady in poor health. She lives in a hut very close to the church where the evangelistic series was held. In June of 2008 Eugenie had listened from her hut to an evangelistic series held at this same location. At that time Eugenie didn’t want to accept the truth and she didn’t want to go to the meetings. But now, when she listened again to our repeated meetings the seed of truth was awakened in her heart. Now, although walking was difficult for her, she was seen almost every night at the meetings. Eugenie decided to give her heart to Jesus and be baptized.At the river she continued to have courage and with special help in and out of the river she was baptized. Then we went back to church to give Bibles to those who had been baptized. Most people in Congo have never had a Bible. Eugenie along with the others who were baptized, were overjoyed to receive a Bible of very own.

The first step in taking the truth of the gospel to the vast Lingala speaking area to the west of us was to find Lingala speaking church members and train them in church planting. That is exactly what happened in June and July of 2009 as Pastor Mtenzi conducted vigorous training of 46 Lingala speaking evangelism students. They were excited to receive this training at no cost to themselves except travel, although most came from far away.

At the end of the session, practical training was provided as the team conducted an evangelistic effort together in the village of Six (This is the name of the village).  At the end of the effort, thirty nine new believers were baptized.

Finally, sixteen students were chosen to be church planters in unentered Lingala speaking areas. We will add four Swahili speakers from our previous training session to reach a total of twenty new church planters. Of the remaining thirty graduates, the majority were either hired by churches to be church planters, or became self supporting church planters near their home areas.

What a great day it was when we purchased twenty new bicycles for these new church planters! There were shouts of joy and singing. Then, they were sent out to prepare a place to live for their families in their new areas. Now, they have returned to receive funds to return home and collect their families and move to the new areas.

One man named Nabulangwe Tambala had an interesting story to tell. When he arrived in the village of Yaila, he was met with many questions. “Why are you going to move here?” they asked.

“I have come to bring the gospel here and to start a new Seventh-day Adventist Church.”

“We never heard of that church. Please teach us your beliefs,” they pled.

After three days of teaching, twenty five people said, “This is the truth from the Bible. We want to join your new church. Please add our names to the list of those who want to join. How long before you will return with your family?”

With joy in his heart,Nabulangwe showed us the list of 25 new believers as he passed through to collect his travel money.

Soon, light will go to many dark areas! When they return with their families, we will do a special three day training session for the wives of our new church planters. These new areas are full of disease, remote and have no medical care available. Satan will oppose them in every way he can to prevent light from coming to his domain. Please pray for these new church planters.

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.

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.

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.