January 25, 2006 | Congo Report
I am sorry for the delay in this report. It slipped my mind for a little while, but here it is. I was overwhelmed by your emails regarding my malaria. It is 7:30 in the morning here in Pemba, and I am feeling so much better. The doctor told me to lay low for a few days and make sure that it is out of my system. I will keep you updated.
CONGO REPORT
Rolland and Surpresa spent a few days doing conferences in Bukavu, and from the hunger that they saw, they knew that Iris had to go back. Rolland said to us, "It was the hungriest place I have ever seen."
Six months later we headed off: four Iris missionaries, each one of us fresh on the mission field, looking to spend a little over a month in DR Congo. We only had limited contact with Joseph, the head pastor over Iris Congo, but we prayed, packed our bags, and flew towards Rwanda, believing that Joseph would be at the airport waiting to pick us up.
We arrived in Tanzania and settled down at the cheapest hotel we could find. It was right in the middle of the most Moslem town I have seen in Africa. There were women all around wearing their full veil, and then the prayers started over the loud speaker. I couldn¬¼t help but think how it must be like this all over Africa. A missionary could spend his whole life ministering to this one town we were staying in, and there would still be millions of other towns just like it spread out all over Africa, that need the gospel.
We drove all around Dar Salaam looking for yellow fever shots which are needed to enter the Congo. We made it back to the hotel around six, our arms more tender than when we left. After dinner, we worshiped and prayed and prepared for an early morning departure.
When we arrived in Rwanda, there was Joseph holding a small handwritten IRIS sign. Before we even saw the sign you could see this man grinning from ear to ear. He excitedly wrapped his arms around us and welcomed his new missionaries. After collecting our bags, we found a hotel and settled down for the night. The next day we would drive to the Congo. We all had no idea what to expect, but at six in the morning we were up and driving west to the Congo.
The drive was long and hard on our stomachs, the hills never ended and I don¬¼t think there was one straight road the whole trip. After seven hours and one flat tire, we drove down to the bank of the river that borders Congo and Rwanda. As we drove around the corner you could hear the people before you could see them. The whole church of Bukavo and surrounding areas showed up to greet us and welcome us into the Congo. We were given these bright green and red shirts that were hand made for each of us. The whole church was adorned in the same green and red pattern. They all danced and sang with drums.
As soon as we crossed the line into the Congo we were rushed by celebrating believers. I have been all over the world, and I have never been greeted or welcomed like this. We stood there at the border as they danced and sang around us. They each came one by one and hugged us and shook our hands. I must say it was a little overwhelming, but it touched all of our hearts at the same time.
Our mission there was to go and encourage the churches, hold conferences and watch the Holy Spirit come and touch the Congolese. We saw all of this and more. We started off in Baklava speaking for two weeks straight, all day every day. We visited as many churches as we could that were in the surrounding areas. At each church we had to hold the meetings outside because there were too many people.
We preached the gospel and invited the Holy Spirit to come and do whatever He wanted. We saw many salvations and people getting touched. We each felt that we should be holding some conferences and bring in as many people as we could. The Lord put three cities on our hearts: the first being Kalonge, a war torn city where Joseph was born, located only thirty miles from Bukavo; Goma, a once powerful and thriving city, now covered in ash; and the last in Bukavu itself. So we began the preparations necessary for the transportation, feeding and housing of the hundreds of believers coming into each area. However, it was in fact Joseph and some of his congregation that were the heroes in the organization of these conferences, and a few days later we were all piling into two heavy dutySUV¬¼s headed to Kalonge for three days.
Now Kalonge is only 60 km (37 mi) away from where we were staying, but with the road conditions Joseph said it would take us 4 hours. We just smiled and nodded, not quite realizing what we were getting ourselves into. Our 4-hour journey turned into an eight-hour drive across the worst conditions any one of us had ever seen.
At one point we were stuck in the jungle, a giant truck blocking our path. We heard singing coming from the distance. The church had walked miles and miles to come and see why we were late. With their help we were able to push the enormous truck in our path out of the way and continue all the way to the conference.
They shouted for joy and sang at the top of their lungs as they escorted us to Kalonge. During the four days we were in Kalonge, God showed up powerfully. Church members were hungry for God. They sang and danced for hours in worship. Many of the members walked for days to get to this conference. We had some pastors that walked three days from their village that is overrun by Rwandan rebels.
Each of our hearts fell in love with this village and the people there. One morning on our way to the service, all the children from the Iris school greeted us and sang to us welcoming us into Kalonge. Most of the children in the school are orphans who are living with church members. Their teachers work for free and survive on offerings from the parents. The four days seemed to vanish and pretty soon we were on our way to Bukavu for another conference, but not one of us would forget the village of Kalonge and their hunger.
We decided to take a different road back than the one we came on. After a 15-hour drive back and our car literally teetering over a cliff (God miraculously let our vehicle drive with no diesel in its tank for 10 of those hours) we made it back home. The vehicle made it into the driveway and shut down and would not start. GodŴs hand was over us each step of the way.
The next morning we began a conference in Bukavu where people came from all over the province of Sud-Kivu and Nord-Kivu to hear the word of God. And indeed they did, and He showed up and touched all those present. After 3 days full of preaching and teaching we were off on a boat to Goma. Upon arriving at Goma we were shocked to find a huge volcano at its center and every inch of ground covered in black ash. But we made our way to the Iris church there, and found many gathered around the tarp covered building and began once more proclaiming the goodness of Jesus. It was a tough conference, but people were touched and we were blessed to have been there with them.
Then we headed back on a small cargo boat where we setup the speakers and preached and prayed for the sick. Many people on the boat received Jesus into their hearts. Now the churches were looking more confident and excited as always, so there was only one thing we wished to do there: buy land to build an orphanage and perhaps a base for missionaries someday. So we prayed and we all felt that Kalonge was the place for it, and since we were running out of time, we packed our bags and left for Kalonge once more.
Buying land in a foreign country can often take weeks and a lot of paperwork, but by God¬¼s grace we were able to go and begin buying right away, without any kind of problem, and in a few days Iris had a beautiful piece of land right on the top of a hill with plenty of space for whatever could be wanted there in Kalonge.
From the beginning to the end of this trip there were so many times God showed up and did the miraculous, whether it was multiplying fuel in our tank or keeping us safe from towns that were in rebellion and taking up arms in anger.
As our team debriefed about all that Jesus had done, one thing kept on coming up in our discussions. On our first trip to Kalonge we prayed for a man at the conference and prophesied over him and his wife. God came down and this husband and wife lay side by side and shook under the power for a long time. We talked with them after the service and found out that he was a Capitan in the Congolese army and in charge of a regiment of men guarding Kalonge from Rwandan rebels.
He had received Jesus just two months prior to our arrival and was hungry for more of God. On our second trip to Kalonge he posted a guard at our house, and came and shared with us that he was moving to another city and taking his men with him to go fight rebels, and that they were leaving the next day. He was so sad to be leaving the church more than anything else.
I asked him if we could pray over the men before they left for battle. He grinned and said heŴd pick us up and prepare the men. The next day we were brought in front of 130 solders ready to walk for three days with little or no food and enter right into battle. I was able to preach and share from the Scriptures.
God put on my heart Mathew 15:15. I told these boys and men that "God is calling you friends; He is not far away; He is close to you as a friend. When you are on the frontlines you will be able to trust Him more than the man standing to the right and left of you. He will be there watching over you not as a God who is far from you but as a God who is close to you as a friend."
We asked who wanted to receive Jesus and all raised their hands .We prayed for them and at the end of the prayer each man went to his knees and prayed for protection and safety. These men who have known nothing but war and fighting stood back up from the ground glowing, and danced and worshiped. The Capitan was there in front of them dancing and leading them in worship and prayer. It was precious and holy and by far one of the highlights of an all around life-changing experience.
Blessings,
Will and Musy