Feature
Congo Frontline Missions
Barry Mosier
08/30/2010
We are happy to submit this report of how we’ve used the first half of the 2009 ASI special offering commitment of $35,000. We sent 20 new church planters to untouched areas west of Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo. Many were Lingala speaking church planters who recently graduated from our evangelism training program. They came from as far as 400 miles away, moving their families by bicycle over rough roads during the rainy season at great effort and expense. For many of them, the journey took as long as four weeks.
The work was slow at first, as suspicion abounded. But the workers pressed on. One church planter, Abombi, left his weary, pregnant wife with relatives and went on ahead to his station, feeling he could wait no longer to carry the gospel to that dark village. He returned for his wife a month after their new baby had been born.
When he won two converts in the village, the local chief threw him and his family in jail. It was a blessing in disguise as many of the villagers were so outraged at the unfair treatment that they began attending his meetings—after we bailed him out! During a subsequent set of meetings, 25 people were baptized.
We plan to present 30 evangelistic series this year, and have already baptized 175 new believers during the first four months of 2010. We’ve purchased land to build churches and houses for the church planters in twelve of the locations, and are also hiring medical personnel and starting a publishing work. Light Bearers has printed and shipped our Bible studies in the Lingala language, and we look forward to receiving them. In short, ASI funds received to date have been used with great success.
