Missions Experience
Pastor Solomon visits Bukavu, Congo

It was on 23rd of May 2005 when we set off to Bukavu. The three days journey from Kenya to Bukavu through Rwanda was tedious. This is especially because we traveled by road to Busia only to get there and discover that Pastor Mutune’s papers were not ready. He had to go back to Kisumu while two of us, I and another brother proceeded to Bukavu. Mutune was supposed to be the key leader, but I had to take over from there all the way to Bukavu. We arrived in Ukambala and picked another bus to Kigali where we spent the night. Early next morning we boarded a minibus to Bukavu where we arrived in the evening feeling exhausted.

We were hosted by Bishop Museke who pastors CCI Congo. It is a young church by virtue of it starting just the other day, but it is growing very fast. It has different congregations in different parts of Bukavu. One at a place called Kamituga. The church has been in existence for the last three years having been founded by the same Bishop Museke. When he came over to Kenya, he was looking for a partnership, people with whom he can plant a church. So when he came he was given a go-ahead by Bishop Mulandi and Bishop Mbogo as the general secretary of ACCEA of Kenya. So he went ahead and started one congregation which has now spread to all over.

The purpose of the visit was three things:
1. We wanted to do leaders training. Most of the leaders in Bukavu have no clue what CCI stands for. The other thing was to
2. Connect with the leaders. It was a kind of leader’s awareness that served to open their eyes on some of the projects we are planning to do and some that they can do on their own.
3. It was also an open forum, there having been an AGM, where they meet as leaders once in a year.

Are there any similarity between the Church in Congo and that in Sudan?
We cannot compare much with the Sudanese; both of them are just coming out of conflicts that have left the countries dilapidated. However, churches in Bukavu have been existing all through though hidden in the bushes. And now coming out into the city they start to look for establishments. They established leaders, some picked by virtue of they having some leadership qualities while others just because there was a vacuum to be filled and they happened to be available. So they need to know who the leaders really are and also to streamline some of the leadership traits. They need to understand some of the things that we here in Kenya know about leadership. We need to impact in them some of the traits and even administrative features. The structure of how churches run is something they also need to be taught. Missions are also an area that needs attention because they have a large piece of land and have the potential to enlarge. In Sudan, the challenges are the same but they seem to have more ground. However, they both need a lot of training.

What form did the training take?
It was more like a seminar. We did some seminars in the morning and micro-seminars in the afternoon. This is where we have a group of people with different callings come together and we talk to them about the particular area of interest and how it can be done, e.g. those in missions, etc. We also had Joseph speak about finances in the church while Mutune’s role was more overall. He talked mainly about leadership in CCI and in Thika and how we can get that. That is the Bishops’ overseers, pastors and all those who had a passion for missions had to come and give an exchange from day to day in the afternoons. In the evening we would then have a time to relax and have the questions. They had so many questions to ask. Oh my! We didn’t have all the answers, but we tried our best.

What are the major challenges faced by leaders in Congo?
Two major challenges, one on the leadership part. What I mean is that because of the war that had been going on, it’s like they picked anyone and put in the position. And that has a lot of problems. Because when other people are emerging up, they experience a kind of problem where there is no door opening up for them. There comes a kind of blockage for the emerging leaders and this can chase them away if not handled properly.
The other challenge is the dependency issue. Even when they have resources, like minerals and the potential to do something on their own, most people came to the city, initially for security, but now they will not go back and utilize their resources. They still have the mentality that people from Kenya and other parts of the world will come and help them, even when they are able. I am not saying that they are completely able, but there is an extent to which they can be independent, to which they are reluctant. And it makes you think that if this people could just open up their eyes some more, they could see how much they can do. People ran away from the villages because of the raping, torture, murders etc to the city because there they could at least receive some protection from the UN. It was a political problem, an economical problem and a spiritual problem because down there they had a lot of cultic groups coming up, but it is in the city, the missionaries and other people who can help are.

The war…how long?
Last time when we sent a group there, war erupted immediately they left. This really affected the church because people lost a lot. Property, close family relations etc. It’s not a good story. Some of the women don’t want to hear anything about men, because of the thing they did to them. There is anger on the part of the women and bitterness on the part of the men when they think of what their fellowmen did to their wife or girl child. They can’t trust you, even their fellowmen. No trust for their neighbor, or even for those staying in the same house. We were staying in one of the homes and we had to guard our things. One of our brothers lost their phone, a very expensive one. We tried to look for it but all in vain. We had to really guard out things.

Dominant religion…
The Islam is dominant in Congo and it is spreading very fast, but the Catholic Church has also been there for a long time. Evangelicals are now coming up. I think economical problems make the church to be calm. The Islam has taken the upper hand. What happened is that when the Christians failed and started fighting one another, the Muslims took over and they started dominating. You will be shocked that in the middle of Bukavu there is a huge mosque and everyone wants to be identified with it. Part of it is because there is money and also food and handouts given to some at the end of the day. While some churches had nothing. Like CCI, most of the people will look at the leaders with the question, “what do you have for us?” if they do not give anything, some of them will out rightly tell you, “then we can’t join you.” However, there are always those few remnants who will stick by even when there is nothing material. “With money or without money, we will stay.”

Church growth...
Yes. The church has grown tremendously. The first time we went there, it’s like we were guarded all over. There was a lot of immaturity and that was the time that the war erupted again, just after we had left. But this time things seems to have changed a lot, because when you go to the streets you find that there is still life. Because the market was burned down, the whole market and everything in it. When the UN came in, they rebuild it and businesses are starting to sprout again. You will be surprised how many more structures you will see on the streets and women seem to get in some life although you feel some insecurity from six o'clock in the evening, people running up and down to the shelter of their homes. They want to go back no matter where it’s scrambled, they want to go back home. Young men have no life, you see so many people sited, idle, doing nothing. So we find that they look at you from Kenya or other parts of the world with expectant hearts, hoping that you will have something for them.

Room for economic development…
Definitely, there is a lot of room for development in terms of infrastructure, building of schools, like now CCI has started a school, an orphanage, a high school, although it is for day scholars. The school has a large enrollment capacity but it also depends on “how much do you want to give?” People want to go to school but you have to pay. I think the question is “who has the money? Who has the dollar?” You have to go and pay then you can get some services.

Do they have sufficient workers in the church, orphanage etc?
No! Like the only person working in the orphanage is the general secretary of CCI Congo, Reverend Ombe and his wife. And this is something that they have volunteered themselves to do, although they may ask for assistance from other places but it’s like they have to do it because nobody else is going to do it. And there are so many orphanages that people; children who have no mother and no father are staying there. Some don’t go to school. The question of agriculture is like they cannot go back to their land. They still feel they are not secure. And those who go are like one has to walk for three days to come to the conference. They still have shambas there but they feel they are not sure whether they should go back to tilling the land because of insecurity. Anything can happen.

Is the town that much overpopulated?
Oh boy! You need to go there. You may see like there are bees in the streets. They are packed in the streets and in the homes too. A friend of mine, Mbula, went to take supper in one of the homes. In there they have four children, his brother, his sister in-law, and other people in a one roomed house. You sometimes wonder, “Where do they sleep?” to us it could be a slum but they seem to be coping. It’s a quite dense population. The thing is, family planning, it doesn’t work there. You find a family, a man with ten wives and children and they seem to be happy. Maybe that time they had put some masks, I don’t know but.

Did you get to visit any other churches?
I talked in a different church apart from CCI. I was welcome to some French church, I don’t remember the name. The same story, the same story, but this one could be more stable because of it’s affiliation with another denomination outside of Bukavu. But there are so many people in Bukavu that if you need to do church planting, you don’t need a crusade. Yes, they do crusades and person to person evangelism but if someone is aggressive enough, you have to look for a place to keep them. They are hungry for God.

What would you say the church here and to persons interested in missions in Congo…
When I came back I jotted down about seven things that the church here needs to handle.
1. Pray. The kind of prayer that we need to offer up is that their eyes may be opened to see what they have. In the middle of that poverty it’s like they had diseases; cholera broke out and malaria is rampant, typhoid and all those kind of diseases. We need to pray because there is need for a hospital.
2. Pray for what the church here is doing.
3. We need more people who can go there, especially ladies. Most of the time when we go there we send men and few are the times that we send ladies. There is a time that ISOM sent two ladies and they stayed there for three months. And the reason for this is so that they can feel that they are not alone in all this.
4. Teaching: They also need teachers. In Congo they have a lot of music, they love music. They can do worship, but when it comes to the solid word, their foundation to be grounded in the word, you look at them and you find, there is something amiss here. So they need teachers of the word. They need more ladies especially because there are more ladies in Bukavu than men. Most of the men have died and most of the people you see on the streets are the young. And most of the young men want to run away. They want to go to Europe, America, Kenya, they want to go and do business. But again they cannot run away because they don’t have the papers, or the money to facilitate that. So there are people who could go and relate to them, especially ladies and other young men.
5 . Open projects within that place. Both the town and the village. Because where they came from, the villages, there is land that needs to be tilled. They need to go there and also do some work. There is that mentality that they want to go to town and look for jobs, but the jobs are nowhere. So there is need for people with agricultural awareness.
6 . Infrastructure: you go there and see where people are sleeping and what they do. Vocational skills are required. They need to learn them. Even in missions they teach people there to go and do the missions themselves. Like now there is no road all the way to Kinshasa. There are people who will go there. But mostly those who are there. So they need to be trained.
7 . Invest in business. There are minerals, there are rains, and when you walk on the streets you see money, although they don’t see it. If those people could be loaned, maybe short loans, then there can be some development in Bukavu, and not only there but in the entire Democratic Republic of Congo.

Did you get to visit Nyerere’s church?
The former church, yes, but now he has moved from Bukavu he is now in Kinshasa. The former church was Baraka Christian Church. That is where he was working with ISOM which is more of Discipleship Training but now he is under Mbula who is now the director.

What do the young people in Congo do?
Wake up in the morning, and there is nothing to do. Some go to school if they have money. If they don’t they look for small businesses like selling food, fish etc. the UN seem to have employed quite a number of young men there. However, the majority of them are very idle. Even those who go to school end up dropping out coz of lack of money. Their education system is similar to the one that we were using during the colonial times. That is 7-4-2-4 for primary and secondary. Then they go to form five and six then the university. I know of three of them, one being a medical university, another one being a public (government owned) and a private one. But more people prefer the government one coz it’s cheaper.

Are the women involved in the leadership in the church?
Oh yes, but for the last two years I have not seen that happening. But this last time we went I saw some women who were in leadership. Like there is one lady who is in charge of the other ladies and they hold meetings like with bishop’s wife who is in charge of the parish and she will hold conferences. And even this time that we went, we had a forum with the women. It was very short but very helpful. And these women were asking those questions like why the women in Kenya are not visiting them, not helping them; not sending letters and even when they in Congo write there’s no much response.

Are you planning to go back to Congo, we may want to send some women there…
Definitely! There are those annual meetings every year and I will be ready by May next year to go back there. Bishop Museke is coming to Kenya in August but there is need for women to go there and visit and encourage. And mostly widows and those who are single and have children would be of benefit because most of those women have lost their husbands during the war and some got children out of wedlock and they know no man would want to marry them now and they feel shy to get into ministry. There is a lot of distorted theology about that kind of single hood.

What would you say to those people who would want to go for ministry in Congo but they fear that the insecurity will be too much?
There is no fear. I have been there several times and it’s a question of knowing that this is a call and this is what the people there need. When I look at the life of Paul, there are places where he was told, “don’t go” and he still went ahead. We need people who have passion, who want to go and the rest is about asking for protection. God protected us when we were coming. We were ambushed I think twice from Shanguku, the town near Rwanda and five people just came and we had to speed the car. Another time we were rescued by Rwandese police who were guarding the forest and all the time it’s prayer. We can’t say that we can’t go. So if there are people who want to go we need to encourage them to go. Also young men who are ready to die for Jesus, there is need to sacrifice a lot of comfort and else. There is so much to be done. Even staying with them at home is something. They see you and learn from your actions and ant to be like you. That is witnessing. Just like the way Jesus did it. They need to see how you pray, evangelize, live your life etc. Like when we were there they first took us to a hotel and then we said we don’t want to stay there, we want to stay with them at the homes. They took us there and that’s where we stayed. There definitely was more insecurity there, your back everywhere but we survived. You wake up in the morning and you want to check whether your neighbor is still there. But there are people there, although they look different. You know they will look at you like you are a mzungu.

What was the peak of your mission?
At least the people I helped. We left there people saying, “we can do it!” for a long time their church, Baraka in Bukavu, which we can say is the headquarters. They have been staying in a rented house they don’t have their own land. And when we left they said that they will organize money and even while we were there they raised money, extraordinary. They raised about thirty dollars, which is a lot of money in Congo. They want to buy their own land and have a premise to put up their church. Right now Bishop Museke is staying in a rented house. They want to buy a bigger land.

Greatest challenge...
To see the needs and you can meet them. The young men need training and if I had money I could bring some here. We have a training there, the ISOM discipleship training but they need to go to another level. I earmarked about four young men who are willing to do church planting but they need to be polished and they will do marvelous. Right now we have church planting there but they just need to be polished. Because those old pastors, as much as you tell them to go, they are limited in terms of family, money and mobility. They can’t walk, they are old but there are young men who would be more efficient.

Graduates from the ISOM Congo…
Mbula is one of them. We have also had graduates in the past two years. But even when they graduate from there they are not regarded as pastors and they are looked upon as, “you still have a long way to go.” They involve the elderly ones more in the church leadership than the young ones. June will produce the next lot of graduates.

What would you say ACMI did in the work of laying foundations?
Yes they did some work in the laying of the foundation and one thing I thank them for is breaking a very hard ground and also changing their mentality because there was that feeling that missions need someone who comes out with all the money and technology and resources and plants a church and supplies all the needs. But ACMI came with a different approach about missions and now the success that we see with the Bukavu church is the result of that change of approach to missions. They say that they will train the people to do the missions. There is no need of us building your church. We are not going to pastor it either. We will only train. Initially some mzungu would come and do everything and then the work of the people there is to just go to church and at the end of it; there is no offering or other form of commitment. But when they are left on their own there is that commitment that develops. We also send personnel like Nyerere and Kibe to do the work, and then later we pull out Kibe and leave Nyerere who is one of them, Congolese. He knows them, he is from Kisangani, this is their own guy and Mbula went back there and there was also another guy, Kisii, whom we trained fro some time here and then sent him back. So these are their own men from the same locations as they and not staying in hotels. They are eating the same food, going to the same church etc. that was good.

Does ACMI still have more work to do there?
Oh boy! A whole lot, we need to empower more leaders who can do the job, like Mbula. And more church planting. Two, we need to address the question of missions, not only church planting but impacting and discipleship of other people who can do the job. We also need to teach them entrepreneurship, whereby we teach them how to do things. We can give them stuff as they require but it would be more meaningful if we taught them to find for themselves. There is a lot that can be done.

If you would like to volunteer your services in Congo either at the orphanage, the school or the church, please e-mail ACMI or write by post:
To the Director,
African Christian Missions International,
P.O Box 3809 - 01002,
Thika,
Kenya - EA

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