November 2018
We have several adult ministries to encourage men and women to be involved. Our women’s ministry and fellowship meet every Tuesday after our Bible study. We are planning to start a separate meeting for the Seniors. On Wednesday, we have prayers, Bible study, and intercessions from morning to evening. We meet together to pray for our families and their needs, the needs of the church and to give thanks to God for his blessings.
- Continue to pray for our adult ministries and their positive effects upon the lives of the men and women in the church.
- Pray for God’s blessing on the desire to start a Senior’s ministry and for all the details to fall into place.
Mupenda leads our Young Boy’s ministry, and they meet on Mondays and Fridays. This group includes an active football (soccer) team of thirty-two young boys who are growing in their knowledge of the Lord and sharing their testimonies with others through sports.
The Children’s Ministry is learning songs and the Bible. We even are blessed with a choir of our children who sing in the church once in a while. Tumaini Luko and Pamela help these children and teach them from the Word of God.
The Bible classes in Goma are continuing. We are training these students to be future ministers in the church. They are learning their spiritual gifts and actively participate in the weekly programs.
Give thanks for the young boys and their testimony to the other boys in the community.
- Pray for the children and youth to grow in their knowledge of God’s Word.
- Pray for their leaders to have wisdom and discernment as they teach the next generation.
- Pray for the Bible classes as they train and prepare the students to be future leaders in the church.
Our team of elders is instrumental in the ministry. Their characters are becoming more Christ-like as they grow in the knowledge of God’s Word and the gift of humility is evident in their lives. Ibrahim is our assistant pastor and evangelist. Abdenego is our ministry secretary and preacher. Desire is our men’s ministry leader, a counselor, and a preacher. Malembe, Rughumyo, and Samuel are other leaders. We have been visiting house to house and sharing the Word of God. We also have been working with other community members on the roads.
Give thanks for the leaders in the church and their involvement in advancing the kingdom of God.
- Pray for the evangelists as they visit the house in the community and share the Word of God.
- Pray for the people who are hearing that they will understand the gospel and desire to be saved.
The wife of Abdenego was critically sick. We visited and prayed with her and her husband. She is starting to get better and has been coming to the church. Praise the Lord!
Give thanks for the healing of Abdenego’s wife and pray for her to heal from her illness completely.
August 2018
We praise the Lord that my wife was healed from her illness. Thank you for your prayers.
The men’s ministry is continuing to do door-to-door evangelism in the community. They are also responsible for visiting the members of the church. The women’s ministry has a Bible study in the morning and does home visits in the afternoon. They share the Word of the Lord with everyone they meet.
Give thanks for the faithful members in our Men’s and Women’s ministry.
- Pray for the people who hear the Word of God, to be willing to listen to the gospel.
- Pray for the provision of Bibles for our church members.
The children’s ministry has a new teacher; her name is Tumaini. She is gifted in teaching children and sings with our worship team. We are excited to have her teaching the children.
- Pray for wisdom for Tumaini as she teaches, and also pray for the children to listen and learn more about God.
- Pray for the children to come to an understanding of the gospel.
The soccer team of young boys is helping the church reach out to the boys in the community by challenging them to join a team an be part of a soccer game. During the game, we are able to share the gospel with the boys and pray with them. We see many young boys joining the team and afterward joining the fellowship. We are praying for the provision of Jerseys, soccer balls and netballs (similar to basketball) for the girls. At the beginning of the year, we bought two soccer balls for the team, but they have been used so much that they are worn and torn.
- Pray for the team to work together and be a witness to the boys in their community.
- Pray for the courage to invite other boys to the team and the church.
- Pray for the boys who are invited to attend and come to salvation.
We do door-to-door evangelism as a church. Our evangelists meet to pray and then set out into the community to preach and share the Word of God. When we first shared the gospel with Assu, he became furious and angry, so we left. He claimed to be a Muslim and was not willing to abandon his faith. The next time we met him, he was calm and receptive. We shared the Word of God with him, and he listened. He was convicted and surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. He has brought his whole family to church and now fellowships with us. We are praying for him to grow stronger in his faith.
Give thanks for the salvation of Assu. Pray for his faith to grow stronger.
The nation of Congo is under the attack of Ebola disease. The churches are responsible for taking care of their people, by educating them on how to fight and avoid the spread of Ebola. We are trying our best to inform our members, combat rumors and fears, and ensure that our people can maintain proper sanitation to avoid risks.
- Pray for the church members to educate each other and their community, and to stay healthy and calm during this recent outbreak in their nation.
- Pray for the health workers who are fighting the spread of Ebola to stay healthy and be able to educate the community, and for their safety as they serve in rural and hazardous areas.
July 2018
Our men and women’s ministries meet twice a week for prayer, fasting and Bible study. We see their lives transformed from their surrender to Christ. They begin to experience peace, love, and freedom. They testify of their changed perspective of life, as they start to consider everything from a Biblical viewpoint, through the understanding and knowledge gained from our Bible study classes. This has been encouraging to me to see that there is hope for a better Christ-oriented Congo in the future.
- Pray for the deepening understanding of the Bible for the attendees in the bible classes.
Pastor Ibrahim, my assistant pastor, is a gifted preacher and teacher of the Word of God. He is an evangelist with a passion for sharing the word of God to the unsaved. He also leads the men’s ministry and has been very instrumental in training the men.
- Pray for the men’s ministry to transform the lives of the men and their community.
- Pray for the men to be able to support their families through jobs and to be blessed with a work ethic.
- Pray for wisdom for Pastor Faustine and Pastor Ibrahim as they lead the men.
Abednego, assisted by Furaha lead the women’s ministry. The youth Bible class is divided into two groups. The girl’s class is led by Furaha and contains fifteen dedicated members. Mupenda leads the boy’s class and, these youth also are passionate about their football (soccer) team with twenty-four members. We have many dedicated deacons and are training many potential leaders in the church who give me hope that in the future, we will continue to have good leaders and teachers of the Word.
- Pray for the women’s ministry to continue to grow in their understanding of God’s Word.
- Pray for the leaders Abdenego and Furaha.
- Pray for healing for Abdenego’s wife, who has a mental illness.
- Pray for the youth’s continued passion for studying God’s word and for their future desire to become leaders of the church.
There are several changes in the government, and many false religions are being introduced to our country. A ministry was recently started that advertised on the radio and promised people money if they joined them. At the start, they did give people about ten dollars each. Many people were swayed by this promised and rushed to attend, especially among those below the poverty level. We are praying that our church members do not fall victim to these false preachers and instead remain anchored in the Word of God. We are grateful for your prayer support and knowing that you are standing with us in prayer to support the spread of the gospel in the city of Goma.
- Pray with Pastor Faustine for the church members to have discernment and use the word of God to judge the promises of these false teachers.
- Pray for Pastor Faustine to have wisdom and discernment in teaching the word of God and continuing to provide solid Biblical training.
- Pray for the church to have a permanent location for worship.
- Pray that the Lord would bring peace to our nation of the Congo.
Our community is in a slum, and the land for gardening or farming is limited which creates many challenges. Earning an income is difficult, and most of the people live in poverty.
The church is reaching the community through a door to door evangelism and other means of evangelism like hospital ministry. Here are two of the families we recently connected with.
Rugumyo and his family are new converts. Recently Rugumyo’s wife had an accident, and the family unit has been affected. As a church, we are trying to do what we can to see that the family continues to be grounded in their faith, but prayers are needed so that they can trust God and the situation they are in. The other family we recently connected with is Desire; he was a soldier in the Congolese army. He has one wife and eight children. He is a new convert and has requested prayer that the Lord would help him to provide for his family.
- Please pray for both of these families, that the Lord would provide their needs.
Spring 2018
Greetings to you from Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC. We praise the Lord for your support and prayers. Thanks to you the community of Kivu is blessed to have a church that is opened to anyone who is willing to come. God is growing the congregation, and many people are beginning to know who our Lord Jesus Christ is. We are grateful for the opportunity to impact the area with God’s word and bless the people.
During the week our time is focused on counseling, prayer meetings, and home visits. Our counseling work many times revolves around conflict resolution. On Saturdays, our choir rehearses in preparation for the Sunday service. We continue to train our leaders each week on Thursdays. The training is open for church members who are interested in serving in ministry. We are blessed to have up to twenty members at times.
Our community is in a slum, and the land for gardening or farming is limited which creates many challenges. Earning an income is difficult, and most of the people live in poverty.
Catholicism dominates our community, and our members experience persecution and harassment from the church continually. But our church members continue to walk in faith and trust the Lord. There are additional cultural challenges, such as witchcraft and spirit worship among our people. Many believe in witchcraft to bring blessings or send curses over people.
Glorise, one of the members of our church saw a transformation in her husband Selge last week. She was Catholic but started coming to our church with her three children and joined our prayer nights. We began praying for her husband who was abusive and mistreating her at home. A week later she came in praising God and told us her husband had stopped abusing her since we started praying for him. Join us as we pray she will remain in fellowship and the study of God’s Word. Pray that her husband Selge would find work and provide for his family.
(2) In past years the community around me was not responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but recently, we have seen many people coming to church and finding time to study the bible. People are yearning and hungry for fellowship and getting rooted in faith. Several people have joined us from other denominations many of whom are also coming to our Bible studies. Our youth outreach and evangelism are led by Mupenda. These events occur once a week where the youth pray, refresh themselves in the presence of God, and then go out to evangelize their fellow teenagers in the community. We have almost 80 children who are now in the church, and we teach them in various ways, so they get to know the Lord Jesus. A challenge we are having is that we lack teaching materials. We also have several orphans without a place to call home.
The city of Goma has inhabitants of different cultures like Banyabwisha, Banande, Bakumu, Bemba, and others. All these have different beliefs. There are those who believe in ancestral and other false spiritual beliefs that hinder them from receiving the Gospel. It is complicated further by spirit worship and alcoholism. Apart from the challenges of Catholicism as a religion we have many churches that are not teaching the Truth of the Word of God. Most of these churches have a false doctrinal foundation that is leading many astray. I have been doing what I can at the level of my biblical training. I have trained my assistant in evangelism, women’s leadership, youth leader. I have also started a Bible school with 20-25 students with the goal that everyone will know how to share from the Word of God.
Elder Abraham, Wasso, and Samuel are blessed with several different gifts, including teaching and preaching the Word of God. They both help with our midweek services and outreach. Deacons like David, Philemon, Lavie, and Yoshua provide excellent assistance as well. Our Deacons are motivated in what they are doing. Pray for their spiritual awakening and hunger for God’s Word and prayer. Pray for the provision of jobs to support their families.
The church is reaching the community through a door to door evangelism and other means of evangelism like hospital ministry. Here are two of the families we connected with.
- Rugumyo and his family are new converts. Recently Rugumyo’s wife had an accident, and the family unit has been affected. As a church, we are trying to do what we can to see that the family continues to be grounded in the faith, but prayers are needed.
- Desire* was a soldier in the Congolese army. He has one wife and eight children. He is a new convert and has requested prayer that the Lord would help him to provide for his family.
God connected White Fields with me, and it has been a great blessing to my family and me. I no longer struggle in providing for my family. God is improving my life and expanding my mind on the teaching and sharing of the Word of God. Due to the salary that I earn from White Field, I now have time to focus on my relationship with God and the ministry he has given me.