Story number 3 for 26 Dec 2002

(Congo–Kinshasa)–The United Nations Security Council is welcoming last week’s signing of a peace accord in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And yet, even amongst the celebration, Grace Ministries International’s Sam Vinton says the effect of the discord may be evident for a while. “My father is amongst a group of people in that area of the Congo where the government is not there. You have these bandits; you have these rebels in control.” Vinton says the security issues are having an impact on some of their work. “We got word from him that at one of our big churches where he attends, where we have up to a thousand people on Sunday, there were only 12 of them last Sunday, because people have fled into the forest, and this is the rainy season. We should concentrate again, our prayers on Africans who are suffering, because of the problems that are created by many of their leaders.”