Congo-Kinshasa (MNN)
— A year ago, two ministries entered into partnership to plant the Gospel in
the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Grace Ministries International partners with 240 schools in
Bukavu, of Sud-Kivu Province, and in Kindu, of the Maniema Province.
However, the team was concerned that although the government required schools to
teach a religion class, ministries were under-resourced, resulting in students
not being reached with the Gospel.
This led to a partnership with OneHope's Book of Hope, a Scripture
book for children and youth that tells the life story of Jesus in chronological
order and helps young people understand the Gospel. Together, the teams distributed 30,000
copies among the schools.
GMI and their partners distributed this resource in the isolated rural areas with a three-fold
approach. GMI's Sam Vinton explains: "They went into the schools, they had evening
showings of The GodMan DVD, and then also trained people and they would reach
the adults with the Gospel."
The results were spectacular, Vinton adds. "About 18,000 made professions of faith in
Christ. I would say the great majority of them, about 14,000 or 15,000, were
students."
The huge response was thrilling, however, it posed a new challenge
for the team. How does a ministry
disciple 18,000 new believers? Grace
Ministries is working on a seven lesson book on salvation and the assurance of
salvation. Vinton notes that "nearly 5000 students
have gone through that book, or are in the process of going through it."
But GMI is not finished yet, says Vinton. "My son is
writing a 15-lesson book based on the Gospel of John. We've got Gospels of John that we're going to
be giving out with these lessons."
"We believe that this is just great advance," Vinton says,
adding that "the church is going to be invigorated with a generation of young
people who know the Lord."
Funding is needed to keep it moving forward. Click here for details.
