Congo-Kinshasa (MNN) — Security is being tightened in
refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rebels have been practicing guerrilla-style
warfare, terrorizing residents.
Grace Ministries International wasn't exempt. Outreach was shut down in December due to a rebel attack near Kama.
The Hutu militia who fled
Rwanda after the genocide caused the violence. They have since been in hiding in the forest in Congo, attacking and
retreating–keeping tensions at a high level.
Two mobile teams postponed work and returned to Kama to take
care of their families.
The church, however, is irrepressible. GMI's Sam Vinton says, "They [rebels] have
disappeared back into the forest, and people are going on. The teams are out now in the schools, and
hundreds of young people are making professions of faith in Christ."
Teams are laying the
groundwork for church plants, according to Vinton. "They are training people in the churches to go and visit with
people in the villages and talk to them about the Gospel. Teams are preparing these
men and women in the churches to do evangelism."
That foundation was
poured last year. In the fall of
2009, Bill Vinton and another missionary held a four-day seminar for school
principals and chaplains at Kama. The main subject of the seminar was how to incorporate
godly principles into the education system.
When schools started a new semester in January, they were
ready. The evangelistic teams began traveling into villages to reach students with the Gospel.
The two teams doing evangelism in the schools and villages
are resourced with two tons of tracts, Gospel booklets, religious course books, equipment for evangelistic outreach, and a motorcycle.
GMI missionaries also wrote a discipleship curriculum. Vinton says, "We printed 3,000 copies, and now
those are going to be distributed among those who have professed faith in
Christ. The big job now is to get mentors and to get teachers who will work and
follow up with them."
Please pray for safety for these teams. Pray too that as more respond to the
Gospel, new believers will be discipled in their
new faith.
