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2007-02-20 issue:

MC USA delegation arrives in Congo

Group of 13 splits up, visits churches from two Mennonite conferences.

by Anna Groff

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Hundreds of cloth strands hung from the aluminum ceiling of Mont Gafula Mennonite Church in Kinshasa, Congo. Colorful Scripture verses decorated the wall behind the cement stage. Two young women’s singing voices echoed from microphones, adding to the festive worship service.

Pastor Selembao Lola said the church purchased the public address system last year as a means of evangelizing.

“When people hear it, they can come and worship together,” Lola said.

Lola, who grew up Mennonite, established the church in 1995 in a part of Kinshasa that did not previously have a Mennonite church. The church, an open-air structure, is located in the yard of a church member’s house.

Four members from the Mennonite Church USA delegation visited Congo Feb. 2-16 and worshiped with the Mont Gafula church on Feb. 4.

“You are not only guests but brothers and sisters in Christ,” said Lola while welcoming the delegation. “You pray for us, and we’ll pray for you, and God will use our gifts to bless each other.”

Delegation member Addie Banks, a pastor at King of Glory Tabernacle in Bronx, N.Y., delivered the sermon. Banks spoke of Paul’s work to bring the Jews and the Gentiles together, comparing that to the beginning relationship between the Mennonite churches in Congo and Mennonite Church USA.

“God’s purpose is to make one group from two to embody the power of Christ,” Banks said. She also reminded the congregation that “poverty does not mean without a purpose. … Mennonite Church USA needs your capacity to endure.”

For many Congolese Mennonites in Kinshasa, the sheer act of getting to church shows commitment. Tim Lind, of Mennonite World Conference and coordinator for the trip, said most people living in Kinshasa would say transportation is the number one difficulty they face on a daily basis.

 Suzanne Lind, co-country representative for Mennonite Central Committee and a delegation member, said it took most people several hours to get to church at Mont Gafula.

Other members of the Mennonite Church USA delegation spread out to Mennonite churches in the Congo Evangelical Mennonite Church (CEM) and the Congo Mennonite Church (CMCO). Both groups grew out of the Congo Inland Mission, now known as the Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission, in the early 20th century. The groups continue to grow.

Keith Wilson, a member of Community Mennonite Church in Markham, Ill., visited a CEM church. Wilson said a young boy drumming during the service brought him from “goose bumps to tears, back to goose bumps.” The drummer used wood-carved sticks on a crate and a bass pedal attached to the inside of a plastic container, along with a whistle. Wilson, who said he has been to “big-time concerts,” felt moved by the young man’s talent and genuine attitude of worship.

Wilson, 25, is the young adult advocate in his congregation and said he had never traveled outside the country before this delegation. Wilson said he feels moved by the people in Congo who remain in the same difficult economic status year after year and still have a passion for the church.

On Feb. 5, the delegation visited Kinshasa Christian University, where Alfonse Tshiala, provincial president of CEM, shared the history of his church, which is a community of refugees. He said he hopes that Mennonites in the Congo and Mennonite Church USA can move forward on the question of poverty and materialism that divides the two groups.
The group also met with 35 Mennonite university students and the Mennonite Women Theologians group.

Pakisa Tshimika, associate general secretary of Mennonite World Conference and from Congo, said many delegations in the past formed to see “the field”—or mission field. “That language is shifting in this group,” he said.

The delegation’s purpose is to “visit” the Mennonites in the Congo and experience where they live, how they worship and what they value, he said. Tshimika hopes the members will “take it all in” and not feel pressure to form a concrete plan at this point.

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