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2008-06-03 issue:

MC USA churches buy some new wheels

by Mennonite Church USA staff

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When the United States government recently refused to give a visa for Rev. Benjamin Mubenga to visit the United States, Mennonite Church USA leaders decided to go to him instead. Mubenga, president of the Evangelical Mennonite Church in Congo (CEM), was in Canada to meet with Mennonite Church Canada pastors and congregations.



When Benjamin Mubenga of Congo couldn’t get a visa to visit the United States, the North Waterloo (Ontario) Mennonite Church provided space for leaders from the United States to meet him there. From left: Ron Byler, Mubenga, Rod Hollinger-Janzen and Steve Wiebe-Johnson. Photo by Ray Brubacher.

On May 8 at Waterloo (Ontario) North Mennonite Church, Ron Byler, associate executive director for Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership, presented Mubenga with a check for $20,000 from Mennonite Church USA congregations and members to help purchase motorbikes for church leaders. Byler said the check represented the desire of people in the United States to walk alongside sister congregations in Congo.

He said this financial gift was only one of many ways people in Mennonite Church USA want to share gifts with their sisters and brothers in Congo. Church leaders from Congo and U.S. are hopeful Congolese Mennonites will be able to continue sharing gifts of worship and music next summer. Byler said plans are in process for Mennonite Church USA to host a Congo music group during and after the Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009 in Columbus, Ohio.

Steve Wiebe-Johnson, director for Africa for Mennonite Mission Network, and Rod Hollinger-Janzen, executive coordinator for Africa Inter-Mennonite Missions, accompanied Byler to Ontario. AIMM and the Mission Network, already work in partnership with others with Congo church leaders.

In February 2007, when a Mennonite Church USA delegation visited Congo, Mubenga said one of the church’s greatest needs was a way for church leaders to get to the people. The delegation experienced first-hand the serious deterioration of the road system in the country.

“We need to be able to get to the people,” Mubenga said. “Our churches have the potential to be self-sufficient and reach out to people in other areas. The problem is getting there.”
Motorbikes offer a practical solution to this dilemma, he said.

Mubenga said additional priorities for Congo churches are scholarships for young people to attend university, training for church planters and counsel for resolving disputed ownership of church properties.—Mennonite Church USA staff

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