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.
