Congo-Kinshasa (MNN) — The United Nations plans to begin
withdrawal of their peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo in two
months' time. There are concerns for the civilians in the Congo's east because
of increasing rebel violence.
Sam Vinton with Grace Ministries International says,
"The troubles that have taken place in the Congo, and
just the general situation in the country, something has made people very open
to the Gospel."
GMI's two-year old evangelism program "Reaching Congo
Students" has seen phenomenal response. From January through March, three of the teams
doing village evangelism showed the DVD "The GodMan" in 43 different
villages where 1,129 people (mostly students) responded to the Gospel.
The team has also taken OneHope's DVD "The
GodMan" into hundreds of rural villages along with evangelism training
with the local church. As a result, more than 100 adults were saved
in house-to-house tract evangelism.
In fact, Vinton says, "Over 14,000 people have
made a profession of faith in Christ. We're now starting a very strong push on
follow-up using booklets that we're printing to take these converts down the
steps of prayer, worship and Bible study."
It's a good problem to have, but they need help. The Congo is GMI's oldest mission field. They're using all avenues of their outreach
to facilitate the evangelistic thrust.
There are four missionaries working with the Grace Church in
Congo in evangelism, church planting, education, literature, medical work, and
community development projects. GMI-trained
leaders for over 500 churches are trained through a fully-accredited Grace Theological
College, Pastors' School, and 16 Bible institutes.
One teacher training college, 75 high schools, and 145 grade
schools are run by the national church. There
is also a large medical center with two Congolese doctors functioning in a
Muslim area where there is a focus on planting churches in the surrounding
unreached people groups.
