Peace holds, the church grows.

Congo-Kinshasa (MNN)–Since last year’s implementation of a series of peace accords to end a five-year war, relative peace has returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The years of fighting had forced the church under ground, where, according to Grace Ministries International’s Sam Vinton, it thrived. “During this time, churches have continued to minister. Some of them, of course, were burned, and people driven out. They have begun a number of new churches, and, out of the 14 Bible schools that we had, 12 of them are functioning, and in the past several years, have had over 100 who’ve graduated from the schools.”

GMI’s oldest and largest mission field. Five missionaries work with the national church organization in the areas of evangelism, church planting, education, medical work, and community development projects.
Church leaders are trained in the Bible college, Pastors’ School, and sixteen Bible institutes. A large medical center has recently been built in a Muslim area where the first church has been planted in an unreached people group.

One teacher training college, 27 high schools, and 130 grade schools are run by the national church. More than 400 churches have been planted in this country.

Vinton says they are now able to plan a national meeting of church leaders. “In the city of Bukavu, we have the executive committee of our national church and several of our missionaries meeting together to plan for a meeting f all our church leaders which will be in the first in six years. Since the troubles began in 1998 in August, we have not been able to gather all our pastors, all our church leaders in one place.”