January 24, 2006
Greetings from Congo,
When we arrived, the weather was surprisingly mild and we were delighted. Well now we can see that the first few days was God giving us grace to recover from the jet lag without having to deal with the heat at the same time. Well now the grace period is over and the heat is on.
We have observed many changes in Congo over the last four years since we have been coming. The government has improved many of the main roads, newer more modern stores are downtown with many products from the US and Western Europe. You can even get familiar brands of toothpaste. The prophecy, which we brought to Congo in 2002 is being fulfilled line by line right before our eyes. Just before we left the US we learned that the World Court had sanctioned Uganda for her part in invading Congo, killing people, and stealing the minerals. The World Court ruled that Uganda must pay reparations to Congo in the amount of about 10 billion dollars, US. This is a fulfillment of the line in the prophecy, which says that any who steal from Congo will only be bringing judgment on themselves. The case against R'wanta is now being heard. The World Bank had already forgiven Congo more than 85% of her debt while we were here in 2002. Now the banking system is beginning to work properly with more than a few international banks now operating in Congo. This fulfills the line in the prophecy where the Lord promises to restore the banking system and that Congo would get out of debt as well as increase in wealth. The international community is pouring resources and money into Congo to rebuild infrastructure such as roads, hydroelectric projects, hospitals, agriculture, etc. This is spoken of in the prophecy in the line where the Lord promises to send those with skill and resources to rebuild the ancient cities. The effect on the people is wonderful. Their faith in a good and faithful God is increasing every day. Please pray that God will continue to reveal His compassion and faithfulness to the people of Congo.
Pastor Samuel had divided all the Chrisco churches in Kinshasa into four groups by location. He has asked that we teach on prophecy. There is a dearth of understanding on this subject and many people here view a prophet as a fortune teller. Last week we did a series of meetings at Nfdjili where a group of four Chrisco churches were gathering. Diane taught a three-part series on prophecy which was greatly received. God was present in a big way and quite a few people were delivered from junk, which they picked from false prophets. Sunday morning Nick spoke at the regular Sunday service at the same location. He spoke on having a soft heart toward God and what He is doing in their country. The primary scripture used was Hebrews 3:7-11. The message was well received with the people encouraged. While Nick and Diane were at Nfdgili Carol and Papa Samuel made a whirlwind tour of three churches with Carol speaking about House of Joy and the support for the new hospital. The people are so excited that the first container will be here soon and that the work at Oshwe will soon be ready to receive the beds and other equipment.
This week Nick and Diane are teaching two other groups in separate places with the meetings going on at the same time. Last night Diane was at Songololo with a group of four churches while Nick was at Nfgafani. Please understand that Kinshasa is a city of about 10 million people and it takes quite a long time to get from one of these communities to another. We had to first take Diane and Carol to Songololo which took more than 1 hour then Papa Samuel and Nick traveled to Nfgafani, which took at least another hour. Please pray for the logistics and the timing of our participation at these meetings. Life for the people here is hard and they are worn down by the end of the day. So we want to complete our tasks in a timely way in order to allow the people to go home and rest. It is important that the people be in a condition to receive this word, which is new to them.
Carol has written some humorous words describing the traffic situation here. I think House of Joy will publish it on the HOJ web site, www.houseofjoy.org. You might want to check it out.
I hope to get to the cyber cafeL this week and send this to you.
May God richly bless you all. We love you and miss you.
Nick, Diane, and Carol