What a journey! It took us 2 days of traveling to reach our ministry site in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This included 3 hours getting across the border and many long hours of rocky roads and very high mountain roads with no safety railing. We saw United Nations troops throughout our travel in the Congo; we were stopped frequently by national and local police, but we did not encounter any hostility and eventually they all wished us a good journey and let us travel on.
God IS good, because we arrived safely in Goma – which is one of the larger cities but it is not a a pretty place; in 2002 Mount Nyiragongo erupted, pouring red hot lava onto the town, leaving dozens dead and mounds of molten rock in its wake. There is very little greenery or anything growing, because the whole town is still just black rocks everywhere. It reminded me of Haiti, with piles of rocks, crumbled buildings, and debris. The Congolese people have suffered for years from civil wars and it is considered by many sources to be the poorest country in the world.
Pastor Florentine is our Congo contact, and has already been hard at work. Although exhausted upon our arrival on Thursday evening, we were excited to visit the home of a local man who has offered his home to start a new church, where Florentine will be pastor. It's just the man, his wife and Florentine for now, but we are confident that God will grow the church.
It is now Monday, close to midnight, and I'm writing from Uganda, having arrived here around 5:00 p.m. We did not have internet access in the Congo, so I'm just now able to give some details of our Congo ministry. So I'll add more tomorrow – it was an incredible time there, and God has a great plan as always. Thank you for being a part of it!
God is good – all the time!
Brenda
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