Words can’t describe everything that happened tonight: spiritually, physically, and emotionally. Tonight was a night where the true inner self of people was shown. In times of panic and chaos, people react—they become another person… They fight, fly or they shut down entirely. Tonight I’ve seen all three of these happen. For a few hours, I understood what it was like to be a Congolese, living the life they’ve lived their entire lives . . .

Andrew and I spent much time in the presence of the Lord is the morning, asking for his guidance, asking Him to show us his glory, asking him to do what he may with us but especially asking him to bind us together in one accord. The whole day didn’t go as planned, everything we were supposed to do was postponed for one reason or another. But we still wanted to do SOMETHING, so we called Pastor Paul and his family (which consists of a wife a 6 children) and said “bring all the children,” we are going to make all of you dinner. Pastor brought his family, we had Phillip (our dear friend and translator) help us prepare a large meal and we began to eat, dance and have a good time.  . .

It was past 8 o’clock when suddenly, the power went out completely. This is something common in DRC (the power cutting unexpectedly) but what we heard afterward was something I’ll never forget. We heard the sound of people screaming. There’s a certain kind of scream that transcends all languages, it’s the guttural scream that God gave us to communicate one word with the rest of humanity: danger. When we opened the windows and saw, immediately smoke filled our eyes and we saw flames building from the other side of our compound.

We stay in a large (4 floors high) compound which is holds about 100+ people who are mostly MONUC staff (MONUC stands for the military operations of the United Nations in the Congo). Both INSIDE and surrounding the entire compound are petrol (gasoline) stations. As soon as we saw the fire, the pastor gathered all the children and began to run downstairs to the van. Andrew and I immediately grabbed flashlights and started grabbing our most precious belongings. Within, 3 minutes we were also running out of our compound with Phillip. DURING THAT VERY SAME TIME, Phillip received a text message from the CEPAC Barackas Church prayer meeting (Phillip was missing a prayer meeting to spend time with us). The text message said they saw a vision of Phillip and us fleeing toward the border with extreme chaos surrounding us and that they were praying for us.

When we got out of our apartment, we saw chaos. UN staff (a lot of them were foreigners like Indians, Uruguayans and Europeans) Running out of their homes in their sleeping wear grabbing everything they could in there hands. Furthermore, there was a mass panic in the compound because no one was able to get the keys to the UN cars. People were screaming, I saw some European girls (maybe a few years older than me) standing and sobbing in terror.  One man who was able to get the keys to the UN vehicles began to try  distributing, as Andrew struggled to get our motorbike (which happened to be blocked in by other motorbikes), I watched this grown man trembling so terribly he couldn’t even hold the keys trying to distribute keys that he had gotten the vehicles.

We got our things and got out of the compound with the motorbike, but there was even more chaos outside the compound. Everyone knew that MONUC was in the compound and street children and bandits were on the prowl to rob everyone as they ran away with their belongings. It was dark and we were very much in a catch 22 situation where we could stay with a compound surrounded by gasoline or take our chances by running through the streets at night with all of our belongings (this is something EXTREMELY dangerous in this city, people die all the time from being hijacked and there is no justice system).

After Pastor took his wife and children far enough away to find refuge, he came back for us. The guys insisted I get into the van, while Andrew followed behind. It's really tough to seperate from you're only loved one in a situation like that. It was even harder when Andrew, Paul and Phillip left me and Solang (Paul's wife) alone with 6 children at hotel near the border to go back and help rescue our belongings.
 
Through a series of events, we got away… Thanks to Andrew and Pastor Paul (if it wasn’t for him being there, its likely we could have been hijacked right off of our motor bike as we attempted to flee the fire in the darkness).

Since the UN had a vested interest in the compound, the United Nations eventually brought a large fire truck to put out the fire. Had that not happened… The whole city of Goma would be in flames right now. We had SOOOO much gasoline where we were. It would have been tragic.

I don’t know why things happened the way they did, but I know God was with us. He made sure Pastor Paul was there, He told the intercessors to pray…. He was there. Our compound is full of smoke and without power, but the fire is out. We  are staying at a hotel to prevent from bandits looting us in the midst of the post-chaos.

Paul's wife, Solange said it perfectly when we talked about how God's hand is on us.

"God is binding us into a close family. He put us through this together, because that's what families do. You're problems are our problems and our problems are your problems. We are truly becoming a family. God has destined it."

Thank you for your prayers.

Words can’t describe everything that happened tonight: spiritually, physically, and emotionally. Tonight was a night where the true inner self of people was shown. In times of panic and chaos, people react—they become another person… They fight, fly or they shut down entirely. Tonight I’ve seen all three of these happen. For a few hours, I understood what it was like to be a Congolese, living the life they’ve lived their entire lives . . .

Andrew and I spent much time in the presence of the Lord is the morning, asking for his guidance, asking Him to show us his glory, asking him to do what he may with us but especially asking him to bind us together in one accord. The whole day didn’t go as planned, everything we were supposed to do was postponed for one reason or another. But we still wanted to do SOMETHING, so we called Pastor Paul and his family (which consists of a wife a 6 children) and said “bring all the children,” we are going to make all of you dinner. Pastor brought his family, we had Phillip (our dear friend and translator) help us prepare a large meal and we began to eat, dance and have a good time.  . .

It was past 8 o’clock when suddenly, the power went out completely. This is something common in DRC (the power cutting unexpectedly) but what we heard afterward was something I’ll never forget. We heard the sound of people screaming. There’s a certain kind of scream that transcends all languages, it’s the guttural scream that God gave us to communicate one word with the rest of humanity: danger. When we opened the windows and saw, immediately smoke filled our eyes and we saw flames building from the other side of our compound.

We stay in a large (4 floors high) compound which is holds about 100+ people who are mostly MONUC staff (MONUC stands for the military operations of the United Nations in the Congo). Both INSIDE and surrounding the entire compound are petrol (gasoline) stations. As soon as we saw the fire, the pastor gathered all the children and began to run downstairs to the van. Andrew and I immediately grabbed flashlights and started grabbing our most precious belongings. Within, 3 minutes we were also running out of our compound with Phillip. DURING THAT VERY SAME TIME, Phillip received a text message from the CEPAC Barackas Church prayer meeting (Phillip was missing a prayer meeting to spend time with us). The text message said they saw a vision of Phillip and us fleeing toward the border with extreme chaos surrounding us and that they were praying for us.

When we got out of our apartment, we saw chaos. UN staff (a lot of them were foreigners like Indians, Uruguayans and Europeans) Running out of their homes in their sleeping wear grabbing everything they could in there hands. Furthermore, their was a mass panic in the compound because no one was able to get the keys the UN cars. People were screaming, I saw some European girls (maybe a few years older than me) standing and sobbing in terror.  One man who was able to get the keys to the UN vehicles began to try  distributing, as Andrew struggled to get our motorbike (which happened to be block), I watched this grown man trembling so terribly he couldn’t even hold the keys.

We got our things and got out of the compound with the bike, but there was even more chaos outside the compound. Everyone knew that MONUC was in the compound and street children and bandits were on the prowl to rob everyone as they ran away with their belongings.  

Through a series of events, we got away… Thanks to Andrew and Pastor Paul (if it wasn’t for him being there, its likely we could have been hijacked right off of our motor bike as we attempted to flee the fire in the darkness).

Since the UN had a vested interest in the compound, the United nations eventually brought a large fire truck to put out the fire. Had that not happened… The whole city of Goma would be in flames right now. We had SOOOO much gasoline where we were. It would have been tragic.

I don’t know why things happened the way they did, but I know God was with us. He made sure Pastor Paul was there, he told the intercessors to pray…. He was there. Our compound is full of smoke and without power, but the fire is out. We  are staying at a hotel to prevent from bandits looting us in the midst of the post-chaos.

Thank you for your prayers.

This afternoon we found out that around 1 AM this morning, Pastor Euclide's fellowship (Partners in Harvest Church) was completely burnt to the ground. This is the church you have seen in pictures with the orphans ministry. It is also the church we do hospital visits with. This area in town has suffered much loss due to uncontrollable fires that start unexpectedly. The pastor of the church suffered the loss of his home and everything in it less than a year ago (because of fires). Now the church has been demolished. This church needs your prayers. Pray for pastor Euclide and his wife, for the fellowship and for the whole neighborhood around it. Two entire blocks were completely swallowed by the flames. . . This is the poorest neighborhood in Goma, they have nothing to build with again. Pray for these people, pray.

We will go to see Pastor Euclide tomorrow. Pray that the Lord will give us words of consolation and compassion. In my heart, I wish so badly we had a large well-funded organization that can assist this body of believers (which consists of many, many orphans). But for now, we can only give what we have and that's sincere love, compassion and wisdom from the word. Maybe one day, God will entrust us with more . . .

Sam, Amethyst and I visited the village of Nyangoma. You may remember a previous post about a trip where I went to prepare the ground with Pastor Paul. (This village is Pastor Paul’s home village.) We set out for a three day trip doing ministry in this area. From the previous trip we gathered that the church leaders would like seminars on topics addressing issues with leaders, couples, youth, women and the general congregation. They also wanted topics to be addressed such as false teachings, how to minister without having financial means, unity/universal church, eschatology/end times and a few other topics.

When I came home from the preparation trip before this visit I was thinking to myself that there are way too many topics to talk about and not enough time! Before the trip we sat down with Pastor Paul to prepare the speaking times and to finalize content for the speaking topics. We scheduled for ministry from 9:00am to 4:00pm each day. That is a lot of ministry!

The preparations necessary for a trip like this can be tiresome. We had to arrange to rent vehicle as we’re still waiting on the Lord for a capable 4WD. Well after a full morning of negotiating the day before we arranged and finalized an agreeable price. Whew! Three hours of discussing felt like a full day of work!

Well it was time to leave and Amethyst wasn’t feeling well in her back and both she and Sam were suffering from eating or drinking something. But they pressed on knowing that their small personal sufferings we worth overcoming for the sake of ministering to these people. We ended up leaving two hours late and didn’t arrive until three hours after we had planned. A quick team meeting determined we would talk on the same subjects but cut the time in half which worked out for God’s glory.

Each person ministered on their subject and then we offered time after for discussion and/or questions. Everyone greatly appreciated the time of ministry and enjoyed the time of discussion. It seemed that each message somewhat corresponded or built upon the previous subject despite having such diverse speaking topics. The amazing thing was that none of us really spent time collaborating with another.

After spending time in ministry we found out something even more amazing. Each of the topics we spoke on addressed a current issue within the church. All of this occurred without our prior knowledge. Of course we were given speaking topics but the delivery and content of each topic was God ordained and Holy Spirit directed.

On the second day of ministry some of the church leadership approached Pastor Paul and wondered if we had been talking to some of the villagers about the current village health. Pastor Paul didn’t even know the details of the current spiritual climate and it was his own village. The church leadership was so impressed with the work God was doing. When we found out all of the issues we concluded that only God could allow us to minister at such a time as this.

It was told to us that one of the main church leaders was considering joining the Branhamist Church which teaches that if one does not worship at  Branhamist Church that they are not saved, they also teach that polygamy is acceptable and that a variety of other sinful practices are okay so long as they attend the Branhamist Church. Furthermore, they deny the Trinity and maintain that only Branhamist followers will go to heaven.

This leader is very influential within the community and the church. He could potentially cause the church to split and also the village. The people were very happy to hear our messages about unity, following after God, humbleness, leading by example, considering others greater than ourselves and the many other topics discussed. God allowed us to minister words of encouragement that spoke directly to the issues. Pastor Paul was amazed at how powerful the ministry was and he suggested that we possibly saved the church and the village from spiritual decay.

We also found out that the church leader considering breaking away and joining the Branhamist Church had a wife that fell very ill. She was suffering from a sickness where she had barely any strength to walk or stand. As an opportunity to show the love of God to him, we went down the side of the mountain to his house to pray over his wife. He and his wife were very happy to have us pray. After leaving his house Sam, Amethyst and I felt that he was allowing his wife to be sick because of his decisions to not follow Christ. It wasn’t the wrath of God that was making his wife sick but because of his invitation of evil, we felt that might be why she became sick.

Together we are all believing for a rapid recovery of his wife and that his soul would be restored from his sinful ways. We are praying that God preserves the church and that the members would follow God and not a man. Our parting message was, “No matter what, God is the provider of all things not man. If they follow God’s word and seek His kingdom first, all things will be added unto them. We also left them with the teaching that God will only use those who pursue righteousness and humility.

Everyone was greatly blessed and we felt the presence of the Lord. God visits at the right time. We need to be faithful to position ourselves to hear from God. There is nothing extraordinary or amazing about our time. The only thing that really mattered was making ourselves available to minister and being faithful to follow God. Jesus did the rest. God move in a mighty way and we are blessed to be a part of what God is doing in the remote villages of the DR Congo.