*Updated version from our
June, 2015 e-mail prayer letter…don’t miss this…God is working!
“How then
shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how can they believe
in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
and how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of
good things!” Romans 10:14-15
Dibaya Church News
The church of “Beaux Pieds” (Beautiful Feet) has officially adopted its
very own church constitution and doctrinal statement! The week after we voted
in the constitution, the church received a letter from the neighboring village,
Mangai. A handful of Christians have
gathered together, and officially asked “Beaux Pieds” to start a church there. Our church voted to accept this invitation,
and will start our first official church plant project as a mother church at
the end of June! Mangai is a long walk,
at about 20 miles. However, in accepting
this responsibility, our church agreed to send 2 of our members each week to
help with evangelism, teaching and organizing.
The first members to go to Mangai will be Institute students! Please pray for our church, that they are
truly able to take on this responsibility and that they will be able to
persevere through the tough times that are sure to come…
Another big step our church is taking right now involves the possibility
of calling a national pastor. In May,
the church voted to invite a man from Kikwit (Emanuel) to come candidate as
pastor. He is scheduled to stay in
Dibaya for 2 months, starting in mid-July, as the church evaluates him and he
considers moving his family here to pastor this church. Please pray for Emanuel and “Beaux Pieds” as
many important decisions will be made this summer!
Kinshasa
Our next trip to Kinshasa is coming up! We are going down for several
reasons. One reason is because the
Grings family is heading back to the States on furlough for a year, and we need
to touch base before they head out.
Also, we have been exploring the possibility of applying for permanent
visas. (Usually, they ask people to be in Congo for 15 years before being able
to apply for this type of visas.) Our local immigration officer contacted his
boss, the head of immigration for our province, and has given us permission to
start this process. This high immigration officer offered to hand-carry our
passports through the office in Kinshasa.
However, we just found out he will NOT be in Kinshasa when we will
be. This sounds like bad news, but it’s
not! Before he left town, he personally went to see a man that works directly
for the head of immigration for the country, and gave him our information. This #2 man called our local immigration officer
and asked why he should approve permanent visas for us. Our local officer told
him about us and how we have made Dibaya our home. Because of this, the #2 guy
gave permission for the local officer to give us his personal phone number and
said to tell us he would make sure it all was approved.
In the long run, this will save us a lot of time and money as we have to
apply for exit/return visas every time we leave the country, and re-apply for
missionary visas every 5 years (which expire soon). Our estimated visa expenses for 2016 will be
almost $3,000. Permanent visas would eliminate all of this cost, plus prevent us
from having to pay these fees again in the future. These visas would also make
it possible for us to leave and re-enter the country quickly, without having to
wait for the exit/return visas to be approved or spending unnecessary time in
Kinshasa for this process; also eliminating risk of visas being delayed or
denied. These visas would also allow us to be out of the country longer than 10
months without losing our visas, if this is ever necessary.
The down side: these visas will require a sizable amount up-front. We were told they are $1,500 each to total $7,500
for the family. Plus, there is a
processing fee of around $500 (for $8,000 total). God is already working on this as well! The
local immigration officer told us that this fee is fixed for adults, but can be
negotiated for children of parents getting this type of visa. (Dependent children are required to hold the
same visas as their parents.) He said to expect the children’s visas to cost
around $500 each. This would bring the
total down to around $5,000 total. With
our expected visa fees to be around $3,000 next year, this looks like a wise
and practical decision that would pay for itself quickly. Please pray with us about this decision, the
process, and for the Lord to provide for this one-time expense! If the Lord is
in this, we could have permanent visas in July!
Please pray for a safe and relatively uneventful trip to Kinshasa. We will be taking the older Land Cruiser (that
we are “borrowing”) as it is much more fuel efficient than our Dodge. Please
continue to pray for the Lord’s provision in finances and finding of a good
Land Cruiser we can purchase.
While in Kinshasa, we will
be able to get more Bibles. More special
gifts toward Bible purchases have been sent in! We are excited to give more
details in next month’s e-mail letter…
Pastor Giton and Papa Nkaotwo
Thank you for your prayers
for help with the Bible Institute: God sent us these 2 men! We have known them both for several years but
they have both just recently agreed to be on the administrative board of the
Bible Institute! They both seem to
understand and agree with our doctrine/missions philosophy and are now actively
involved in the decision making process for the institute. Neither of them live in Dibaya, however this
has taken a huge load off us. Pastor
Giton is even on his way to Dibaya to teach the professors a class while we are
in Kinshasa! Please continue to pray
with us for more men to join this administrative board so we can file for
paperwork with the government to officially be registered.
The Library
We are very excited to now
have a functioning library! This is the
only library in our village, as well as in the entire surrounding area. Most of the books are “religious” in nature
(this is a Bible Institute, and we are missionaries, after all), however we
also were able to get books for learning how to read (French), dictionaries,
and other resources. As French is the
educated language here, most of the books are in French; we also have some
English and Kikongo, as well as Bibles in 6 languages. The books are not allowed to leave the
library, as many of them are either irreplaceable or it would be very difficult
to do so. However, we have several
tables and chairs available for those who wish to come study. Many of the books
were purchased while we were in Québec, and came to Congo in our shipping
container. It was SO nice to finally be
able to get them out of the boxes and onto shelves where they can be used and
be a blessing! We are praying to add to
the library, as Lord provides for more books to be purchased and brought up
from Kinshasa.
Please pray with us! We are
praying about how the Lord will provide for a women’s literacy program! With
the materials we have been able to purchase, we have the necessary curriculum
and the space all set up. Please pray
with us for a qualified and willing person to feel led to head-up this vital
ministry!
Time in Kinshasa