{"id":1135,"date":"2017-03-20T14:28:20","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T21:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/?p=1135"},"modified":"2025-12-23T13:02:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:02:38","slug":"training-in-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2017\/03\/20\/training-in-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"Training in Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Greetings
Greetings from a church in Congo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bonjour, friends. I have just returned from French-speaking DR Congo where my training partner, Pastor Mike Gaston, and I launched a new Pathways network in Kinshasa, a city of 13 million. As you may have heard, it was not until just two days before departure that we received final confirmation that the political situation was stable enough for us to make the trip. You can imagine how relieved we were, since all tickets and visas had been purchased and we were very committed. It is not surprising, though, that we would face difficulties in this challenging location, since there has been a track record of intense spiritual opposition ever since we began to explore this country. But I encouraged the Congolese pastors that God must have great plans for this network, since the enemy is working so hard to stop it!<\/p>\n

\"Group
Group picture with ECC Vice President<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had 15 pastor-trainers present, plus coordinators Selenga, Mudidi and an extra translator. In the group of 15, there were 10 denominations from ECC represented, which was very encouraging to all of us. ECC is the umbrella organization for all evangelical denominations in Congo. This training group was selected by the Vice President of ECC, whose son was also one of our trainers. He has a plan and desire for Pathways to spread throughout all 95 denominations of ECC.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Brothers
Brothers and sisters in Congo send greetings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After arriving late Saturday night after three days of flying, including a stop in Johannesburg, SA, we slept for a few hours and then left to preach in churches in Kinshasa. It was wonderful worshipping again with Africans and preaching the Word to the responsive congregation.<\/p>\n

\"Pastor
Pastor Mike teaching group in French<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first day of training met us with a number of challenges. Of course there were the mundane issues, like no power, thus no moving air in the 90 degree humid heat, so that in the small training room it reached well over 100 degrees, and I was drenched in sweat… I love it! The French translation had been lost, but fortunately my teammate Mike was fluent in French and worked to translate each day’s workshop notes into French for the participants. My Swahili did me no good in West Africa… bummer!<\/p>\n

\"ESV
ESV Study Bibles from America<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the first day, the experience for all dramatically improved as the saints prayed and the attacks subsided. The trainers eagerly soaked up the material, using Bibles I brought from America. They showed significant improvement in working through the text and communicating the main intent of the author for the original readers.<\/p>\n

\"Praying
Praying over the plan to reproduce Pathways throughout Congo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On day 3, we spent over two hours in a time led by Selenga (Coordinator) discussing and hearing reports from trainers on plans for reproducing the training in many contexts. There were six groups that were formed, and overseeing these six groups were three overseers \u2013 Selenga, Mudidi and Pastor Bate (class president). Each of the six groups shared a detailed plan including group members (master trainers) and phone numbers, location of trainings, dates of trainings, who would be included in the next level and how it would be financed. Other trainings passed on by individual members are also very likely. The three overseers all received copies of these plans and will be working together to offer accountability, encouragement and coaching so the reproduction goals are accomplished.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the testimonies were:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nubako
Nubako Selenga, Coordinator of Congo Pathways network and President of ReachAfrica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Selenga: \u201cFrom the first time I heard this training, I was impressed by it and see the need for it. As we spread this training, we will bring blessing throughout Congo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Josephine,
Josephine, director of a large ministry in Kinshasa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Josephine: “It is like we\u2019ve been asleep and now we are waking up. When we preach, we usually use the Bible for 15 minutes, and our own comments for 45 minutes. Now this will change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Richard, a medical doctor, helped with translation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr. Richard: I was preaching much on college campuses. Now from this study I realize I was preaching my words and message, not God\u2019s words and his message.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Please keep this important network in your prayers as many other groups and countries will be watching this network to see how the training goes. God is able to overcome any opposition, and these dear brothers and sister need us walking with them to spread Pathways training throughout the country.<\/p>\n

\"I
I love to work with my African partners!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pressing on, Eric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bonjour, friends. I have just returned from French-speaking DR Congo where my training partner, Pastor Mike Gaston, and I launched a new Pathways network in Kinshasa, a city of 13 million. As you may have heard, it was not until just two days before departure that we received final confirmation that the political situation was … Continue reading Training in Congo<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mission-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1135"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1150,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions\/1150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}