Evangelism in the Congo

It was decided at the year-end meeting of the Congo Union committee that a series of meetings should be held in a sub­urb of Elisabethville called Ruashi to help in the follow-up of a number of Voice of Prophecy interests. A school of evangelism was also to be held in conjunction with the meetings so that a number of our South Congo Field evangelists who were to help with the campaign might get the benefit of such training. Pastor Steve De Lange, the Field president, and his committee sent all they possibly could to the meetings, and Pastor De Lange also took time from his busy program to help teach. Pastors D. H. Thomas and J. T. Knopper of the Congo Union office also helped teach, so we had a full program of study and visitation. The daily program was planned as follows:

Four classes in the morning after a de­votional:

1. Bible Doctrines
2. Homiletics
3. Personal Evangelism
4. Public Evangelism

The afternoons and Sundays were used for visitation, and four evenings a week a public meeting was held in the auditorium, which seated about five hundred people. Ten evangelists were present during the six-week campaign besides the speakers and they were all kept busy with classes, visita­tion, and auditorium responsibilities. One of our pastors from Songa, Paul Mwema, was the main speaker. He was assisted by Pastors Jonas Ruzirakuvuka and Elasto Basaninyenzi, who gave health talks each evening.

As in many campaigns we had our diffi­culties and disappointments. On the first night and for several nights following we hardly had standing room, with an esti­mated 1,000 people in attendance. But our troubles started even before we began the meetings. After having received written permission to use the hall, we found out two days before we were to begin that our large sign in front of the auditorium had been taken down and someone else had rented the hall to show pictures every night. We found the man and he was will­ing to let us put up the sign again and hold our meetings, but we had to get out by eight every evening. It was a difficult sit­uation and an unpleasant atmosphere in which to conduct our meetings, but we had no choice. It left us without an aftermeet­ing, which I believe is one of the most im­portant parts of an evangelistic effort. When we arrived a couple of hours before time on the first Sunday night to make sure that everything was in order, we found that many of the chairs had been taken and were being used in a nearby bar. We finally found the man in charge and got most of the chairs back in time for the opening of the service. Then we had a problem about the lights, because we weren't given the key for the projection room where they had the light switch. The man with the key went off and we were left stranded. This hap­pened many nights. Well, we could go on relating the working of the devil, but we are more interested in the working of God.

Nearly every night we had a good attend­ance and at the close of the twenty-four meetings we were visiting eighty interested people. After five weeks we had a baptism of eleven adults, most of whom make up our church group at Ruashi. They had been studying for some time before the ef­fort began, because we seldom baptize any­one until he has thoroughly studied all our doctrines. This often takes more than a year. We therefore felt the interest must be carried on, and asked for permission to use the hall every Sunday afternoon. This was granted us. Pastor Elasto Basanin­yenzi from the Voice of Prophecy office led out in these follow-up meetings and he is continuing the interest by holding a Bible-marking class every Sunday afternoon. Pas­tor Belson, one of those attending the school of evangelism, was asked to help him in this follow-up work. Many are attending the Sunday afternoon meetings and we are looking forward to establishing a church in the near future with many more to add to the nucleus of ten that we have as our mem­bership in this little town. We are in the process of obtaining land, and quite a por­tion of money has already been received for a church building, much of it from the group of believers that we have in Ruashi.

The Congo is closed in some areas, but we are glad that there are still places open to us to preach the gospel, and some of those places are the larger cities where we need to enter with this message. Our theme for the meetings held in Elisabethville was "Hope for Africa Bible Lectures," and truly there is hope as we take the message of salvation to the people in this continent.

We are planning to hold a public cam­paign next year in our country's capital, the large city of Leopoldville, with more than a million inhabitants. We need your prayers as we endeavor to make an impres­sion on the multitude of people in that city as well as other cities of the Congo.