Dear Friends and Supporters of this ministry,
Here is my report for week seven on this year's African Safari.
Wednesday to Sunday, October 15 to 19, Kalembelembe Bible Institute, Fizi, Democratic Republic of Congo:
Mugo and I arrived back in Nairobi from Migori on Monday afternoon. Mugo and I said our goodbyes after another great time of ministry and fellowship together. I spent the night at the Kensington Tours guest house. They took me to the airport early on Tuesday morning.
Before noon, I flew into Bujumbura, Burundi. Rev. Eciba Lutho, the head of the Community of the Assemblies of God in Africa (C.A.D.A.F.), met me at the airport with a taxi, and we crossed the border into Uvira, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Wednesday morning, after making arrangements to rent a four wheel drive vehicle, we went to the market and bought twenty mosquito nets and twenty flashlights for the students at Fizi.
The roads to Fizi have been repaired for the most part. We still had to ford several streams where the bridges have not yet been rebuilt. It only took us three and a half hours. When we lived here in Congo in the eighties, the same trip took me five hours. Fizi is the colonial headquarters of the Tanganyika Territory, located on a high plateau 200 feet above the Lake Tanganyika level. It is much cooler there, and there is more rain from the surrounding hills.
At Fizi, I was met by Eciba Ekyochi, the director of K.B.I., and later by Pastor Macumbi, the district pastor. They arranged for me, and my guide, Mulanda, to stay in the church house. We arranged to buy food for the students and teachers for morning tea and bread, and afternoon lunch. The students were so happy to receive food because normally they have to provide their own food. They were also happy for the mosquito nets and torches. I taught on, The Work of the Holy Spirit, on Thursday and Friday. Even though most of the students testified that they have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, there were so many other aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit which they had not heard. One student especially appreciated the notes so that he could do more study later.
On Saturday, I spoke in the secondary school chapel on, Making Wise Choices. About 250 students attended. The director of the secondary school and the protocol (the one who looked after our needs), Akili Matumaini, asked for a copy of the notes, even though they were in English. Then I taught the K.B.I. students on, Pastoral Ministries. Rev. Eciba Lutho also asked me to teach on Stewardship, Giving. We also covered the other two sections on, The Formation of the Minister, and The Call to the Ministry.
Sunday morning, more than 300 members almost filled the church. I spoke again on, The Seed of God. Again several ladies and one man came forward for prayer for their families. Although the children laughed, I asked the husbands to hold the hands of their wives, and promise to make Jesus the Lord of their families. Some said that they felt that they were making a new start to their marriages.
The driver of the four wheel drive was faithful to come from Uvira on Sunday evening even though it had rained every day since Wednesday, and he had difficulty fording some of the streams. On the way back to Uvira, he plowed water in front of his vehicle as he forded one stream swollen by the rain.
Kalembelembe Bible Institute Dormitory Built with the Help of the Lord:
In 2005, the Lord provided the funds from one business man in Ohio to repair the dormitory building after the civil war. The Lord worked in several amazing ways. When the bank in Bukavu, Congo, would not cash the traveller's checks I had brought, my son-in-law, Andrew Thorogood, who used to be a loan officer at one of the Canadian banks, was able to borrow the cash funds needed and take them to Tom and JoAnn Lanes who were leaving the next day for Bukavu. Tools were purchased in Bukavu, one hundred and eighty miles from Uvira. Lumber, reinforcing rods, cement, and metal roofing were purchased in Uvira and put on a transport truck leaving for Baraka one hundred miles away. There, a Norwegian non-governmental organization (N.G.O.) transported the materials for free to Fizi forty miles away. The truck that carried the materials had bullet holes in the wind shield from the war. In Fizi, another N.G.O. loaned a dump truck freely to go to one of the C.A.D.A.F. churches on Lake Tanganyika to get a load of gravel to make cement. All we had to pay was the fuel and driver. Two interior walls were built for an office and a kitchen. The Lord gave me the wisdom how to make a lintel of reinforced concrete to tie the walls together to strengthen the building. The truces were made for the roof. One of the students asked if I was an engineer. All this was done in the ten days that I was in Fizi.
After I left, the roof was installed. The windows and doors were installed. Later, a front porch was built across the whole front of the building. Then eighteen desks, and chairs were made. Fifteen beds were made and fifteen mattresses were purchased with blankets, sheets, and mosquito nets for each bed.
My Heart Goes Out to the Students of the Kalembelembe Bible Institute.
After eight years of use, now, only six beds and five mattresses remain for the eighteen students presently enrolled. The remaining students are sleeping with church members in the village. A bed, foam mattress, set of sheets, and a blanket cost about $75.00. Would you pray about donating to buy a bed set for the thirteen students who do not have a place to sleep at the school?
Further, I learned that what I am paying the teachers is only half of what the high school teachers are being paid. Also, it will take about $1,500 to put a cement floor in all five rooms and the porch of the dormitory building. I have been doing my best to support K.B.I. from my personal funds, but they desperately need others like yourselves to support this Bible school if it is to continue and grow.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support for this missionary Bible teaching ministry, for the anointing on the Word, for safety as we travel, and for health and strength for this seasoned veteran missionary. Thank you for those who are giving to support the monthly support that is being sent out even while I am away on safari. Please send your offerings to one of the post box addresses in the signature block.
May the Lord bless you. Yours together in His harvest,
Charles Willner
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Open Word Ministries:
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