Congo Evangelism Training , Bunia

Background:

After the last successful mission that covered Bujumbura in Burundi, Butare, Kigali and Gisenyi in Rwanda, Goma, Butembo and Beni in Congo, I felt the need to immediately follow up Gisenyi and the Congo towns we had the Evangecube training as well as take follow up materials, Tracks and some more Evagecubes. (We had trained more evangelists than the Evangecubes we were able to carry). God provided money soon enough so I was back in October.

The leaders were so encouraged. In Beni, The Youth Leader really pleaded for more materials and especially Bibles. While still in Beni, actually the morning I was leaving for Nairobi, A Pastor on Training at a Bile college in Bunia was exited to hear that I do Evangecube training. I had gotten one and bought it at $5 from a youth who had attended the training at Goma, In fact the youth had asked for $10 but the pastor had only $5.
He really pleaded with me to consider training at Bunia. We exchanged contacts and that we made arrangements for the mission.

We had proposed December but discovered it was so soon. After postponing three times we finally settled for early much.
Meanwhile Miraculously an Asian lady through a friend donated more than 200 bibles for Congo. A number of friends had expressed their desire to join in for the mission but by end of February nobody was available. I was so exited when someone had offered to give a car to carry the materials but was disappointed the last minute. By Gods grace I was joined by a young man I requested the last minute. I had to carry 26 cartons of Bibles and Evangecubes by Bus from Nairobi through Uganda to Bunia in Congo.

The Travel:

Disappointments started with Congo Embassy that could not release our Passports in time. We had to spend another day. The transport company Kampala coach overcharged us and could not assure us that they will be able to carry the materials that day. We moved to Falcon Coach.

We left Nairobi on Tuesday 3rd march aboard Falcon Coach but later learnt that our luggage was in another bus. When we got to Kampala we were dropped at the company office but were shocked to learn that the bus that had carried our luggage had gone to the customs office and left our luggage there. We had to take a taxi to the Customs where we spent a whole day clearing the materials. The officers at the customs were so unfriendly and arrogant. Two Pastors in Kampala came to our rescue though still we could not do it fast enough. The pastors actually paid all the custom demanded and carried us to take the night Bus to Congo
.
We traveled overnight and got to Congo border at 4.00am but had to stay there till 9.00 am when the Uganda immigration officers reported to work. We had a few problems on Congo side but a Pastor and an area Leader were sent by the Church in Bunia to rescue us.
We got a minibus from Kasindi (border town on Congo side) at around 11.00am. it took us more than 4 hours to cover 70 kilometers. The mini Bus had two tire busts and a puncture.
We got to Beni after 4.00 so we could not connect to Bunia about 250kms away. We were received by the pastor who had hosted us during our last mission, Spent the night at one of the member’s home and very early the following morning we left for Bunia. We got to Bunia at around 1.00pm.

The Training

We were so warmly received. We were in contact all our journey, so our hosts in Bunia were so set but had to do a lot of adjusting and re-planning. At around 5pm we had a planning meeting an scheduled 6 training at different centers. We had to do two seminars per day because we were left with only four days.

The fist training was with students of Univasite Shalom De Bunia. The training started at 8.30 and at 11.00 we went out for home to home evangelism. We reached 148 and out of them 39 got saved. In the afternoon we went to CECA 20 Ville. We trained 59 reache140 and 62 got saved. On Sunday afternoon we went to CECA20 Simbiliabo. We trained 49 reached 107 and 43 got saved. On Monday morning we went to CECA 20 Ngezi where we trained 73, reached 298 and135 got saved. In the afternoon we went to CECA20 Sukisa and we trained 49, reached 148 and 87 got saved. Finally on Tuesday morning we went to S E 39(Communite Emmanuel). We trained 56, reached 193 and 66 got saved.
On Tuesday afternoon we had some debriefing with the Leaders and discussed need for follow up and farther training. The leaders expressed need to do the same training to Kisangani and neighboring towns.

We had a very blessed time and Jesus was evidently at work. Though there were a few discouragements, ultimately we have a reason to praise God. In total we trained 332 reached 1034 and 432 got saved. The Leaders and trainees were so cooperative.
We started our travel back on Wednesday morning. Because we needed to get to Nairobi soonest we opted to cross Congo border through Lake Albert. Transport that rout is very unpredictable so we had to do more than 100km on a motorbike. We got to Uganda at 12.30pm and we were told that there was no hope for any vehicle to Kampala. We had to do another two and half hours on motorbikes to fort photo where we boarded a minibus to Kampala.
We spent a night and a day I Kampala and took a night bus to Nairobi.