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American Mennonites forge Links with Congolese Churches

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Hundreds of cloth strands hanging from the aluminum ceiling of Mont Gafula Mennonite Church here and colorful, printed scripture verses decorating the wall behind the cement stage greeted four American guests on Sunday, February 4. Singing by two young women added to the festive worship service.

The guests were part of a 13-member delegation from Mennonite Church USA who visited Congo from February 2 to February 16. Mennonite World Conference helps to facilitate such church-to-church links.

“You are not only guests, but brothers and sisters in Christ,” said Pastor Selembao Lola, in welcoming the delegation. You pray for us, and we’ll pray for you, and God will use our gifts to bless each other, he added.

Lola, who grew up Mennonite, established the church in 1995 in a part of Kinshasa that did not previously have a Mennonite church. An exposed, tent-like structure is located in a church member’s yard. The church purchased a P.A. system last year as a “means of evangelizing,” Lola said. “When people hear it, they can come and worship together.”

Addie Banks, a pastor at King of Glory Tabernacle in Bronx, N.Y., and a member of the delegation, delivered the sermon at Mont Gafula to youth, children and adults.

Banks spoke of Paul’s work to bring the Jews and the Gentiles together, paralleling that to the beginning relationship between the Mennonite churches in Congo and Mennonite Church USA.

“God’s purpose is to make one group from two to embody the power of Christ,” she said.

Other members of the delegation spread out to Mennonite churches in the Congo Evangelical Mennonite Church (CEM) and the Congo Mennonite Church (CMCO). CMO and CEM grew out of the work of Congo Island Mission, now known as African Inter Mennonite Mission, and the conferences continue to grow.

Keith Wilson, who said he’s been to “big-time concerts,” felt moved by a young drummer’s talent and genuine attitude of worship at the CEM church he visited. The young boy's drumming during the service brought him from “goosebumps to tears and back to goosebumps,” he said. The drummer used wood-carved sticks on a crate and a bass pedal attached to the inside of a plastic container along with a whistle.

Wilson, 25, is the young adult advocate at Community Mennonite Church in Markham, Illinois. He never traveled outside the US before. Wilson felt moved by the Congolese who remain in the same difficult financial straits year after year, yet still have a passion for the church.

For many Mennonites in Congo, the sheer act of getting to church shows a commitment. Tim Lind, of Mennonite World Conference and coordinator for the trip, said most people living in Kinshasa would say transportation is the number one difficulty they face daily. In the capital, with 7.5 million people, muddy puddles reach from one side of the dirt roads to another, while traffic moves hectically and unpredictably.

Suzanne Lind, co-country representative of Mennonite Central Committee and a delegation member, said many people spend two or more hours traveling to church gatherings.

On Monday, February 5, the delegation met with 35 Mennonite students at Kinshasa Christian University and with the Mennonite Women Theologians group, after hearing from CEM and CMCO church leaders. Reverend Alfonse Tshiala, provincial president of CEM shared the history of his church, a community of refuges which grew out of CMCO. He said he hopes that together Mennonites in Congo and Mennonite Church USA can more forward on the issues of poverty and materialism that divide them.

The delegation, with varied church positions, ages and travel experience, split into three groups to visit Mennonite churches and communities in Tshikapa, Mbuji Mayi and Kikwit for six days.

Many delegations in the past formed to see “the [mission] field,” said Pikasa Tshimika, MWC associate general secretary who is from Congo. “That language is shifting in this group,” he said.

The delegation’s purpose is to visit the Mennonites in the Congo and experience where they live, how they worship and what they value, he said. Tshimika hopes the members will “take it all in,” and not feel pressured to plan a concrete response at this point.

Suzanne said it’s important to affirm the gifts of Mennonites in Congo and what they have to offer Mennonite Church USA. “We want to see their life, not just the needs,” she said.

— Anna Groff, assistant editor of The Mennonite

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Photos by Anna Groff available on request:
1. Addie Banks preaches to Mont Gafula Mennonite Church in Kinshasa while Mado Fuyunguya translates.
2. Addie Banks shares family photos with Mado Fuyunguya, the translator, and members of Mont Gafula Mennonite Church.