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Diamonds are Forever, Congo and U.S. Mennonites learn Together

MBUJI MAYI, Democratic Republic of Congo (Mennonite Church USA) — On the road from Mbuji Mayi through the diamond fields, Reverend Benjamin Mubenga was asked by passersby if he was taking his white passengers to see diamonds.

Mubenga, president of the Communauté Evangelique Mennonite (CEM), said he was on his way to visit churches. Much later, his passengers, five members of the Mennonite Church USA delegation to Congo, agreed that Mubenga was helping to shape diamonds of a different kind – CEM congregations in the Eastern Kasai province who love Jesus and serve him in their communities.

The group was part of a church-to-church visit in Congo, Feb. 2 through16, to help build new relationships between Mennonite denominations in Congo and the United States with the encouragement of Mennonite World Conference (MWC).

On the diamond trail, the delegation, accompanied by church leaders of CEM, traveled more than five hours in an SUV over rut-filled, washed-out roads to visit three Congolese congregations near Tshintshianku just 60 miles outside of Mbuji Mayi.

The group learned that adequate transportation – both appropriate vehicles and the lack of an infrastructure of roads – is one of the major obstacles to the growth of CEM churches.

The delegation visited nearly a dozen parishes often arriving at their intended destination hours later than expected. Church members were waiting to greet them as the vehicle approached each parish through a festive palm-leafed lined arch. Delegation members were joyfully escorted to seats of honor at the front of the church.

Children, youth and adults, numbering well more than 100 at each stop, sang of their love for Jesus, and delegation members offered greetings on behalf of the congregations of Mennonite Church USA.

“We want to learn more about how we can nurture our friendship with you, and we want to learn how to share our gifts with each other,” said Sharon Waltner, moderator-elect of Mennonite Church USA and a member of the delegation.

East Kasai is one of four provinces where CEM, the smallest of three Mennonite-related conferences in Congo, has churches. Just under two-thirds of its 24,000 members in 86 congregations are in East Kasai province, where the delegation visited.

The delegation flew from Kinshasa to Mbuji Mayi, a city of about two million people and the headquarters of CEM. It met with CEM church leaders and congregation leaders as well as the provincial president of the Congolese Church of Christ (ECC), Mbaya Ciakanyi.

Like Mennonites in other parts of Congo, the CEM churches participate with ECC, the council of churches, for shared ministry and support. Ciakanyi told the visitors that the Christian churches in this community face three basic challenges – poverty, politics and education.

Mubenga said another challenge for CEM is keeping people together in one conference when they speak different languages. Members often need to travel hundreds of kilometers over poor roads to gather together. “But when the people get a taste of what it’s like to be together, they want more,” Mubenga said.

Mubenga and vice president Mattieu Shimatu said 25 evangelists are currently being trained to start new churches throughout the East Kasai province. When the training is completed each evangelist will be given $10 and sent out. The new pastors will need to find their own means of support in their new communities.

One day as the group traveled from one parish to another, it stopped to pray at an outdoor chapel with a pastor who has begun a new cell of believers. After prayers, the pastor jumped on the crowded vehicle to join the celebration at the next village parish a dozen kilometers away.

Delegation members later met with CEM officers to talk about the challenges they face. There has been serious conflict in the church and leaders have worked hard to resolve it with the help of MCC and MWC. Their task is made more difficult because none of the leaders receive payment for their denominational work.

CEM administers 60 schools with about 10,000 students. The church receives some payment from the government but it is far less support than is needed to run the schools effectively.

In addition to training 25 new evangelists, CEM leaders said their goals include expanding their office facilities and building a health center, primary and secondary schools and homes for some of their leaders on the land surrounding the Dipumba parish in Mbuji Mayi.

The plans for the Dipumba parish are impeded, as they are in several other locations, until CEM can recover land from families who have unlawfully built their houses on land given to CEM by a former government.

Leaders from churches in both countries agreed it is difficult to build mature relationships where both churches can give and receive gifts. Mennonite Church USA delegation members repeatedly felt expectations in the parishes that the Americans had come to give them money, despite Congolese leaders’ assertions each time that the visit was about building friendships.

“Our people can be motivated to be self-sufficient,” Mubenga said. “Our problem is how to get there to motivate them.”

Throughout the visit, delegation members were shown economic generation projects including rabbit breeding, bread baking, palm oil and grain producing. Congolese leaders said their congregations need to generate sources of income within the church, rather than expect help to come from outside the church.

“We’ve seen a beautiful country and the people have been very gracious,” said James Wenger, pastor of the North Baltimore (Md.) Mennonite Church.

“We’ve had the opportunity to learn from each other as we’ve traveled together,” said Shimatu.

“Through your music and prayer, you’ve nurtured our spirits,” said Suzanne Lind, co-country leader for the Congo for MCC and a member of the delegation.

“You had the good will to visit your brothers and sisters, even in the far corners of our region, and that proves you care for us,” said Mubenga.

Leaders of both countries talked together about the gifts they think the other church has to offer them. The U.S. church delegation said the Congo churches have vitality in worship, an understanding of generosity and endurance to remain faithful when times are difficult to offer American churches. Congo leaders said their U.S. counterparts have political influence, experience in leadership training and resources to share.

On Sunday morning, Waltner preached at Mubenga’s congregation and Wenger preached in Shimatu’s congregation. Delegation member Keith Wilson, a young adult and deacon at Community Mennonite Church in Markham, Ill., was eager to visit Shimatu’s church since Wilson’s church hosted Shimatu in March 2006.

Following the MWC General Council meeting in Pasadena, Calif. in March 2006, Mennonite Church USA congregations hosted two of the seven Congo delegates for two weeks. The other five Congo delegates were denied visas to enter the United States.

On the road back from Luputa to Mbuji Mayi earlier in the week, the 15-member SUV entourage jumped out of the vehicle to visit a diamond merchant who was a member of one of the CEM congregations. He showed them a handful of small, uncut diamonds worth more than $1,500.

Like these diamonds, leaders agreed, the initial gift sharing efforts between Congo and U.S. churches are very small, but the potential can be very valuable.

“This can not be our last visit because we want to keep encouraging each other in the work we are doing,” said Shimatu. “For a long time to come, we have much to learn from each other and much to share.”

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Photos available on request:
1. Three women of the Tshintshianku congregation prepared a meal for five members of the Mennonite Church USA delegation to Congo.
2. Headquarters for the Evangelical Mennonite Church (CEM) of Congo are in the eastern part of the country in Mbuji Mayi. Benjamin Mubenga, president, and Matthieu Shimatu, vice president (from left in front row), are joined by the treasurer and secretary of the conference (back row). Mubenga and Shimatu both pastor congregations near Mbuji Mayi.
3. Sharon Waltner, moderator-elect of Mennonite Church USA, preached Sunday, February 11 at the Dipumba congregation in Mbuji Mayi, during the Mennonite Church USA delegation visit to Congo.
4. Mennonite Church USA delegation to Congo members James Wenger, Suzanne Lind and Ron Byler (left to right) joined Congolese church leaders and delegation members Keith Wilson and Sharon Waltner, for a tour of Evangelical Mennonite Church (CEM) parishes, Feb. 8-13. Fifteen persons traveled in this one vehicle over rut-filled dirt roads, often arriving at their destination hours later than expected. Even still, congregational members were always present to greet them and to lead them in worship.