From John Wood: May 2004.
Andre Mwitwa, evangelist from Lubumbashi, DR Congo, is a hearer and a doer. He was part of the team that organized our vision conference in October 2002. During the week, Andre showed great enthusiasm in learning that God’s love is to be proclaimed to the world both through word and through works. But what distinguishes Andre among many others is the extent to which he has gone in applying what he learned.
Shortly after the conference, I received my first email from Andre. He described the Lubumbashi church’s new ministry of expressing God’s love through action as “amukeni”, Swahili for “wake up”, because the teaching had awakened the church from its sleep. Moved to action, Andre and others organized a seed project among the rural poor outside of Lubumbashi. They called it “Rescue in the Fields”.
“We discovered that people in the fields suffer very much at the approach of rainy season,” he wrote, “because they find themselves without any provision of food at home, and without any seed to sow. Thus every year they are deprived of anything to sustain their lives. So they are obliged to go and work in the fields of other people in order to gain some meal for the family before planting their own fields. Losing all the necessary time in looking to survive, they experience a perpetual chain of poverty every year, as they are being exploited by those for whom they work!
“So, the idea was to mobilize the church, gather some food and seed, and give it to those people in the fields to enable them plant their own fields first, then afterward work for other people if necessary. Now as I am writing, it is harvest time here. The people are very glad because they are taking home enough food from their fields. They can sell a part of it in order to buy other important things for the family. People have seen God's love through this act of a good Samaritan to them. A prayer cell has been organized there, and, with God's help, a church can be started.”
What a beautiful demonstration of God’s love: helping people learn how to survive physically, and at the same time sharing with them the God who offers eternal survival.
But Andre was not finished. Some months later, I received the following update:
“I am happy to tell you that the AMUKENI Ministry, with the seed project ‘Rescue in the Fields’ continues to develop. We continue training the workers, in spite of some small difficulties which we encountered.
“I would also like to inform you that beginning last August, we have expanded our seed project by building some small ponds and stocking it with fingerlings. It is now operational, and the fish are growing. We also succeeded in raising two sows in a small pen. The first gave birth on 12/23/2003 to nine little piglets, eight of which survived. The second gave birth to 14, all of which are still alive and growing.”
Andre’s intention is that when these piglets are old enough, he will “loan” them to a needy family, who will in turn breed them, and “loan” some of the offspring to other families. In this way, the poor can also become involved in loving their neighbors as themselves.
In February, I was invited to facilitate a vision conference in Bukavu, in another region of the DR Congo. Andre and another pastor from Lubumbashi graciously agreed to make the hard trek from Lubumbashi to Bukavu in order to share their story with the churches there. Their testimony communicated powerfully. They told how God multiplied their meager resources when they gave the little that they had in service to God and to others The brothers and sisters in Bukavu were encouraged to follow their example.
But Andre was not content to simply speak at the conference and return home. He wants to share the truth and the power of God’s love in action with all who will listen. Andre wrote to me:
“Before leaving for Lubumbashi, I had the opportunity on Sunday, February 15, 2004 to share in the church for deaf people of Lubumbashi. I shared about seed projects. Our deaf brothers decided to each get two or three ducks to raise on their lots. They were full of joy as a result of this seed project. They asked me to please stay in regular contact with them.”
Meanwhile back in Lubumbashi, Andre redoubled his efforts to combine teaching God’s Word with loving actions. In April 2004, I received this letter from Andre:
“I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As soon as I arrived back in Lubumbashi after the Bukavu conference, I began a marathon program. Every Saturday, I bring together Christians and others in a neighborhood near Lubumbashi, in order to give them teachings of the Samaritan Strategy. This neighborhood has lacked electricity for a long time. As I write to you, we are in the process of putting up poles and purchasing electrical wire to deliver electricity to the neighborhood. We are taking old, unused posts from an abandoned rail line. Our hope is that at the end of three months (i.e. in July), this neighborhood will be lit up. My request to you is that you intensively pray that this work might be successfully completed.”
I could continue with other stories which Pastor Andre has shared with me. He is among many whose lives have been transformed by the Biblical message of the Samaritan Strategy. Around the world, God is bringing His transforming love into focus through His church which is being awakened to the whole truth of God’s Word. |
