Goma - Day 3

Tuesday found us with restored mobility around Goma. Driving around the only remnants of the previous days trouble was a few looted stores and a UN presence on the main street. The talk among the people is that would rather see the UN out fighting the warlord that sitting on the main road.

Esther and I went with Pastor Ushindi from the Nazarene Church of Goma, to visit a school that is part of their association of churches and schools. It was a fantastic school that focused on educating the children in French. This is important because if the children grown up only speaking Swahili, then there education and job opportunities will be severely limit. This school also has focused time of prayer and bible study throughout the week. Esther and I walked through each class, which went from preschool (3 & 4 year olds) through 6th grade. At least one child from each class presented themselves speaking French to show us how much they had learned. There is a need for child education sponsorship, which cost $60 per year per child. Thanks to Pastor Karie’s “Change Africa” campaign, we will be sponsoring some children. I will be looking into another opportunity to help vulnerable children on Saturday.

I was scheduled to speak to the women of C & E’s (Camille & Esther) church in the afternoon. I was asked to speak the day before and quickly accepted without thinking that I have never spoken to all women’s crowd. But I committed so…

On the way to the meeting, Esther and I stopped by a boutique of hand made goods. These items are made from women involved in a Catholic program that helps them recover from sexual violence. Esther initiated an event called “Women Breaking the Silence”, which had women who were the victims of sexual violence sharing their stories with government and other important officials. The mission was to bring the reality of the situation into the faces of those that can do something about it. The picture of the girl with Esther is one of the individuals who broke the silence. Her name is Mado and she is eleven years old. I will be going back to that boutique and purchasing things that we can sell at church to further support our Congo missions.

The meeting with the women was fantastic, I was so blessed to be able to share with them. God spoke a message of equality, empowerment and importance to women who are part of a male dominated society. The whole time I spoke, their ears were fixed on every word. It was a truly blessed time.

At night we had a great time of prayer thanking God for he day and asking his direction for the next. God convicted me of my concern for all the speaking at the upcoming conference. It felt good to confess and ask God to forgive me, it was no freeing. After prayer I sat down at the table and God poured into me as I wrote my notes for the first day of the seminar. My first two topics are The Role of the Church and the second is The Role of the Pastor. The over all topic of the conference is “The Role of the Church in Times of Crisis”.

Tomorrow will be a full day with the conference.

Continue to pray.

Grace and Peace,

Michael.