Goma in Turmoil

I(Michael) received this email today:

I am sending this message to everyone in my personal address book. As a board member of Light of Africa Network, I am asking that each person take time out of their busy schedule to pray for the safety and well being of our missionary couple, Camille and Esther Ntoto, who are in this war torn region of the world in the DR Congo. We just spoke to Camille. The borders are closed. Esther is coming home from Belgium and WILL NOT return to Goma. It is too dangerous! She is praying and hoping that she will be able to meet Camille in Kinshasa (a much safer area for the time being.) Our prayers should always be with the people of Congo; the victims of rape, the children; the families torn apart, and yes, even the men that are creating this violence. We need to pray for their souls that God may place His hand upon their hearts for a deep change from within. Our Lord can do this. Please pray!

Please pray for Camille. He is stuck in Goma and trying to find an airline seat out of the area. He is trying to move around without much notice. His leg has just been taken out of a cast and he is struggling with that issue, too. Pray that he can close up the house, transfer funds and proceed safely to meet Esther. By praying, we will remember that “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.” (Psalm 46:1) Please pray that God will provide that refuge and strength to Camille and Esther as they continue through day by day. PLEASE, PLEASE take a moment from your day and pray. Through prayer, we can make a difference and at this moment we need to stand together and show the power of prayer.

Pray does work! Let us commit to it and do it without quitting.

Grace and Peace,

Michael.

Goma - Day 12

As we drove up to the prison, you could not help but notice that a transformation was happening. A revitalization group was sponsoring the renewing of the exterior of the prison. A fresh coat of colored cement texture as well as fresh paint in other places was covering the outside of the prison. Once in side, it was evident that the exterior changes did not make it into the inside. Kind of like us, we make so much effort change our outward appearance, but inside we are the same old person. Remember God is not concerned with what you look like, but who you are. As we walk into the yard of the prison, you could feel the coolness of the morning air with the security of protection from God. There are no guards in the prison, it is self-governed and all the police were safely on the outside of the prison door. There are just over 700 inmates in the prison and they counted about 565 inmates at the service. When Patrick and I were here in April the service was help inside in a small, dark, Closter-phobic room. They know hold the service in the yard, which was to my delight. There was a lively praise and worship time followed by a message from me. I spoke on our identity and that our identity is found in Jesus. We are not identified by color, language or nationality. We are not identified by the thing that we have done, but by who God has created us to be. I used many verses from the book of Romans to show that all of us have sinned and all need a Savior. That salvation is a free gift available to us all. It was evident that God was with us and that many of these men had hearts committed to Jesus. I asked how many remembered Patrick and by the response he is still well know in Goma prison. I sent greeting to the men from Patrick and they all cheered. We gave the beans and rice, which were very well received. Pastor Bitha who is the regular prison pastor told them that I did not just come to give them food for their heart, but I also came to give them food for their stomach. He shared the verse in James that says faith without deeds is not faith at all. My tattoos have generated more attention in the past, mostly because the new one I got is pretty obvious. Many of the prisoners came around me to check out my arm and I able to share a short word on obedience to them. Outside, Camille was talking to the director of the prison and he informed us that the uprising began Tuesday morning when we were first scheduled to visit. God is always taking care of us.

I spent then rest of the morning preparing for an English Bible study, working out and started to pack up my suitcases. I came with three suitcases, two of them filled with stuff that C & E needed. Packing to come home will be a lot easier with more room. I did purchase items to resell at church to raise money for more work in the DRC. There are some specific areas I think we as a church can get involved with here. I will be working through some stuff and will share when I have more clarity.

At C & E’s church they have an English Bible study on Thursday nights. C & E came up this idea to help the youth of their church to learn English. I taught a passage about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Each person had to speak English and I had to talk real slow so they had a better chance to understand, which is very hard for me.

The almost two weeks here have flown by. I thank all of you for your prayers and for taking this trip with me through this blog. I pray that the words God spoke through me would invoke change in people and change in a nation. I truly believe that the church needs to rise up and be the church he has called us to be. We need to stop sitting on our hands and get out to bring about change through Jesus Christ.

Over the next 2+ days I will spend 23 hours in the air and 15 hours in airports, Lord have mercy!

Grace and Peace,

Michael.

Goma - Day 11

Wow Day 11, where has the time gone. Did you know that the Angels have the best record in baseball and are entering the playoffs tonight versus the Boston Red Sox? It is difficult to stay up with all the sports scores with slow internet, but I do get on the internet in the morning and see how everything went.

I took care of the sponsoring of children in school today. We ended up sponsoring 10 kids in the Hope for the Helpless program and 5 children in the Berea school I visited last week. I will be receiving names and photos of all the kids and will put them up at church so we can continue to pray for these kids.

Camille and I just got back from the youth service at La Source Church. The praise & worship was fantastic. I preached from the book of Daniel and took a look at Daniel's life. Many times he had the opportunity to compromise his relationship with God but he never did. God blessed him for his uncompromising life. What would life look like for us if we never compromised? Are we missing out n blesses because of our compromise?

The pastor from the prison came by today to tells us that there had been an uprising at the prison. The issue was over the total lack of food and the prisoners were very hungry. He phoned later and said things where back to 'normal', pray! We will be taking the beans and rice with us, which should make us well liked. We will present the food to the authorities in front of the prisoners so they know that the food is there.

Pretty much all of Goma was on strike today to protest the lack of peace in the area. We think there was some sort of demonstration today, but we did not see anything. I did make the raids easier to drive on with less people and vehicles. I lost by chauffeur job this afternoon. Camille got his cast off and was back behind the wheel. His calf muscle is still very stiff and his knee is sore from lack of movement, but he should gain better mobility over the next few days.

Remember that as you pray, God may use you to answer your very own prayers.

Grace and Peace,

Michael.