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.

Goma - Day 10

This morning the staff and volunteers of Light of Africa Network(LOAN) got together for prayer and bible devotions. It was a truly blessed time of heart felt worship and prayer from the depths of the heart. We prayed for the country, the sexual violence issue as well as many other topics. We believe that we serve a God who not only hears these prayers but also delights in answering them.

Much of the morning was finishing the preparations a a two recording engineers from Ghana coming to record the bible in Swahili. They are partnering with LOAN on this project and with be here for about two weeks to complete the project.

With Camille still in a full length cast on his leg, I have taken o the responsibility of chauffeur. I drove to the port and pick up Esther when she returned from a very successful trip to Bukavu. Esther and I went to the market (with me driving) which was an eventful trip. Driving at home is easy because all there is on the road is cars and the road is well paved. Try driving on a dirt and rock road after a night of rain. Then add lots of people, motorcycles driving crazy, little kids wandering about, and other various obstacles, Oi! The market is not stores you walk into, it's the streets lined with everything you might need or not need. As soon as we started to slow down, we had the mama's coming to Esther's window try to sell their goods. On my side were people staring at the Muzungu (white guy) wondering why is he driving around this Congolese. I did see something you don't see in OC. I was looking across the car to what Esther was doing when there was a knock on my window. I turned to see a man holding up a handful on chickens, big & dead, I declined!

Today was the first day here that I did not have a speaking engagement. Part of me feels like a slacker, but I have enjoyed some rest and re-cooping from the past week and a half. I was to speak at the prison this morning but that got moved to Thursday. I bought 100kg of beans and about the same in rice for the prisoners. Patrick, you will be happy that I did not forget to take care of that.

I have committed our church to sponsor 10 kids in the Hope for the Hopeless program. I encourage you to check out their website to learn more about them. (www.hopeforthehelpless.org) This ministry works closely with C & E, and you can see pictures on the blog from the day I went to their tutoring and bible study program. The young man, Andre, who runs the program here keeps very busy. Every other week he is in the schools checking on the sponsored kids and once a month he goes to the home to do the same. Every Saturday they come for tutoring and Bible study. This isn't just pay some school fees and that's it, there is a lot of accountability.

"The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results." - James 5:16

Keep praying.

Grace and Peace,

Michael.

Goma - Day 9

The power was out all night, but I was able to get the blog out thanks to the generator. At about 3:30pm the power came back one.

Esther left for Bukavu early this morning and arrived there safely about 2 hours later.

Our plan for the morning was to do a half-day seminar at Lake Kivu’s Christian Centers ‘International School of Evangelism’ on the outskirts of Goma. Patrick and I gave medical supplies to a medical clinic in this area back in April. The schools focus is to train up evangelists and then release them back to their homes to do the work God called them to do. They are in classes every morning and then in the afternoon they have various jobs to do, including agriculture. They take the model from the Apostle Paul who called himself a tent maker. I was amazed that none of the students are from Goma, the people in Goma think it is too far out of town, about 10 minute drive. The students are from all over the country and as far away as Kinshasa. I taught one session on the role of the church and another one the role of the leader. They were very eager to learn and after each session we had a good Q & A time. Everywhere that I have been able to teach there is a visual hunger for the Word. They really take what was taught and struggle at time to see how that looks in their life. It is really what we should be doing, not just hearing a message, but struggling to see the application in our lives.

Back at the house Camille and I had a very introspect discussion, and we are more alike that I first thought. We (they, I took a pause to type this while the power is back) are working some new shelving in their house. We (again they) are rearranging the studio to make room for a couple guys that will be here for a couple weeks to record a dramatic portrayal of the Bible.

It has been nice to have a little non speaking work this afternoon, although I could use a nap. I am looking forward to the plane ride home; actually I am looking forward to sleeping the whole way home.

For those who have been to Kinshasa before or those of you have seen the photos, remember the VW vans with 20 or so people in them? I have got another crazy one for you. At the end of last week, I told you about giving the sowing machine and supplies to women going back to their villages. That night we helped get one women, her baby, her sowing machine still in the box, and a large bag of her personal items off to her village…on a 125 motorcycle! She had her baby tied to her back and the sewing machine on her lap. The taxi driver (motorcycle was the taxi) had her bag in front of him on the gas tank. This journey a little was away, cost less than 1000fc, which is about $2. I thought this was crazy, but everyone looked at me like I was the crazy one. You would be amazed at what people carry on these motorcycles. We would use a truck or SUV, and they use a motorcycle. I have seen women with large bags on their lap with their toddler sitting on the gas tank! These ‘taxi’ drivers are crazy drivers, and not crazy fun, but crazy bad.

I do not think I have ever been this exhausted on one of these trips. For me, preparing to speak and then speaking is more tiring than all the manual labor I have done in the past.

Your prayers are working, don’t stop.

Grace and Peace,

Michael.

Goma Pictures

Hope for the Helpless
Hope for the Helpless
Hope for the Helpless
A precious one.
Last weeks Conference.

Goma - Day 8

The early mornings keep getting earlier and earlier. I was up last night working the message for the first church and was having difficulty because of being so tired.
I decided to go to bed and get up at 5am to finish preparing and then ready to leave the house by 7:15am. The first service was at Heal Africa’s chapel and was attended by 200 or so people. Many of the people were women from Heal Africa’s programs. I preached on healing, that Jesus wants to heal and that we need to have some faith in our prayers as we ask for healing. I primarily used the passage in Mark 5 with the synagogue leader wanting healing for his daughter and the women how had been bleeding for 12 years touching Jesus’ robe for healing. At the end I asked for anyone who wanted healing to stand and raise a hand to God. I wanted to pray with each person individually, but I would still be there if I did that, so I had to do a collective prayer of healing for all. It was a very anointed time and I am looking forward to the testimony of healed hearts, minds and bodies.

We swung by home and grabbed a quick breakfast before heading to La Source Church. La Source is one of the original French speaking churches in Goma and the place was jump’n in worship. I spoke out of Ezekiel 22, the need for someone to stand in the gap. The church is the one that sound stand on the gap between how things are today and how there are meant to be. The church should be the catalyst for change in the world. Message seemed to be received well and after the service we sat down with the pastors and elders for a piece of cake a beverage.

We had lunch with Hayward, the US diplomat I had met at the end of last week. C & E shared with him what they are involved with and he wanted their take on the over all situation in Goma.

Back at the house, about 5:30pm, we decided to sit out side and relax. The weather had a different plan as a light sprinkle turn into a downpour with thunder and lightening. I think it has rained about evening since I arrived. As I type this power is out and I am using my flashlight to type.

Tomorrow I will be doing a morning seminar at a school for evangelists. I will be using some of the same material I used last week, plus some new material I need to finish preparing tonight.

Pray without ceasing!

Grace and Peace,

Michael.

PS. Sometimes I add pictures a day later to these posts because of connection speed. So if you don't see a picture, check back later.