Goma, Congo Day 2
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2007
1
9
14
Trip End
Sep 13, 2007
Goma, Congo - The Dem. Repub.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Cross message was stronger than any other place I have been outside the USA. The conference attendees were not only able to understand the concepts, but the question and answer time revealed that they had a deeper grasp of the message by far than any other international location! The teaching time was a great time of sharing and I am so excited for Jesus is doing in Congo.
At around 1:30pm we went to lunch at the home of Gary and Jeanne, one of Didi's key leaders and are wonderfully fun to be with. Lunch was a wonderful spread of Congolese favorite foods. Frites (French Fries), roasted chicken and fish, stewed cabbage, fresh tomatoes and onions and of course fresh fruits like oranges, guava and bananas. This was, of course a larger spread than typical homes enjoy, but typically the only exception is the meats. I truly love Congolese food, it has a strong French cooking influence combined with very simple foods that go well together.
The afternoon from 3:00pm to 5:30pm was spent in a meeting with about 30 of the previous Cross Style graduates and students. I felt this was a very powerful time of sharing and hearing what God was doing in their lives since experiencing the training. There were about 5 or 6 testimonies about how God had moved in their lives and the Cross Style message had brought great relief and purpose. One young man, Jeff Kambali, shared that when he came to the Training Center he was tired of "doing" and discovered that God just wanted him to "be" and it was there he discovered the difference between religion and relationship.
I had opportunity to share the vision of Cross Cultural Ministries and where Jesus had been leading us to meet the training needs of the 1.8 million pastors that had no hope of formal ministry training. I shared about the need to plant churches and training centers in places where there was no presence of Jesus. The response to my sharing was to say the least, overwhelming. They had been hoping and praying for the very things that I shared, it was truly a special moment of God linking our hearts. A number of them indicated that they had or would be soon leaving Goma to go and plant churches where God was leading them and were desperate to receive training packages. They were thrilled to hear that the courses will be translated into French along with Swahili.
After the meeting we walked to Didi's home to have a really great meal of cooked bananas (Matoki), Ugali (cornmeal cooked until stiff), stewed meat and vegetables, and stewed cabbage.
After the meal it was about 7:00pm and almost completely dark so I rode to the hotel on a moto and did some report writing and went to bed early cause the jet-lag is still putting the hurt on me.
