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Congo Says 'Welcome Home' to Covenant Visitors
By Craig Pinley
CHICAGO, IL (March 27, 2002) - Eight African-American Covenanters recently returned from a visit
to Africa as part of a project orchestrated by the Department of World Mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church.
The Institute for African Christianity 2002 team visited the Congolese Covenant Church (CEUM) and various sites in the Central African Republic (CAR). The group included Sam Bryan from Jamaica Estates, New York; Mary Ann Owens from Atlanta, Georgia; Ed Carey from Miami, Florida; Darryl and Beverly Johnson from Mound Bayou, Mississippi; Deric Gilliard from Stone
Mountain, Georgia; Jerome Nelson from Chicago, Illinois; and team leader Rose Cornelious from Lithonia, Georgia.
"I think everyone came back with a sense of wanting other African-Americans in the Covenant to know about the work in the Congo and to visit there," said Nelson, who heads up the Churches Planting Ministries initiative for the Central Conference. "It was powerful."
"We were prepared for some of what we saw, but you could never prepare yourself for everything we saw," said Cornelious, who serves the Department of World Mission as coordinator of church relations for eastern North America. "We want to prepare a plan of action from the African-American Pastors Association (AAMA) to help address the needs of the Congo, the dire needs of the church. I believe the Covenant started a good work in Congo and we want to finish it. We have over 156,000 people in a war-torn area and we want to help them. We are the body of Jesus and we should hurt when they hurt. And they're really hurting."
After leaving, the group flew to Paris, stopping for a day to meet with Covenant missionaries. They landed in Bangui, CAR, on March 3. Three groups were formed once the team landed in Bangui in order to help the group view some of the numerous ministries occurring through the CEUM in Congo. There was much to see.
The Covenant has been doing ministry in the Congo since the mid-1930s. Ministry efforts have been fruitful despite civil unrest that has greatly affected the country during the past decade. As of December 2001, the CEUM has 1,200 churches with 156,000 members, 189 pastors and
925 village preachers, according to statistics provided by Africa regional coordinator Pete Ekstrand. The CEUM also oversees 214 schools representing 24,124 students and 1,824 teachers.
"To see a mission work of that magnitude in that area of the country was significant," said Bryan. "I think overall it was certainly an experience of a lifetime. It really impacted us in a major way and I came back fired up, not just for missions, but for God's work at home as well. God allowed me to go over there to challenge me and I want to do the same thing for people in my congregation.
"I was impressed by the fact that as bad as things are, the people still have a heart to worship and to praise God," Bryan continued. "When they get together, it's nothing like we experience. It's an outpouring of praise. These people have nothing and yet they have such a passion. The church is a major part of what's happening in the world and I take off my hat to the work of Covenant missions and CEUM. They have built a tremendous work. If it wasn't for the church and what God is doing, I don't know what kind of shape these people would be in. They would have
no hope."
Nelson and Darryl and Beverly Johnson headed to Gemena for three days and met with Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM) leaders, including President Luyada Gbuda, Vice President Nubea Kafi and cabinet member Fohle Lygunda. Nelson said that he and the Johnsons also visited with
numerous churches, schools and other groups during his time in Gemena and nearby villages.
Carey, Owens and Gilliard went to Karawa and visited a major hospital and some health clinics there, along with local schools and villages. The trio also examined the water treatment process being used at the Karawa station (owned by the ECC since 1937) by visiting three water treatment systems.
"We are so blessed in this country," said Gilliard, an intergovernmental affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regional office in Atlanta, Georgia. "The poverty over there is overwhelming, but despite the poverty, the people have a lot of hope and a lot of joy about life. Certain things I'll never take for granted again. And I want to take my children there so they can see how blessed they are."
Cornelious and Bryan traveled to Loko and examined hospital efforts there. The two had to drink boiled river water. The lack of hospital resources saddened Cornelious, who reported that key diagnostic equipment was broken and medicines to cure simple diseases were unavailable.
The hospital guide said that the local hospital staff hadn't been paid in eight months. Schools and churches were being destroyed by termite damage and education was being compromised. Some families had to share clothing because of the lack of clothes. And many had been forced to hide from government troops due to a civil war that forced Covenant missionaries to evacuate in
1997.
"It was absolutely the most deplorable, inhumane survival situation I have ever seen and I don't know how they did it," Cornelious said. "It makes me want to be a drum major for change to infuse some help into the Congo. We want to be resources for a Covenant effort in the region, but
we know it will take more than a Covenant effort to do it."
The entire team finished the trip in Bangui after spending time with missionaries Ken Satterberg, Bob and Karen Andrews and Keith and Florence Gustafson. Johnson and Nelson spoke at the University of Bangui in a classroom setting and Johnson was later interviewed on a local radio station. The United States ambassador to the CAR, Mattie Sharpless, also visited the group.
There were many memories of the trip, but most poignant was the welcome given by the Congolese and those in the CAR. Entire villages gathered at various airports and airfields to meet the group and the heartfelt greeting the group received as they traveled from place to place made
them feel like dignitaries. They hope they can return the thanks by encouraging others to visit Congo and partnering with them in ministry efforts.
"The thing that was most overwhelming for me was the welcome we received from the Africans," said Nelson. "It was more of a 'Welcome back home,' than a 'Hi, how are you doing.' I've often thought my home was in Africa in an intellectual sense. But I didn't have a heartfelt connection. That has absolutely changed for me. I felt like I went home - not just a place called Africa."
"To get off the plane and see hundreds and hundreds of people emptying their villages to welcome you - you felt like you were royalty," he continued. "They even closed the schools so the children could come," said Bryan, pastor at Christian Community Covenant Church near New York City. "One of the missionaries had said, 'We thought we were inviting you to meet our friends, but instead they welcomed you as family.' I felt like they welcomed us as family. They didn't have much, but they gave us the best they had."
"It was the most profound experience of my life," said Gilliard, who spent 10 years in journalism as a correspondent with USA Today and wrote for Time Magazine. "It was like they sent the whole town to greet us. And everywhere we went there was a huge reception. You were like In Sync, Michael Jackson and the Pope all in one, and you had done nothing to deserve any of it.
"I was a principle promoter for the Million Man March and I've covered the NCAA basketball (tournament) Final Four and I'd like to think that I've done a few things," Gilliard said. "But this was unbelievable."
"All of us were deeply touched by this," Cornelious said. "And we know this is not the end for us (regarding Congo). We have a mandate to bring change."
For more information on the trip taken by the Institute for African Christianity 2002, call Cornelious at 770-482-4636 or email her at trcornelious@prodigy.net. More stories will be available in the June edition of The Covenant Companion and on www.covchurch.org.
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