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CEUM President Surprised, Excited about New Calling
By Craig Pinley
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (June 30, 2004) - Mossai Sanguma might not be sure how he can
best meet the needs of the Congo Covenant Church, he is certain he's not
alone in the end task.
Sanguma, the newly elected president of the Covenant Church of Congo
(CEUM), had many opportunities to speak to delegates during last week's
Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). He opened the
first business session with devotions on Monday and was part of other
plenary sessions during the event. He also spoke for an hour Tuesday
afternoon in an Annual Meeting forum about the CEUM, sharing his story
and receiving encouragement from delegates.
President Sanguma was candid about the difficult times the CEUM faces,
and the struggle to know where to begin as the country tries to rebuild
from the devastation of more than a decade of civil war.
"I look at myself as someone going up a tree and facing a cobra," said
President Sanguma. "I think about jumping off the tree but there's a
lion there with his mouth open wide. And then I think about jumping into
a nearby lake and there's an alligator there with his mouth open."
Still he says the church has not lost hope, and "many people who have
visited Congo would tell you that."
"There is happiness and when they go to church they worship as if God is
among them," he said. "That means that the work is growing despite the
bad things. People are doing well given the African context."
During the past five years, Sanguma had been in Pasadena, California,
completing doctoral work in missiology at Fuller Theological Seminary.
He returned to Congo to teach at the Protestant Seminary in Kinshasa,
ready for a long career as an educator. However, when the CEUM had its
annual meeting in January, they elected Sanguma as the new president to
succeed Gbuda Luyada.
At that point, the professor's plans changed dramatically. In July,
Sanguma, his wife, Sabuli, and son, Gene, will move to Gemena, where
CEUM is headquartered. Four other children are still in the United
States at the high school or university level. President Sanguma will
remain as an adjunct professor at the seminary, but will spend most of
his time helping the CEUM build on the work of Luyada and other leaders.
"It was an unexpected thing for me to lead this church," he said. "It
was not a dream for me, but I had to take it. . . ."
One area that President Sanguma has been encouraged by is the CEUM's
reliance on prayer to help them deal with adversity. It has become the
focal point of worship and has given joy when it seemed like there was
no joy to be found. President Sanguma discussed large gatherings he
participated in shortly after his appointment. A total of 8,000 came to
worship at Karawa near the Covenant's hospital there. In another
meeting, 13,000 gathered in Gemena.
"After the war, 60 percent of the worship is about prayer," he said.
"The prayer of adoration is loud and it is something new to me; it
happened in the five years I was away from Congo. But people have gone
through difficult times and the only way people could be released from
their anxiety is to release their anxieties in prayer to God. . . . We
are also allowing a people to heal who previously did not have that
chance to organize in that way and sometimes they are performing
miracles (during worship)."
Another source of joy for the CEUM president has been the way his people
have worked towards ethnic reconciliation. Often, tribes have been less
willing to interact with other tribes and there is more unity now.
"We can be different in race and sex and size but we have to relate to
each other because the combination of all brings harmony and the
multiplicity of colors is beautiful," President Sanguma noted. "Though
it seems all black, it is a mixture of many colors."
Also, people have been more receptive to work towards conflict
resolution. "People are ethnically divided and politicians took
advantage of that to divide us more and more so they can reign," he
said. "We're trying to help them relate more to each other as brothers
and sisters in Christ and when there is a conflict, to find a way to
deal with it. We don't have to wait until the conflict becomes hard and
then discipline them. It's preventative thing, to try to solve the
problems before it becomes worse."
President Sanguma mentioned a number of prayer requests for the CEUM and
Congo:
- A mission/evangelism program focused on a pygmy community
- National government elections and the process of finding the right
leadership for the country
- A decrease in fighting on the eastern end of Congo
- A swift recovery for Gbuda Luyada, former president, who is
recovering from a broken left leg
In his forum on Tuesday, President Sanguma also challenged Covenanters
to consider how to help the CEUM. He also asked Covenanters to support
the work of the Paul Carlson Foundation, something he said "will wipe
away people's tears and bring hope to people and bring peace to the land
of Congo. I will do my best to get my people involved in this program as
well. We are very ready to mobilize people and your help can build upon
what we're doing. I think God will be grateful for that."
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