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| Executive Leadership invites Mennonite Church USA congregations to participate in motorbike project to partner with Congolese ministries |
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NEWTON, Kan. Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership invites congregations to participate in a Christmas giving project that will support ministries of the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Congo and bolster a developing church-to-church relationship between the two denominations.
Congregations can partner with the ministry of their brothers and sisters in Congo by helping to purchase motorbikes for the district leaders and evangelism and service coordinators furthest from the central church office in Mbuji Mayi. The motorbikes cost about $2,000 each, and congregations or individuals can make a donation for one bike or make a gift to be combined with others.
It can take more than five hours to go 60 miles up an ordinary road in the East Kasai region of Congo. The rut-filled and washed-out roads make transportation difficult, and Congolese leaders say inadequate transportation is a major obstacle to their churches’ growth.
“We need to be able to get to the people,” said Rev. Benjamin Mubenga, the president of the Evangelical Mennonite Church in Congo (CEM), with 24,000 members in 86 congregations.
More than 200,000 baptized Mennonites comprise three spiritually rich conferences in Congo. Many of these churches have connections with mission work begun nearly 100 years ago. Today, Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite churches in Congo are working together to build church-to-church relationships that rely on partnerships where each group gives and receives gifts from the other.
Mubenga said the churches have significant potential to be self sufficient and reach out to their communities. “The problem is getting there,” he said. Motorbikes offer a practical solution to this dilemma.
Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership hopes to purchase at least 10 bikes to support the growing ministries in the East Kasai Province in Congo.
“We’ve talked and prayed with these brothers and sisters, and now they are coming to us with a request,” said a member of a Mennonite Church USA delegation to the Congo in February. “We can see these motorbikes as a Christmas gift to our friends in Congo.”
Those interested can support the ministries of Mennonite Church USA’s Congolese sisters and brothers by sending a check to Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership, P.O. Box 347, Newton, KS 67114-0347. The check should be designated “motorbikes for Congo.” Gifts also can be made online at www.MennoniteUSA.org, by selecting “Give” and then choosing the special project for Congo motorbikes to make a credit/debit card donation.
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| President of the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Congo Benjamin Mubenga, far left, stands with other leaders in front of the conference headquarters in Mbuji Mayi. |
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| A road in the East Kasai Province of Democratic Republic of Congo. |
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