A Season of Change

A Letter from José Jones, mission co-worker serving in Congo

Winter 2024

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Dear friends,

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Such is the wisdom we find in the scriptures to face a time, such as this, of great change. But be not discouraged … change is the norm, not the exception. Change allows Creator God to make way for new growth and expansion of God’s plan for our salvation. As things change, we must never waver in our call to reach out from our comfort zones to be Christ’s eyes, hands and feet, to a world that God is preparing for new things.

Coordinator Timothée Kalonji Tshieyeya

My time as a mission co-worker to the Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa (CPK) has been great! I have met some dedicated educators and simply amazing people who give me hope for humanity’s ability to follow God’s plan for our future. Now, as my tenure as a mission co-worker comes to a close, it is time for me to say farewell; not goodbye.

In 2020, in the middle of the COVID Pandemic the CPK, the PC(USA) and I embarked on a new adventure. Together, we envisioned supporting the transformation of CPK schools to a more modern system, strengthening the connection between CPK schools and the Congo Mission Network and accompanying the CPK as it addressed some systemic challenges that inhibited transformation. Although there are projects that are still in the implementation stages, my health does not allow me to return to Kinshasa at this time. I am committed to continuing working with the Congo Mission Network, and doing what I am able, to see these projects advance.

In the two and a half years since my arrival to Kinshasa, we have accomplished many things. We have completed a Needs Assessment survey of the teachers in Kinshasa, formed a Teacher Training Planning Committee, and completed two teacher trainings in Language Arts and one pilot training in Technology. We have accompanied the CPK Parish at KasaVubu in forming a collaboration with the Institut Scientifique de KasaVubu on an EcoGarden project, which reinforces the importance of Creation Care and serves as an outdoor laboratory in support of Science Education. We finalized an update on the state of CPK Schools this past February. Currently, after evaluating the technology at each of the six CPK coordination centers, a plan to implement the piloted technology training and make equipment upgrades, at each center, was put in place. Finally, we have equipped the pilot schools with new hand-washing stations for contagion control (a lesson learned from COVID) and are working on mixing hand sanitizer for all classrooms.

Barnabas at his graduation

The winds of change are blowing in the CPK. Please join me in welcoming Coordinator Timothée Kalonji Tshieyeya as a newly promoted stakeholder in the transformation of CPK schools. He is a pastor’s son, an Elder at the CPK Anunga Parish and Executive Secretary of the Matete Presbytery. Coordinator Timothée has 28 years of experience with CPK Schools as a chemistry professor, counselor in pedagogy, principal and prefect. He has worked at large and small schools, has developed relationships with his colleagues and understands the bridge between the classroom, training and government expectations. As a man of faith, he also understands the role of education in developing not only productive citizens of the world but also for the kingdom.

Coordinator Timothée and I are working together to share the recent work we’ve done as educational partners to lift up the partnership of accompaniment and mutual accountability that mission co-workers, PC(USA) churches, Build Congo Schools, the Congo Mission Network and others share in collaborating toward his success.

Let me thank the many friends and colleagues, both in the DRC and in the USA, who have inspired and supported me in my work to accomplish my mission. There are too many to name, but I am truly grateful. As my fingers falter with emotion, I will simply say thank you and God bless you all!

El Shaddai Masaka

Lastly, Evelin and I had “adopted” several neighborhood children who helped us tend the garden, showed us around Kinshasa and assisted in almost all the projects mentioned above. My assistant (adopted son, number one) Jean “Barnabas” Basisa was my go-to guy. It has been my pleasure to see him complete his studies and be ordained as a pastor of a small neighborhood church in Mombele. Whether I was away or in Kinshasa, I could count on Barnabas and be in two places at once. I will miss him and his small family whom I have integrated as part of my family.

El Shaddai Masaka, my young neighbor whose family was no longer able to pay his secondary tuition, is another I dearly miss. In exchange for tending my balcony garden and helping with school projects, El Shaddai earned his school fees. I think the most significant contribution, if not the lessons on how to dance Salsa we gave him last Christmas, was my being there to listen to his frustrations as a child in a family of nine children. I understand his dilemma as I am one of eight. I pray that “my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants” (Deut. 32:2-3) and they are more able to flourish because of our interactions.

And so, I am confident that God has used me in a way that is pleasing to God’s purpose for the collaboration between PC(USA), the CPK and other partners in our world. God has made everything beautiful in God’s time: and has set the world in our hearts. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 KJV) We still have a lot of work to do. May God bless us all!

José