Training Opportunities

A letter from Jeff Boyd, Regional Liaison for Central Africa, based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

December 2015

Greetings all!

I hope you are well.  Those of you who attended the Congo Mission Network meeting this year will hopefully remember the short narrated presentation that mission co-worker Bob Rice had prepared related to the reconciliation training and seminar later held. As I write, the Congolese Presbyterian Church (CPC) Evangelism and Church Life department is on a trip to Mweka, Ilebo and Bulape, where they will encourage churches who are seldom visited due to long distances on poor roads.  Following up on the very positive experience with the reconciliation seminar in Kabeya Kamuenga several months ago, Pastor Mboyamba, Elder Kalambayi and Bob Rice will again use the methodologies and tools learned in their training to stimulate reconciliation and healing in communities.  Please pray for safe travels, good health and sufficient stamina for all, including mission co-worker Kristi Rice and several others from Mbuji Mayi who are traveling with them.  Pray also for openness in the community for this healing message and for the team to work in one spirit.

I also want to take this opportunity to inform you of plans for five Presbyterian pastors and elders to attend the Great Lakes Initiative Leadership Institute in Kampala, Uganda, in mid-January.  Presbyterian World Mission is grateful that we are able to support opportunities like these to help these dedicated church leaders to enhance their skills for service in their church.  Those who plan to attend are:

Pastor Kabala Mboyamba, CPC director of evangelism and church life, CPC legal representative

Rev. Dr. Micheline Kamba, Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa (CPK) pastor, Protestant University of Congo (UPC) professor, World Council of Churches executive committee member

Elder Matou Matounga, director of CPK Youth Department, vice-president of ecumenical youth in Congo

Elder Adalbert Kalambayi, CPC synod executive and education coordinator for East Kasai Province

Rev. Jacqueline Ntumba, CPC pastor, chaplain at Bulape Hospital, campaigner for the development of women and girls

You can get a glimpse of this program that is related to Duke University, the Mennonite Central Committee, World Vision and others at their website: http://divinity.duke.edu/initiatives-centers/center-reconciliation/programs/gli

Please pray for those who will participate in this institute, that all the logistical challenges will be overcome, and that they will find ways to use what they learn upon their return to their communities.

While I am at it, I’ll share with you another training opportunity that Presbyterian World Mission is happy to support.  Rev. Sylvain Kazadi, the coordinator for CPC community development, and Presbyterian mission co-worker Ruth Brown, who works directly with them, are expected to attend a one-month internship in Ghana on community transformation work, like Community Health Evangelism.  That will be in February 2016.

Earlier this year Victorine Manga and Kristi Rice attended a training program on micro-savings programs and I had the great pleasure to travel with them and others from Kananga to Mbuji Mayi as they met with numerous groups, mostly women, to discuss micro-finance programs.  Please pray for the potential of that program to be realized for the benefits of communities.

We are also able to provide two scholarships to nurses at Christian Medical Institute of Kasai (IMCK), according to the priorities set by the administration and affirmed by the board.  We are thankful that we are able to help with such capacity development opportunities for our partners.  Leadership development remains a high of our partners in Congo and around the world.  We’re able to give a modest response to these possibilities due to some endowment funds, a gift from U.S. Presbyterian Women, and sometimes Extra Commitment Opportunity (ECO) accounts.  In the future we hope to also contribute from a new ECO account, E862121 Leadership Development in Africa.

Thank you for all you do as part of the mission work in the Congo: cultivating relations with the church in the Congo, supporting mission personnel, contributions to the education, health, evangelism, Christian education and community development ministries of our partners.

I wish you all a blessed Advent, Christmas and New Year.
Jeff Boyd

The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 146, 147