Charl van Wyk (March 2005)

Dear Friends

“One sister had her husband and son shot by the rebels. After this she was
raped by one of the rebel soldiers and fell pregnant by him. She came and
asked if she must keep her child or if she can abort her child?” “Rebel
soldiers have buried five of our pastors alive. The reason for this, they
said, was that the prayers of the Church were impacting their war in a
negative way. They wanted the Church to stop praying.”

“They attacked us in the dark in the early hours of the morning. They took
over our village, shot our people and we ran into the bush,” said an elderly
mother. The rebels raped young girls. They wanted them to go cook for the
rebels. When the girls refused they were shot dead. At the age of 61 this
mother and her 7-year old walked 400km over a period of three months to try
and contact her family. Her 13 and 15-year old sons were taken away by
rebels and “I haven’t seen them again in six years.”

These are the testimonies of Christians suffering in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC), the country that has been at war for the last 45 years.
In fact, people living today do not know what peace is, as they have not yet
experienced this in their country. Missionary friends, John and Tanya Boyd
of Mission Aviation Fellowship, were forced to flee the country 8 years ago
when their well-established mission base was over run by rebels. John
managed, by the grace of God, to fly his family and others to safety.

In 2002 Frontline Fellowship was invited to go and minister at the ‘Come &
See Church’ in Lumbumbashi, DRC. It was only now in 2005 that we were able
to take up the invitation. I went along with Dr John Jere, the Director of
Zambia United Christian Action, who has been doing outreaches there for many
years.

After crossing the border from Zambia into the DRC, which is an area riddled
with crime, corruption and bribery, we managed to get to our destination in
one piece. This after our luggage and possessions were searched through by
un-uniformed young people, who were basically just a bunch of thugs trying
to elicit bribes from foreigners coming into the country.

What we found in Lumbumbashi was a self-sufficient, organised and extremely
serious congregation of Christians. Come and See has 18 congregations in
the city and over 700 congregations around the DRC. 3000 congregation
members were present at the church service on Sunday morning when Ps John
and I preached. Every morning the church has a prayer meeting from 06h00 to
07h00. On a Sunday the prayer meeting starts at 06h30. The service we
spoke at ended at 12h15.

On Monday night at the teaching and Bible study meeting there were 1500
people.

This church has a TV station and a radio station. Local Christians are
shocked to know that we know very little of the Church in the DRC. We often
hear about the war that’s taking place in the country, the Civil War in many
areas, but we never hear about the Church. This is probably due to the fact
that they are French speaking and so makes communication between the West
and themselves quite difficult.

Some of the congregations have Christian schools running at the churches as
well as radio and TV stations. Bishop Lamba Lamba who heads up the Come &
See Church is now working on going national with their TV station. In June
2004 the church held a large crusade of 140 000 people in a Lumbumbashi
stadium. For the first time in the history of the DRC provincial elections
will, Lord willing, be held in June this year. Bishop Lamba Lamba
desperately wants Frontline Fellowship to go and teach his ministers and
train the congregations in Biblical principles in the socio/political arena.
Presidential elections are set for December 2005.

The pastors are very excited about the "Biblical Principles for Africa"
book, by Dr. Peter Hammond, being translated into French. They want to use
this book as a teaching aid for pastors and congregation members. The
Bishop has a great vision for the future of the DRC. One pastor put it this
way: “Enough is enough!” They want to take the nation by storm and teach
the Lordship of Jesus Christ in the socio-political arena, in business,
science, the mining industry and into the very fabric of society.

“Why is it that dictators, evil, wicked men, help each other, they take a
nation and then help other dictators come to power in nations around them?
Why don’t Christians do the same? We want to take the DRC for Jesus Christ.
We want to welcome all God’s children into our country and then we will help
support Christians to take over other nations. When we’ve taken over other
nations for Jesus Christ we can then live in covenant community together.”
These are the words of Bishop Lamba Lamba, a great visionary. With very
little foreign help, in a city of possibly 4 million people, with only ten
foreign missionaries, these Christians are keen to take the Gospel to all
areas including the war zones of the DRC.

Families have been split by the war for six months and more. Some parents
have never seen their children again. A pastor and his wife and six
children were split for six months as they fled in different directions, as
rebel soldiers shot up their village. Pastor John Jere in a previous visit
came across young girls who had been gang raped by rebel soldiers. They
lived in the bush for six months as they walked around trying to find help.

Bishop Lamba Lamba has started an organisation called REDTCO. This French
acronym stands for The Gathering of the Children of God for the
Transformation of the Congo.

REDTCO is planning to elect God’s people at every level during the
elections, from the street up to Parliament, they say. They state: “The
hour has come to influence the politics in our country.”

REDTCO intends to:
· compel leaders to dedicate the Congo to God.
· make the DRC a free Christian nation; a tax-free nation.
· preserve moral standards by having a constitution based on Biblical
principles.
· select and vote for God-fearing leaders so that they can have true
freedom, which comes from obeying the Law of God.
· use the mineral wealth of the Congo to evangelise in a mighty way across
Africa.

Pray for the Bishop and his pastors, as they take a stand for righteousness
and truth in this war-torn country where they are seeking to take the
Lordship of Jesus Christ into every area of life.

Pray for Frontline Fellowship, as the Congolese desperately want Biblical
Principles for Africa, by Peter Hammond, translated into the French
language. Printing and distribution will be expensive.

These suffering Christians need us to help them understand how to apply the
Lordship of Jesus Christ in the socio-political arena as they have never
ever experienced in their country the freedom of obedience to God’s perfect
Word.

"You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He
delivers them out of the hand of the wicked." Psalm 97:10

Yours in His service

Charl van Wyk
Email: charlvanwyk@intekom.co.za

Frontline Fellowship
PO Box 74
Newlands
Cape Town
South Africa
Tel: 27-21-6894480
www.frontline.org.za

US Office:
In Touch Mission International
Tel: 1-888-918-4100
www.intouchmission.org/