Our plane landed in the darkest hour of a moonless night. The lights of the terminal glowed dimly across the ramp. As soon as the airplane door was opened, heat and humidity flooded the cabin. Portable stairs scraped and rattled into position at the door. Step by step we descended into the sweating frenzy of competing officials demanding our documents. Within moments, our passports disappeared into the crowd of strangers.
Welcome to Kinshasa.
For more than 25 years, I have been praying, planning, and working to impact the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with the Word of God.
Throughout this time the DRC has been wracked with recurring tribal and political violence. This has made launching and sustaining ministry there very difficult. The good news is that the gospel has been well-received, with more than 95 percent of the population affiliated with Christian churches.
The challenge is that more than 100 minority languages are still without Scripture.
During the past two years, a surge in Bible translation has occurred in the DRC through our MAST (Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation) strategy. Mother-tongue translators have begun and are continuing Bible translations in more than two dozen languages. In a recent post on our blog, you can read the story of how collaboration in Bible translation has overcome years of tribal hostility for five language groups there. God’s Word is powerful! It is changing hearts and lives as it reaches more languages in the DRC—and around the world!
Thank you for your partnership and perseverance in this ministry. I pray and trust that you will be encouraged by the stories you read on our blog and in our Involved! newsletter. Without your faithful support, this would not be possible!
"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope." Romans 15:4 (NIV)
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