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Abbotsford, B.C.
Africa campaign nets 7,000 converts


Eight Canadians and two Americans joined five Congolese June 17 to begin a four-week Church Partnership Evangelism campaign in Africa in which over 7,000 people accepted Christ. In Congo, 5,201 people accepted Christ, including over 200 soldiers.

Jakob Quiring and his coworker witness to crowd; 12-15 adults accepted the Lord.

The first week the team, joined by six German Baptists, was in Lilongwe, Malawi, where 1,876 decisions for Christ were made. The team worked in two Zambezi evangelical churches that had planted several new churches.

Earlier, Peter Loewen, director of CPE, showed the Jesus film in the various church areas as a forerunner to the team’s work.

Ingrid Drucholl, a team member from Sardis, B.C., visited a blind man and his daughter. The man was an evangelist who, though he had led many to Christ, was dismayed that his daughter turned her back on God and lived a rebellious life. Over the years many had tried to reach out to this woman. Drucholl presented the message of salvation to the woman. She received Jesus and dedicated her life to God.

In Kinshasa, the team visited 20 churches from a total of five denominations, including six MB churches and four military bases. The effects of the war in Congo could be seen in the faces of the people, evidenced by poverty and disease.

One day, a pair visited a young woman who was slumped forward and was weeping. When asked whether she would like to hear some good news, she made no response. The interpreter read the translated testimony of the other team member to the woman and asked her, “Do you believe in God”?

The woman then replied that she had just finished crying out that if there was a God, He should send someone to her. The pair shared from the Bible with the woman, and she received Christ. She then explained that her husband had been shot by soldiers three months earlier and that as she had fled in the panic she lost all of her five children. She had searched for them, but to no avail. The pair offered some encouragement, saying that though many are separated from loved ones because of war, with God all things are possible. Two days later, during a celebration in the church for new believers, the woman, unrecognized by the team member at first, grabbed the team member’s arm and kissed her cheek several times. New hope in Jesus had transformed her mourning into joy.

In another church, a pastor and a team member witnessed to a man who accepted Christ and begged them to share with others. He then brought out nine women, seven of whom accepted Christ. As the team was recording their names and addresses, it was discovered that all nine women were the man’s wives.

Follow up work is beginning.

From a CPE report.

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Last modified September 28, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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