5 years old

Last Sunday we celebrated the 5th anniversary of the creation of the Anglican Diocese of Goma in a service where Archbishop Masimango ordained 9 men for parish ministry across the diocese. We also welcomed an Australian couple David and Jenny Juniper currently in Bukavu, across the lake, and learning Swahili before coming to serve in the Diocese of Goma next summer. 

Our portable Bible schools have now finished, with 150 people being trained across the diocese to plant churches, 75 baptisms, 650 welcomed back into the church, two churches planted and three others built. Thank you to all who prayed for these. We have started a new academic year in our two theological colleges, welcoming 33 new students. If you still want to help out theology students access books then please go to our giving page. And a few weeks ago, we were also able to host our first graduation ceremony for the Anglican University of Goma. We thank God for his faithfulness.

Land and buildings

Apart from this Martin is spending a lot of time at the moment working on fundraising for building projects as well as buying and selling land, which is always fraught with challenges. The diocese has bought three new plots of land for church planting. This needs to be immediately followed by a tortuous process of acquiring documents, and putting in boundary markers and starting some activity on the site, in case someone else fancies your land and thinks nothing is happening on it. 

One of the new plots is in Kanyanja which was destroyed by the volcano, and where we are now able to start rebuilding the church and the school. Rev Kader, the parish priest there is still facing an uphill challenge, even moreso as he lost his son this week. But he struggles on with the few resources he has and has recently started literacy classes, for which his only request to the diocese was some chalk.

Our main diocesan building project is the complete the multipurpose hall in the centre of Goma which was half-finished with the support of a previous partner. We are currently applying to a new partner. When finished it will help fund clergy salaries and pensions which do not exist at the moment, will give some seed-capital for other projects and will help pay for the salary and rent on the next bishop’s house until we can build him one. It will also serve as a focus for peace-building in Goma and beyond. When completed it will be an enormous help to the diocese.

Other news

The new bishop of Willesden in London, Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy, is Congolese!

Malaria has finally caught up with us, with Martin and Zachary both succumbing. Martin was in hospital for 48 hours on a quinine drip and Zachary was able to be treated with tablets. We thank God that both are now fully recovered, but are aware that each year tens of thousands in Congo are not as fortunate.

How can you pray?

Thank you for joining with us in prayer.

• Thank God with us for the recent encouragements in the diocese

• Pray for Anthea in Germany at the moment with Tearfund

• For the completion of the diocesan multi-purpose hall in the centre of Goma

From Martin, Anthea, Silas, Zachary and Imogen