As Maha Mission expands its activities; last January on 25^th, I was sent to explore the Equatorial Mission whose headquarter is in Mbandaka. Other important towns of this field are: Lisala, Gemena, Gbadolite, Yakoma and Bumba.

 When I reached Kisangani , I went straight to the port to check whether there was a boat that could take me direct to Bumba. The boat was there but unfortunately the lorry that was carrying my motorbike from Butembo was stuck on the way and the boat left me. I was thus compelled to wait until my motorbike arrived. Due to that inconvenience I spent one Sabbath in Kisangani and was invited to preach in Makiso (main town church).

 As I was praying for this trip, I was advised not to wait for another boat coming from Kinshasa the capital city for it would take me weeks waiting for it to be loaded and at least a week to reach Bumba. I was given another option of riding on motorbike to Bumba through a very bad road in the thick Congo forest that is dangerous especially when crossing rivers (Tsopo, Aruwimi , and Itimbiri). These rivers are crossed on small indigenous boats made of a small size tree and many people have perished attempting to cross to the other side of the river. It takes an average of 35 minutes to reach the other side of the river.

 I thank the Lord because of one Adventist businessman (old friend) who offered to travel with me leaving his merchandise in Kisangani . We left Kisangani on Tuesday at 4a.m and started our long trip in the deep forest. We had enough emergency food but our 5 litre of drinking water was stolen when crossing the first river. We spent two nights on the way sleeping outside along the roadside around some put up fire whose smoke was protecting us against insect bite. The third day we reached Bumba very tired.

 On Friday I took the motorbike to the garage for service and on Sabbath I was invited to preach in Bumba church. This is a new church that was started in 2004 by two lay Adventist businessmen coming from Butembo. The church is growing and Mbandaka field has given them two pastors to supervise the 75 members. “The members in Bumba are the most active in my field” said the Mbandaka field president. They hire an old building belonging to a government official during Mobutu’s regime. This building serves as the pastor’s residence and the large sitting room and balcony serves as the church. The church is about 10m away from the Congo River . Looking at the future, church members of Bumba bought a plot of land worth $3,000 dollars, where they are planning to build a church.

 On Sunday, I was invited to speak at the local radio station for an hour about the Seventh-Day Adventist Church . The speech was translated from French to Lingala, the most spoken language of the area.

 On Monday, the local pastor and I visited the church members in Bumba and as we were visiting four people gave their lives to Christ and the following day (Tuesday) morning at 7a.m; I baptized them in the river Congo .

 What is amazing about the work in this field is the small number of workers. The field has only seven pastors of which only two are ordained and one of the two has resigned from pastoral work accusing the local church administration of many evils.

 On Wednesday I said farewell to Bumba and rode for three days towards Yakoma. The road to the place is a desert like road with a lot of sand and it is difficult to ride a motorbike on such a road; so the 300km were done in three days. There is no hotel, no gasoline station, no garage, hospital… nothing. One needs to be prepared for any bad experiences. One positive thing about people in this area is that they are very calm and specific. Because of good security I could travel until 10 p.m without any fear. There are no robbers. I met many hunters in the deep forest with guns, who couldn’t take advantage of their guns to attack me. It seems they are allowed by the government to use those guns because bullets for guns are sold in the market places.

 Yakoma is a small center situated about 180km from Gbadolite along the Uele/Ubangi River. This is the meeting place of the two rivers, the first from Congo side and the second from the Republic of Central Africa. I crossed the two rivers to explore the other side of the RCA in order to see whether there are Adventists present. After crossing I was told that the nearest church is 110km away from the boarder. I was discouraged and rode back to the Congo side in Yakoma. This town was also important because during Mobutu’s regime many army generals built their houses there.

On Friday, very early I started my trip to Gbadolite. After riding for 17km the engine stopped. It was a serious engine breakdown. For two hours I pushed the motorbike to reach the nearby village where I got a shade to wait for a mechanic from Yakoma. The whole engine was revised and by 2p.m the work was finished. Three hours later another problem occurred. It was a loud noise from the engine due to a screw that was not well fixed while assembling various parts of the engine.

By the grace of God, this problem was solved without difficulties. The Sabbath was approaching and I was supposed to reach Gbadolite the following day in order to attend the Sabbath service. I therefore traveled in the night until midnight. I rested for few hours under a tree in the forest and proceeded to Gbadolite at 5a.m. I reached Gbadolite on Sabbath morning 9:30a.m and after washing I went to the place of worship where I met the Mbandaka field president (Pastor Baniyungu). 

Pastor Wayawesa Yaufa, the Maha appointed evangelist to Gbadolite is doing well. He is gathering with six people every Sabbath and so far one of them got baptized. This one member is a high school teacher. That special Sabbath, many visitors came to our meeting place. Among them were pastors of other congregations and local administrators of the town. The Sabbath school discussion was wonderfully led by Wayawesa, the local pastor and the preacher of the day was Baniyungu the field president.

ABOUT GBADOLITE          

The estimated population is 120,000 people with five major tribes but all speaking Lingala as the common language. The town has 26 different Christian denominations; the SDA church will be the 27^th. The Catholics are the majority. This is the only town which has constant electricity (24hrs) in the equatorial province.

 The region is very hot and people are generally lazy. This is partly due to Mobutu’s regime which favored people of that area in all sectors of activities: Roads were maintained by the government, people received government scholarship, free electricity, free medical treatment at government hospitals, and free bus transportation in town… so people are not tuned to working for themselves. This attitude is a serious problem in the whole region. People here grow cassava, palm tree and rice. They get fish from the Ubangi River , and a lot of unclean flesh from the forest.

RETURN FROM GBADOLITE

Sunday, very early in the morning, the field president and I started our trip to Bumba via Yakoma. This trip took us three full days. The president was amazed to know all these important centers of his field that he had never visited before. We thank Maha Mission for this initiative. Reaching Bumba we were given free food, free bed and the field president was offered an airplane ticket back to Mbandaka. This ticket was paid by two lay members of Bumba SDA Church .

From Bumba to Kisangani , God did a miracle. It never rained while we were on the way, no flat tire or other interference. The last Sabbath of my trip was spent in Kabondo church in Kisangani where I preached about the love of God to the world.

OBSERVATIONS 

*There is a great need of training evangelists to be dispatched to various places of the equatorial field in order to spread the Adventist message.

* Identify strategic places where these pioneers will be sent to do the front line mission. 

Opportunity: Security in the region, the place is still safe for people to travel until late in the night. Maha being concerned about the field should take advantage of this opportunity

Weaknesses: Polygamy in the region is a challenge to the Adventist’s teaching, laziness of the people and their begging mentality

Pastor Malembe Tatasi, Maha Mission 

The North Kivu Field, NECAT, Congo DR

(Edited by Mrs. Knollyne Gai)