A new day has dawned at Kikongo! For those of you who have followed our lives during the past three years, you know that this has been our most difficult term as missionaries in the Congo.

After being missionaries in the D.R. Congo for nearly thirty years, we are really being stretched now! Over sixty years ago, the Kikongo pastoral training school was established to train rural pastoral leadership. We have been involved with this school for twenty years.

It has been an extremely busy summer. Whew! There was the last push to finalize the lay pastor training program and get it to the printer. Then there was a month of intensive research and writing (in French, not my best language) the brief history of the CBCO Baptist women’s organization here, prepared for their 50th anniversary celebrations.

I love baptisms! On a Saturday in June, I had the honor of witnessing the baptism of seven of our Mitendi girls! When we headed out of Kinshasa to the church early Saturday morning, I thought we were going to see only our girls baptized.

Few people I know have traveled as extensively or visited as many remote places in the Congo as Esaie (Isaiah to you). A devout Congolese Baptist, he is a product of American Baptist missions, and the most sought after Solar Power technician in the country.

When we delivered a new solar freezer to Vanga last January the zone office was humming with activity like a busy factory.