For the first time since January 2012, a CLC missionary was able to visit our fellow Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Missionary Todd Ohlmann had been unsuccessful over the past few years in his attempts to obtain a visa to enter the DRC due to political unrest in the country. Finally, in September, Missionary Ohlmann was granted a visa. In November he, along with Missionary Peter Evensen, traveled to the DRC.
Missionaries Ohlmann and Evensen spent seven days working with Pastor Gaston Yumba Lumbala, president of the Congregation Confessionnelle Lutheranienne Du Congo (CCLC). The visit included a three-day pastoral training seminar at the new seminary facility in Ntonda, evangelism outreach, and a full day of meetings and discussion with Pastor Yumba and the CCLC leaders.
Over the past four years, the Mission Development Fund (MDF) has sent $50,000 to help the CCLC develop and
build a facility for the training of pastors. The plan was to build the seminary in the village of Ntonda, but Pastor Yumba could not get permission to build there. So, he used about $3,000 to construct a temporary building in the village of Whisky to serve as the seminary. Classes are held five days per week at Holy Trinity Lutheran Seminary from April through October. Seven students completed their third and final year of classes this past October. They are now serving congregations under Pastor Yumba’s supervision. They will be ready for graduation/ordination in March. Missionary Ohlmann is planning to attend the service.
Eventually, Pastor Yumba was permitted to build in Ntonda. He is currently constructing a large building that will serve as seminary classrooms, dormitories, offices, a library, a kitchen, a chapel, and the CCLC headquarters. This is being paid for, in part, with funds from the MDF. Once this building is completed, the building in Whisky will be used as a parsonage/office/classroom for the resident pastor of the church there.
Pastor Yumba reports that there are as many as fifteen men willing to begin seminary classes in April. In December, the Board of Missions approved sponsorship of up to fifteen new students through KINSHIP. We praise the Lord that there are so many men willing to train to be faithful preachers and teachers of God’s saving Word.
We pray that the Lord would continue to bless the work of the CCLC and that the door would remain open for our missionaries to make regular visits.
Robert Sauers is pastor of Luther Memorial Church in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and a member of the CLC Board of Missions