If you support the work carried out by CIMS (Comfort International Ministry School), you should soon be receiving our latest update outlining the progress of the ministry in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Uganda. With a huge amount of exciting progress this year, we are delighted to bring you news on the training and how it is equipping pastors and church leaders across the countries.Â
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
The present conflict in Eastern DRC had cast some shadows over the possibility of the training taking place but we praise God it was able to go ahead in DRC for the first time in March this year. 108 pastors (including some Church Evangelists) attended, with some of them having travelled from South Kivu for three days including an 8-hour boat journey.
We received substantial help from The Beacon Trust, Kilsyth Community Church and The Bishop Radford Trust for the CIMS training, allowing us to launch the Congo training with enough mattresses to enable many of the students to sleep in the church throughout the training. Some of the mattresses can be seen at the back of the church in the picture below.
The training went well with the first module being the biblical studies module of ‘The Story of Salvation in the Old Testament’. The assessment for this will take place at the next training session in October, which is taking place as this is being written, with Callum currently in DRC leading the module on Christian character. Some of the students didn’t make it to the first day of training because of outbreaks of war in the area but there were still great numbers with 87 attending.Â
The situation of the church leaders at the training is hugely challenging. Constant war, poverty, hunger and displacement brings great pressures on both them and their people. However, the training has felt like a real oasis of feeding on God’s word, fellowshipping and praying together and of the people of God from outside Congo standing together with those dear brothers and sisters.
CIMS usually has a good number of women training but the make-up of the students in March was predominantly men and also predominantly from the Free Methodist Church. We are hopeful that further iterations of the training will broaden the scope of this intake.
Uganda
In March the two locations in Eastern Uganda (Busia and Mbale) undertook the Certificate level module ‘The Messianic Hope in the Old Testament’. This is always a special module as the Christ-centred framework and focus of the Old Testament is unfolded and students connect with a Christocentric fulfilment of the Old Testament.
The training of Pastors and Leaders has continued at both levels in Uganda thanks to a good Wifi signal and a large screen to teach through a Zoom connection. In late June and early July the Foundation Certificate module on the Gospels was taught in two locations: Mbale and Busia in the Eastern province. Later in July the module on Isaiah was taught at the Diploma Level in Busia. The Diploma level class are now planning a programme for preaching assignments in a number of different churches.
We are now planning for the big event in the Foundation Certificate programme. In November Lea Shaw and a team from Love Wales will visit Uganda to run the evangelism training programme finishing up with an outreach programme to put the teaching into practice. They will also run the Faith module for the Diploma level class. Please pray for many people to be reached by the Gospel as well as the encouragement of all those involved in the training.
Burundi
In August we had a very special occasion with the first graduation of students from the training in Ngozi, Burundi. After a cross between a march and a dance and a concert around Ngozi we handed out the Certificate of Christian Studies to forty graduates, shared from God’s Word, prayed, and then a number of thanksgiving gifts were handed out to lecturers, organisers and hosts. There was much loud praise and worship and the event finished with sharing food together. It was a blessing to see such rejoicing and a real sense of celebration of God’s goodness.
It had been a slightly fraught run-up to the training with the Rwanda-Burundi border still closed and access via Tanzania denied, before a journey back through Tanzania into Rwanda and then returning through Tanzania again finally gained entry.
The training itself was with a new intake of pastors, evangelists and other church leaders and also involved The Story of Salvation in the Old Testament as it is an ideal module to begin a new course. There were sixty church leaders from across many church streams and denominations with men and women attending and the training went well. Once again the training took place at the Elim Pentecostal Church in Ngozi and it is great to see the unity and co-working of so many different churches.
With training now taking place at Ngozi in Burundi, Busia and Mbale in Uganda, and Goma in DRC, and requests from Kenya and South Kivu, DRC unable to be met, we are in need of both financial support and more lecturers. Please pray for that and spread the news so that others might get involved! Thank you so much again for equipping the church in those countries.