Ed and Miriam serve in a region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo where over two-thirds of the population depends on agriculture for a living, and where chronic malnutrition limits the lives of children.

 Ed supports and advises Congolese Baptist church programs promoting more productive, profitable, and sustainable farming techniques. Miriam has a burden for thousands of illiterate women who provide the foundations of healthy family life, yet are marginalized or impoverished because they cannot read and write. She promotes church-based literacy programs and trains literacy teachers. Programs have now been established in over half of the Baptist churches in Kinshasa.

They write: Pastor Georges Kasaka Kasiala reflects on the lives of people in the 25 local congregations that he oversees.  Isolated by political neglect and notoriously bad roads, their children attend poorly staffed and equipped schools, they have no functioning agricultural extension service and they must make do with seasonal trade with only the most intrepid entrepreneurs (usually to their disadvantage.)  The physical obstacles to contact with the outside world reinforce an isolation of the mind and of the spirit.  Over half of village women do not read. This is another barrier that keeps opportunity (and sometimes hope) beyond reach.

A district pastor doesn't have the political muscle to fix the national highway, but Pastor Kasiala is determined to break that isolation of the mind and spirit around Kipata Katika.  On March 14 he launched the district's literacy campaign by hosting a 5-day workshop for adult literacy teachers.  Over 45 people attended.  They learned principles of teaching adults, observed practical reading lessons and developed lessons themselves.  Participants chose between Kituba and French.  The ultimate goal is to have at least one literacy class in every one of the 25 district churches.

The excitement was evident. … Five hectic days passed.  On Friday afternoon Miriam and two others evaluated 41 teacher candidates as they put their learning on display.  Each one taught through a sample literacy lesson, from phonetics to words to reading sentences, capped off with a short Bible devotion on a theme for literacy.  When the dust settled late Friday night, 40 new teachers were certified to teach reading to adults in the Kipata Katika district, Pastor Kasiala among them.

Pastor Kasiala is determined that the pastors he shepherds will become more effective communicators of the Gospel.  He is determined that their parishioners will have free access to the word of God.  He is determined that parents will be able to contribute to a better education for their children.  He is determined to break down the obstacles that keep his people isolated, ignorant of the opportunities that God has already prepared for them. 

• Please pray for Pastor Kasiala and pray for the other 39 new literacy teachers as they try to dismantle the walls that so often keep spirits from soaring.  I imagine that God will be pleased to see people truly free for the first time in their lives.
• Pray for Ed and Miriam as they continue to serve Christ in the Democratic Republic of Congo.