A Full Camp

The 2005-2006 school year is underway at the Pastor's Institute of Kikongo and we have lots to be thankful for.

This year we have a full camp! Our student pastors come from villages from all around, some as far as 120 miles away. They come with their families and live in Kikongo for three years while they finish their studies here. Each family lives in a small two room house with an outside kitchen in what we call "The Camp." This year we have 39 families living in The Camp. We only have 39 houses that are available (One house is undergoing repairs.) So we have a full camp! In fact, we had to turn several applicants away for this year. We hope that they will apply again next year.

Having a full camp is great for lots of reasons. One reason is that we are training lots of pastors and their wives. With 39 couples in our three year program, we are sending out an average of 13 families each year. This means that 13 villages each year receive a pastoral couple to lead their church. These couples will serve in churches who normally have had no pastor for some time. They will bring the light of the Gospel of Christ to places where there is only darkness.

Having a full camp is also a good thing because of the camaraderie it produces among the families. Life is not easy in Kikongo. Because the economic situation in Congo is so difficult, the families arrive in Kikongo with little support. They are forced to look for ways to support themselves while they are here. Some of the students are able to raise small animals: chickens, rabbits or guinea pigs. They can sell the animals or eggs and raise some support. Others are able to make charcoal or palm oil or even grass mats that they sell to support themselves here. Others even try carpentry and have made small chairs or beds to sell in the local market. The students work together to search for ways to survive during their stay here.

The wives take their traditional roles and do all the gardening. Each family is given a small plot where they will grow manioc, greens, peanuts, beans and squash. The families live off what they grow as do most families that live in the rural parts of Congo. So, the school provides the fields and helps the families with the hand tools that they need to clear the fields and plant. Everything is done by hand and the women often are seen going out to their fields in groups. There is a lot of discipling going on between women from the upper levels and the newer students. This is something that they could get no where else.

In reality just about all the support for these families and the Pastor's Institute of Kikongo comes from our churches in the States. It costs the school about $400 a year to house the students, pay for their medical care and pay their Congolese professors. Of this amount we ask the students to provide $90 a year as their participation. In a country where the average income per capita is around $140, this is a big deal.

In many cases, it is the missionaries who find ways to support the student's participation portion. We find work projects, plant trees, clear fields, clean up the school, fix the roads, build small buildings; all of this to help the students pay their yearly school fees. The missionaries use their personal funds or funds provided by churches to do this. So, you see, because of the impossible economic situation in Congo, it's really our churches and our missionaries who are making it possible to send out 13 pastoral couples a year to churches who would never have a pastor otherwise. That's 13 families that will bring the Light to a very dark world.

We're thankful for our full camp. We're thankful for the opportunity to train men and women who will lead their churches and their villages in the future. And we're thankful for the churches back home that believe in spreading the Gospel to all nations and are willing to support that cause.

Thank you for your support. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your part in making the Pastor's Institute possible.

Sincerely,

Mike and Jill Lowery

Democratic Republic of Congo