Ed and Miriam Noyes serve in a region of the Democratic Republic of Congo where over two-thirds of the population depends on agriculture for a living and chronic malnutrition touches one out of every five children. Ed supports and advises Congolese Baptists working for more productive, profitable and sustainable agricultural practices among semi-subsistence farmers.

Ed works with the Baptist convention’s Community Action for Integrated Development (ACDI Lusekele) promoting simple agricultural innovations and supporting an extension program serving 250.000 people.  He strengthens the skills of Christians to research and innovate, to teach, and to promote best practices in agriculture so that the Church becomes a real force contributing to food security and expanding opportunities for Congolese living on the margins.

Since early in her ministry in Congo, Miriam has had 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. Collaborating with a Baptist pastor's wife and a core group of dedicated church members, she writes for and supervises church-based literacy classes and trains literacy teachers. Three quarters of the Baptist churches in Kinshasa now have neighborhood literacy classes.  The team is now working to establish strong programs in rural areas. 

Miriam also advises Baptist Pygmy evangelism efforts, helps develop and print training materials for rural pastors and lay leaders, advises rural church leaders (pastors and laypeople), and is part of the leadership team for women's ministries in the Vanga area.

Languages used in ministry: French, Kituba, Lingala