Neighborhood Water Supply in Kikwit
The leadership of the Kwilu-Kikwit region of CBCO completed a 14,000-gallon (50,000 liter) fresh-water cistern in the Kikwit III neighborhood of Kikwit. The cistern collects rainwater from the regional church headquarters building. In a neighborhood where the public water system operates sporadically at best, the cistern will provide a welcome source of clean drinking water for several thousand people.

Training Church Leaders in the Fight against Poverty
During the months of March and April, 2002 more than a hundred CBCO pastors and lay leaders participated in a series of workshops on how the local church can equip believers for the fight against poverty. Altogether half a dozen workshops were organized by Baptist community leaders for rural congregations. The program represents a new effort by CBCO leadership to equip, encourage, and inspire local pastors and laypeople increasingly isolated by deteriorated roads, a shattered rural economy, and poor communications.

The workshops focused particularly on surprising resources that God gives His people, the power of careful planning, and the barriers we create ourselves that keep us from improving our material and social condition. The series of seminars was coordinated by the CBCO development office in collaboration with the community president, Rev. Ikomba, and the evangelism and Christian education resource specialist, Rev. Ngalubenge Umber.

CBCO Lukunga group establishes Village Tile-Making Workshop
Red clay hills surround the CBCO church center of Lukunga in the Cataractes region of Lower Congo. It makes for slippery travel in the rainy season, but the clay is perfect for baking into bricks, pottery and clay roofing tiles. With a development grant from CBCO and International Ministries, members of the Lukunga church have starting producing tiles and selling them in local villages. The project generates income for underemployed young men, provides durable roofing for local people at an affordable price, and keeps precious cash (that would have gone to Kinshasa for tin roofing) working in the local economy.

The tile workshop reportedly employs more than a dozen people. The long-term hope is that the small business will expand to encompass several production centers.

CBCO Conference Facilities OPERATIONAL !!!
During the month of June the CBCO conference hall in Kintambo hosted its inaugural conference, a multi-community 3-day reflection on how the church can more effectively minister to street children abandoned and accused of sorcery. More than 60 Christian leaders from a wide spectrum of protestant communities sought God's guidance for this urgent need. The project has been nearly seven years in the making.

The main conference room can seat 250 people comfortably. Spacious, well-lit, the facility provides a clean, quiet place for people to learn together. It will cater to in-service training for pastors, retreats and study sessions for lay leaders, and other meetings that help believers to become better grounded in their commitment to Jesus Christ and be more effective in their witness for Him.

Small-Scale Credit Program
To survive in Kinshasa over the last decade, believers and non-Christians alike have had to use every ounce of creative entrepreneurial skill. In the fight against poverty lack of workable ideas for new small businesses is not a problem. But finding the very modest capital to start a new business is. In 2001, the Baptist Convention began to experiment with micro-credit, granting loans for church members starting micro-businesses. CBCO loans have helped stake market women, a family producing small batches of perfume, a couple of home bakeries, and the Selambao Baptist Women's fish drying project.

Loans typically run between $50 and $100. The borrower usually is expected to repay the loan in three months or less. A small interest charge helps to cover modest administrative costs and occasional defaults.

So far more than 25 individuals or groups have received loans totaling more than $1500.