Jill and Mike work with the Congo Baptist Community (CBCO). Jill is currently involved in mission education, women's ministries and youth work. She has also been working with the women of CBCO both at the national and local levels. She is involved with organizing women's activities in Kinshasa and throughout Western Congo. Because the economic situation in the Congo makes life so difficult, Jill hopes that her ministry will have an impact on the lives of women and mothers as well as on the living conditions of their families. Mike is a professor and administrator at the Pastor's Institute in Kikongo. He teaches New Testament and prepares pastors for rural ministry.

Mike writes: I love to teach. I am teaching future pastors for rural villages in Congo. It's a great privilege that I take very seriously. The Institute provides the only ministry training that many of these pastors will ever receive. It's important that we give them things that they can use to shepherd the churches where they will go.

Of course the most difficult part is not teaching them conceptual things like the books of the Bible or the history of the early church. The continual challenge is to provide practical examples and uses for
what they are learning. We have some idea of what they will face in the villages and we want to prepare them to have a fruitful ministry there. I guess Jesus gives us the best model for that sort of
teaching. He was the master of making the spiritual practical.

• Please pray for our students and their teachers. Pray that they will
  get the best preparation possible and that they will succeed in their
  future ministries.

• Pray for Mike and Jill as they serve and for their children Taylor (Cal State), Hannah (Cal State) and Matt (17).