Dear friends,

Kimpwanza!That's Freedom in Kikongo, the name I've given to a very sturdy Toyota Land Cruiser that I was able to buy in September.Many thanks for your prayers, and for your encouragement to me in my ministry.

Here are some of the things Kimpwanza has given me the freedom to do over the past few months.I never go anywhere alone outside of Kimpese, so these trips have all been opportunities for fellowship and team work with students, pastors and lay people:

A group of us went to a harvest thanksgiving service in Ngombe Lutete, a historic church where some of the first British Baptist missionaries worked in the 1800s.I preached on Sunday morning, at the invitation of one of our Bible Institute graduates from the 1980s who is pastor there.Before church, we took a side trip to the headquarters of one of the largest African Independent Churches, the Kimbanguist church, where we met the head of the church, the grandson of the founder, Simon Kimbangu.

A Responsible Living Skills team took an overnight trip to one of our American Baptist historic mission sites, Nsona Mpangu, to present the True Love Waits program to eighty members of the hospital and school staff, as well as high school juniors and seniors. I've made four trips to Kinshasa (about a 4-hour drive), for various training seminars: one on AIDS counseling (where I spoke on "AIDS and the Bible"); two on peace and reconciliation (one led by a representative of African Enterprise, the other by American Baptist Global Missionary Daniel Buttry); and finally, a seminar on Community Health Evangelism, where my colleague Katherine Niles was one of the facilitators.

Kimpwanza enabled Virgil and Lynn Nelson and I to make the first leg of our vacation to the Atlantic coast!We drove to Matadi, then took a plane from there to Muanda while my neighbor drove Kimpwanza back to Kimpese.We had a great time, though brief, at the coast, then took a boat and bus back to Kimpese.The Nelsons continued on the bus to Kinshasa.

Kimpwanza enabled our student pastors and their wives to bring in a ton of corn from the field.The harvest will contribute to self-financing of the Bible Institute.I managed to get Kimpwanza's right rear wheel stuck in a rut, but we were pushed out by a group of strong young men, and didn't even have to unload the corn or use the 4 wheel drive!

In Kimpese, Kimpwanza takes me to the studio of our local Radio Bangu twice a week, for my program "Youth: a Jewel and a Treasure," a new avenue by which I'm encouraging young people to recognize their infinite value in God's eyes, and to make life decisions in the light that worth!On the way home from the studio, I usually stop at an agricultural center, where I get to send and receive e-mail messages.

May the Lord bless you richly as we approach the Easter season, and celebrate the freedom we have in Christ, because of His resurrection!!

In His grip,

Wendy