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Congo University Seeks Links with U.S. Schools
By Craig Pinley
KINSHASA, CONGO (November 14, 2001) - Pastors throughout the Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM) have traveled hundreds of miles in order to find the best ministry training for their congregations.
Many of those journeys led them to Protestant University of Congo (PUC) in Kinshasa, administered by Professor Rev. Daniel Ngoy Boliya, the school's rector. Ngoy's school has trained 10 CEUM pastors and is widely admired in educational circles, due in no small part to the rector's talent and persistence.
Ngoy was in the United States recently to present a lecture on higher education in Congo as part of a Conference on Congo at the University of Illinois in Champaign. Prior to the conference, he stopped in Chicago to learn more about Covenant educational institutions, with on-campus visits to North Park University and North Park Theological Seminary.
Following meetings with seminary Dean Stephen R. Graham and Evangelical Covenant Church President Glenn R. Palmberg, Ngoy spoke during a dinner meeting at North Park University. One of Ngoy's goals is to create links between Covenant educational institutions like the seminary and Protestant University of Congo, including teacher and student exchanges.
The Covenant church has enjoyed a lengthy relationship with Protestant University of Congo (PUC), which was founded in 1959 as the Protestant Theological Faculty of the Belgian Congo and Rwanda-Urundi. The Church of Christ in Congo, a national body representing eight million Christians in 62 communities, created the school. It received governmental ordinance in 1965 and was given its current name in 1994. The school has approximately 4,500 students.
Covenant missionary Carl Edstrom was one of many Covenanters who taught at PUC. Edstrom cited others who also have worked at the school, including Clitus Olson, Orval Davis, Ruth and
Quentin Nelson and Helen Price Lundblad. Several students from Covenant missionary families have attended the school, according to Edstrom. Ngoy would like to see that involvement expanded and suggests four strategies:
- "First, we would like the involvement of the church to help in the development of the university."
- "Second, we hope that the church here (in North America) would support us by sending several colleagues to teach at the university."
- "Third, we would ask for support by finances, because we can't afford this."
- "And one more thing I ask God is that this church would support us in prayer, because the work that we do is not easy."
Ngoy has been rector (president) at PUC for nine years. He teaches classes in Church History and conducts fundraising for the university. Before becoming rector, he was an academic dean for 11 years. Ngoy attended Congo Christian Institute at Bolenge and earned a theology degree at Protestant University in Kisangani before receiving his doctorate at the University of Strasburg, France, in 1981.
"I am the fruit of the American missionaries," Ngoy said in reference to his educational journey. He has helped link students with other educational institutions outside of Congo, including Belgium and Spain. He is exploring relationships with schools like the University of Illinois to allow students to pursue doctoral work. North Park makes an ideal candidate for linkage with PUC because it is a Christian institution of similar size and mission, Ngoy said, suggesting North Park students would find Kinshasa an intriguing place to learn.
Protestant University of Congo is located in his country's capital city (with six million people), enabling his school to tap into educational resources often not available to other Congo schools. "Some students (near CEUM churches) may go to Bangui to go to school, but we have more resources here and our teachers are well educated," Ngoy said. There is also less political unrest in Kinshasa than other areas in Congo, which makes for a more safe atmosphere."
The overall political and economic instability in Congo makes Ngoy's job more difficult. Library books are considered a luxury and subjects like law cannot be filled with full-timers. Raising tuition would help somewhat - students pay just $320 annually for classes and about $1,700 for housing and transportation. But in Congo that total is considered enormous for a typical family. Ngoy is amazed at how much his school has accomplished with so little in the way of financial and other resources.
"It's a question that people ask me every day," said Ngoy about how PUC has managed to survive. "When I took on the responsibility to be the rector at the university, I took it on as a challenge because I knew I was going to work in very difficult conditions. I spoke to others and
when they put me there to replace my predecessor, I went to my knees in my office and I prayed and wept because I knew it wasn't going to be easy.
"But I think because of the help of God and with a little bit of good will, and with professional help, we can do this," he continued. "That's the way I've worked with other colleagues . . . it works because we've taken it on as a ministry and a challenge and with the little help we
get from student fees we do our best from beginning to end."
To learn more about Protestant University of Congo, email Ngoy at Univprocongo@Maf.org.
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