Covenant News

Group Prepares to Head for Congo

ROSEMONT, IL (February 5, 2002) - A mutual ministry training process will encourage leaders from the Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM) and Evangelical Covenant Church pastors to exchange ideas and personnel in the coming months.

The first step of that process occurred Monday at the O'Hare Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosemont as Department of World Mission coordinator of church relations David Stockamp, Africa regional coordinator Pete Ekstrand and assistant coordinator Ken Satterberg met with Covenant pastors and lay leaders preparing for a trip to Africa March 3-10.

Satterberg provided an overview of life and ministry in Bangui. Mossai T. Sanguma, citizen of Congo and a doctoral student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, shared his doctoral research on tribal tensions in the Central Africa.

The Institute for African Christianity 2002 team includes Sam Bryan of Jamaica Estates, New York; Mary Ann Owens of Atlanta, Georgia; Ed Carey of Miami, Florida; Darryl and Beverly Johnson of Mound Bayou, Mississippi; Deric Gilliard of Stone Mountain, Georgia; Jerome Nelson of Chicago, Illinois; and Rose Cornelious of Lithonia, Georgia. Nelson heads up the Churches Planting Ministries initiative in the Central Conference. Cornelious, the trip team leader, serves as World Mission East Coast coordinator of church relations.

The ECC has had missionaries ministering in Africa since the mid 1930s - they originally served in conjunction with the Swedish Mission Covenant Church in what was then known as the Belgian Congo and later partnered with the Evangelical Free Church in the northwestern corner of Congo. The ECC purchased the Karawa mission station from the Evangelical Free Church in 1937.

In 1997, Covenant missionary staff members were evacuated from the Congo after a civil war. CEUM has existed through a strengthened Congolese leadership network with assistance from the Department of World Mission. Meanwhile, the ECC has created ministry efforts in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Stockamp, Ekstrand and Satterberg began considering a mutual ministry trip last year. They hope that the group can develop dynamic relationships with CEUM pastors and lay leaders from their meeting place in Bangui, CAR - they'll also make short trips in and out of Congo to Loko, Gemena and the Karawa station. More than 158,000 Covenanters worship in Congolese churches.

Participants will also be educated about the vast needs and mission strategies of Covenant mission throughout Africa. Some of that training occurred during the Monday morning session and another Monday evening.

While the U.S. contingent is heading to Africa, CEUM will send a trio of CEUM leaders to various United States Covenant churches in March for educational purposes. They include CEUM Vice President Kafi Nubea, mission facilitator and pastor Lygunda Fohle and pastor Langba Duale.

The participants heading to Africa come with varied mission backgrounds. Bryan, pastor of Christian Community Covenant Church in New York, took a mission trip to Kenya and taught there for a summer. Carey, pastor at Palmetto Covenant Church in North Miami, Florida, has parishioners from 14 different ethnic groups. It will be his first trip outside of North America.

For Owens, the president of Covenant Women Ministries for the Southeast Conference and a youth leader at her church, the trip will help her communicate the interesting and rich history of Africa to students. For Nelson, the trip to Africa is "an experience that God would have me do. I can't even imagine what this is going to mean for me and I'm looking forward to it. I'm hyped and ready to go."

"I am excited for you, I am thrilled," said Ekstrand. "And I look forward to connecting the Covenant African-American churches with those from the Congo. I think this is the beginning of great things."

"We're hoping that there will be a set of relationships that will grow and thrive," said Stockamp of the group's upcoming trip. "And we hope that they will advocate for CEUM leaders both here and abroad."

For more information about the trip, call Cornelious at 770-482-4636 or email her at trcornelious@prodigy.net.

Printable version of this page.