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Three Congo Pastors Participating in Pastor-in-Residence Program
CHICAGO, IL (April 16, 2002) - Three pastors from the Congo Covenant Church
(CEUM) are spending three months in the United States as pastors in
residence in various Covenant churches.
Thornapple Evangelical Covenant Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is
hosting Nubea Kafi, CEUM vice president. Fohle Lygunda is the guest of
Trinity Covenant Church in Lexington, Massachusetts, and Duale is the guest
of Arvada Covenant Church. The trio arrived March 28 and will stay in the
United States through the end of the 117th Annual Meeting of the
Evangelical Covenant Church in Keystone, Colorado, in late June.
Kafi, vice president of the CEUM since 1992, is taking extensive English
classes during his stay. He preached at Fruitland Covenant Church in
Whitehall, Michigan, April 14 and will preach at Dearborn Covenant Church
in Dearborn, Michigan, April 21. He will preach at Evangelical Covenant
Church of Whitehall, Michigan, April 28 and will return to Thornapple
Covenant to preach at the May 5 worship service. He will visit four other
Covenant churches in May and June before heading to the denomination's
annual meeting.
A member of the Ngbaka people group, Kafi heads CEUM's Department of the
Life of the Church and Biblical and Theological Education. He and his wife,
Mbiligale Koyale, have five children.
Before becoming CEUM's vice president, Kafi was pioneer pastor of the first
CEUM church in Kinshasa, serving there seven years while doubling as
chaplain at Protestant Theological Seminary of Zaire (now Congo). He
graduated from Protestant Theological Seminary with a Masters of Theology
in 1987. Kafi began his schooling in 1968 with hopes of being a teacher. He
has taught at the university level while serving as a pastor since the
early 1970s.
Langba, who serves as head of CEUM's Department of Evangelism and Mission,
is scheduled to visit six Midwest Conference congregations while in the
United States. In June, he will spend a weekend at Moses Hill Covenant
Church in Loomis, Nebraska, where the congregation will present him with
three bicycles to bring to Congo.
When he's not traveling to Covenant churches, Langba will take morning
English classes and receive private tutoring in the afternoons. He teaches
an adult class on Congo mission work each Wednesday night
A member of the Ngbaka people group near Gemena in northwest Congo, Langba
is married to Akpakpa Josee and the couple has seven children.
The son of a pastor, Langba earned a Master of Theology in 1989 at the
Protestant Theological Seminary of Zaire and passed the highest exam for
teaching in the area of standard education that year. He has served in his
present position for the denomination since 2000 and also is president of
the Permanent Constitution and Statute Committee. He was superintendent of
the Bokonzo region of CEUM from 1994-2000. Before
that, he was pastor at the Bokonzo Church for two years and an associate
for three years. He had been a teacher before becoming a pastor.
Lygunda, CEUM's director of the Cabinet of the President and its legal
representative, will visit numerous churches during his stay in the East
Coast Conference. He preached April 7 at Covenant Congregational Church in
West Hartford, Connecticut, and was at Concord Covenant Church in Concord,
New Hampshire, April 13-14. He preaches at Salem Covenant in Worcester,
Massachusetts, April 21; Trinity Covenant in Lexington April 28;
Evangelical Covenant Church in Woodstock, Connecticut, May 5; Covenant
Congregational Church in Waltham, Massachusetts, May 19; Community Covenant
Church in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, May 26; Congregational Covenant
Church in Boston, Massachusetts, June 2; Mission Covenant Church in Orange,
Massachusetts, June 9; and Community Covenant Church in West Peabody,
Massachusetts, June 16. He is also taking a 12-week English class at the
Boston Language Institute in Boston.
Part of the Topoke people group from the Oriental Province of Congo near
Kisangani, Lygunda moved with his parents to the Equator Province in 1964
because of the Simba rebellion. He earned his undergraduate degree in
theology from the Superior Evangelical Theology Institute of the Ubangi
(ISTEU) at Goyongo in 1989. He then earned a Masters in Theology from the
Bangui Evangelical School of Theology (FATEB) in 1996. Lygunda is married
to Marceline Lileko Fohle. They live in Gemena and are the
parents of five children.
Lygunda has 12 years of pastoral ministry experience at churches located in
Bumba, Gbadolite, Bangui and Gemena. He has had an administrative role at
the CEUM headquarters since 1996, also serving as professor at Superior
Evangelical Theology Institute of the Ubangi (ISTEU) in Goyongo (missiology
and non-Christian religions). He is also visiting professor at the Bozogi
Bible School and organizes mission conferences for the CEUM and other
churches. He was founding director of the Evangelical School of
Cross-cultural Mission (EMET - formerly called CEFAM), which helps
interested churches prepare missionaries for ministry.
For more information about the pastors in residence from the CEUM, call
Sharon Gerde at the Department of World Mission office in Portland, Oregon,
503-246-9544, or call Sharon Dotson at the main World Mission offices in
Chicago, 773-907-3316.
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