Duale: True Commitment Helps the Church Survive

CHICAGO, IL (April 8, 2003) - Duale Langba has taught many Biblical lessons during the past five years as the head of evangelism and mission in the Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM).

A three-month stay in the United States (2002) gave him many more lessons to share with his friends back home. And those he met while in the United States learned quite a bit as well about the CEUM and its struggle to remain faithful during years of civil unrest.

Pastor Duale stayed with host families as a guest of Arvada Covenant Church near Denver. He preached his message of hope - Jesus - to numerous churches in the Midwest Conference and found his hearers receptive to his message and the plight of his people. "Wherever I stayed or went to worship, I've been really warmly received," he said at that time. "I really feel like we're brothers and sisters in Christ."

The son of a pastor, Duale is a member of the Ngbaka group near Gemena in northwest Congo. He earned a Master of Theology degree 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 CEUM position 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. Duale is married to Akpakpa Josee and is the father of seven children.

Duale said he enjoyed examining the adult Sunday school ministries in various U.S. Covenant churches. "We still have a great challenge to carry people to a mature faith," said Duale. "Many people are open to the Good News, but we have to reinforce that and tell them how to live their lives, according to the will of God and the scriptures.

"We use a lot of seminars to help them with their faith," he continued. "We need to intensify our Bible studies and we saw something that really made us happy here - Sunday school for adults. We're used to Sunday school for children, but not for adults. We're inspired to go back and initiate adult Sunday school programs. In that way, it'll help them become more mature in their faith."

Being in the U.S. gave Duale a chance to share with Covenanters about struggles the CEUM faces. Looting during the past few years has decimated many of the resources the church had available to them. Missionaries lost homes, schools were devastated and property was taken away. And many of the faithful servants of the CEUM are impoverished, sometimes not being able to attend leadership meetings because they have no clothes to wear.

"Even now, state workers and teachers have not been paid," Duale said. "And those having gardens and produce struggle - no one can buy what they produce. That has affected the church. Lay pastors and leaders cannot survive. A lot of them have gotten very discouraged. If it weren't for true commitment, a lot of people would have left the ministry."

One of the blessings Duale says he received was the generosity of the churches he visited. One congregation, Moses Hill Covenant Church in Loomis, Nebraska, started a fundraising drive for a truck for CEUM. Other churches in the Front Range region of the Midwest Conference embarked on a fundraising drive that raised enough funds to purchase 36 bicycles along with funds for other projects. Duale said that the church would buy a motor for a boat in order to do riverboat evangelism and other funds will go towards music equipment that can be used for music evangelism.

Duale received another blessing in the U.S. - one that may have also saved his life. He discovered during the trip that he had a stomach ailment that might have killed him if left untreated. He received medical attention in Colorado and received medication to take back to Congo to continue treatment. He is hopeful that the CEUM will experience its own healing process through the encouraging words he'll take back to them.

"No matter what stage we're in, God has a lesson to show us," Duale said. "And, especially during times of difficulty, God came to us. We're encouraging them (CEUM parishioners) to be strong in the midst of temptation. A lot of this is like the tempest of the wind, a storm blowing through. But there was also a time when Jesus calmed the storm.

"People in the U.S. have been sorrowful about what has happened and they are amazed at our perseverance," he continued. "They've promised to pray for us and even though we might be in the midst of difficult times, they will pray for us. And we know that God has appointed a time when he will save us."

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