On land, on water, and in the air

The destination was a region that no District Apostle had ever visited before. On the way there, Tshitshi Tshisekedi used every conceivable means of transport. Pictures of a pastoral journey.

It started with a flight on an aeroplane. This is what District Apostle Tshitshi Tshisekedi of the DR Congo used this past Easter for the 650 kilometres from Kinshasa to Tshikapa in the south-west of the country. “The journey was not without stress,” nac.today correspondent Serge Mukadi Katende writes.

The reason: bad weather. Thunderclouds delayed the arrival of the District Apostle. This meant that the 5,000 or so people who had gathered for the divine service in the Samei Central church had to wait almost until lunchtime. However, this did not stop more and more people from coming. In the end, some 6,500 people had gathered for the service, 1,200 of whom were children.

The weather was not particularly good the next day in Kamwesha, around 100 kilometres away. The last time a District Apostle was here was in 2011—a certain Jean-Luc Schneider. On Monday morning, around 4,500 worshippers came together for the open-air service. The sermon had to be interrupted for twenty minutes due to a rain shower.

Immediately after the divine service, District Apostle Tshisekedi and his companions made their way to Ndoko-Punda in the apostle district of Mibalayi. On the way there, the delegation met with the responsible Apostle Jean-Pierre Mulekus as well as government officials and police representatives.  A crowd of people, not just church members, accompanied the group to the banks of the Kassai River singing, which the group crossed by dugout canoe. 

However, there were still more than five hours of driving on barely passable tracks before the next service. Tshitshi Tshisekedi finally arrived in the central congregation of Ndoko-Punda on a motorbike—as the first District Apostle ever: “You were probably wondering whether you are even part of the New Apostolic Church,” he said as he greeted them. “You can be sure you have always been at the centre of our intercessions. And I am looking forward to experiencing this moment with you.”