Sometimes church construction is a tedious and nerve-racking affair, and other times there is incredibly quick progress. This was the case in one town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Josias Buingo Kambia
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Photo: Samuel Bright
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Photo: Samuel Bright
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Photo: Samuel Bright
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Photo: Samuel Bright
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Photo: Samuel Bright
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Photo: Samuel Bright
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Photo: Samuel Bright
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Photo: Samuel Bright
Hundreds of guests at church dedication in the Congo
The new church offers seating for 500 people, and more than 2,200 came to attend the dedication service. It was a big celebration for the brothers and sisters in Masisi. The small town is located at an altitude of 1,600 metres in the province of North Kivu. Many of the town’s 6,500 people profess the New Apostolic faith. And now they have a new church building.
The sisters and brothers built the church themselves with financial support from the Church administration. The construction took four weeks. Now, there are only a few odds and ends that still need to be done, Josias Buingo Kambia says, who documented the construction.
The dedication was conducted by District Apostle Tshitshi Tshisekedi, who is responsible for the District Church Congo South-East, on 28 September. Hundreds of people in festive attire were out on the streets to celebrate the dedication.
From Masisi, District Apostle Tshisekedi continued on to a village south of Goma, where he conducted another divine service on Saturday, 29 September. Here too the people stayed around after the divine service. More than 1,700 brothers and sisters attended the—the majority of them sat outside the church.
Enthusiasm at a youth convention in Nigeria
Several hundred kilometres west of Masisi, in southern Nigeria, a group of 300 young people from the apostle area Mid-East Area Aba came together for a youth convention lasting several days. The divine service on Sunday morning, 2 September, for the young Christians was conducted by Apostle Chima Opkara Ibekwe.
There were activities galore to keep the young people busy, such as Bible quizzes, song contests, and cultural exhibitions. Samuel Bright thought the weekend was fabulous and said, “To all of you, dear youth around the world, put God first in everything you do: be faithful to God!” The responsible District Elder, Ugochukwu Nwankpa, said in looking ahead into the coming year: “The youth convention was great. Now we pray that 2019 will be even bigger and more beautiful!”