November 27, 2007--Last month I met with the Congo Baptist women’s ministries president at her office in Kinshasa, the capital city of Democratic Republic of Congo. President Alice Ngakieme Koba told me (in French) about their women’s organization, which encompasses 35,000 women in the Baptist Community of Congo (CBCO), and about their projects and ministries. Mama Marie Claire translated.
Alice asked me to thank American Baptist women for financing the construction of a women’s center at Mitendi. (AB Women's Ministries' past national mission project, W.I.N.G.S., contributed funds for the center in 2000.) Alice explained that during the recent war in Congo, soldiers had pillaged the women’s center, destroying everything. The now vacant buildings have no electricity, no computers, no furniture. The women are working toward getting the center up and running again, to train and educate single mothers and empower them with marketable skills. They want to provide computer training and teach English. They want to help persons with AIDS and children orphaned by AIDS, maybe even opening an orphanage. Their dreams are immense, but they feel that with God’s help and some funding support, they can do it. Alice remarked, “It is because of the women that anything gets done in Congo.” I brought home five specific project proposals from CBCO’s women’s department. One of the proposals seeks funding for equipment at the Mitendi center; the project will benefit “idle and girl mothers,” referring to the teenage girls who prostitute themselves for survival or who are victims of sexual violence.
Rev. Gabrielle Kaza-Vubu, immediate past president of the Women’s Department, was also at the meeting. I had remembered that in 2006, we invited Gabrielle and another women’s leader to come to the U.S. and participate in our National Women’s Conference at Green Lake, Wisconsin. In the last days before traveling to the United States, they were both denied visas. That fall, Gabrielle and her husband did travel to the U.S. – perhaps you met her as they toured and spoke in churches.
Our meeting in Kinshasa concluded with their gift to me of fabric imprinted with symbols of the Baptist partnerships between Angola and Congo and ABC International Ministries. Alice called over a young man who immediately sized me with a glance. “What kind of dress would you like?” Delighted and surprised, I pointed to Marie Claire’s outfit. “How big is your husband?” I held my palm high. Two days later, I was presented with a top and skirt to wear on Sunday for the opening session of CBCO’s Biennial Convention in Kinshasa. He had also made a shirt for me to take home to my husband. Amazingly, it fit!
If you click on the audio file link below (it takes some moments to load), you’ll enjoy the women’s choir that sang at CBCO’s Biennial session. Time and again I was blessed by the singing in Congo. At one point, I announced that I wanted to bring all the Baptist women home with me to sing to American Baptist women here. What a treat that would be!
Click here to download audio file.
Meeting the Women's Ministry Leaders in Congo