If you were to look for a typical Covenanter today, they would live in Congo and walk over 5 miles daily just to get clean water.
The Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is giving thanks this year for God’s grace and love. Seventy-five years ago, Covenant missionaries first went to what was then the “Belgian Congo” to bring God’s word and care deep into the heart of Africa. Covenant missionaries not only found a community of people along the Ubangi and Congo rivers not simply ready to hear and accept God’s word but also to live it out. And so, amidst untold injustice, dictatorship, poverty, war and struggle, the Covenant Church of Congo today is over 1600 congregations strong with over 1 million members. The church in Congo today is the largest movement of Covenant people in the world!
2012 is an important year: the Covenant church gives thanks to God’s grace and love for growth and sustenance. But it is an important year also in that there’s a vision for an unprecedented partnership to break the cycle of extreme poverty and build sustainable, flourishing communities. That unprecedented partnership is called Covenant Kids Congo powered by World Vision.
While the Covenant in Congo continues to grow and flourish, making and deepening new disciples and local churches, immense need persists:
- 3 out of 4 people have no access to clean water
- The DRC rates in the bottom 8 countries for acute malnutrition.
- The UN human development index ranks Congo 187 out of 187 countries – with the Equateur province in the northwest (where the majority of Covenant churches are found) the most challenging.
And perhaps the hardest: 82,000 kids die every year before their fifth birthday because of treatable, preventable disease like malaria.
It doesn’t have to be this way. And through this unprecedented partnership between the CEUM, Evangelical Covenant Church in North America, World Vision USA, World Vision DRC and World Vision Canada, and so many others, it won’t.
2012 is a ‘kairos’ moment, to not only give thanks for what God is doing in Congo but to roll up our sleeves and walk alongside our sisters and brothers to Pray. Hope. Act.
We’re asking Covenant church plants to join churches across the United States and Canada to partner with Covenant Kids Congo powered by World Vision in hosting a Hope Sunday. By hosting a Hope Sunday on November 25th with other church plants (or any Sunday between now and Spring 2013), you will be able to partner in prayer and action with Congo’s transformational development by inviting your people to child sponsorship with World Vision.
Everything you need to know is at CovChurch.org/covenantkidscongo. Make sure to sign up and register your #HopeSunday and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Join us!
