The delegation left Chicago Monday evening and is scheduled to return November 22. Other members of the delegation include Curt Peterson, executive minister of the Department of World Mission; Jim Sundholm, director of Covenant World Relief; Jerome Nelson, a Central Conference coordinator; and Bob Thornbloom, a Covenant missionary who coordinates technical support in Congo. They will be joined in Congo by Pete Ekstrand, World Mission regional coordinator for Africa; Keith Gustafson, country coordinator for the Democratic Republic of Congo; and CEUM President Gbuda Luyada who will travel with the delegation.
The trip marks the first visit to Congo by an ECC president since 1987 and will be Peterson’s first visit since assuming leadership of the department September 1. The visit had been scheduled earlier this year, but was postponed due to civil unrest in northern Congo and areas of the Central African Republic surrounding Bangui.
Among highlights of the trip is a scheduled meeting with Joseph Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as visits to the Covenant hospital in Karawa and Kisangani, where the group will visit the prison and the site where Covenant medical missionary Dr. Paul Carlson was held and later killed in 1964. A visit to Wasolo also is planned, the site of a medical mission directed by Carlson. That visit is especially significant as the ECC prepares to honor Carlson and other Covenant missionary martyrs as part of the June 2004 Annual Meeting celebration in Minneapolis.
Other scheduled events include a meeting with Pierre Marini Bodho, president of the Church of Christ in Congo; visits to the Yahuma/Kasa-Vubu Church, the Bokonzo Church in Gemena, the Bumba churches, Wasolo church, Gbadolite churches and dinner with CEUM President Luyada in his home.
Much of the itinerary, including meetings with various dignitaries, was arranged by Rev. Sadath Mossi. He is a Kinshasa pastor who is a doctoral candidate at the Protestant University in Kinshasa and also serves as the Responsible Pastor overseeing eight CEUM congregations in Kinshasa.
(Editor’s note: the accompanying photo taken in April this year shows Palmberg with Luyada (right) and CEUM pastor Moselu Ngendema when the two visited the United States.)
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