“It is a big deal to people here that an African American was elected President of the United States,” says Gustafson, ECC country coordinator for Congo.
Some of the participants also were able to watch news clips of the event at a nearby house that had the town’s only television set, which received its signal via satellite. “When pictures were shown of two million people in Washington D.C., people here gasped at the size,” says Gustafson.
The brief swearing-in and speech surprised the Congolese, Gustafson says. “Here, they would have been much longer.”
The accompanying photo shows a group listening to the inauguration via short-wave radio, including (from left) Hamilton, Ruth and Brad Hill, and Miller. Click here to see additional moments from yesterday’s conference.
The Congo conference opened Sunday and will run through Friday. Other ECC attendees who are leading workshops and preaching are Ruth Hill, executive minister of the Department of Women Ministries, and her husband, Brad; Keith Hamilton, president of Alaska Christian College; and Byron Miller, executive director of the Paul Carlson Partnership. More than 2,000 pastors and spouses are attending the event.
Seminars for the pastors include Christian formation, development, reconciliation and tribal conflict, church administration, and church partnerships. Women, who packed the meeting room to overflowing, focused on women’s health, Christian ethics, and the Christian home.
