For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Elmer Deal - NEW
Africa
Email: EMDeal@aol.com
Website: http://sites.google.com/site/dealsincongo/
July 4, 2011
"The future is as bright as the
promises of God"
William Carey
Please allow me to reminisce about our over 50 years working in Africa. On our way to Congo D.R. from Brussels, Belgium in August 1959 we touched down in Niamey, Niger. Before becoming a Missionary I worked for American Airlines and I was amazed when the D.C. 6 landed on the dirt runway. Also. it was unusual to see people standing along side the runway watching the plane land. That was our first contact with Africa and we knew then that it was going to be an interesting and exciting place.
While there, we bought our first souvenir and we still have it today. Mary and I were the first Missionaries of the BBFI to establish a work in Africa. When we arrived in the capitol city, Kinshasa, Congo we didn't have anyone to meet us as we didn't know anyone. We were excited to arrive in the country where God called us to serve Him. We soon learned that the unknown would be a great challenge.
Although while we were in Belgium we were able to take the colonial course that the government of Belgium offered. The Congo was still under the control of the Belgian Government. We studied the Customs and Culture of Congo, Pedagogy, and French, which turned out to be a great help and blessing when we traveled across Congo searching out the place where God wanted us to start a work. Also, while in Belgium we met a lot of Missionaries who assisted us in our travels.
After many interesting days of travel in a V.W. mini bus we arrived on the western shore of the second largest and deepest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Tanganyika. It is located, with a series of other lakes, in the Great Rift Valley coming all the way down into Africa from the Gulf of Aden. When we arrived in Kalemie we knew that was the place God wanted us to settle and start our work.
We started meeting in different villages all around the Kalemie area and Chief Mwavi in Lubeleyi Village invited us to start our first church in his village. He gave us a nice piece of property across the road from his house to build our first church. And from that humble and difficult beginning we have spread out over all of Congo and established 164 churches and missions. Each church has her own local pastor and leaders. We just concluded our annual conference, the theme was, "Think what we can do together!" All the pastors left with the challenge to think about all the things we can accomplish together to advance the work of Christ. A famous quote by William Carey, Baptist Missionary to India, applies well to the work in Congo, "The future is as bright as the promises of God".
Thanks for all your support and prayers for the work here in the heart of Africa.
Working together for Him,
Elmer L. Deal
(The drums of Africa will always beat in my heart)
July 23, 2010
Patience has Proven to be the Key to Success in the Congo
A well known proverb expresses that patience overcomes everything. The world is his who has patience.
We worked and prayed twenty five years before we got our non profit association recognized here in Congo. We have prayed and waited on the Lord fifty years to send out our first Missionary. One of the churches here in Lubumbashi is following the example of the Apostle Paul. The Kabalo Avenue Baptist Church is sending out its first Missionary. Pastor Matembo Paul's son, Mack, has been called on by the Lord to step out by faith and become a Missionary like Paul and follow the example in Acts Chapter 13. The church is sending him out.
At the General Conference we set up a Missions Office with a Missions Director, Secretary and Treasurer to be a service center to send out Missionaries. We are praying that more young people will obey God and go out to preach the Word of God like Paul did on his Missionary Journeys. Missionary Mack Matembo is very qualified and passed all the tests. He spent four years attending the Baptist Bible College in Zambia and received his BA Degree from the Louisiana Baptist University. He has finished three years internship in a church here in Lubumbashi. So we are expecting great things to happen in the future ministry of our Missionary sent out by the churches here in Congo.
Thank you for your prayers for the Missionary Ministry of the Congo Baptist Bible Fellowship and all the churches working together to advance the Lord's work here in the dark continent and other places around the world as the Lord leads.
Together In His Great Service,
Elmer L. Deal
(Mark 16:15)