First Sabbath Offering for North Kivu, DRC

North Kivu is a province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), located in central Africa. Situated as it is on the eastern end of the DRC, North Kivu borders with the Republics of Rwanda and Uganda, and as such, is associated with the SDARM Rwanda Union Mission.

In 2006, brethren from Rwanda came to North Kivu where they distributed pamphlets and gave Bible studies with excellent results.

A year later, a group of 156 souls joyfully united with the church through baptism. Currently there are 750 baptized members. The work continues to grow steadily in this region.

Sadly, among those who joined were 14 teachers from other denominations who had been disfellowshipped from their church for their faith and automatically lost their jobs. They’ve been at home, surviving by planting just enough to feed their families. Our children have not been able to attend school because of the Sabbath, a problem affecting 80% of our young people.

The brethren would be able to manage in order to survive, but because of the wars going on all the time in this area, they cannot keep their home in the same place for too long. Even when the season comes to plant seeds, the brethren have fled when bands of soldiers come and take away everything grown in the soil.

In light of all this, we purchased 4 hectares of land for the brethren to do agriculture together as well as build a primary school and chapel. By God’s providence, we already have the teachers and students eager to obtain an education while still upholding His principles. We are told “to establish schools for the education and training of our children, and to urge the youth to attend these schools. In our education institutions must be teachers who fear God and keep His commandments.”—Manuscript Releases, vol. 4, p. 109. This is why we are appealing to all our brethren, sisters, and friends around the world for your kind help. We pray that God may impress your hearts so that the donations for this project may be abundant—that the Lord may be glorified and the message of salvation may be carried to all tribes, peoples, and languages.

We thank you in advance for your generous contribution toward this building project.

Your brethren from the Northern Region of Africa