An Historical Day

Monday, October 19, 2009, will be a first for Laban Ministries, Congo. In 1938, when Dr. and Mrs. Smith arrived here, they were well received at Kajiji, then Iwungu, and finally at Nkara, except for one village. The name of that village is Mpene, and they refused to welcome and embrace the Smiths. So was the case when we came here in 1978. One man, in particular, from that village, has fought our presence here in Congo and has exerted his evil influence on the ministry and his own village of Mpene. We have rocks thrown at us and our evangelism team has been refused admittance in the past.

An uncooperative spirit has prevailed to the point of refusing Campus Crusade--whose policy is not to go anywhere unless the local pastors unanimously invite them to come in--in the '80s. This reprobate "pastor" was in charge of the state-operated high school here on campus. His requirement for the young women to pass their exams was demanding sexual favors from them. He pocketed tuition funds and teachers' salaries and required the students who paid dorm fees, which included a feeding program, to go scrounge for food in the forest. He threatened to cut the heads off of some of our pastors and threatened to poison others with his witchcraft brews. He has ravaged women, cheated the local church, and infiltrated his hatred for us, Laban, and the gospel for decades.

His village has sent five to our Bible Institute, five to our work staff, and has been a menace to the work here at Nkara, and, in general, to this region of Congo. He was defrocked as a pastor by the national Congolese church, but still held tremendous sway through his tribe and the schools in which he continued to be involved.

He was Satan with skin on and he wreaked havoc until this year when he died. To put it in the words of the chief of Mpene, "Satan claimed his worker and now they are together."

Jean Kapinga, wife of our national director Gary Kapinga, is now president of the local women's federation. She was invited to speak to the mamas at Mpene just before we returned to Congo this time. The chief openly apologized with a contrite heart and asked for forgiveness for all the horror that this man had caused us all these years. He then invited our leaders, our evangelism team, and Jim and I to come preach in the village where they want to publicly make their regrets known and ask for forgiveness.

THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. Since 1947, this village has stood out as an enemy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, in 2007, they sent a mob here to attack Jim, destroyed much of our Bible school roof, put holes in the church roof, and claimed this must have "a little of Jim's blood." Local soldiers and police from Bulungu were driven in to protect him. He was a prisoner here in his own home for days until the village of Mpene and its sister village, Mibere, were dealt with by the local authorities. They were told that if they ever again posed a threat to Nkara or Jim, their villages would be burned to the ground. The real truth is, the troops wanted to burn the villages of Mpene and Mibere right then, but Jim said no. He remembered how devastating our home fire was to our family. If God opens the door, no man can shut it.

Please pray as we go in Jesus' victorious name. Amen.