Dear friends,

Thank you so much for your support in prayer! As you’ll see, they worked wonders and we are so thankful for you and God’s tender loving care and concern for every detail of our lives.

The children were so happy to go back to school this September, wearing the brand-new uniforms our tailoring school had manufactured for them.

A new class has also opened for the 3^rd year of middle school.  

The French School of Kinshasa made another very large donation of educational books for our library, both scholastic and literature, a total of 28 cartons, or 2,089 books in French and 90 books to learn English. They are a real blessing, as even through curricular requirements are set by the Ministry of Education, very little material is available to the teachers.

New babies were born this month. We would like to make an appeal to anyone in Kinshasa who could donate baby clothes, as the supply we brought from France in April is soon running out. Mothers have nothing to dress their newborn babies, whom they will simply wrap in their “pagne” if proper clothing is not made available to them. Please pray we can find other sources to meet that need.

Thanks to your prayers, Theo managed to have the roofing materials transported to Kikimi in spite of the road blockade, some by pushcart, others by truck by night making its way through unpaved pathways. The roof of the staff housing is now well on its way to completion.

Some inspiring news from Olivier, one of our Bible teachers: You may remember our brother Maxi, who had graduated from the 12 Foundation Stones Bible Course back in 2014 and had gone to the States to study. He has now returned to the Congo. He went through a very difficult time in the United States and thanks the Lord for supporting him and bringing him back home. He decided to reintegrate and resume his participation in our youth activities. He has just enthusiastically acquired our devotional booklets. 

Maxi with devotional booklets

We are so thankful for your faithful help and prayers with makes it all possible. Special thanks to SOKIN, Mr. Mahesh, MARSAVCO, CONGO FOODS, MAFRICOM, SOFIA and the Rizwan Adatya Foundation. Thank you also to Marie-Thérèse, Yvan & Renate who faithfully help support the education of some of the students. A big hand to Steven Leuthold Family Foundation, We Lift Up, and FCF, and to all those who preferred to remain anonymous.  

Purpose of Prayer

« The purpose of prayer is not to convince some heartless god to have compassion on us and change the events of our lives. The purpose of prayer is to open and change our hearts so that we might see more clearly the direction we must go.

Seeing the direction, prayer gives us the courage and strength to do what we can. We pray in order not to bend God’s will to our own, but to place our will in the hands of God. »

Sr. Ruth M. Fox, OSB, LIVING FAITH