1   Christmas Celebrations

In spite of some unrest caused by the presidential elections that took place around Christmas, four events were organized in different parts of Kinshasa to celebrate Christmas with underprivileged children. In each of these events, the children participated in fun character-building activities, such as coloring, singing, dancing and quoting memorized verses. A motivational talk was given to the children and the parents who joined them and a hot meal was served to end the celebration.

More children showed up than originally planned, and these new children signed up to take part of the weekly programs that will be organized throughout this coming year.

Fabrice Munduku–83 children were present, 49 girls and 34 boys and 12 of the mothers joined us. We prayed together, shared a Christmas message and sang along with the children, who also quoted poems and the Bible verses they had memorized in our weekly classes. They also danced for Jesus. We had united prayer and thanksgiving for those who help us. Thank you so much for making this Christmas so special for these dear children who all come from very poor families.

Reactions from a couple of mothers from Fabrice’s group:

Agnes: she has 4 children, Ruth , Kevin, Alpha and Josue, all of them attend our weekly STEPS classes. She was happily surprised to see her children perform on stage, quoting Bible verses and being so full of joy. She is so thankful to see how much this program is helping them to grow up with godly values and she decided to continue sending them to these weekly classes this coming year.

Ange: She is the mother of Tresor, an adult child who had received Youth motivational training from us. One of her younger children attends our weekly classes and she continues to encourage us to keep teaching them God’s Word and good moral godly principles.

Aristote Avali—I thank the Lord for how wonderful this Christmas celebration went. 147 children showed up. 120 had signed up, so we had prepared food for that number of children, but God multiplied it so everybody had enough. It was really wonderful. Many new children came. At first, they were attracted because of the fun and food, but after they heard the message we shared they all want to come back to attend our weekly STEPS classes to learn more about Jesus. May God bless and reward you for helping our ministry.

The mothers prepared the food ahead of time. We started our celebration indoors, but as more and more children joined us, we had to finish outside. Our prayer during this celebration was for each child to be motivated to develop a personal relationship with Jesus. We all thanked God and asked Him to bless with long life all those who sent the donations for the food, may God keep you all as you are such a blessing to us.

I, Aristote, shared how, as Jesus came down at Christmas to bring us salvation, we can each become a child of God, and how we should all celebrate Christmas*. All the children prayed to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior according to John 3 :16, and each child made the commitment to put their trust in God.

*In Congo, many protestant churches do not celebrate Christmas, stating that it is a pagan holiday as Jesus was not born on December 25.

Jacques Ndombe—Christmas is a special celebration for us Christians, because we commemorate our Lord’s birth who came to bring us peace and to save humanity from sin.

The year 2023 was marked with sadness in our STEPS Program Sunday School, as one of the children died of malaria and also one of the young people who was receiving training to become a STEPS Program teacher. We are comforted to know that they are now in Heaven with our Lord.

This year, 70 children joined us for our Christmas celebration. Initially we had planned for 50, but more wanted to come so we welcomed them, including 10 young people who have been trained to teach the STEPS Program. So in total we were 80.

The children sang Christmas carols, both from the STEPS CD and from other sources.

The Bible encourages us to dance for Jesus, so we danced and even had dancing competitions to give glory to God and show the joy He gives us.

The children quoted poems and the verses they had memorized during the year.

Filled with Christmas joy, we played several games with the children.

We ended the day by sharing a meal together. This was an important part of the program as many of these children come from very poor families, so sharing a meal with them gave them a lot of happiness.

This celebration gave the children a lot of joy, it was plain to see on their faces. Many of them come from very difficult situations, and on that day, they found a hot meal, a joyful atmosphere, new clothes to wear, and friends to play with. It was simply wonderful.

We know that these children will have a better future and will be useful to this nation and also for the world. This is the reason why we want to pursue our agricultural project to train them how to grow food and continue with the weekly character building classes and activities.

We want to say a big thank you to God for having blessed this special day, even though some children were sick and there was a lot of tension in the city because of the presidential elections.

Theo and Florence Muntumosi—We had to hold our celebration a little bit later because of the elections and the unrest in the city. So we organized a feast for the children at the beginning of the new year, during the school holidays. 120 children came, we had singing and dancing and served them a nice hot meal.

 

2   Youth Ministry: New Year Celebration

Olivier, Jacques and Cedric organized a Christmas/New Year celebration for our team of youth leaders, with singing, motivational speeches, discussion and Q/A session. Everyone shared about their accomplishments this past year and what they were most on thankful for, as well as their goals for the new year. They ended with snacks and soft drinks. Thanks to modern technology we were able to join them via google meet.

Last but not least, Cedric and his wife Delly just had a beautiful baby girl, born on the 23rd of January 2024. What a beautiful promise of hope for this New Year! Congratulations to the new parents!

 

Happy New Year to all of you and thank you for your faithful support which makes it possible to bring life and hope to so many underprivileged children!