Completed Projects
Evangelism Trip – Watsa, Kilomine, Farajde, Duruba, Wawa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
In January, 2004 Bishop Elias Taban and his 19 person evangelism team traveled south to Watsa, Kilomine, Farajde, Duruba, and Wawa, DRC. The team left Yei, Sudan on January 10 and returned on January 26. The JESUS Film was shown in the Lingala language. A total of 17,800 people indicated decisions for Christ with 5,800 decisions in Watsa, 7,000 in Kilomine, 2,500 in Duruba, 1,000 in Wawa, and 1,500 in Faradje. Approximately 70% of the new believers had been animists. The Logo, and Mulendu tribes were primarily reached during this trip.
Regarding follow-up, the new believers were handed over to the Community Evangelical Church of Congo (CECA). The team reported the biggest need in the churches is bibles. There are very few bibles in this area. The evangelism team distributed 700 bibles in the Lingala language to born again believers who could read. Approximately 70% of the bibles were given out to pastors, evangelists, and church leaders.
Our last evangelism trip to Farajde was in July, 2002. During this trip, Bishop Taban met approximately 60% of the 2,900 people who had made decisions for Christ in 2002. Bishop Taban reports that the CECA has done a very good job of following up on these new believers from 2002.
Below are two personal testimonies from this trip.
- In the DRC the practice of magic is very common. People spend nights at cemeteries in order to ask for magic power from the spirits of the dead. One magician came to one of our shows in Kilomine and used demonic power to stop the sound from the projector. Bishop Taban and his team tried everything to get the sound working. Then, Bishop Taban told the crowd that his team was going to pray and ask God for help. As they prayed they used Jesus name many times. After 5 minutes of prayer, the magician ran to the team crying. He told the team, “Men of God do not kill me. Forgive me. I stopped the sound with my magic. Every time you mention the name of Jesus in your prayers something unseen beats me. If you will stop praying and try your machine again, the sound will work. Your God has already fixed it. Please make me one of you. I am ready to follow your God.” The team prayed for the man and turned on the projector, and it worked perfectly. After the crowd witnessed these events, 2,300 people got up and came forward to be prayed over.
- In Watsa a woman came to the team in secret. She said, “My work is to kill church leaders by bewitching them till they die of sickness. I have killed 13 church leaders. But, the Jesus you are showing in your film is very powerful. Jesus is accusing me of murdering his people. I did not sleep the whole night after seeing the JESUS Film. Will Jesus really forgive me if you pray for me? I promise I will not kill any more church leaders.”
The breakdown of expenditures for this evangelism trip is as follows:
| Medicine | $10 |
| Fuel for the Truck | $250 |
| Pay for Truck Driver | $45 |
| Pay for the Evangelists (20 x $30) | $600 |
| Food and accommodations for Evangelists | $1,500 |
| DRC Permits | $200 |
| 700 Lingala language Bibles | $3,500 |
| TOTAL | $6,105 |
Photos from this trip:
Above - Bishop Taban stands at
the Sudan/DRC border
Below - Road signs point to
key towns in DRC
