Try to imagine being a child in eastern DR Congo. Your whole life you’ve lived in the shadow of violence.

Think of the horrors you might have witnessed – armed robbery, murder, sexual assault.

And what if your parents had also never known an extended time of peace, so they had no words of comfort for you?

Who could you talk to? Who could your parents go to, to get help coping with their anxiety, grief or anger? Or would they just have to bottle it up inside?

A beacon of light for broken hearts

In 2013 The Guardian reported that DR Congo was undergoing a “mental health catastrophe” due to millions of people living with the stress of near-constant conflict for decades. Today, there are still only a few dozen trained neuro-psychiatrists in a population of over 65 million people.

In places like Goma, where CMS mission partner Martin Gordon serves as bishop, there are only a handful of mental health professionals for millions of people.

Suicide, addiction and domestic abuse are rampant in a population which has  known only violence for so long.

Enter the church.

Bishop Martin shares that local Christians are at the forefront of recognising the need for psychological and spiritual care if the cycle of violence is ever going to be broken in DRC. He also shares some glimmers of hope gleaned in the past year since the latest outbreak of violence.

On the ground in Goma

An update from Bishop Martin Gordon

The east of Congo has known conflict for nearly 35 years, and we’re still under occupation since the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group seized the city in January 2025. They had been taking over ever greater swathes of land around Goma for almost three years prior to the invasion.

The immediate aftermath of the occupation saw 8,500 deaths, a peak in sexual violence, arbitrary arrests, public beatings and executions, kidnappings and raids on hospitals. We count the number of internally displaced people and the number of children out of school in the hundreds of thousands.

Today, although the banks, the airport, the prison and the courts remain closed, there is now more of a sense of calm. But it is an uneasy calm. Violence can flare up at any moment.

Seeking solace in church

But for us as a diocese there has been some encouragement. The Church is still seen as the one remaining institution that can be trusted and in DRC there’s always a church at the heart of every village and community. 

After Goma fell to the rebels, we saw an increased attendance in several of our parishes. Those who don’t usually come to church came asking for prayer, and those on the fringes started coming more regularly. There is a spiritual hunger.

In the weeks following the fall of the city, through the generosity of Anglicans across the world, we were able to distribute emergency cash to 60 of our clergy, 50 diocesan staff and over 200 school teachers whose salaries were not able to be paid by the central government. And we were able to rebuild or repair eight out of our 109 schools ahead of the start of the academic year. So almost 3,000 pupils can study in better conditions than before.

Thousands turning to Jesus

And in the sadness, in the pain, in the suffering, there are some real signs of hope. Because most of the diocese is under M23 control, it means getting around is easier. We’ve been able to visit parishes that have been inaccessible for the last three years to see how they’re doing and to encourage them. Land purchase and construction are less heavily policed and in the last year we’ve been able to build 16 churches and have bought 22 plots of land for church planting.

In summer 2025, we were able to hold large scale evangelism campaigns in four of our secondary schools in the city, where over 6,000 children heard the gospel and a thousand came to faith and our school chaplains are now busy following them up.

We’re seeing particular fruit in Walikale which is our archdeaconry in the forest, two days away from Goma by motorbike. Here, God has given us an open door for the gospel. We’ve been busy training church leaders, buying land, building schools and a guest house, and planting churches.

Since 2024, the church in Walikale has gone from a handful of struggling groups of believers to 17 churches, each with their own land and church building. Nineteen leaders have already finished two or three years of theological training or are in the process of being trained.

We’ve heard some exciting stories of the power of God breaking into people’s lives through monthly evangelism campaigns in Walikale.

From hate to hope

The bigger picture for us as a diocese and part of our day-to-day calling as a church is to pursue peace and reconciliation in the midst of conflict. For four years, we’ve been working with all faith leaders across the city, issuing joint media statements to change the narrative of hate and suspicion, doing weekly radio broadcasts to millions of people, and organising inter-community cultural and sporting events.

At the heart of our peace work is training religious and community leaders in self transformation. Teaching them to find peace with God and with themselves and then being sent as peacemakers to bring peace and reconciliation to their families, churches, and communities.

Joining hands for peace

After one such peace training focusing on youth, leaders from four different ethnic groups, usually at each other’s throats, took to the stage, joined hands, and gave a public commitment that from now on they would work together to bring healing to the community.

Photo: schoolchildren form an enthusiastic crowd at an evangelism campaign

Mental health mission

Increasingly within this area of self-transformation, we’re focusing on trauma healing for pastors and for leaders. This latest conflict is just another layer on top of previous trauma. We believe that the pastors are much better able to help their own congregations if they themselves have experienced de-traumatisation or found some measure of healing from past trauma.

To date we have trained around 300 young people, women, pastors and evangelists to be able to offer support for others who are traumatised.

Adopted into the family!

I’ll end with a story of healing and reconciliation that has profoundly moved many of us.

Canon John, the Archdeacon of Goma, retired in 2025 after 49 years of ministry and 50 years of marriage.

The first 10 years of marriage were hard as his wife Providence fell ill and they couldn’t have children. Eventually, they did have two children, although they’d always wanted more.

Earlier this year, Canon John was with Mama Providence in a trauma healing seminar. There was another participant called Ansh who gave her testimony around the trauma of never knowing her father.

She was now in her 30s. She had six children, but she spoke of how she missed the father she’d never known. She also told of how her husband had abandoned her. Her tailoring business had been looted in the fighting.

Everyone sympathised with her situation. But Canon John did something different. Touched by her story, he had a whispered conversation with his wife. They approached Ansh to say that they’d always longed for more children and would love to adopt her as their own adult daughter. Ansh readily agreed and immediately took their family name and started calling them mom and dad. Their only son Samuel who was at seminar came forward publicly to embrace and welcome Ansh into the family.

You can imagine the reaction of the other participants. Canon John came to my office the following week to tell me that everyone in the community knew that they now had a new daughter and earlier this year she brought two of her children to the cathedral to be baptised.

Holding on to hope

I want to end simply by thanking you all for your prayers, your interest and your support. Times are still incredibly hard in Goma.

The recent invasion adds one more layer of trauma to more than 30 years of conflict.

And many still struggle to make ends meet.

But amid the suffering, we can testify daily to the faithfulness of God, and we continue to put our trust in him, knowing that he sees our suffering and is always at work.

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In late January 2025, M23 rebels took over the city of Goma, bringing death, destruction and hardship. But amid the suffering, the church has brought healing and is growing.

On the first anniversary of the invasion by Rwandan-backed M23 rebels into Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC], Bishop Martin Gordon, the UK-born Anglican bishop of Goma, has spoken of the Christian awakening that has swept across his diocese, resulting in thousands of people putting their trust and hope in Jesus.

The invasion in late January 2025 left more than 3,000 people dead and another 700,000 displaced and also led to a spate of summary executions, a spike in sexual violence and kidnappings, and the closure of the banks, courts and airport. However, as Bishop Martin explains, God has been at work, often quietly but sometimes noisily, in and through the Church. He says, “There were parishes that we been unable to reach for three years, but this year we’ve been able to visit and encourage the people that they are not forgotten.”

He continued: “The suffering in Goma seems to have captured the attention of many in the Church globally, and we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of churches and individuals. As a result, when the situation was at its toughest, we were able to give a cash gift to each of our staff and clergy and even our teachers who hadn’t been paid for six months because of the closure of the banks. And again, at Christmas we blessed 200 families with a gift of a chicken and a sack of rice to celebrate.”

Bishop Martin went on to explain that not only were the churches a source of peace and practical succour but there was also a spiritual hunger emerging. He explained, “The Church is the one institution that is still trusted in DRC. It is at the heart of every village and community. When war came, people looked to the churches for every kind of help, as well as for hope. They were used as shelters, as distribution centres and we saw an increased attendance in many of our parishes that were not displaced. Those who didn’t usually attend started coming for prayer. Those who were more sporadic started attending more regularly.

“We’ve seen people hungrier than ever for the basic truths of the Christian faith and as I’ve been doing the rounds of the churches in the Archdeaconry of Goma, we are seeing a greater number of candidates for baptism and confirmation. And the church attendance figures show that the archdeaconry had doubled in size numerically in 2025, with 250 being confirmed in October and November. In our summer missions in secondary schools, over 6,000 children gathered to hear about Jesus and more than 1,000 put their trust in him.”

In Kibumba, a town in the territory of Nyiragongo just north of Goma, the diocese had long fostered plans to plant a church but were thwarted by the fact the town lay on the frontline between the M23 factions and government forces.

Bishop Martin explained what happened next: “We already had a school there, which struggled to function, but recent events have meant that getting around is actually easier. So, we bought a plot of land in October. Then in December, within the space of a 10 days we appointed an evangelist, built a 12m x 8m wooden church with the generosity of a UK parish, and held a two-day evangelism campaign which was attended by over four thousand people, with nearly 900 became Christians.

“Now there is the small matter of follow-up, but the following Sunday the church was full, and they had to borrow chairs from the neighbour to give everyone a seat. This is a Kinyarwanda speaking area and we have just finished translating the catechism into the local language which will help disciple these new believers.”

In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, Bishop Martin helped to launch the Goma Call for Peace, a nearly 500,000 strong global petition, supported by the Anglican Communion, that helped to raise the plight of the Congolese and call on the international community to intervene.

Bishop Martin concluded, “Times are incredibly hard in Goma right now. The 2025 invasion adds one more layer of trauma to more than 30 years of conflict. And many still struggle to make ends meet. But amidst the suffering, we testify daily to God’s faithfulness, and we continue to put our trust in him, as the one who will ultimately bring about peace.”

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“I saw soldiers shooting…I saw bombs falling…and dead bodies and wounded people in our streets. I had nightmares every night. I did not know why.”

“I lost my dad. He was killed during the war. The bomb fell on our home. I didn’t want to live. I don’t play because I have lost so much joy in this world….”

The words above are from two boys in Goma, DR Congo, both age 16. For their whole lives they have known near constant instability and bursts of violent conflict, the most recent of which unfolded in late January 2025 in the lead up to M23 rebels taking over the city.

Emergency efforts

Yet, thanks to the generosity of CMS supporters and the remarkable efforts of CMS-Africa and other key partners, these two boys, along with more than 150 other children, have begun to receive the trauma support they need to cope with terrible things they have endured in their young lives.

Altogether, thanks to everyone who responded to CMS’s emergency appeal for Goma, more than 10,000 people in Goma have received emergency assistance in the aftermath of the recent crisis. This came in the form of financial help, food and hygiene supplies and trauma counselling for people experiencing psychological distress.

Currently, in an area where more than two million people live and have experienced immense violence, there are only a handful of mental health professionals, so often people suffer their struggles alone, with many turning to substances, suicide or violence themselves. CMS-Africa has partnered with local mental health charity Kivu Care and the Anglican Diocese of Goma (led by mission partner Bishop Martin Gordon) to multiply the number of people who can provide trauma support.

This is making a difference. One boy, age 15 said, “I learned about forgiveness. When we don’t forgive, we carry the person who hurts us everywhere we go.” Another said, “I liked how Kivu Care people listened to me.”

Faithful witnesses

In a time of crisis, Christians have played a vital role in caring for their community, physically and spiritually. As our partner CIMR (Centre for Intercultural Missions and Research) aided in emergency relief distribution they also shared words of comfort from the Bible, such as Psalm 46:2, which says, “God is our strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.”

The situation in Goma remains critical, with a rise in gender-based violence, electricity and water shortages and insufficient medical care available. CMS partners will continue to focus on helping people and communities to rebuild their livelihoods and strengthen their resilience for the long-term.

Karobia Njogu of CMS-Africa commented, “Despite the ongoing challenges, this initiative demonstrated the power of coordinated faith-based humanitarian action. The efforts generated relief but also laid a foundation for the restoration of dignity, healing and community rebuilding in a city shattered by violence.”

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In January 2025, following a period of intense fighting, M23 rebels took over the city of Goma, DR Congo.

During the violent conflict, millions of people were displaced, thousands were killed or seriously injured and homes and livelihoods were destroyed. Those caught in the crossfire were left fearful, traumatised, weary and crying out for peace after yet another breakout of brutality.

The wider world and the media lost interest in the crisis in Goma pretty quickly – but CMS supporters rallied and responded with prayerful generosity. Thank you.

So, what’s been done, what is the situation like now and what does the future hold? Let’s take a look.

Rapid relief, hundreds helped

In the aftermath of the violence in Goma, CMS partners were able to provide rapid assistance to more than 700 people, enabling them to get basic necessities like food, water and medicine.

In addition to this, our partners brought comfort and counselling to people who had witnessed the slaughter of their loved ones, and who needed someone to talk to begin working through their grief.

And with increased numbers of people looking to the church for help and hope, pastors received resources and support to cope with the demand, and to begin discipling newcomers to their churches.

Life on the edge

The situation in eastern DRC remains critical, as people work to recover and rebuild. The rebels in charge ordered all displaced persons to return home – but many have no homes to return to. There are reports of hospital raids, mob violence, sexual assaults and an atmosphere of fear and exhaustion.

Commitment to Congo

The people of DRC have suffered the effects of violent conflict for 25 years. It’s a longstanding struggle that requires long-term commitment to bringing about change.

CMS is committed to seeing long-term transformation in DRC and other countries where armed conflict has wreaked havoc for far too long.

Against a backdrop of destruction, we are steadfastly dedicated to raising up disciples – people who will show what it means to live in the way of Jesus. To promote love instead of hate and peace instead of war. Strengthening church leaders, helping people – especially children – work through layers of trauma and empowering people to break cycles of poverty and violence are all pieces of the puzzle.

Only Jesus can bring about the kind of change we want to see in DRC and beyond. So, let’s keep going with Jesus, with each other, to the edges.

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Find out more about the stories mentioned in this month’s Hope from the Edges:

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Video transcript

Hello. And welcome to Hope from the Edges. I’m Andy Roberts, mission director for CMS.

In the next few minutes, we’ll bring you inspiring news from three edges in our world, stories you are making possible through your gifts and prayers.

Our first stop is in the Middle East, where a courageous woman has chosen to follow Jesus despite huge risks.

Then we go to the DR Congo to hear how hundreds of baptisms have taken place in areas of violent conflict.

Finally, we spend some time in a community shed in Cumbria where a group of people have begun meeting regularly for cuppas, conversation and carpentry. And for some, faith has been built too.

We begin in the Middle East with the story of Mariam, whose name has been changed for security reasons. But I need to tell you that some parts of Mariam’s story might be upsetting to some viewers.

Mariam grew up in Syria, in a strictly observant Muslim household. Mariam’s Mother removed her from school at age 15 because she disapproved of the fact that her daughter had Christian friends.

Hoping to escape the confines of her home life, Mariam agreed to get married, but her husband was abusive and Mariam had even less freedom than before.

When the civil war in Syria began, Mariam, her husband and their children became refugees in Lebanon. A neighbour noticed the family circumstances and told Mariam about a place she could go to for help. That place turned out to be a church.

In addition to providing practical help with food and other basic necessities, the church members also prayed for Mariam and gave her a Bible.

But her husband forbade her from reading the Bible, saying it was full of lies. Yet Mariam found the Bible irresistible.

As she read it in secret, she felt God speaking to her. And one day she prayed and decided to follow Jesus.

When Mariam’s husband found out about her new faith, he became violent and told her she needed to choose between Jesus and her family.

He took the children with him back to Syria. And this broke Mariam’s heart. Still, Mariam refused to give up on her faith. She prayed and asked Jesus to help her carry this burden.

Mariam started serving with her church, and she connected with a CMS partner who trained her and equipped her to follow her calling into mission.

Today, Mariam helps disciple children and young people, and she leads a thriving ministry among dozens of Kurdish women who meet together in house churches.

Not long ago, Mariam was also miraculously reunited with her daughter.

You can read more about this amazing turn of events on the CMS website. Mariam’s story is a moving reminder that Jesus never gives up. Neither should we.

Now, let’s go to the DR Congo, where CMS mission partner Martin Gordon, bishop of Goma, has reported on remarkable things happening in two key areas: Masisi and Walikale.

We’ll begin in Masisi, which has been on the frontline of the conflict between the Congolese government and the Rwandan backed M23 rebels for the last three years.

Despite the intense suffering this conflict has wrought, Bishop Martin reports that months ago, 93 new followers of Jesus were baptised and 60 more were baptised on Christmas Day.

This took place in Musangati, where the church has got so full services need to take place outside.

The other area is Walikale, which is located so far deep into the Congo forest that it can take three days to get there. The archdeaconry hadn’t had a visit from a bishop in 30 years until Bishop Martin decided to go last summer.

The remoteness of Walikale means that it’s still considered pioneering territory for the gospel.

The main purpose of Bishop Martin’s visit was for a week of teaching on growing healthy churches, and to share Jesus.

At the end of the week, over 500 people had given their lives to Christ, more than 100 had been baptised and 200 confirmed.

At the closing service, Bishop Martin and colleagues commissioned 98 evangelists and nine church leaders.

Since that summer visit, God has been powerfully at work. Many people are turning to Jesus, including village chiefs and former witchdoctors.

Last, but certainly not least, we know Christmas seems like ages ago but we wanted to show you some of the fantastic handmade items crafted by people who are part of the Community Shed in Carlisle.

CMS mission partner Garry Ion serves at the Community Shed and tells us that about 30 men and women are now regularly joining in for carpentry workshops as well as conversation and pastoral care.

Many of the people who come to the shed have struggled with addiction or mental health issues.

The shed is a safe space to meet new friends, ask questions about faith, and study the Bible together for those who want to.

Over time, Garry says he’s seen people trust in Jesus and grow in faith, thanks to this community.

Over the winter, there is also Community Space in the evenings. This a warm space adjoining the shed, where people come for a more in-depth chat, cuppa and access to indoor games including table tennis, pool and darts.

Let’s give thanks for Garry and others from Carlisle Diocese who have developed this space where people who might not feel comfortable in traditional church, are finding friendship and faith.

Thank you for joining me for these stories from the edges and for your prayerful support, which makes them possible.

Please share this video with your church, small group, or anyone you think could use some fuel for their faith.

So until next time,

We are so grateful for your gifts and prayers as together we go:

With Jesus
With each other
to the edges

ENDS

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The post Hope from the Edges February 2025 appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

As fighting continues between M23 rebels and Congolese forces in Goma, DR Congo, the bishop of Goma, CMS mission partner Martin Gordon, is calling on Christians worldwide to pray for “a miracle of peace” for a nation weary of violent conflict.

21 March 2025

“We still need your prayers,” writes partner Bisoke Balikenga, who runs a peace centre in Bunia. Bisoke shares that tribalism and division is creeping into churches and that the ongoing conflict and suffering is causing many people to lose their faith. Pray for people to put their hope in God and not to give up.

13 March 2025

Please keep praying for peace and stability in Goma and for all CMS partners serving in Goma. There are reports of growing insecurity on the streets and 4.6 million people in the region have now been displaced. Pray for God to position his people strategically to help those in need and pray for peace to come in Goma and the country as a whole.

6 March 2025

The most recent RDC [Congolese] government estimates are that 8,500 died in the recent battle to take Goma. Since then, the conflict has spread to Bukavu on the south of Lake Kivu as the M23 rebels continue their advance. 330,000 additional children are out of school and more than 500,000 people have been displaced bringing the total in the region to 4.6 million. Our understanding is that a main concern of those living in Goma is the growing insecurity on the streets. There are widespread reports of violent attacks and retribution, with people taking the law into their own hands. Please continue to pray for peace and stability and for all of CMS’s partners serving in Goma.

27 February 2025

One of our correspondents from an Anglican parish in Goma reports: “The weapons picked up in the street by the people while the FARDC [Congolese army] were fleeing already constitute a great danger for the population of Goma. Every night we can no longer sleep because these young bandits especially those who were released from the Munzenze prison, make the population uneasy. We record new cases of theft and rape in several families every morning.” Two families from this parish were among those affected. Continue to pray for peace and good order to be established.

20 February 2025

Please continue to pray for people in DR Congo, where conflict is raging on and more people are losing their lives. In addition to Goma, rebels have now taken the town of Bukavu, leading to more people being displaced and more deaths.

Further north, in Ituri province, a different rebel group have killed more than 100 people. CMS partner Bisoke Balikenga writes that in Bunia, where he runs a peace centre, people are now living in fear as they hear rumours that Ugandan and Rwandan soldiers are coming to take their town and fight them too.

As supplies become scarcer, food prices are rising and many are struggling to afford daily essentials, let alone stockpile food in case supplies run out altogether. Pray for comfort and hope for all those suffering and living in fear, for provision of basic supplies and for peace to come to this nation.

If you would like to give to CMS’s emergency appeal for DR Congo, click here.

6 February 2025

The Goma Call for Peace was officially launched in South Africa by Mike Mpanya, a Congolese youth activist, Favor Ange Rohi, a war survivor and women, girls and children’s activist, and the bishop of Goma, Martin Gordon, a mission partner with CMS.

The Call for Peace has been backed by the archbishops of Congo and South Africa, as well as the World Council of Churches and many others. The Church of England Pensions Board is leading investors in joining the Call, recognising the importance of eastern DRC’s mineral wealth in the struggle for control of the region.

You can show your support for peace in three ways:

1. Support the Goma Call for Peace by adding your name to the petition at Change.org.
2. Encourage your family, friends and colleagues to support the Goma Call for Peace using #GomaCallForPeace on social media. It’s simple: just forward the Change.org petition.
3. Email or write to your president or prime minister asking them to support the Goma Call for Peace.

Find out more at https://gomacallforpeace.org

29 January 2025

Bishop Martin is seeking to use his position to advocate for the people of DRC. He has issued the Goma Call for Peace through the Anglican Communion News Service.

“The immediate and decisive response of the international community is what we are hoping for, as well as a call for the global church to pray,” Bishop Martin told CMS.

28 January 2025

On Tuesday 28 January, Bishop Martin reported: “The city of Goma still has almost no power and many areas no water. The M23 is pushing to take control of the city. The FARDC [Congolese army] are holding out and pushing back particularly around the airport and other areas. Civilians are being caught in the crossfire. Four thousand prisoners have escaped. Most people are terrified in their homes.”

Bishop Martin is part of a group of people within CMS whose mission focus is making disciples of Jesus in areas where armed conflict has been a continual challenge, including DR Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.

“Please pray for the role of the Church in pastoral care, peace-making and reconciliation,” he said.

Further prayer points from Bishop Martin:

• “For an immediate cessation of fighting and respect of the existing ceasefire agreement
• For protection of the population
• For a rapid humanitarian response – to re-establish water and power, for food, medical care
• For the withdrawal of the Rwandan forces from DRC soil
• For the courageous intervention of the international community
• For the resumption of honest dialogue to find a lasting solution
• For a miracle of peace”

For more about Bishop Martin’s work, sign up to receive Hope from the Edges; the upcoming February edition features him sharing about recent developments in DRC before this current situation gripped Goma.

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The post Urgent: pray for peace in Goma appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

Rt Rev Martin Gordon, the bishop of Goma in DR Congo, says many people are choosing to follow Jesus in the midst of conflict.

MIDNIGHT MASS on the BBC

Martin Gordon preached at this year’s traditional Christmas Eve service broadcast live on BBC One.

You can watch it now on iPlayer.

by Martin Gordon

If there’s one archdeaconry that has suffered in recent years it is Nyamitaba. This is one half of the huge territory of Masisi that has been on the frontline of the conflict between the government and the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels for the last three years.

There have been times that the archdeacon, Venerable Nzamwita, has had to take shelter in the other archdeacon’s house in a safer part of the territory.

And each of the five clergy in his archdeaconry has had to flee their homes at one point, and many believers have been forced to hide in the forest and wait for the all-clear.

There have been other times when Ven Nzamwita has had to pay $80 to get to Goma instead of the usual $10. And this because the usual road which takes two hours by motorbike is blocked by rebels. And so, he needs to take a longer road and then cross the lake, paying danger money to motorbike drivers and a little something every time he comes across one of the ever-increasing number of road barriers.

But at the end of 2024 he came to give us such an encouraging annual report. He has managed to finish building the archdeacon’s house (only the ceiling remaining). They have put the roof on one of the churches, in Ngendambuye. And in Musangati parish they have focused on sharing the good news of the gospel which resulted in the baptism of 93 new believers not long ago. 

Pictured above are some of the new believers in Musangati, where the church is so full that the services need to take place outside. We were able to agree to buy a 20x25m plot of land next to the existing church for $1,000 where the believers will now enlarge the current church building. Over 60 more baptisms are planned in the archdeaconry on Christmas day.

Another great encouragement was that I recently had the joy of ordaining five clergy. Among them Rev Mukulu who leads our theology college, Rev Innocent, our main travelling evangelist to Walikale, Rev Barnabas, the leader of our main parish in Walikale, and Rev Nkingi, the leader of one of our churches in the camps.

We are seeing a real transformation in the students who are trained in our theological colleges. They have a greater sense of call to ministry. They take godly character seriously. And they have increasing competence in theology and ministry. The cathedral was packed for the service and the music and dancing was wilder than usual! 

Pray together

• Pray for all being baptised and the spread of the Gospel in the Archdeaconry of Nyamitaba
• For those newly ordained pastors and also for those who recently retired

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Three days into the forest from Goma in south east DRC, is Walikale. Recently mission partner Martin Gordon became the first bishop to visit in 30 years. He was stunned at what he found.

by Rt Rev Martin Gordon, Bishop of Goma

A few weeks ago, we took a trip which was undoubtedly one of the highlights of my time leading the Diocese of Goma. I took a team of diocesan heads of department and Kenyan evangelists from Anglican Missions in Africa to visit our missionary archdeaconry of Walikale, in the forest north west of Goma. This is the first time a bishop has visited in the 30 years since the first church was opened in there in 1994. 

It is the only other archdeaconry outside of Goma it is safe to visit for now. It has a population of 700,000 but is the same size as Belgium and covers half of the diocese. To get there we needed to take a boat across lake Kivu and then fly over the forest to land in an airstrip belonging to a tin mine. Going by motorbike is possible but can take up to three days. The only clergy there is the archdeacon, who retired during our visit.

A snapshot of Walikale

Education is poor and boys leave school early to search for their fortune in the plethora of tin, gold and diamond mines. Apart from one industrial tin mine, they are small-scale, artisanal mines and working conditions are poor. In the towns and villages men are in a minority for much of the time, and when they return home it is rarely with any money. Minerals are everywhere and many believe that the land they own will one day make them a fortune.

Marriage and faithfulness in relationships is rare. Everywhere you go there are crowds of children and many women will have more than 10. Often girls are pregnant soon after puberty and it is not uncommon for girls to have had two or three children by the age of 16. In some families this is encouraged so that when the bride price is given, the family can also demand a fine for underaged pregnancy. Whilst in Walikale we conducted only the second and third Anglican marriages in 30 years, the first being last year. It was a significant focus of our teaching and many more are preparing church weddings in the coming year.

The visit

Other than to encourage the believers, the main purpose of our visit was for a week of teaching on growing healthy churches, and to evangelise. At the end of the week over 500 people had given their lives to Christ, more than 100 had been baptised and 200 confirmed. At the closing service we commissioned 98 evangelists and nine leaders for each of our fledgling churches. None of them are yet ordained, but we continue to prioritise Walikale in our training of men and women for ministry.

And as one local chief told us Walikale is still virgin territory for the Gospel. This was evidenced by the number who weren’t baptised, in contrast to the rest of the diocese. The population is open to Jesus and keen to hear about what he can do for them. They are asking for the Anglican Church to invest spiritually and materially in Walikale. 

With the generous support of a partner, we were able to secure sizeable land concessions and land documents for each of our churches, with possibilities for income generation in each place through agriculture, livestock or fish to help with church growth. Main photo is exploring the 2 hectares in Walikale Centre.

The future of Walikale

There is an exciting opportunity to church-plant across Walikale and to focus on education and development as part of a wholistic mission to bring lasting Gospel transformation. Land is relatively cheap for now, but once the road to Goma is built (and the money has been there in the past and mishandled) Walikale will open up, grow and develop very quickly. 

It seems as if God has opened a door for ministry in Walikale. As such it has become a mission priority for the diocese, especially as many other areas are out of bounds for the moment. Our vision is to continue with church-planting, development, training and education, with a long-term vision for Walikale to become its own diocese. 

Pray together

• for the nine newly commissioned church leaders – for encouragement and faithfulness
• for possibilities to buy more land for church-planting in strategic locations 
• for wisdom on where to build and open schools
• for discernment in choosing men and women for theological training 

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