TIDBITS FROM DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - CENTRAL AFRICA
Population: 56,100,000 Publishers: 131,905 Ratio: 1 to 425 Congregations: 2,893 [2006 Yearbook]
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Traveling companions for a week, Andrea Nardini we worked together in Mozambique (1996/7) Eric Ramos from our SAF office and Francois Miakila, Kingdom Hall representative in Kisangani, NE Congo. |
Main Street in Kisangani. Once a thriving town with paved roads, street lighting and commercial with paved roads, street lighting and commercial dead as a doornail and everything is broken. |
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En-route to visit one of the Kingdom Hall Construction Groups. We use motorbikes as they can get to areas Landcruisers cannot! |
Everyone wants to have a share with the Kingdom Hall build in the rurals, even our young ones! |
| A Kingdom Hall that is currently in use whilst the brothers await a new one. | This is the interior of the Kingdom Hall opposite. |
| The sisters bring the bricks to the site. | Our brothers then set about building the Kingdom Hall. |
| A typical Kingdom Hall built in Congo. There is room for up to 250 in the larger design, this one has room for 210. | The interior of the Kingdom Hall is very presentable. Our Kingdom Halls are by far the best buildings in the rurals. |
| Meeting with a Kingdom Hall Construction Group to give them encouragement and pass on any updates for them to incorporate into the designs. | The new open sided design that we put in the rural areas. Seating is stored in the room and put out for the meetings. Room for 150 people. |
| We cross the Congo River to get to see other groups. These pirogues are made from the trunk of just one tree! | We stop off to see the Wagenia Rapids and the unique fishing method of lowering huge basket nets into the river. |
| Nearly everywhere we go people are happy to have their picture taken. | Young entrepreneurs develop their transport business. This young lad is delivering charcoal on his hot-rod street scooter☺ |
| Getting to remote towns is only possible by air as all roads have failed. Here we make use of a LET 410. | And here we are in an Antonov 26 cargo plane with the KHCDesk overseer Brother Mukendi in the centre. |
| One group was living right next to a small pigmy village. We took time to visit and here I am in their house. |
What a cutie! |
| These guys load up their bikes with goods from Uganda and push/peddle/pull them 600 kilometers to Kisangani to sell in the markets. | Some characters are still in the bush determined to cause upset and ferment turmoil. |
| Another meeting with 2 groups in Beni, NE Congo. These brothers and sisters serve as special full-time servants and have built hundreds of Kingdom Halls throughout the DRC. | A picture of one of the many villages we visited on this trip. |
| Us with Eric & Anita Ramos (does the same work as us and will transfer to Germany in March 2006) and will transfer to Germany in March 2006) and Andrea & Daniela Nardini. (In DRC for the Kingdom Hall program for the last 5 years!). | Goodbye from us until the next time. |
Dear All,
We do hope that the above images have helped you to envisage what we have been up to for a few weeks here in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was our first visit here and it is a country with huge contrasts. There are massive rivers, huge lakes, vast forests, many rich mineral deposits (diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper and others) and millions of people! Much of the country is still bush and undeveloped. What the Belgians developed has unfortunately fallen into total disrepair.
Despite this, the Truth is really appealing to the people of the DRC. There are approximately 130,000 publishers now. In the last service year the Kingdom Hall Construction Groups managed to build a very commendable 132 Kingdom Halls. There is still much to do with over 800 more Kingdom Halls needed.
Conditions are pretty basic but we have to say how well we were cared for by the Kingdom Hall Construction Groups! We slept in fine beds and ate very well indeed. Travel in old Russian and Czech planes was quite interesting to say the least but anyway, all went well. We are both doing well physically and very much enjoying the assignment we have especially now that we see the need for Kingdom Halls in Africa is actually less than we have already built, which shows progress is being made. In Africa since November 1999 a total of approximately 6,770 Kingdom Halls have been built and we need to ‘only’ build another 3,660. However, there will always be more halls needed as more get baptized, and with one more person baptized every two minutes, we feel confident that there is still much more to do!
So, take care of yourselves, and please keep the e-mails coming as they really do encourage us and keep us in touch with your lives.
Mark & Claire Salvidge
Private mail use:
msalvidge@bethel.org.za See our pictures: www.markclaire.myphotoalbum.comPlease feel free to share the above, but only with fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses.
See 2004 Yearbook, pages 135-150, for the account of Democratic Republic of Congo's history, both secular and the history of the preaching the good news there.
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