English
Korean
Spanish
I came to the United States in 2007. I was born in Congo and raised a family in that country. Throughout my life our country fought civil and tribal wars. We would take a break, a year, two years, and the war would start again. That’s my life.
I remember our village being attacked when I was a little boy. When I grew up and married and had my own family, we moved from our region, South Kivu in eastern Congo, to southern Congo, which is called Katanga. We lived there from 1983 until our people were attacked by the government in 1998 because they said we were Rwandese and not Congolese. Our tribe had moved from Rwanda in 1875, and now they said we could no longer live in Congo.
In 2004, we had to move to Burundi and lived in a United Nations refugee camp. Just two months later, rebels from Congo, along with those in Burundi, joined together to attack our transit camp because of our tribal identity [Tutsi]. In one hour, that attack killed 164 people in the camp, though my family was safe. From 2005 until 2007, we went through the process of gaining refugee status in the U.S.
My family was Christian, and my father was a deacon in our church. He was most influential in leading me to follow Jesus when I was 15. By the time I came to the U.S., I was a deacon as well. I was welcomed in an American church here. I couldn’t speak any English, so we had an interpreter for three years, using headphones to understand the sermons.
Within those three years many families from my part of Africa had arrived, and they were also listening to an interpreter at church. That’s when I felt I should do something to help these people, something so that everyone who was coming can fit in and can feel welcome and understand everything. From there, I talked to our pastor and said, “I feel a calling to do something so I can help these new people,” and he was OK with that. In 2010, we started meeting in my house. We started with 25 people that day. Thank God, right now we have about 250 people in the church [El Shaddai Rise Church, Austin].
But those first years were very hard. For the first 11 years of our church I was a volunteer pastor, driving for rideshare services and helping in nursing homes. And 100% of our church members were refugees, so they weren’t able to support the expenses of a church. Since I was the one who got here before them, I helped them with knowing how to buy a car, drive a car, find a job, and then to sometimes give them rides to their jobs. This was in addition to doing church stuff. Now we still have people coming into our church who are new to this country, but we also have a lot of people who are able to help them with their needs.
I am blessed with a wife, Antoinette, eight grown children, and 18 grandchildren. They are my right hands in the church. I have a son who is in charge of playing piano in the church, and my family does all the instruments and sound system. I have another two who are teaching Sunday school and two others who work the cameras. My daughter is the one leading the worship. It is a great blessing to have my family helping with our church.
Our church has multiplied as well. In 2018, I had a connection back in Nairobi, Kenya, and we were able to start another church there. Earlier this summer, in June, I went to visit that church and to evangelize in East Nairobi, East Kenya, which is at the border with Tanzania, in a community called Maasai. The Maasai are still really behind in [having opportunities to hear] the gospel, so when I was there, I sent people from the church in Nairobi. They went there twice to evangelize, and when I was there, we went there and started two churches in two areas. The church we started in Kenya has now started two additional churches among the Maasai.
I know how God is so, so powerful to make you strong in circumstances like I’ve faced. What I just told you about our tribe, the situation that we’ve been in since I was born until now, it’s a generation, but we are strong in God and God keeps making us strong. Our community, wherever we are, we serve the Lord, even if we just grow in that situation.
Want to share a story of what God is doing in your life or your church?
