Tracing the Beginnings of Into Africa,
Feb 2011
“In a rural church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a lay brother preached the same sermon for more than four years. He repeated the last sermon his pastor had preached before being forced by the rebels to leave. We knew we had to do something to help these lay pastors.”
As the end of the 20th century approached, the One Mission Society South Africa Board sensed an unusual burden from God. As they heard dozens of similiar stories, a deep concern for their continent came upon them. They knew they had not done enough for the extension of God’s kingdom. They identified more than 3 million political and economic refugees and immigrants that had fled to South Africa from tribal warfare in their home countries. Many of these had found Christ while in South Africa, so a plan emerged to help send these people back to their countries as missionaries.

They sought a person who shared their vision and passion to lead this project. Bruce Bennett was appointed to the position, and plans for the Into Africa Project began to develop. Soon thereafter, OMS’ evangelism and church-planting catalyst, Every Community for Christ, came alongside the South Africans, and the project was launched.

The initial goal was to be in 20 countries by 2020. The first team was sent to Burundi in April 2000. The vision for the project was to train the refugees in South Africa for one year, then to send them to their home country to lead others to Christ. They received training in theology and in various methods of evangelism and discipleship, after which they were organized into ministry teams. They were instructed to work in partnership with existing groups of churches, if possible.

In the latter part of 2001, these trained teams began to return to their various countries to extend the kingdom of God. In December 2001, a team arrived in the central part of the DRC and began to evangelize. By January 2002, they had about 15 converts. They searched for a local church to partner with, but they could not find a sound evangelical church. Freddie, their team leader, contacted Bruce Bennett and me, asking, “What shall we do?” Bruce and I both responded, “Freddie, you will have to start a new church.” When I visited with them in 2008 to speak at a leadership conference, they had more than 400 churches in their association.

Dedication of EMEC
Some Attendees at the Dedication of EMEC in DRC (Left to Right):
Randy Spacht of OMS in the US, Bishop Albert Budiaki of Canada,
Freddie and His Wife, Henriette, and Rev. Prince Lukema of London

In addition to Freddie’s team, other teams have been planting churches that have multiplied in three eastern areas of the DRC and in the northwest. Now, they have joined together to form a nationally registered association known as the Eglise Missionnaire Evangelique Au Congo (EMEC) or the Evangelical Missionary Church of the Congo. The teams have now planted more than 1,500 churches. They gathered in October 2010 for the first organizing conference and to ordain two bishops.

The last statistical report I have is for the second quarter of 2010. It reports 4,385 decisions for Christ, 2,047 baptisms, 15,196 in discipleship training and 101,311 attending services each week. For this great victory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we give God the glory. He has also done great things in 20 other countries on the African continent through the Into Africa Project … many years before our original goal of 2020. The vision He gave the One Mission Society South Africa Board is extending the kingdom in Africa.

By Harold Brown, a missionary with One Mission Society.
Reprinted with permission from OMS Outreach magazine, One Mission Society.