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Dear C4C Partners,


Yes!  2020 is behind us and we at C4C want to offer our public praises and thanksgiving to God for sending it to us.   It has strengthened our trust in Him and increased our love for our dear Lord Jesus.  It has proven…yet again….that God is always very near His children in times of trial.  He has comforted us while the world conspired to bring us maximum anxiety!  He has provided for us while the world sought to bring thoroughgoing need and want.  And…  He brought us peace and even joy in a world that has trafficked in panic, fear and deception.    

We pray that you too have seen how much God has loved you this passing year.  May your love increase all the more as you experience His in times of trial.  We can all …

Philippians 4:4-7   4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!  5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.  6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

God has used many of you to help take care of His children in Congo.  As a mission we have found ourselves doing a lot more relief work than we ever planned to do.  Our primary vision has always been church planting and discipleship,  but the circumstances of our world have required some short-term adjustments.  Didier wrote the following last week, when I asked him how many people he is trying to feed and care for there:

“Dearest Pastor, in total we count about 450 people from our 4 churches. If I say I feed all of them I will not tell the truth. Apart from the ones on your monthly support list all our members are jobless. Now we have 7 women trying so very hard to do business and we help them if their business is falling.  For the people living in the mission station we prepare one meal every day for each of them. We give them food to others when we have some stock in the guest house. If it is gone we promise to give them some the next time. I am very good in that. I always have a very good smile. Sometimes I give them few Congolese Franc (money ). It can be 3 or 4 $ if I have it.”   -Didier

With your gifts Compassion for Congo is able to pay a modest salary to our four pastors , our care givers, cooks and laundry helpers every month, but none of the other  450 church folk have jobs.   This is not a rural setting so they cannot raise food or hunt.  It is a third world city where most food has to be imported and then purchased.  We have been able to help our poverty stricken brothers and sisters with food and shelter because of your prayers and gifts.  Again…this is not the vision or long term purpose of Compassion for Congo, but like the Apostle Paul we are seeking to feed the hungry while preaching the gospel in a troubled world.
 

In spite of the hardships in Congo, God helped C4C plant a fourth church this year.   Throughout 2020 the work has taken shape.  Pastor Stephan and his family are shepherding this congregation.

They rented a small house and set up a shelter on the side to meet.  A tin roof with some plastic on one side is the entire church.   It is the rainy season now and everyone is soaked by the time church is over…and yet they gather every Sunday to worship.

A believing neighbor took pity when he saw his brothers and sisters meeting this way and donated a small portion of his own land for Church Four to build something on.   That building is in process of being built as I write.  God put it on the heart of one of His churches in North America to help finish that building.  When it is finished we will have four permanent structures in Congo.   It is still our vision to build one church in each of the seven sections of Lubumbashi. 

Church Three was built several years ago on a property we purchased with a small house for Pastor Micky and his family.  The church building is only a few years old,  but the house is very rundown.  This is what Didier wrote last week when I asked him about it:
“I think you are talking about church 3 in your last question. It has a house on the property and the roof needs replacement. Pastor Micky and his family live there. Now we are during the rainy season. They have lots of water, but cannot sleep while it is raining at night.”  Didier   

It is our desire to repair that home and to also put a well on that church property.  You can see the hand dug well  in the photo.  It dries up every year during the dry season when they need it most.   Hand dug wells are sources of typhoid and other diseases and it usually looks like the picture below.   It would be good to get a proper well for the Pastor’s family, the church family and to share with the immediate community like we do at the main mission station. 

At the beginning of 2020 we were not even able to pay our Pastors and feed the kids.  There were times we were tempted to fear, but God has shown us He is faithful to care for His own children.  There has been an outpouring of God’s love and provision for His people in Congo.  Many of you have told me that you have personally experienced similar provisions from the Lord.  God has used this past year to teach us all to pray more earnestly and with expectation rather than fear.  This is a good thing! 

2 Timothy 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

·  Please give God the glory He deserves.  He has cared abundantly for His children during this time of unprecedented need. 

·  Please pray for continued protection from the many health dangers in Congo. 

·  Please pray for God to give peace to His children worldwide.   He is the ruler of creation and evil is not out marching of control across the globe no matter what Satan wishes you to think.   

·  Pray that God will continue to impress mankind with the temporal and fragile nature of human life and open their eyes and hearts to Eternal Life through Christ alone.

·  Pray for God to restrain evil and leave doors open for the preaching of Christ and His Gospel.  

·  Pray for your own Pastors, Elders and Churches.  They too are experiencing great spiritual opposition.

 

 
If you want to send messages to Didier I will forward them. 

If you want to give to any of these needs you can go to our website at www.compassionforcongo.org and press the “donate” button.  That will take you to PayPal.

If you want to send checks make them out to “Community Bible Church” with C4C or Congo in the memo.  Every penny will go to Congo. 


FINALLY:  Do not be overcome with fear dear ones!  We are in an extraordinary time of unleashed evil,  but you can be sure that God has His purposes for it. 

Proverbs 16:3-4   3 Commit your works to the LORD And your plans will be established.  4 The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil.

May Christ give you His Peace and Joy…He is coming again!


Pastor Paul Anthes
christalone@cbcplacerville.org

Psalm 115:1-3  Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.  2 Why should the nations say, "Where, now, is their God?"  3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

Daniel 4:35 "All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What have You done?'

Habakkuk 2:19-20  19 "Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, 'Awake!' To a mute stone, 'Arise!' And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, And there is no breath at all inside it.  20 "But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him."