International, Global

INT05 - Great Lakes Church Planting Movement

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Key Partnership Information:

• Partnership Ref.: INT05

• Commenced: 20/06/2012

• Funding Status: Fully Funded

• Partnership Type: Evangelism / Church Planting

• Funding Size: $15,000 - $99,999

• Annual Budget: US$ 15,180

• Connected To: INT05a , INT05b

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Current Partnership Impact:

• 3 families are being assisted

• 3 church planters are being supported

• Project restarted as Harvest Partnership NZ closed down and we took over funding Abel, Daniel and Pascal

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Other Partnership Information:

• View partnership reports (latest shows first)

• No partnership video available yet

• No funding currently required for partnership

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Partnership Overview

The Great Lakes area of Africa is a place wracked by conflict, violence, abuse and poverty. But it is also a place where the Good News of Jesus is spreading quickly through the towns and villages. There are a number of key people working in this area to promote the concept of Church Planting Movement (CPM), encouraging and training people to share their lives and the Good News in their homes and bring people together in simple small groups. 

The three main local leaders travel around the Great Lakes District training local people and assisting them to become involved in the growth of the Church Planting Movement. As well as this, they coordinate:
- the development, printing and distribution of Bible reading cards to support the Bible reading emphasis in the CPMs.

- the purchase and sale of Bibles to as many people as possible. This is very important as it’s the key group activity that is encouraged and a hallmark of the CPM.

History of Partnership

BHW initially financially supported these key people through Harvest Partnership (HP), another New Zealand based charity. However, in 2024 the founder of this organisation passed away and a decision was made by their Board to close Harvest Partnership down.

Because we were so closely associated with Harvest Partnership, have known the key leaders for many years and understand the impact of the work in this part of the world, their Board approached us about taking over the support of their key people directly and this was commenced in April 2025. 

Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries are the three main leaders of the CPM and their families. Each of them has significant challenges in ministry as they do a lot of travel, training people and churches.  

What We Like About The Partnership

The work continues to develop and new house based churches are constantly being established. We like the simplicity of the concept and the impact it has on people. People are encouraged to become Bible readers and prayers and to just take their new found faith out into their networks. This sort of grassroots concept is very transferable in this area. The house church meeting is “simple church.” In a house church habits and traditions are left behind. People enjoy discussing the Word of God. One person has the Bible reading card, 5,000 of these have been printed. People meet daily in smaller groups to pray and discuss through the daily reading. For the weekly meeting they choose one of the readings from the past week that has challenged their hearts. They don’t seek to be theology collectors and correctors but most of all long to discover truth to give them direction for living. They also pray, prayer for sickness recovery is a major item for prayer as they are poor and have little money for medicines. This applies especially to the children. 

We also like the emphasis on Bible reading which is at the heart of this work. At the first seminar held in Bukavu some years ago, it was discovered that amongst all the many attendees and potential church planters, only three had a Bible. One pastor visited his friend each Tuesday to write out by hand the Scriptures he was going to use the following week in his preaching. The head pastor’s Bible had the back cover and the final chapters missing. Another Bible in the church was cut into three pieces and different people had a piece each. During the internal conflicts the Bible Society removed itself from the area to Kinshasa about 3 weeks away by land and river transport. 

 

Key People

Abel Nzoa

In 2001 J, the first leader, and some friends returned to the Congo firstly to encourage the war devastated churches and some then planted their own churches. J, in Bukavu, chose to continue encouraging existing churches in evangelism and church planting without church buildings. Two men in Bukavu became J’s fellow teachers. The office was in one of their homes in an area of the city that regularly had no electricity. Abel Nzoa, a university student in his early 20’s, had observed the ministry and volunteered to be the local secretary of the work when he wasn’t studying. He enjoyed translating and computerising new evangelism and church planting materials. Abel found time to go to “taste” seminars and by the time it was strategic for J to move to Bujumbura, Burundi, Abel had become J’s right hand man in Bukavu. 

Under his care the number of denominations participating has grown from 12 to 16. Abel visits them to encourage and teach the leaders toward continued effectiveness. Beyond Bukavu many churches are being encouraged and new ones are planted monthly, even in rural areas dangerous because of rebel armies. Often in these areas church growth is faster with new churches being started in distant places. 

At the other end of Lake Kivu is Goma, where Abel also encourages those who have planted many new churches. The bookshop, which imports the Congo Swahili Bibles, is also in Goma. Usually it falls to Abel to make sure these are purchased and are distributed appropriately in Goma, Bukavu and Uvira, firstly to Bible-less leaders and church-planters. More recently he has been guiding Alimasi and Pascal who work in places beside Lake Tanganyika.

Abel’s responsibilities include: 
• Planning church planting seminars. 
• Pastoring the leaders of both the city and rural church groups who have planted hundreds of churches. He hears of thrills and difficulties in the work, and gives advice. 
• Planning refresher and leadership teaching seminars for church planters. 
• Visiting city and rural churches out from Bukavu and Goma. 
• Encouraging daily Bible reading and strategically distributing Bibles. 
• Translating new materials and maintaining the A E M office. 

Abel is responsible to the Africa Evangelistic Ministry Great Lakes [AEM GL] Board. He has a love for God and a vision of people coming to the Lord through active churches. He is developing more and more in his leadership. In the near future Abel will be developed further to take responsibility for the East Congo work, the vision for which reaches from Kalamie in the south to Bunia in the north.

Abel is married to Anita and they have twin girls. 

 

Pascal – Baraka, Fizi, South Kivu

Pascal is a very serious worker for God and the father of three children. In 2009 his wife left him and ran away with the local school headmaster. How could he continue God’s work and care for 3 children? No long trips. He said he would welcome his wife back but she became pregnant to the other man and refused to return. Should he divorce her? After praying and some research he discovered that he had only had a village wedding and that he was not legally married anyway. 

Recently he met a born again lady, a market seller, who is willing to marry him and look after the children so he can be available to continue the work of the Lord. Now he needs to find the bride price!

 

 

Vision And Annual Strategy

The vision is to grow this church planting movement by supporting the key trainers. In addition there are other needs related to the development of the work that the support goes towards.