Our life in Goma

We are loving being in Goma! Our guest house has been great for us for our first few weeks. We are right on Lake Kivu and have made friends with people who have a paddle board and a kayak and so we spend most weekends in the lake. We don’t have to worry about food or cleaning or washing clothes and it gives us a bit more time to find a house.

The children have started at their French-speaking school. The school is great and classes are small. It follows the Belgian curriculum, is in a beautiful location on the lake and is in only in it’s 5th year. We are thankful that each of their class teachers speaks good English, so that they weren’t totally at sea at the beginning of term. Silas has thrown himself into football. Immy is making friends with children from other years, and Zachary is taking his time to feel his way. The boys have started extra French lessons on Saturdays. Our prayer for them is that they each make at least one friend in the first few weeks.

We’ve tried out a couple of English-speaking church services with the kids, who were very disappointed that dancing wasn’t back yet due to Covid. Martin preached his first 2 Sundays in Anglican churches, with the Swahili services being 3 and 3 1/2 hours respectively. They follow the Anglican service structure both far more closely than many Anglican churches in the UK and also with much more enthusiastic responses!

Anthea started straightaway in Tearfund’s Goma office and is loving being back in an office working with real people! The Tearfund staff have been great at helping us settle by feeding us, taking us shopping, driving the kids to school and showing us the best places to hang out.

The Diocese of Goma

I have finally been able to start with the Diocese of Goma, but under very different circumstances following the death of Bishop Désiré. Archbishop Masimango is the acting bishop and he is coming to Goma in a couple of weeks when all should become a bit clearer in terms both of the election of the next bishop and my role. The Diocese as a whole is huge, with the western archdeaconry taking 2 days to reach by motorbike. My role will inevitably be focused more on the city of Goma.

I went on an eye-opening tour of 8 of the 9 parishes in the city of Goma last week. These 9 parishes (pictures here) stretch across the whole city of 2 million people, with the one I didn’t visit being 30km further north. The Diocese has a vision for growth and church-planting, with 2 or 3 of the parishes in Goma being recent-church plants. One thing I love about the Anglican Church of Congo is that every pastor starts out as an Evangelist, with the mandate to go and plant a church. Then, when there is need, the Evangelists are ordained to lead a church and will also do some more training. The more established parishes have around 200 adult members and loads of children. 

What struck me most on my tour was the faith-filled vision of the pastors and evangelists in the face of adversity. The Diocese is poor. The clergy aren’t paid. They are encouraged to get a second job – either teaching in one of the many Anglican schools, or working as school chaplains. But then 18 months ago the government stopped paying school chaplains. 

The Diocese relies on congregational offerings to build their churches and pay their clergy. In the two churches I visited on Sundays the regular offerings were $8 and $6.50. These were the ‘city’ churches. On the edges of the city where all of the church members are farmers I suspect it is less. In one of the churches, Holy Trinity, they are laying floor tiles around the altar table. More tiles get laid week by week, depending on congregational giving. It is a slow process.

Ngangi, one Anglican parish

St Marc’s, Ngangi, is in the centre of a densely populated area of town, with access along uneven roads formed by volcanic rock from the 1977 eruption of Mount Nyiragongo. Led by Revd Kishaganyi, the church’s land is about 200m x 200m with a church, a primary school and first two years of the secondary school. The primary school has 6 classrooms and 600 pupils who come for either morning and afternoon sessions. There are a few school benches and many children sit on crushed volcanic rock. The secondary school is over-subscribed and the headmaster’s office is a shed tacked on to the side of year 8’s classroom.

But there is a great vision in Ngangi to create a health centre, and move the Anglican University and Institute of Theology there and build student dormitories. At the moment it is unsecured which means it is one of the parishes prone to land seizure or to break ins and the church and the school have both, at times, had furniture stolen. In addition, in the middle of the plot there are caves where gangs can congregate at night.

When I was in the Diocesan office last Friday there was a phone call from Revd Kishaganyi and a visit from another pastor, both saying that people had come and tried to take some of the church’s land by force. This is not uncommon and is why one of the employed roles in the Diocese is a lawyer who was dispatched with the correct legal documents to try to sort out the situation. 

How can you pray?

• Give thanks with us that we have arrived, have been warmly welcomed, have somewhere great to stay and that the kids have started at school.

• For our continued settling in – for the kids at school, for relationships, for a more permanent house.

• For the church in Goma – for its leaders, for the Diocese in the time before a new bishop is appointed, and for the newer church plants and the training of evangelists.

• For the Archbishop of Congo’s visit to Goma – that he would reassure and inspire the Diocese and bring clarity to Martin’s role.

From Martin, Anthea, Silas, Zachary and Imogen