I have been the leader of the GSM Goma, Congo Satellite for the past 20 years. The purpose of the Satellite is a partnership involving building relationships, prayer, financial support and encouragement between, in our case, our small GSM Center in Lowell and a group in the Congo involved in the same ministry. Our focus over the years is on education. We have sponsored students at all levels.
This year 25 were sponsored including 8 college students. Individuals and couples are the main sponsors. School is back to nearly normal after the disruption of Covid which was as dramatic if not more so than here in the U.S. We are thankful for those who sponsor students as well as the faithful support we receive to help fund the ministry in general. We send $400 every other month. $100 of that amount is to help provide for orphans.
The total last year for all the yearly school fees was $11,000.
There was another volcanic eruption near Goma in May and most people fled on foot at night out of Goma - a city of 2 million people. Earthquakes followed the volcano. There was a lot of damage and some lost their lives. Thanks to some compassionate donors we were able to send money for emergency help.
A few years ago the Congolese government gave GSM a piece of land about the size of half a football field near Goma in a community called Mugunga. The vision for the land is to build a GSM school which would provide an education for the children including the orphans in the community.
In order to keep the land we are required to build a permanent structure, or the land would be lost to us. Recently in order to keep the land we were told that we had to build either 3 rooms of a school,
or an 8–10-foot wall of stone around the property, which would cost $8000. Some money had been donated for the school; and we were able to come up with $5000, keeping in reserve the money donated in advance for next year. Our church board here at Life Church voted at the last board meeting to provide the other $3000 and the wall has already been started. We will now own the land and they will be able, for the first time, to look for other partners who would help with the cost of the school. The one in charge of the construction of the wall is one of our sponsored students, Faraja, who will graduate from college this year with a degree in construction.
We have some students who are not sponsored, and some sponsors have had life changes that make it hard to sponsor. We have had a big yard sale in Lowell for several years that has completed the amount needed in August to pay the year’s school fees in. Covid has prevented that for 2 years, but we are going to have perhaps our last Goma sale the last week of July. We say ‘last’ because we are getting older, and it is a lot of work. We have 2 sheds full of things for the sale. We need lots of help so if you or anyone you can think of would like to help, we would be grateful.
You can speak to us for more information.
The other thing I will mention is that I am praying for someone to take my place as satellite leader. The directors of GSM have someone in mind; but they are not able to take over at this time.
In the meantime, there may be someone that God will call as a “placeholder” for my replacement.
I have felt that an assignment for me is to do some teaching about the religious spirit for our team in Goma. Wisdom and inspiration are needed for that assignment.
Please pray with me about all of those things.
Awesome!!