In 2005, while I was teaching Jeremiah and Lamentations at our Bible school in Kinshasa, it was becoming more and more clear to me that God was calling me to go into the war-torn interior of the country to see what could be done to help meet the need for ministry training there. I knew this meant that I would no longer be able to teach in Kinshasa, so I had to find a way to break the news to Pastor Musansa, our Bible school director.
After several weeks of deliberation and prayer, I finally mustered up the courage to ask if I could meet with him. As we stood facing each other on opposite sides of his desk, I began to explain what God had been laying on my heart and asking me to do, “This means that, as soon as I finish with Jeremiah and Lamentations, I will be stepping down from my teaching responsibilities here in Kinshasa.” Pastor Musansa listened intently. Then, without saying a word, he pulled out an old map of DRC from behind one of the file cabinets in his office. He unrolled it and laid it on his desk, smoothing it out a bit with his forearm. He pointed to a few locations on the western side of the country, and a few more to the south, where he told me that they had been able to start five Bible school extension training centers. He seemed somewhat satisfied with that. But then he traced his finger around the rest of the country, an area the size of most of Western Europe, and said, “In this region of the country we have not been able to do anything for the past eight years because of the war.” Then he sat down as I waited nervously for him to respond to my announcement. “For many years,” he said, “this has been a burden that I have carried in my heart as well. I would like to go with you.” And that was the beginning of an incredible journey.
For the next eight years, Pastor Musansa and I cross-crossed the country by plane, jeep, motorcycle, and dugout canoe, to bring Bible school training into the remote, war-torn interior of DR Congo—to train pastors, evangelists, and church planters where they had never been trained before. Over the course of those years, we established Bible school extension training centers in 14 strategic locations across the country. We watched hundreds of students graduate in provinces where there had only been a handful of trained pastors. Unfortunately, and to everyone’s surprise, Pastor Musansa passed away unexpectedly on November 19, 2013. He had dedicated his life to training the next generation for ministry, so he made sure that his last journey would leave an impact for generations to come.