Antioch Initiative (07.25)
SERVING IN THE DRC –
From Mike Gunn:
“I’m going to write much of what I’ve already written on @theantiochinitiative’s Instagram, if you follow it. My trip (See Below) was a great trip. But as always, it is often a humbling one. I am often perceived as the strong one, who can teach for 5 hours in the heat and offer spiritual wisdom, yet it’s I who feel weak and insufficient at times when I teach in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The men (and some women) are pretty incredible actually, especially given their harsh conditions that includes searing heat and humidity in a brick building with a tin roof and no air conditioning, a soul crushing poverty created by years of oppression from colonialism, corrupt or inept governments, war lords and rebels, and countries exploiting their massive mineral, gold and silver mines for selfish gain. This isn’t new to this area.
The DRC had the most chattel slaves during the Trans-Atlantic slavery industry, which saw over 12 million humans being ripped from their homes and culture to serve the Western appetite for more than they needed. I am humbled because I come here to teach, but I could also learn about what real suffering and a commitment to the gospel truly mean. What we talk about in the west, and what I taught in my last 2 trips here (James + Colossians) is that suffering is part of ministry. How ironic! These men have seen more suffering and death in a week than I have in a lifetime. I am not trying to portray them as a perfect group, and I understand that we are who we are, mostly shaped by where we come from, and God’s grace is God’s grace in all our broken lives. It just feels strange to me when I am confronted by gross poverty and the negligence of humanity that allows this kind of poverty to be a reality.
In spite of the hardships, these men have seen God work miraculously in incredible ways, and they hold to a ‘Future Grace,’ and hope knowing that God is delivering them from such a chaotic mess, and will transfer them to a Kingdom inexplicable. They live out the reality of Paul’s prayer for the church @ Collosae in Colossians 1:3-5 which says, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” They cling to what we often overlook and take for granted. I don’t doubt that many of our own lives are marred with tragedy and death, and I am not minimizing our own type of suffering, but I want to put much of what we call suffering in perspective, and pray that God gives us this kind of faith, love and hope, demonstrating the reality of God working in the whole world, among the nations for His glory!
Specifically, I was in the DRC last week and taught Paul’s letter to the Colossians to 28 students at Gabriel Kinsanga’s Kairos University Seminary. Despite the heat and humidity, we were in class for 4-5 hours a day, and the students incredibly stayed with me, asked great questions, and we had some incredible dialogue. Gabriel said, “We received a visit from Pastor Mike Gunn of Long Beach, California. He did a remarkable job, and it did us good. He came very late on Sunday, June 1st. Without ever taking a break, he got to work. On Monday, June 2nd, he began teaching the course on the exegesis of Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians. Our enrolled students were happy and appreciated the quality of his teachings. On Tuesday, June 3rd, Pastor Mike also preached at our evening service (Pictures Below), which was attended by over 230 members. This church no longer has enough space, given the small size of our worship hall. We certainly would have had a large number of people if the capacity had allowed it.”
It was great to teach there and preach the gospel to his people, who packed into his small one-building church and listened intently, as well as worshiped with fervor. As a matter of fact, the power went out (as it usually does), and we were in the dark, but not one beat was missed by those 230 people singing fervently to the Lord in worship!
Amazing!”
