Our team is working with the Congolese church to help them develop a team-based, church-planting missions movement among the least-reached people groups in their country, beginning with the Vili people of southern Congo. We’re equipping Congolese to share God’s Word holistically in each people’s mother tongue through story, song, and community-development outreach.  Together, we want to make use of every possible means, including radio, audio, and video recordings, social media, literacy, health training, agricultural, and vocational or business training.

Responsibilities

The ministry worker would be involved first-hand with:

• Learning and modeling for mother-tongue speakers how to tell God’s Word through stories within their people group to facilitate evangelism, discipleship and church- planting movements
• Creative use of personal expertise to enrich local teams’ vision and capacity for outreach through the diverse gifts that God has given them
• Planning for subsequent ministry phases of discipleship, leadership development in oral form and in other media — whether audio, radio, audiovisual or print
• Assisting the international team to reproduce itself by mentoring local ministry teams
• Facilitating visits of short-term ministry teams

 Required Qualifications

• Completion of Alliance Polity course
• Completion of the World Perspectives Mission Course (minimum of Certificate level) or equivalent
• Our team is committed to teaching through orality. New team members must be ready to learn and promote this strategy as we are adapting it to the Congolese communities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Functional French, commitment to ongoing local culture and language study
• Previous training or experience in orality, teaching, or community health or development.

Biblical Characteristics Desired

• Kingdom-minded
• Biblically grounded
• Spirit-dependent
• Competently skilled
• Self-aware
• Self-disciplined

Timeline for Deployment

Summer/fall 2022. All appointees are required to attend a cross-cultural and language-acquisition program and Pre-Field Orientation prior to deploying.

General Information

Work and Living Environment: Pointe-Noire is a port city that, although relatively modern, has poor infrastructure. It is not an easy place to live and basic services can be quite expensive. Life is challenging in the Republic of Congo and we often are faced with heart-breaking poverty and injustice; we have many opportunities to come to the aid of those who suffer, but we also have the opportunity to see God’s power at work in breaking chains of misery and fear and freeing people to be brothers and sisters and coworkers in reaching the lost.

Recent articles about our team’s work:

https://www.cmalliance.org/alife/the-power-of-story/

https://www.cmalliance.org/alife/thank-you-for-the-best-christmas-present-ever/

The applicant(s) would live in Pointe-Noire in proximity to the rest of the team and work among the churches of the city, as well as villages, to develop missional story-telling teams. There are regular trips outside of the city by vehicle to transport and train village teams of storytellers and trainers.

CIA Facts– Congo

Language Expectations

Language is an essential part of ministry. The successful applicant(s) will receive one year of intense language study, followed by ongoing language and cultural acquisition. The goal will be to speak, read, and write the language at a functional level in order to mentor, teach, and train others.

Functional French is necessary.  For those who do not know the language, one year of French-language study in Albertville, France, is required. After arriving in Congo, the first years, especially, will include cultural and language learning, both as continuing studies in French, as well as beginning to study a local language.

Health Considerations

The worker(s) would need to be healthy enough to travel in sometimes challenging situations and maintain their health in a country where healthcare and food choices are limited.

Expectations for Spouse

Spousal roles vary, based on the spouse’s gifts, training, and abilities, as well as the needs of the team. It is expected that both spouses will be meaningfully involved in meeting ministry objectives, depending on the nature of family roles, children, etc.

Children’s Educational Plan and Options

International workers have exercised a variety of educational options with their children, including homeschool, French-language school (in the French-education system), and our French-language, Christian primary school (levels equivalent to first through sixth grade). One family supplemented this program with English-language homeschool for their son. Also available:  an international British primary school. For high school, English-language options include homeschool or international boarding schools out of country.