Welcome to Dwell on These Things, a podcast by Dwell Community Church in Columbus, Ohio, where we hear stories and examples of how God is moving in the church at Dwell and around the world. Hey, welcome to Dwell on These Things, a podcast from Dwell Community Church. My name is David. I'm the podcast administrator here at Dwell Community Church. I'm joined today by Jim Leffel, the director of Global Partnerships. Jim, thanks for coming on. Good to be with you, David. So last time you were on, Jim, you were actually phoning in with Vinton from the DRC about some of the current situations that are going on over there and the relief effort that Dwell Community Church has been making to get food into the members of these house churches. And so we just wanted to have you on to give a quick update as to how some of that stuff went and potential next steps for Vinton and his crew over there. Yeah, great. Thanks for asking. First of all, I just want to say thanks so much to the Dwell community for the generosity, the outpouring of funds to cover the needs here. We were able to, after sending out an email, fund it entirely in 30 minutes. It was really incredible. And so just thanks for that statement of commitment and mutual vision for what God is doing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And also, just to get caught up, the last time we were talking about this on the podcast, Vinton had not yet entered into Goma, had not yet distributed the food, and that has all been done, it's successful. About 800 people now have had the ability to eat at least a meal a day for the next month, and that's a big deal. And we thank God for that, and they thank God for that, and they thank our fellowship for its generosity as well. So, this is a crisis of global proportion. I mean, everyone in the world knows what's happening in these cities that our partners are now working in, and the problems are not going away. M23, the militias that have overtaken this area of the country remain embedded in the cities. There is – the reports that I'm getting on a daily basis are that they are not sleeping at night because of just the ongoing gunfire. Houses are being raided, people are being kidnapped, summary executions are occurring out in public. So the concerns are – remain very high and access to food very low. The reason for that is because while there are foodstuffs in some of the markets, both in Goma to the north and Bukava to the south, everyone in these cities or most of the people in these cities either are needing to draw on money that's in a bank or they're day laborers and they only have enough money to last for a day. And the banks are closed and there is no work, and so people are hungry. So what we're doing really with this food relief effort is really averting malnutrition and also being a faithful witness to Christ in this time of great crisis. Now, having completed the initiative in Goma, currently we have funded the same kind of relief initiative for Bukava and South Kivu. And today Vinton has received the money that we have sent to – through Western Union to Kigali, Rwanda. And he is getting ready to head back to Bukava tomorrow where he will go across the border with this money in his pocket and meet with house church leaders to then disseminate that money and go to markets and buy large stuffs of food for 120 households, which will again allow them to feed those people for over a month. So this new distribution effort is kind of a round two of sorts of what was done a couple weeks ago? So it's exactly a round two. That's right. And with the same risks too. And so by the time you hear this podcast, the deed will be done. But today we realize that there's a lot of risk that Vinton has taken. If he is captured at the border, which is always possible, that money will be taken from him. And his life would be very much in danger at that point. So he does not take this lightly, nor do we, the importance of this project. Yeah, absolutely. And so this is a round two of this food distribution, I guess from an outsider's perspective. Do you see this as being a longer term solution or are there other things that Vinton is suggesting or recommending moving forward? Yeah, that's a great question. There are no suggestions for further engagements or wider ones at least. I think we'll have to look at it again in another month or six weeks perhaps. Again, because there are foodstuffs there, it's really the question of access. And so if they are able to get access through banks coming open again or through businesses opening, there is a possibility that people will begin to eat. If that is not the case, which is very possible, then yeah, Vinton's going to have to determine what's in the best interest of their group. It's so hard to know the next moves or next plans when there's so much uncertainty to begin with. That's right. Yeah. And so what we're seeing here from men and women like Vinton is faithfulness and deciding to lead and be a servant to people even at the expense of potentially their own physical safety, potentially their own lives. And it's a privilege that we at Dwell get to partner and financially give and pray for people who are as faithful and as sacrificial as some of these people that we're talking to. That was one thing that struck me from the last podcast on the Democratic Republic of Congo is just how sacrificial someone like Vinton is. I was curious as you have been working with all of the global partners that we associate with here at Dwell, but especially Vinton, have there been things that God has been showing you or things about Vinton that really strike you? Yeah. What a great question that is. And the answer is yeah. Three things continue to circulate in my mind as I think about Vinton and his situation, his leadership, and also the leadership of all of our global partners who ironically are facing real similar kinds of situations, crises of various kinds. And the first is just that we are a universal body of Christ and that the ability for him to do the significant things that he is doing are really dependent upon our willingness to join in with him in that partnership. And to me, I feel like that is something that is important for the Western church in general and for Dwell community church in particular to really be aware of is that we are a part of a broader Christian movement for which we have an important role to play. And so just thinking about a similar situation in the early church where in Paul's second missionary journey receiving reports of famine in Jerusalem. And so spending a good deal of that missionary journey raising funds from Gentile churches primarily on behalf of the primarily Jewish church in Jerusalem who's experiencing this crisis. And so you see in his writing in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians and other places as well a commitment to brothers and sisters in a very different place. And he ends that discussion in 2 Corinthians 9 I think in a poignant way, in a way that relates directly to this, where he says in 2 Corinthians 9 verse 10, Now he who supplies the seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in everything for all liberality which through us is producing thankfulness to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the believers but also overflowing through many things giving to God. Because of the proof given of this ministry they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all while they also by prayer on your behalf yearn for you because of your surpassing grace, the grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for his unsearchable gift, inscrutable, indescribable gift. I feel like that kind of sums it up, is that this is something that God has orchestrated, that God is doing, and we have the privilege of being a part of that and that God is using even in this moment of crisis, the difficulties that are being faced there as an opportunity for the body of Christ universally to come together and for people to observe what God is really about and the generosity of God demonstrated by his people. So that's the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Vinton and others who are in this kind of situation. The second one is just about the character of leadership itself. And what we see is a lesson here not only from Vinton but really from so many of our partners who are working in difficult places. For example, Lukasa working in northern Ethiopia during a civil war, or the Duplessis family leading their work in Jacmel, Haiti at a time of just unparalleled violence and debauchery. Our partners in West Africa who continue to expand into very difficult parts of West Africa where Muslim militias are just exterminating Christian communities and other places in southern Mali and Burkina Faso and other places like that where we have work going on. And so what we see is that we have a group of indigenous leaders who are willing to stay and serve at a time in their life where they have young families, where they're putting not just themselves at risk but the people who are closest to them, people who are able to leave but don't. They're staying because why? Because it's a matter of conscience. How can we lead people and leave in their time of greatest need? And so there's something really, I think, remarkable about the courage, about the focus, about the willingness to sacrifice that these men and women who are leading these groups have. And that's really inspiring because while we don't experience anything like that here, we do find ourselves intimidated. We find ourselves beyond our ability, our scope, and have to trust in the Lord in the same kind of way, even if not in the same degree that these guys have. And then thirdly, I think, too, just we have realized that God is sovereign. And the fact that we're able to serve these households and 1,500 or more people, and the witness that that has brought both to Goma in the north and Bukavu in the south at this time, would not be possible if there weren't already existing a network of house churches. And so we believe that God, in His timing, knew that this time would come, that that need would be there, and brought about this partnership at such a time that they were able to establish themselves before this crisis occurred. And oddly, we've seen that same sort of pattern in many of our other partnerships where there is a window of time, a moment where the vision for house church planting and kind of church on the down low, sort of out of sight, with good oversight, good training going on, has taken root, and movements have proliferated. And then when these times of crisis have emerged, people know what to do. They know how to lead. And they are able to sustain, under oftentimes very difficult circumstances, a robust witness and actual growth. It's almost as if the body of Christ and the local house churches are a vehicle for some of these basic needs to be met on a new way. Absolutely, yeah. They're distribution centers for mercy and for help. Have you, in your time working with some of our other global partners, seen that exact thing happen? And I'm curious if there's other examples similar to the one we saw a couple weeks ago. Yeah, there are. So, for instance, during the COVID crisis in Africa, which was really serious because they take infectious disease seriously because of Ebola and things like that, what our partners have told us is that while churches all over West Africa were closing their doors because no one was able to go and permanently lost huge percentages of their congregations, our partners actually grew during that time because neighbors and family were able to continue to meet and to pray and to share their faith. And they grew by 20% or more during that about 18-month period of crisis where people were not allowed to go out and meet in public. So that would be an example. Similar things have occurred in Northern Ethiopia during this civil war between the Amoharic and the Tigray, where in an underground way, the gospel continues to spread and we're hearing pretty amazing stories, actually, of people's courage and willing to share their faith during this time and meeting in the down low in these houses, which keep people safe, but answering also their most fundamental question, which is, what can I root my security in? Where is my hope for the future? And the gospel just powerfully speaks to that. And if we're ready and if our partners are ready in this moment of crisis, that message is just louder and louder in people's ear. Praise God. Yeah. It's clear that even despite opposition, despite persecution, despite loss of physical material resources, God's sovereignty and God's light can still shine through. As you've talked with Vinton, do you get the sense that he feels that way or what has he expressed in terms of what he's seeing from God despite a lot of this stuff? Yeah, I think Vinton is expressing what we would expect. One, he's very concerned. He's concerned for all the house churches and he's concerned for the most vulnerable children especially who are being kidnapped on a regular basis. And some reports that he's given about people, teenagers, who've refused to be conscripted being shot on the site in public. So having a young family as he does, these are not just abstract or other people's problems, they're his problems. And that keeps him up at night along with the sound of gunfire and everything else. So he is very clear about the suffering that's going on there, the amount of fear that is in people's hearts including in his own household. But there is also an unusual sort of ability to connect with God and to see the way forward. In other words, the way to continue to love people, to keep the sights set on what is God doing in their life and a sense of gratitude that this is not the end of the story. This is a part of the drama of what God is doing in this place in the world and that he is sovereign and that he will build his church. And so this is the kind of thing that Benton and others as well are reflecting to us on a regular basis. That's awesome. Well, Jim, thanks for not only coming on this podcast today but working hard and diligently prayerfully with a lot of our global partners. As you've been working with some of these global partners for decades now, what have been some things that have stood out to you that you've been especially grateful for over these past couple decades? Yeah, I think that certainly I feel this way and I know that the rest of our missions team does as well that we learn and benefit probably more from our partners than they do from us in the sense that they really are living a life. If the scriptures come alive when you're with them because of the difficulty of their circumstance and the extraordinary nature of their courage and their ability to just do what needs to get done in a moment where it would cause most of us a lot of pause. And so just that example of true belief and how that translates into courageous activity, I have been struck by over and over again. I also see in our partners an emphasis on the supernatural, that we in the West and me in particular, that's not our default place in our thinking. We're not looking tangibly and daily and moment by moment for what is God doing now in this situation. And our partners live that way. And to me, that's been one of the most important lessons that I've ever learned in my Christian life. And I've learned that from brothers and sisters who do not have significant knowledge of the Bible, do not have significant access to education, who don't have a lot of the basic needs in life but are able to see God vividly and persuasively. That's awesome. We read about examples in the New Testament of Paul and Peter, people who are risking their lives to share the gospel. And those people are still around. We get to give to them, we get to pray for them, and we get to learn from them. And that's a really great privilege. Jim, thank you for coming on today and sharing some additional updates about what's going on over there. We're going to continue to pray for our global partners over in the Democratic Republic of Congo. If you want additional resources, listeners, on what's going on in the DRC, you can go to dwellcc.org to get more information about all of our global partners and find ways to give and to pray for a lot of these ministries. And for more resources like this, you can visit dwellcc.org. Thanks very much, Dave. I really appreciate it.