Congo (DRC): 60 New Believers to Be Baptized in Christmas Day Service, “A Christmas Miracle”

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A beacon of light and hope in a country devastated by war, dozens of newly Christian believers were to be baptized at a special Christmas Day service in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Christian Today (CT) reports.

DRC has been torn apart by a war between government forces and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and ranks 41 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

Calling it a “Christmas miracle,” the Church Mission Society (CMS) announced that sixty believers would be baptized on December 25 at a service in Kadirisha, Masisi, to the west of Goma in the eastern DRC, CT reports.

Despite the violence and instability, the work of preaching the Gospel and making disciples is continuing in DRC, CT reports. In a statement, Bishop of Goma Martin Gordon said: “In 2023 we carried out hundreds of baptisms across the diocese, and at least 15 parishes have either completed the building of a church or pastor’s house this year or are well on the way to finishing.”

CT reports that Bishop Gordon recently ordained five new clergy, including an evangelist, the head of a theological college, and a church minister in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). The latter is all the more important as the fighting has driven hundreds of thousands of Congolese into IDP camps in the last three years.

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