“All of us, no one even thought it was raining that day,” says Henri Ngolo, who served as integrated immigrant coordinator for the U.S. Mennonite Brethren national conference from 2022-2023. “We were out to celebrate. We were out there praising the Lord. We were out there singing, and we had the whole evening. And early in the morning, 22 people then accepted Jesus Christ, and we baptized them before we even left the village.”
Ngolo’s work in Bible distribution led to this moment. Every summer, he loads Bibles onto motorcycles and into rented vehicles and goes to the most inaccessible areas of the Congo to fulfill the need for the gospel.
The need for physical Bibles is critical—Ngolo sees pastors in the Congo share individual pages with each other just to write their sermons. With the resources available in the 21st century, Ngolo says this shouldn’t be the case.
“If anything should be the priority, it’s really distribution of the gospel like Jesus has done,” Ngolo says. “Then foods for their souls and food to nourish their body. Just like in the prayer of our Father in heaven. The daily bread should not only be for the physical needs—it should be also for the souls.”
Physical needs must be filled, but Ngolo says, “I have many stories of pastors who say, ‘Me and my church, we don’t have a roof. But the most important thing for us first is to have a Bible. Then the rest of the things that will come with it, God knows.’”
Partnership with Pine Acres Church
Pine Acres Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma, is partnering with Ngolo to fill the need for spiritual food.
The church took on a six-month project to raise $25,000 to purchase a new vehicle to help distribute Bibles in the Congo and support Ngolo’s work. They hoped to reach their goal by the end of March, but according to Tim McDonald, Pine Acres missions committee chair, the church exceeded their fundraising goal by the beginning of February. McDonald was surprised by the church’s generosity in such a short time:
“We thought we had a pretty lofty goal and didn’t know how long it would take,” he says. “We thought some might want to make a monthly pledge and give over time.”
Pine Acres has completed other projects to assist Ngolo and this mission. Two years ago, the church raised about$18,000 to purchase two motorbikes and many Bibles to be sent to the Congo.
About this first fundraiser, McDonald says, “The initial goal involved a lot of participation on the part of our children’s and youth ministries, and they raised a fair portion of the initial goal of $8,000. That part of it was something that really was churchwide. We had a lot of good buy-in from the kids. It was really neat to see the kids involved in promoting and wanting to see Bibles purchased.”
Both Pine Acres and Ngolo look ahead to the work that remains to be done. Ngolo says that people are coming to faith as they see the love attached to what churches and Christians across the world are doing:
“We are united globally as Christians for Jesus Christ.”
Aliya Ayers is a sophomore English student at Biola University. She is from Kingsburg, California, and attends Neighborhood Church, Kingsburg campus.
