Bill & Sonia Shaw

For the past seven years, we have advanced the development of a network of church leadership training centers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We still headquarter out of the city of Lubumbashi, in the southeastern corner of this Central African nation. From this city of 3 million inhabitants, we partner with the Congo AG to develop this network of Bible school extension campuses. This initiative, started in 2007, has the goal of establishing an effective pastoral training delivery system throughout the country.  Right now there are over fifteen extension centers throughout the DR Congo.

We have three objectives for this training system.  First, we want to prepare our teaching staff to provide the most effective training progam, so we support their own training at the BA level.  Each student spends over $3000 of their training, and we come alongside them with scholarship assistance.  Second, we are revising the training materials so they are up to date and respond to current needs in this country.  Third, we are investing in the infrastructure needed to support this program- we build campus structures, provide equipment, and improve communications among our schools.  

Our vision is to lay a stronger foundation for the Congo AG to develop their own missionary-sending capacity, and join other African churches as bonafide participants in the missionary mandate of the church. This is the Congo's hour. We wish to invest our energies, prayer, and 34 years of experience as African missionaries to multiply our own ministry by developing a high-quality training program in Lubumbashi.  

We are also investing in the next generation of missionaries through our Engage CONGO ministry.  11 college students who sense a call to work in Africa have come to discern and develop that call as missionary interns for up to two years. They continue their academic program online, learn French, and see up close and personal what it means to live in the African context.  

Please pray for: political stability in the country; the serious financial need to finish the first construction phase of the ten Bible schools and the training center in Lubumbashi; and for discernment to know the strategic priorities that will produce the best results.