Africa New Day:
Empowering Congo’s Future
April 11, 2025
Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett
Guests: Harmony Brown, Camille Ntoto
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 4/11/25. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, hello and welcome to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and oftentimes on this program we focus on the persecuted church or on activities that are going on that are undermining what God has called us to do as Christians. We hear from friends like Todd Nettleton at Voice of the Martyrs. We hear often from our friends at ACL J, the American Center for Law and Justice with what’s going on, not just here in America with Ben Sisney and some of the other associates, but we hear from Brother Sheheryar Gill about what’s happening in other parts of the world. And then we hear from other people. And one of the places we’ve been talking about praying about and very interested in is in Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We’ve recently, just a few weeks ago, had a program on that. And even as we were talking in that program, we realized that there was a lot more going on that we couldn’t discuss at the time.
So Lord willing, we’re hoping to get into more of that today. We have some special guests with us. I’m looking forward to introducing a couple of guests to the program today. I do want to just put it out there to any adults who are listening that what we have to talk about today, it’s exciting and it’s going to Lord willing bring glory to God and help us pray better for our brothers and sisters. But it’s also realistic and we’re talking about some violent things that have happened, some sinful things that are going on in this world as I just want any adults or maybe parents or grandparents have children with them just to be aware of that. We’re not going to try to do anything inappropriate, but some of the topic today will be pretty deep stuff of what is going on, especially in the Congo. And so with that, there’s a lot to get to, but I want to go ahead and start by introducing Harmony Brown, the executive director or CEO of our group, Africa New Day, and they have a sister ministry in the DRC. So Harmony, thank you so much for taking the time to be on and we’re looking forward to talking, but thank you for being with us today.
Harmony Brown:
Yeah, thanks Isaac. It’s great to be here. Appreciate it.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, can you start by telling us about the ministries that you’re involved with, Africa Nude and their sister ministry, and how your mission to educate and empower the Congolese leaders is really growing in a nation. It’s a nation known for being predominantly Christian, but it’s also known for war and for a history of violence and some actually pretty difficult things.
Harmony Brown:
Yes. Yeah, and it has been, I mean there’s a long history of violence in the DRC and specifically really of war over the last 30 years that this nation has weathered and continue to have to fight against and be in the midst of. And it’s amazing what God can do in the middle of such intense crisis and such atrocities. And the church is growing very much in Congo and we’re seeing that and our organization gets to be a part of that. So we really are driven to establish a peaceful and prosperous world and Congo where each individual is part of the solution. And we do that through education, advocacy, and economic development, really training up leaders in all of those different areas to make a difference, both generationally and then sustainably for as long as we possibly can. So that’s a little bit of what we do. We have had multiple waves of violence and crisis happened over the last couple of years with the most recent one being at the end of January as the city where the majority of our work is done in Golma, north Kivu in the North Kivu province was taken over by the Rebel Group M 23. And so we are in the midst of that and trying to discover how do we still fight for a peaceful and prosperous VRC Congo in the midst of something like this going on? So it’s an interesting time,
Isaac Crockett:
Very interesting and such a necessary thing what you’re doing. I love that holistic approach. We talk on this program all the time about our worldviews and how a Christian with a biblical worldview comes at these things, these atrocities from a completely different angle than others. And so I love hearing that holistic approach and that’s something I’m very burdened for throughout the world in our own nation, but in other parts that we find Christian community and that we help empower parents in the home, that we help empower pastors in the church, that we help empower ministers of the government and government, but also business owners, small business owners and farmers and educators and all of these things coming together so that we can find peace and community and come about it that way. But as we talk about these goals, what are the challenges you’re facing some really hard issues there in the Congo, the ministry there with Africa nude. What are some of the hardest things or the biggest challenges that are being faced right now?
Harmony Brown:
Well, one, just in the city itself, Goma, where we are based, there’s just a new government in place. There’s all of these different factors that are going on. And so one of our biggest challenges right now is trying to continue the work that we’re doing in this new normal, right? Prices are skyrocketing, people are losing their jobs. We have a school that we established 10 years ago, started with 37 children and now we’re at 2300 kids, and so we’re educating all these, but right now the parents don’t want to send their kids to school because of the danger or they can’t afford tuition. There’s all these factors that are at play where we deal with poverty anyway in this area and lack of employment and those kinds of pieces, but now everything has been magnified. So one of our biggest challenges is how do we move forward with our school with this lack of the funding trying to parents not coming under this regime that we now have to figure out what their values are and how do we keep our people safe and protected?
So we have that going on in the city. And then up in the north we’re seeing a lot of our brothers and sisters being persecuted and we have programs up in those areas as well. And so there’s been an insurgence of ISIS affiliated organizations taking over, and we’ve seen 500% growth in attacks in that area just since the beginning of the year. So that’s another main thing. We are facing the challenge of, wow, we’re a predominantly Christian nation and yet there’s now a very focused attack against Christianity in the region that we are in specifically. And so navigating those challenges is also a tricky thing to do.
Isaac Crockett:
There’s so much going on there and that’s just incredible to even comprehend the words you’re saying. But real quickly, we just have a few moments before our first break. Can you introduce to us Pastor Camille Ntoto and maybe just quickly tell about he and his wife what they’ve started?
Harmony Brown:
Pastor Camille and Esther Ntoto were actually born and raised in Congo and then ended up between Belgium and Congo on the other side of the nation from where we are today with our work, came to the States, got their degrees, started living a life here in the US and then the Lord called them back to their nation. And this was soon after the Rwandan genocide, which really affected the eastern part of the country, and he just called them to say, come and reach your nation. And so they packed up. We moved to Eastern Congo, which they had never been to before on the word of the Lord, and have been there for 20 years now and have a huge radio program that reaches millions of people. And then we have multiple other programs that they’ve established everything from going after positive masculinity to seeing women empowered in dealing with the culture of sexual violence and then to children and now to school, and then also into economic development. It’s been an amazing thing to watch and be a part of what they’ve established over the last 20 years to really change that region of the world
Isaac Crockett:
That is truly amazing. We give glory to the Lord, thank the Lord for what they have done and for that calling that they obeyed. We’re going to talk with Pastor Camille Ntoto. When we come back from this brief timeout, we want to listen to some of our partners. Please stay tuned. We’ll be right back to talk more about what is going on in the Congo right here on Stand in the Gap today. Welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and on this Friday edition of our Stand in the Gap Today program, we are talking about what’s been going on and is going on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And many of us can remember back to the mid-1990s and the Rwandan genocide that was going on that really started a lot of problems in the Congo and then throughout the nineties, early two thousands, a lot of unrest and just some horrible things.
In fact, for a while, and maybe it’s still the case, the DRC was known for some really bad things, and we’ve talked about this for anybody listening with children, we do need to talk about some of the realistic ideas of what’s happening, some of the violence and people were being violated in some of the worst ways, not just murders and assassinations, but also known this country by some, they called it the rape capital of the world. And there’s been a lot of hope that things were getting better. There were a lot of peacekeepers there and things, but we’ve continued to see attacks against the Christian majority. And we heard even on this program, some of what was going on in the city of Goma where it was taken over by one of many different terrorist groups, lots of different terrorist organizations, heavily armed come in, take over centers in this case over this large city. But we’ve also heard of the Islamist terrorist group, A DF and different things. So there’s just so much going on in this nation and it’s so heart wrenching to hear about and to watch. But we have the honor today of speaking with Pastor Camille Toto and Pastor Camille, we want to thank you for the work you’re doing and welcome you to this program today.
Camille Ntoto:
Thank you very much, I think it’s a privilege to be with you
Isaac Crockett:
And Pastor Camille, as we just heard from Harmony, you and your wife Esther, the Lord had brought you over here to the States and yet then burdened your heart at a time when the rest of the world was looking at the problems that were going on in the Congo led you to not just to go back to your home country, but to go to a part of the country that you were not familiar with, that you were not from because of the difficulties that you saw there. And Pastor Camille, could you just tell us a little bit of what God did, how he called you to go back to the DRC, especially to those difficult areas that you have now for decades been serving and ministering to?
Camille Ntoto:
Certainly. Just a quick background, I was born in the capital city of Kinshasa in the western part of DRC. I grew up in Belgium and went back to the Congo as a young adult where I had my personal experience with Christ whom I received as my Lord and Savior and then met my wife a few years afterward. We got married and went to Southern California Vanguard University. And when we were about to graduate from Vanguard University, somebody sent us an email that was talking about the situation in Eastern Congo. And we knew there was a war, of course this is our country, but we had no idea the extent of the atrocities taking place and we thought something needs to be done. And at that point, we have never been to Eastern Congo, we don’t know anybody in that area. We don’t speak the language.
And so we just sent the email to some of our friends on campus and one of the professors replied back to us and said that Camilla Nester, thank you for sharing, but what can we do? Our answer was, well, at this point all we can do is pray. But to us the question was as if God asking us now that you know, what are you going to do? And I thought the problem is talking about millions of people whose lives are being brutally in jeopardy and people that are being killed, women raped, what can we do? And to us, one thing led to another, God made it very clear to us that that was the area where he wanted us to be part of the solution. So we have been in Eastern Congo for 20 years now. We went there for the first time in 2005 and we believe God has sent us there for purpose.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, we thank you for that and we’re so excited to have you talking about what you’ve done, what the Lord has done through that willingness today. And Camille, we had a program about some of what was going on in Goma, which you’re now very familiar with, and you have ministry there. And I was just so shocked at the raping and pillaging and the number of people that are displaced that are just showing up with nowhere to go numbers. I think I saw some numbers that the city is normally about 2 million, and I don’t know how accurate that is, but some of the numbers I was seeing is that now there’s about 1.5 million children and that one city, many of them without their parents, I mean that’s the same amount of people live in the city of Philadelphia, just children. And so the program we were working on about Goma as that was going forth, all of a sudden news started coming out about I think further north, but another area with a different group, not the same group that was attacking Goma, but there were attacks against Christians by an Islamist group known as a DF.
Can you tell us some about that situation? And there were reports coming out that sounded so horrible about the killing and decapitating of Christians that I had some people that actually doubted whether that could really be true. I started digging in and talking with more contacts. I have several of them said we have national pastors over there, but they are not willing to talk about it in the media. Could you talk about it now and to the extent that you know of what was going on in that persecution situation?
Camille Ntoto:
Yes, the conflict has been going on for the past 30 years now. There’s a little over a hundred militia groups and rebel groups that roam the eastern part of Congo, and of course one of the deadliest is M 23 that is backed by the Rwandan government. But that unsettling in that part of Congo has actually allowed for groups like a DF who originally are tied to Uganda to kind of come to the eastern part of Congo and spread chaos. And this particular group, just as you mentioned, is tied to the Islamic state and they are trying to establish that Islamic state in central and more specifically in that northeastern part of Congo. And they are targeting Christian in a very specific manner, whereas some Christians are being killed just because they bear a Christian name. So if you introduce yourself and you say, my name is Joseph, my name is Mary, my name is so and so, if it’s a Christian name, you can be killed just for that.
And recently, again, people who are part of the local churches there, and you have to know that Congo as a whole as about 80% of people who claim to be Christian. So this is not supposed to be a country where there is persecution of Christians when you look at the numbers except for that part where the A DF is armed is dangerous and is going after Christians. And sometimes they locate the churches and they go into the churches and they make sure that they commit the worst kind of atrocities against Christians. And that’s very sad. That’s what’s going on right now.
Isaac Crockett:
Real quickly, some of the reports we’re claiming that up to 70 people had been beheaded in one of the churches. Is there anything that you know would say that sounds pretty accurate or what do you think about that?
Camille Ntoto:
It’s true. 70 people were beheaded a few months ago and when we conducted our research because we have an office in that part of Congo, we find out that some of them actually doing evangelism, they were going door to door to bring God’s word, they were spreading the gospel of Christ and they came across this a DF people who actually took them by force and brought them to that local church and killed them and behave 70 of them. And those kinds of crimes happen on a regular basis. We are told that this is something that the people in that area have been used to, in fact many of fled the area. And of course those are things that sometimes are not even reported in our news network or a news edition, but this is the reality that Eastern Congo faces right now.
Isaac Crockett:
Well let’s real quickly, we’re almost to our next break, but M 23, you mentioned in Goma and we talked about this summit in another program with another missionary, but what keeps your faith, you as a Congolese pastor and the faith in community of those who you’re working with, what keeps it strong even during these attacks? Like what’s going on in Goma with M 23 taking over, just kind of all of a sudden
Camille Ntoto:
I got asked that question so many times as to having grown up in Europe and living in the us why am I so interested in being in that part of the world where when I have options go and be in other places? But to me it’s very clear for one, I believe God has sent us there. That’s number one. Number two, when we read the promises of God in the Bible, Jeremiah 29 11, the two I think when God calls us the light of the world and the salt of the earth, where does the light shine brighter well in the darkness. And this part of Africa was called the heart of darkness. And so I believe that’s where we’re supposed to spread God’s word. Number three, I believe God wants to use the church to be the solution to this area and to the people we need to be the feet, the legs, the arms of Jesus Christ bringing help, assistance and aid and the gospel to those who are in need in that part of the country. And to me,
Isaac Crockett:
So I’m having a hard time hearing Pastor Camille, but I love what he’s saying there, that it’s up to the church to do the great commission and to bring the gospel isn’t just to give scriptures, but it’s to invest in the people and like what our forefathers, the pilgrims did coming to a new world and bringing with them a whole new way of life, a holistic approach. That’s what’s happening with Camille and Esther and Toto. What they’ve done in the Congo now for decades through Africa New Day is they are standing up to the face of darkness, to the face of violence with the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the peace and with what God has given us. So we have more to talk about. We are Lord willing, we’ll keep talking with Pastor Camille a little bit more, but more to talk about that’s going on right now in the Congo when we come back.
Well welcome back to the program on Pastor Isaac Crockett. And I’m so thankful for the folks that we’re talking to today. We’ve been introduced to the executive director of Africa, new Day, harmony Brown. And then we’ve been talking with one of the founders, pastor Camille in Toto. He and his wife Esther were used of God. They had grown up in the Congo, their Congolese, they had been in Europe and then the United States when the Lord called them to leave the United States and to go back to a part of the Congo that they were not familiar with and didn’t even know the language that they went back because they saw the suffering of the people there. And they went back to bring the good news of the gospel, but not just the good news of the gospel to bring a biblical worldview in all things education and health and helping people even with finances and all sorts of things so that they could be free and they could live as God would want them to in community and to seek for peace and seek first the kingdom of God.
And yet, in spite of all of that, we hear of so many of the hardships that are going on to this day. And we’ve talked about some of these difficult things, the killings, the murders, the decapitations of Christians just because they were evangelizer, just because they took a stand for the Lord. And we hear these armed terrorist groups basically gangs that in and take over whole cities like Goma, a large city with millions of people that’s been just taken over by M 23. And so I’m talking with Pastor Camille and Toto Congolese pastor who the Lord has used to go back there, pastor Camille. What would you say maybe want to describe a little bit of some of the situation like in a city like Goma and what biblical principles do you use to help folks to minister to their needs who have lost so much and have experienced so much Noma?
Camille Ntoto:
Yes, ever since M 23 has taken over the city of Goma, everything’s changed and everything is different of course, and many people have died. So it’s not unfamiliar for a regular citizen or resident of Goma to wake up in the morning and to see a corpse or a body on the street. The bank system is not functioning anymore. People have lost their jobs, the prices have gone up in the market and sometimes it’s hard to even find food. Parents are putting their children to school but don’t have the means to pay tuition. And so in the midst of all that, of course, many people are asking if God has abandoned us, what is happening? We’ve prayed, we’ve fasted and we’ve put our faith in God, but it seems like he’s not responding or it seems like what we’re experiencing is more of a punishment than anything else.
So my take on that is that God knows what’s going on and just like it was the case with the children of Israel, he has heard the Christ, he has seen the misery, he has come down I believe, and he has sent us the church to be part of the solution. Number two, I believe that every Christian as a responsibility not only to deepen his relationship with God and be closer to God in these kind of circumstances, but also to spread the gospel, but also as we face a situation where nonprofit organization, the NGOs have left United Nations operations have been completely limited. I think it’s the opportunity that God’s giving us to be the arms and the feet of Jesus and to be of assistant to those that are in need. So that’s my take on this situation. I know God has a plan and I know there’s a brighter future for Congo and for the people of Goma,
Isaac Crockett:
Pastor Camille, if you could speak somehow directly to the leaders commanders of the militant groups like M 23 that have done so much destruction, so much damage, or of the Islamic terrorist of a DF, what would you say to them about the love of Christ and what would you say to them about true justice?
Camille Ntoto:
Say to them what we’ve been saying to the man of Congo that for some of them were involved in being perpetrators of crimes and violence to the women, we’ve developed a curriculum, whereas we are turning those men from predators to protectors, from angry men to loving men. I would say to them, number one, you have to connect with your identity. You have been created by the same and one God, and God has created you to be an extension of him here on earth. He is brave his breath on you for the purpose of being part of the solution. Number two, I would say that that identity leads you to a responsibility. Your responsibility in the community has nothing to do with what you have been told by your masters, by your ideological people and bosses in the militia groups. You are supposed to bring the gospel on this earth. And then number three, I would say, but think of your eternity. It does not all end here on earth. We will have to give an account of the time we have spent here on earth. And so when God gives you the opportunity to give yourself entirely to him, seize that opportunity, revelations three 20, that would be my word, and I hope that we have a chance to talk to as many of them to bring them to the Lord.
Isaac Crockett:
Amen. Amen. I love that. That gives me chills just hearing you speak like that, preaching that kind of truth in love, and that’s what we mean by a biblical worldview. It won’t change unless we understand that and what you’re doing to affect the change. What an incredible opportunity. And I’m wondering, as you’ve invested your life, you’ve gone back over and put your whole life on hold to invest in the lives of others, helping lift up the folks, the people there in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I just wonder, what is your prayer? What is your vision for true peace in the DRC? And how do you give hope when you’re talking to people that in some cases and have so much trouble and so little hope in their lives?
Camille Ntoto:
Yeah, I would turn them to the children of Israel in the Bible. Not only the Exodus experience, but every time the children of Israel were facing any kind of hardship, they felt like God had abandoned them. There was no hope for a brighter future, but then God always came through. And so the question was what is your relationship with God in the midst of trials? God never said that there was not going to be any trials, that there were never going to be any problems of difficulty. The three Hebrew boys that were thrown in the furnace were hoping until the last minute that somehow God would prevent that from happening. But God let it happen. They were in the furnace. And in that furnace is when they had maybe one of the experiences that they had never had before because they were there with the fourth man.
So my word to them is in the midst of what seems to be the most chaotic times that Congo has ever experienced, I think it’s the time that God is preparing us for not only an exodus, but it’s taking us to the promised land. And I believe sometimes in the midst of misery, opportunity for ministry actually shows up, show up, and that’s what we’re experiencing right now. I’m trying to encourage the people whenever I have a chance to talk to them, that if God has kept you alive, that means he still has a purpose for you and he wants to use you and understand that you are not here by chance. And I see people with standing and rising up and being a support in their community and sharing the little they have. And even sometimes when they’re facing financial difficulties, they are strengthening their faith in God, knowing that God will come through. And so miracles are happening on a regular and daily basis. It’s one thing to believe in God’s promises when everything is fine, but it’s another thing to believe in God’s promises when everything goes the opposite direction.
Isaac Crockett:
That is so true, and I’ve really enjoyed talking to you. There’s many more questions I want to ask, but Pastor Camille in Toto from Africa New Day, Africa new day.org is their website. We just have a moment before our break and I think you have to get going and we’re going to finish with talking to Harmony. But are there any prayer requests at the top of your heart right now that you would like to share that we could be praying for?
Camille Ntoto:
Oh, please pray for the faith of your brothers and sisters in the Congo who have gone through so much. Pray for the church. The ministries are very been deeply impacted right now. Some of the missionaries that were sent in various parts of the country don’t have the means and resources to continue their work. Just pray that somehow in the midst of all this we’ll continue to experience miracles as we’ve seen in the past few weeks and months here.
Isaac Crockett:
Pastor Camille, thank you so much for taking time. I know you have a meeting you have to be at, and you have so many things pressing, and I know that the technology has been even difficult to do all this, but thank you for being on our program. But even more importantly, thank you for the work that you are doing, that you have listened to the call of God. And if you want to know more where you could go back and listen to this whole program, if you haven’t heard the whole program, you can go listen to it on the archive through our Stand in the Gap app or through our Facebook or through our website. But also please go to www.africa new day, all one word, Africa new day.org. And you can go to that website and find out more about what’s going on in Africa, more about what Africa New Day is doing, everything from making finances available that people can take small little loans out that they repay to education, training, taking care of children as he talked about talking to men about how to be a godly man that God made you to be and to women and to all these folks with so many different things, taking a holistic approach, a biblical approach, a biblical worldview into an area that has so many needs and has had so much hardship to see the gospel at work and to plant that seed and to see it growing now decades later to see it continue to go.
We want to continue to pray because things are hard for them over there, but we know the Lord is at work and we want to focus our attention on him seeking first the kingdom of God. So Pastor Camille Ntoto, thank you so much for being with us. We’re going to take another brief time out to hear from our partners and come back and finish the program and talking to Harmony Brown about Africa New Day and what’s going on in the Congo. Well, welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, and we’ve been talking today about Africa New Day and empowering Congo’s future and getting an update on what is going on in the DRC. And we’ve been so fortunate to talk with Congolese, pastor Camille and Toto, but we’ve also been talking with the CEO and executive director of this group, Africa New Day, harmony Brown. And so Harmony, again, thank you for the work that you’re doing. And could you maybe talk a little bit about the holistic approach that started with the aNtotos and continue to grow, have done that helps empower the people, it’s bringing the gospel and bringing so much to the lives of these people that have lost so much. Could you maybe kind of flesh that out maybe a little bit more for our listeners?
Harmony Brown:
Yes. Well, I think another thing that is very valuable to us or what we see is that we help each individual, man, woman, and child to discover, develop and deploy their potential because every person is part of the solution. And we’re a big, that is how we approach everything we do is that every person is that. So really coming alongside people and helping empower them at whatever level they are. So that’s anywhere from bringing them to the Lord and giving them the gospel and a new life in Christ to, Hey, let’s get you a loan for a business so that you can actually thrive. And instead of we’re big believers on you create wealth to alleviate poverty, you just go in and try to fix poverty. The root of it is we have to create options for people in opportunities because most of the time, it’s not that they are lacking in any skills or any abilities, it is, they’re just lacking in opportunities.
So if we can come alongside and bring the spiritual, we do a lot of counseling around trauma and generational trauma because obviously this is a nation that has weathered trauma for centuries, actually decades just in our area that we know recently. But for centuries, the things that this nation has gone through. So how do we come in and start unearthing that generational trauma and these things that have taken place in their daily lives and then through their family lines. So we kind of like to do that and then really be a practical solution too. And we’re really big on sustainability and not starting programs, not starting projects unless they can be sustainable and completely handed over to those who should be running them. So that’s kind of a little way of how we approach our work.
Isaac Crockett:
I love that. And I think we need to see more of that kind of approach. And I think sometimes in Americans, we can sometimes out of a well-meaning heart, try to help a situation by maybe just kind of trying to throw money at it instead of investing strategically. I think sometimes we don’t realize the importance of somebody not just getting a free money or this thing or that thing, but say, Hey, we’re going to make a loan and you’re going to use this for strategic purpose and then pay us back. And sometimes a hundred dollars loan could literally change a person or a family’s life, just something as little as a hundred dollars when done with the right help and guidance, like what you all are doing, coming alongside of them and helping them do these things. And again, that’s part of the biblical worldview, understanding that we have a creator and what we’ve been created for, what we’ve been saved for what we’ve been called to do. So many cool things that you guys are doing, but at the same time that we are talking about some of the hardships that the Congolese people are going through harmony, you’ve worked with them, you’ve seen them and you’ve been touched by them. What are things that we as Americans can learn from the persecuted church over in the Congo?
Harmony Brown:
Right. There are so many things to learn. Years ago, I’ve been doing international work for 25 years and years ago I had this moment where I realized this is not me coming in to save anybody but me coming in to be humbled and learn. And I think that’s always the biggest approach we should have in anything that we do. We all are helping each other. We’re all we submit, therefore one to another because we can all learn. But I have learned so much having the honor to work with the people that I do in Congo and the things that they have weathered that is just beyond my comprehension. And watching that and then realizing the resiliency and the generosity and the joy that still comes forth even after they’ve done this.
You can’t even imagine. We just did a workshop two weeks ago with 50 women and they’re all in there and they’re encouraging each other. And then you start talking. And 21 of them had been raped that week, and yet they’re in this meeting encouraging one another and saying, we can still move forward. We can still go on. Or another time where we are giving out food to different people in the displacement camps, the ones who had fled from the persecution and from the violence, and they were there. And of course, we don’t have enough, so you just have to pick certain families or there’s a lottery. There’s different ways that we have to go about doing it and give it out. And then one family gets it. And Esther was walking through the camp afterwards and she saw this woman sitting down and divvying up the small portion.
She had been allotted with the other women right around her to say, it’s not just me. And even though I have so little, I want to give to you because this is what it’s all about. And there’s just things like that where you look and I think, wow, I need to learn more generosity. I need to learn more resiliency. I really need to be able to learn how to have joy in the midst of anything that is going on because that is a promise of God to me. And so those are a few are just, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, the things I’ve seen and learned, but that I think we can learn from those that have been persecuted and those that have been humiliated and those who look like they have nothing, and yet you see them rise with the strength of the Lord in this resiliency to keep going forward and then to continue to care for others in the midst of it and to continue walk and joy. It’s phenomenal to witness.
Isaac Crockett:
That is so well said. And so genuinely encouraging to hear these stories and there’s so many more harmony. What can someone who might be listening to us right now either live on radio or on the streaming app, or maybe they’re listening to an archive of this program, but what can they do? What can someone do right now to support our Congolese brothers and sisters in Christ and support the ministry of Africa New Day as they reach these people?
Harmony Brown:
Yes. Thank you for asking that, Isaac. Definitely prayer. We always need prayer. We always want prayer. Prayer changes things. We know that the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. So that is the ultimate piece. And if you are listening, I would ask that you would just say, put a reminder in your phone and just five minutes a day will make a difference. But it’s that consistent prayer of staying connected in the spirit to your brothers and sisters in Congo is first and foremost what I would ask. And then the next one would be, if you have the ability to give, if you have the ability to help, we do a lot with a very little amount of money. We got a couple hundred women out of prostitution survival sex that were living in the camp, so that had to flee.
And we were able to get those women healed. They went through some trauma counseling, they got some skills, they got a whole package to start a business for less than $300, and now 95% of them are running their own businesses instead of having to sell their bodies to survive. And so that’s one of the things we do. We also were able to get a whole bunch of street children off the streets. They were threatened to either be recruited into the army, the M 23 Army or executed. And so we were able to get children off the streets and we were able to get them into a home for $150 to save their lives and then reunify them with their families or with a foster family as another thing that we’re doing. So there’s always the need to just, finances is part of it. We do what we can and steward every single penny to the utmost to see that change happen for those lives.
Those are just a couple of examples. Another thing, come on our website, you can reach out to your congressmen, your senators, you can actually make a difference at high levels. It’s another thing that we’re doing as an organization. We’re trying to get before Congress and before the UK and the EU Parliament to help get the word out about the atrocities that are happening and have people say the persecution is not okay. And so the more people who get involved in the US and in Europe, in the west and get involved with these government initiatives, the more we’re going to see repercussions of that for the people of Congo.
Isaac Crockett:
So we can all get involved on our knees in prayer. Go to the website, Africa new day.org. Pray for get involved in what we can do for our Congolese brothers and Sisters of Christ.
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