BY: Paul Hanak
While visiting Congo with our Regional Director, Fred Amoah-Darko, both of us sat down for a conversation with Dr. Kadony (National Director for the DRC) and his wife, Cathy. What a rich experience we had listening to how God is using them in this vast nation. Dr. Kadony’s original home is in the eastern part of the nation, where there has been unrest and much bloodshed for many years. When the nations in this region of Africa were geographically divided by colonial powers from Europe, some of the tribes were split between nations. This is surely true in looking at the border between the DRC and Uganda. This is where much of the fighting has taken place in recent years, and continues even today.
Even though the Kadony’s have been living in Lubumbashi (in the south of Congo) for many years, for three months every year, Dr. Kadony travels to the eastern part of the nation to work with pastors in an extensive training program. The need for theological and practical training is great, and God has prepared Dr. Kadony for this work in a wonderful way. With a PhD in International Relations, he works as a full professor at the university. However, when he joined AFCI a few years ago, he went back to school to earn a theological degree so he could better minister to pastors across the country.
Now, he and Cathy have a vision to identify and train pastors in all 11 Provinces of Congo. They have started in one of the most needy Provinces, in the eastern part of the nation, and as we sat together we worked on a plan to have ongoing training conferences for pastors there in the next 3 years. The plan is to identify a few leaders and take them systematically through training materials already developed and tested by AFCI over the past four years in Ghana, annother African nation with similar needs. While this plan unfolds in the future, Dr. Kadony will also be identifying pastors and leaders in other Provinces to develop a similar program for pastors there.
