These photos were provided by Rod Brown as part of his trip in Congo last year. As you know, if you’ve been following us, Hope 4 Congo wishes to support other ministries to the Congo.
MAVUCO is a prison ministry that was started when Rod Brown lived there.
The following photos were taken at the prison in Gemena, Congo. Paklawele faithfully ministers to the prisoners. God recently provided Paklawele with a bicycle to make his trips easier.
Paklawele, Rod, Dr. Embeke at Bible Translation Center
Here are members of the MAVUCO committee with Bibles for the prisoners at Gemena.
Churches provide food and clean water for prisoners through MAVUCO.
Paklawele (on the left) with his bicycle (a recent miracle) and Ron Brown (right)
At an age when many in the United States would be living at their leisure in retirement, Paklawele has faithfully ministered to the prison in Gemena, DRC. Please rejoice with us in how God has used this man’s faithful ministry as Ron Brown shares how he and Paklawele connected in ministry to the prison. (More photos of the prison ministry will be included in next week’s post–stay tuned.)
Ron says, “I had been serving in prison ministry in the US and Nicaragua for 18 years. I felt God calling me to full time missions in 2009, I thought in prison ministry. However, in the process of preparing for that, Wycliffe Associates recruited me to go to Kenya to support Bible translation. It made no sense to me, but I really felt it was God’s doing. I finally got to Kenya in 2011. After a few months I was re-assigned to Gemena, Equateur Privince, DRC…pretty remote spot.
“There is a prison in Gemena so I asked if the churches were doing anything there and the answer was no. But, there was this guy, Paklawele, who had been walking to the prison, 10 miles round trip, twice a week with no help or support of any kind for over 15 years…and Paklawele is 75-80 years old!. And to my great surprise, he lived in the village right beside my house!
“I began going to prison with Paklawele and we started talking to some other folks. As it turned out, there was a strong church leader with CECU (the Evangelical Free Church of the Congo) who was interested and within 2 months he had organized a committee (MAVUCO) of other strong leaders who began to go to prison with Paklawele and on their own. Seems like God had been working on this for some time…imagine that!
“The prisoners have no clean drinking water, get only the food that family and friends bring them, no medication when they get sick and you can imagine the conditions inside. So MAVUCO, out of their own pockets, began providing drinking water and a meal twice a month. This is a great challenge financially so we decided to see if we could drill a well for the prison (on private land) that would provide all the clean drinking water they needed and they could sell the excess to provide food and medication as well. That was early 2013.
“Today (March 4, 2015), I received word that the parts for the well are in, the land has been purchased and preparation of the land has begun.
“Isn’t that incredible?!! That is light speed for the Congo!
“My church (in the U.S.), has been providing Bibles, devotional materials, and song books. And there is now a church in the prison in Gemena.
“Isn’t God amazing?
“My heart is filled to overflowing for Paklawele today. He must feel like Joseph who labored in obscurity for so long before God, who was already at work, revealed His plan. And the best part for me is that I will be in the prison celebrating with the prisoners on March 22 (He should already be on his way back now.).
“So as those who love the Lord and love the Congo and her people…please rejoice with me today for our God is mighty, He is faithful and He is sovereign over Africa!” ~Rod Brown
Thank you to Ron for sharing this story with us here at Hope 4 Congo.
Remember to check next week’s post for more photos of the prison ministry.
Whenever possible, we here at Hope 4 Congo, like to support other ministries in the Congo by posting information about them here on our site. With that in mind the following post for the African Medical Alliance is from our contact Ron Brown. He and his colleagues are in Congo right now.
Dr. Narcisse Naia Embeke and Family
African Medical Alliance February 2015 Newsletter
Meet our AMA Colleagues
Dr. Narcisse Naia Embeke, a physician with more than ten years of experience in primary care, is the Child Health Senior Technical Advisor for the Integrated Health Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC-IHP).
He has worked alongside the Congolese Ministry of Health to support and scale up child survival programs. He was a key player in the reintroduction of vaccines to the health zone of Tandala. Based in Kinshasa, Dr. Embeke previously served as the health advisor for Management Sciences for Health’s Leadership, Management, and Sustainability (LMS) project. Prior to his work with MSH, Dr. Embeke was the medical coordinator for the Church of Christ in Congo (l’Eglise du Christ au Congo/ECC) and the primary care physician for the public health non-profit ACS/AMO Congo caring for orphans and vulnerable children. Dr. Narcisse plays an important role in arranging networking opportunities for AMA President, Dr. David Strycker, in the capital city of Kinshasa, DRC.
Rod Brown is retired from a career in business with experience in project management, business development and marketing with a particular focus on strategic alliances. Rod is a certified volunteer chaplain in a medium security facility in Kentucky and has served in prison ministry in the United States, Nicaragua and Africa for the past 18 years. Rod’s parents were missionaries in the Kasai Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and he lived there in the early 1960’s, shortly after independence. Rod served on the mission field in Nicaragua with Nicaraguan Prison Ministry, Inc (NPMI), an organization he helped initiate in 2001. He also served in Kenya and the DRC with Wycliffe Associates. Rod is a founding member of Parkway Baptist Church in Bardstown, KY where he teaches and is active in missions and other ministries.
Dave Oothoudt in front of Tandala Guest House
Dave Oothoudt lives on the Oothoudt family farmstead in southern Minnesota where
he is self-employed as a cabinet maker. He has a long history as a lay leader in his local church, and can often be found creatively teaching others about his faith in Christ. Dave traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the first time in 2008 with a small group of health professionals from his church. Drawing from both of his backgrounds as a licensed psychologist and as a church lay leader, Dave accepted the invitation of the local Congolese church to present seminars to Bible Institute students and their spouses. In 2010 and 2013, Dave was again invited to teach, focusing on training trauma counseling to pastors following a devastating, deadly uprising in the region of Sud-Ubangi, DRC. His seminars in training counseling methodology to pastors, students, and lay leaders have become very well attended in recent years, including in the capital city of Kinshasa, under the auspices of ReachAfrica.
These colleagues along with Dr. David Strycker will be working in DRC March 17 – April 18, 2015. Meetings are scheduled in Kinshasa with:
World Health Organization
UNICEF
Inter-church Medical Agency
DRC Ministry of Health
Biamba Mutombo Hospital
Protestant University Medical School
University of Kinshasa Medical School
Counseling training seminar
Equateur Province, DRC
Assessments of Tandala and Karawa Hospitals
Meetings with church leaders in the regional city of Gemena
Hope 4 Congo 
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