January 2025

"Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path."



Psalm 119:105

Dear prayer partners, thank you for constantly standing before our heavenly Father to pray for our MTS global ministry. We appreciate your time reading and praying through these January updates. 


We are kneeling together in prayer! Happy New Year 2025!

Stephen Kato

MTS Uganda Country Director

PRAISE

  • We conducted a few activities last December. We successfully conducted the By His Wounds (BHW) conference in the Namayingo district. The Namayingo conference comprised church leaders, social workers, and Sunday school teachers. At the end of the conference, many testified about how they had been healed through the sessions.


  • Translations of the Caring for the Vulnerable Child (CVC) textbook into Runyoro, Runyankole, and the Parent’s Journey to the Child’s Heart are ongoing.


PRAYER

  • Please pray for our families that God continues to give us good health.


  • Pray also for our participants that God continues to heal them.


  • Pray for the January BHW Kitgum conference that God prepares us and the participants.


  • Pray that God joins us with new partners who will sponsor Mending the Soul (MTS) activities.


  • Pray that God will provide financial support for the BHW oral curriculum, which will benefit our church leaders who could not attend school.

Jean-Pasteur Katavo & Daphrose Muteho

Director of Africa translations and emerging leader development

PRAISE

  • Miraculous Mission in Mombasa: During the second week of December 2024, Finney Musumba, a promising young leader of MTS and the son of Katavo and Daphrose, joined a mission team from FEM Family Church in Mombasa, Kenya. Finney, a theology student at Africa International University in Nairobi, was part of a team that witnessed a miraculous harvest of 1,000 souls on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Praise the Lord for every single soul won!


  • New Addition to the MTS Family: On December 23, 2024, we joyfully welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Masika Celestia, born to Guilaine Maseka, an associate chaplain working alongside Daphrose Muteho at Gratia Counseling Centre in one of the largest high schools in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Let us praise the Lord for the growth of the MTS family.


  • Holy Spirit at Work: Let us continue to praise the Lord for the Holy Spirit's work in Elishama Musumba's and Steve Musumba's lives since we began praying for their salvation.


  • Expansion of Ministry Resources: In 2024, we successfully added four more translations to the MTS ministry toolbox: "By His Wounds" in Kinande and Kinyarwanda and "The Children, Our Treasure" in French and Swahili. Praise the Lord for these accomplishments achieved together as a family!


  • Support Amidst Conflict: For 32 years, our home province has been ravaged by war, causing immense suffering. Yet, the MTS family has stood with us, offering comfort, care, and hope. Hundreds of thousands of traumatized individuals have found encouragement and trust through MTS's love, compassionate hearts, and unwavering faithfulness. We are deeply grateful to our MTS family for being God's hands and heart, reaching out to love the hurting, and caring for those in need where the need is greatest.


PRAYER

  • Biblical Translation for Kiswahili Speakers: MTS is a Biblically-based ministry serving in East DRC, where Kiswahili is the lingua franca. However, the 40 million Kiswahili speakers lack a quality Bible translation. Let us pray for the Biblica translation team, which will start work at the end of January 2025, that their new version will be accurate, clear, readable, consistent, scholarly, faithful, accessible, contextually understood, useful, and widely endorsed.


  • Translation of MTS Books: We aim to translate five more MTS books. The team will need stamina, clarity of mind, and wisdom to produce these valuable resources. Let us support them in prayer throughout the year.


  • Kids' Embrace Bible Project: We are developing the Kids' Embrace Bible for children in East DRC, especially those born into conflict. This Bible aims to help children engage with and understand its life-giving and hope-sustaining teachings. Let us pray for the year-long process of tailoring this book with age-appropriate language, illustrations, and explanations to connect children with its sacred stories and messages.


  • Vacation Ministry Handbook: In 2025, we will write "Rest and Revival: A Handbook for Effective Vacation Ministry," designed to enable church and youth organization leaders to win thousands of souls for Christ and empower them for life. Let us join hands in prayer as we write this manual.


  • Healing Hearts Through Training: The team will lead several "By His Wounds" training sessions and cell groups. They need prayer support to bring healing to hurting hearts.


  • Government Support for Chaplains: We have addressed a memo to the DRC Minister of Education requesting the integration of chaplains into the school structure. Let us pray for acceptance and provision.


  • Institutionalizing Gratia Counseling Ministries: Gratia Counseling Ministries, an MTS partner, is now present in over 200 schools, targeting 28,000 Protestant schools. In 2025, we aim to institutionalize Gratia Counseling Ministries, acquiring legal status, a building for an office, a radio station, and a training room. Let us ask the Lord to provide.


  • Chaplains Training School Initiative: Together with Dr. David Langford, former Rector of the Evangelical College of Theology in Bunia, DRC, we are earnestly praying to establish a Chaplains Training School here in the DRC. This institution will empower caregiving ministers to serve the 28,000 Protestant schools nationwide. We are also considering existing universities that could embrace this significant responsibility, including USB, UBECA, UCBC, ULPGL, and UPC. Let us pray for a breakthrough in this vital initiative.


  • The return of peace in DRC: As I write this list, the conflict between the regular army and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels is intensifying on three fronts near Goma: Masisi, 80 km to the West; Kibumba, 30 km to the North; and Alimbongo, 250 km to the North. Let us pray for an end to the hostilities and the restoration of peace.

Kavusa Mutsopi Albert

MTS-MAMBOWA/DRC

PRAISE

  • I bless the name of my God for finishing the year 2024. We live a life with so much trauma. At any time, the ADF rebels can attack us. Despite our situation, we always trust our God because He has the last word over our lives. Currently, we are concentrated in the center of the city because the ADF killed people in a village located 15 km from where we are. According to the information provided by the Red Cross volunteers, 25 dead bodies were found.


  • Thanks to the MTS family's prayers and support during our difficult circumstances. May God bless you all! I wish the MTS family a new year of joy, happiness, health, victory, and success.


PRAYER

  • Let us continue to pray for peace in the DRC. We need sustainable security in our country. Currently, we are spending the night at the hospital despite all the risks because health facilities have been a target by the ADF rebels for medical provision.


  • Let us pray for children and youths in our country because many have joined militia groups or are seeking to create their own for self-defense. Many youths have become orphans because rebels killed their parents. Furthermore, due to the lack of psycho-social support from our government, many youths indulge in drugs, this having harmful effects on their health, and the country risks having a youth without a positive vision for development. Let us pray to God for salvation, healing, and deliverance.


  • Please pray for my marriage celebration, which will take place in a few days in January. Also, please pray for God's financial provision for all the different ceremonies.


  • Let us continue to pray for the whole world. We need the true love of God in our hearts and toward one another.

Moise Mawa

Butembo, Lubero, Bashu regional office

PRAYER & PRAISE

  • Pray for the next By His Wounds training for Mambowa master trainers, beginning on January 16, 2025. Let us ask God to prepare the trainers and participants and give them good health.


  • Pray for healing groups that God will heal all participants.


  • Pray for the protection and good health of the families of MTS Butembo master trainers.


  • Let us continue praying for the end of war in the DRC. Thank you for always keeping us in prayer. May God bless you.

Debbie Taylor

RESPLENDA: An abuse ministry using MTS in Spanish-speaking communities

PRAYER & PRAISE

  • Regarding the year, we are grateful for the new partnership level between Resplandece and Mending the Soul (MTS).


  • Please pray for Magdalena and Carmen's translation into Spanish of the 2nd edition of MTS.


  • Please pray for the facilitator training videos translation into Spanish and how we use them.


  • Pray for the development of our new website with Mission Accelerate.


  • Please also pray for learning and implementing fundraising with Mission Accelerate.

Mark and Alyssa Dunker

Nairobi, Africa International University (AIU)

PRAYER & PRAISE

  • Another set of healing groups has come to a close. Here are some responses from a few of the participants:


  1. “Just because we are suffering doesn’t mean we are going to perish.”
  2. “Loss and grief are things I cannot avoid.”
  3. “God is not seeking to punish me.”
  4. “God wants to heal me so I can bring healing to his people.”
  5. “We can just cry, or we can make an exchange by handing over our pain and receiving His healing.”


  • Our team is on a bit of a hiatus this upcoming semester. I am in the US to assist my family and for several other logistical reasons. It is possible that some of our facilitators will have an online “Going Deeper” group as they engage with the workbook. A few leaders have indicated that they are aware of the need for further personal healing.


  • A member of our group has rescued a family member from a horrible situation. Please pray for this young person’s restoration.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS

THEY MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."



2Timothy 3:16-17

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