2024 In Review

Friends,
Thank you for your continued prayers and support of FPM and all of our team members. It is thanks to you and with you that Friendly Planet Missiology has been able to accomplish  so much.
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Nursing School News:
Early in 2024, our El Dorado nursing school in Mulongo lost its roof in a severe storm. Thanks to your generosity, the roof was quickly replaced and the damaged building rehabilitated. Rev. Joseph Mulongo was also able to get solar-powered electricity to the school and officially open the much-anticipated digital library (using a customized RACHEL server)— the first in the country that offers local students and researchers in different fields the ability to explore a vast number of curated books, articles, papers, and websites despite not having access to the internet. Bishop Mande reports that when he spoke with government officials who had passed through Mulongo to conduct inspections, they expressed amazement that El Dorado was the most professional and technologically advanced school they had found in all their travels in DR Congo.   

In other news, construction of the Bob Memorial Chapel—located at the base of the nursing school’s hill next to Bob Walters’ tomb—is nearly complete thanks to a gift from Grace UMC (Franklin, IN). The chapel will serve as a worship and gathering space for the school and as the home of a new congregation on that side of Mulongo.

The 2025 fundraising priority of the nursing school is the construction of a women’s dormitory, as finding safe and affordable housing near campus is a major challenge for the female students. Learn more about this initiative on our website’s blog.

Scholarships:
As always, FPM continues to provide full scholarships to female nursing students, supplemental scholarships and assistance to students at Africa University, youth from the Kamina Children’s Home, and church leaders studying at other institutions. We thank those who have sponsored scholarships and, as the number of deserving candidates exceeds the funds available, we encourage all our friends to consider organizing scholarship fundraisers. We are happy to provide student bios and other details that could assist your efforts.

Transportation:
The FPM boat continues transporting pastors to conference gatherings and their appointments, with additional financial support for land travel. In addition to transport assistance, we frequently dip into FPM’s non-designated funds when pastors urgently need medical treatment.

Team News:
Last year Rev. Joseph Mulongo returned to DR Congo after completing his MMin Degree from United Theological (Dayton,Ohio). Since then, he has been constantly on the move, toggling between his  home office and the field to visit, listen, and, together with the community, reflect on solutions to problems. His pastoral visits in Congo took him more than 2,000 kilometers in 2024, and included partnering with Dr. Michou Nsenga from UNICEF as she taught indigenous communities (a.k.a., pygmies) how to protect against diseases spread by contaminated water. With FPM finances he purchased a roof for the chapel, Bibles and hymnals. This is in addition to Joseph’s huge responsibilities as head of the North Katanga-Tanganyika-Tanzania delegation to General  Conference (held April/May 2024 in the USA) and member of the General Conference planning committee. Mary Kabamba (Joseph’s wife and lecturer at the nursing school) was also at General Conference, serving on the translation team. Together they visited FPM partners in Indiana for several days before returning home. Once back in DR Congo, Bishop Mande tasked Joseph with traveling to many church gatherings to inform the masses about the decisions the delegates had  made and to clear up confusion created by the spread of misinformation.

This August, Rev. Dr. Taylor Denyer moved back to the African continent, and is now based in Cairo, Egypt. This puts her back on the same time zone as Katanga and will make her travels easier. Bishop Mande has been increasing her responsibilities in the Tanzania Conference, sending her on site visits to evaluate situations and mediate conflicts, especially when cross-cultural misunderstandings are at play. In 2024 she joined the boards of the Tanzania Conference’s Wesley College and the school at the Sebring-Mwanza Mission Center.

In addition to her appointment as Bishop’s Assistant, Taylor’s part-time teaching position at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio has become more formalized. In 2024 she co-led the school’s cross-cultural trip to South Africa and taught a course on United Methodist history. MTSO also funded her trip in August to England for the Oxford Institute of Methodist Studies, where she presented a paper, “The Salvation of the United Methodist Church,” co-led the Mission and Evangelism Working Group, and became vice-chair of the OIMS Africa Working Group.     

Our USA-based treasurer, Teri Walters, and our DR Congo-based treasurer, Rev. Daniel Mumba,  are currently doing well despite health scares last year. Board member Rev. Lana Robyne is serving a church in Illinois and is planning her next trip back to Katanga. Shabana Banza, whose name will be familiar to those who read The Last Missionary and Pastors, Chiefs, and Warlords, returned to DR Congo in 2024 after spending the past few years studying at a seminary in Croatia. We will celebrate his ordination, official graduation, and  exciting upcoming appointment in 2025.

We wish you peace and joy in 2025.
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The FPM Family

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