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Missionaries Profile

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Mission challenges: recovery from civil war and continuing conflicts with rebel groups, leadership training, evangelization of less reached groups, holistic ministries

Religions: Roman Catholic 50%, Protestant 20%, Kimbanguist 10%, Muslim 10%, other (includes syncretic sects and indigenous beliefs) 10%

Languages: French and English (both official), Lingala, Kituba, Kikongo, Tshiluba and Swahili.

Name of nationality: Congolese

Land area: 875,525 sq. mi.,(2,267,600 sq. km.), slightly less than one-fourth the size of the US

Population: 62,660,551 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)

Capital: Kinshasa

Bernhard, Wendy Bernhard Wendy

In 2003, Wendy returned to teach at the Bible Institute in Kimpese, 120 miles west of Kinshasa, where she was professor and director in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the year 2000, she has worked with a team of doctors, pastors and lay people, holding Responsible Living Skills seminars for young people. A key part of the teaching is the "True Love Waits" program, advocating a return to biblical principles of sexual behavior as part of the fight against AIDS. In recent months Wendy and the team have presented the program at the University of Kinshasa; at the Evangelical Center of Cooperation in Kimpese; at the American Baptist related hospital in Vanga; and to hospital personnel and church groups in Kananga, in the central part of the DR Congo. A trip is planned to Kisangani and the Kivu region, areas which were occupied and ravaged by rebel soldiers for several years, and where churches and medical groups are asking for help, as soon as funds become available.

An extension of Wendy's ministry is a twice-weekly, 15-minute FM broadcast on "Radio Bangu," named for the bluff that dominates the landscape and towers over the Kimpese valley. The title of her broadcast is "Youth: A jewel and a treasure," designed to remind young people of their infinite worth in the eyes of God, and encourage them not to waste their youth, but to live responsibly.

Languages used in ministry: French, Kikongo, Lingala