LABAN MINISTRIES
November 2023
Hi Everyone,
Thank you for your wonderful response to the October newsletter! The matching funds program was a success.
Laban Congo is enjoying a wonderful fall with the return to fall classes at Laban Bible Institute as well as the Women’s Literacy School. The next evangelism outreach is in the making, and Radio Glory is continuing to broadcast each day at Nkara.
Please pray for the unrest in Congo right now. Elections take place in December, and Kinshasa can be a very troubling place right now. Out in our neck of the woods, our people are fine, but the capital not so much.
As mentioned in our last newsletter- our Christmas project for this year in Congo is beds for all those people on staff you provided mattresses, sheets, pillows, pillow cases, and blankets for last Christmas! For $250 each household will be given 3 beds, a large one for the parents, and two smaller ones for the children. Funds are coming in, and as of this writing we have 16 more families remaining to be given 3 each, a total of 48 beds. Presently, those who live in huts and have mud floors face the risk of mold and obvious lack of hygiene by placing their mattresses on their mud floors.
Pictured are the beds already made up for sleeping!
“. . . anyone who gives you a cup of water in my Name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” Mark 9:41
Happy Thanksgiving!
- Jim and Nancy Smith
Laban Ministries International
P.O. Box 1712
Columbia, TN 38402
Phone: 313-516-4883
Facebook: @labanministries
Email: labancongo@aol.com
LABAN MINISTRIES
OCTOBER 2023
Hi everyone,
We have a new development to share with you as well as our 2023 Christmas project.
Matching Funds: First the new development- We have been given $3,000 in matching funds. That means that every gift given up to $3,000 will be doubled! That is a wonderful opportunity to make the most of donations to Laban this month! So if you gift a $50 gift, it will become a $100 gift. If you donate a $1,000 gift, it will become a $2,000 gift!
Will you consider taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity?
Christmas Project for 2023: As far as the Christmas project this year, we have decided to go ahead and continue to provide beds to our staff, which is the third phase of the project we engaged in last year. As you recall, you provided 3 mattresses for each family serving Laban Ministries at the mission of Nkara. In addition you bought sheets for each family to cover the brand new mattresses as well as pillows, matching pillow cases, and blankets! What a wonderful improvement in the life of our brothers and sisters at Nkara.
However, a serious problem remains. Most of our staff do not live on cement floors, but mud floors, so the mattresses are not elevated but placed directly on mud floors and are subject to the effects of such.
Last year we gave you a quote of $180 and after a season of wonderful provision of all mattresses, sheets, pillows, and blankets, we were able to buy a total of 18 beds for our 6 pastors and their families. Will you ask the Lord if He would bless you enough to give the rest of beds needed for the remaining families? That would total the number of beds needed at 87 as each family needs three beds to match the 3 mattresses donated to each staff family. As in America, inflation has run wild in Congo and now we will need $250 for each group of 3 beds.
We are excited about the matching funds opportunity and the completion of the beds for our staff for Christmas!
By the way, a beautiful new mill to grind manioc roots has been provided! Thank you. Thank you.
Soon the Bible Institute students will return for their senior year, and a brand new batch of women will be enrolled in our Women’s Literacy School.
Praise God for our faithful leadership on this, our 85th anniversary of ministry in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Jim and Nancy Smith
Laban Ministries International
P.O. Box 1712
Columbia, TN 38402
Phone: 313-516-4883
Facebook: @labanministries
Email: labancongo@aol.com
Laban Ministries International
September 2023
Dear Ministry Partners,
We have more good news from Congo. After 4 great days at the villages of Ekubi and Tebetebe, our team traveled to a place called Kanga, a village that Dr. Smith visited around 1949 and supplied with a teacher who had accepted Christ at Nkara as well as was baptized there. While Laban was there, he could see their interest in spiritual things. Jim also returned to Kanga during our second term in Africa in the mid 1980’s, during which time he attended a large baptismal service. Pastor Ebobo responded to their invitation to return these many years later and evangelize. So off they went, and 5,200 people showed up. More than 1,000 indicated they wanted Jesus as their Savior!
During their time at Tebetebe, the chief gave the following testimony:
“My name is Chief Kidishusha. I give you servants of God (the pastors, worship team, and staff who traveled to Tebetebe) great thanks and special honor. Before you arrived at Tebetebe the first time (March of 2022), I was a bandit. I did this and that and all kinds of things. I did not know God, and I never went to church either. Then you came and placed your feet on Tebetebe, and I became a child of God. What I did know was drugs, and fighting was my world. The team from Laban brought out my heart so that I could know God. Jesus put me in a bottle (so as to confine me and get his attention). I received a heart to know God, and now I am in God. Now I am asking the team from Laban that you do not tire of us. Do not forget us. Tebetebe has undergone a complete change. There’s new life and peace. There is worship and prayer. Don’t tire of coming back. No. No. No.”
We know you are rejoicing with us at this news!
In this letter are photos of Kanga and the Chief of Tebetebe. Also, you will view a photo of our dilapidated mill that was used to grind the root manioc which is their daily mainstay into flour. It has served us long and well, but the time has come to replace it. Mills are available in Kikwit for $800-$1000. Otherwise, the manioc has to be pounded with a long pole, which is very hard on the body. Vero, wife of Pastor Ebobo, is pictured showing you the process.
How can we thank you for your continued prayer and financial backing of this ministry? Praise God, things have picked up financially, but we’re not there quite yet! Thank you for being part of the solution. Someday you will meet our evangelism team, our staff, and the people at Ekubi, Tebetebe, and Kanga who are now accepted in the Beloved because you provided a way for them to know Christ! Our cup is full!
Servants of the Living Christ,
Jim and Nancy Smith
Laban Ministries International
P.O. Box 1712
Columbia, TN 38402
Phone: (313) 516-4883
FB: @labanministries
Email: labancongo@aol.com
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Laban Ministries International
August 2023
Hi Friends,
Good News: Some of you will remember a while back when the big MAN truck was on its way filled with students and Laban staff pastors to revisit the villages of Ekubi and Tebetebe, and suddenly it stopped moving. Many months later plus the supply of another motor for the monstrous vehicle which amounted to over $10,000 by the time you add up the cost of our pastors traveling to the capital of Congo by bus plus food and lodging, the MAN is now back on the road. It will be leaving Nkara on August 17th and returning on Aug 20th to follow up all of those decisions where possible and provide day long meetings teaching basic Bible principles and more evangelism to reach new ones who will come by to see what is going on.
Please pray for safety and a successful round trip to these two very large villages some hours away from our mission. We ask you to pray also for clarity in the minds of those preaching, teaching, and listening, good health for the team going, and prayers for the defeat of Satan, who will try to delay and/or prevent this thrust from taking place.
In our last newsletter we touched on the harsh effect of the summer slump. There has been little relief so far, and we are once again coming to you asking for your help. It is by the grace of God that Laban Ministries is now in its 85th year in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And YOU have helped make that possible.
“As it is written, he (the benevolent person) scatters abroad; he gives to the poor; his deeds of justice and goodness and kindness and benevolence will go on and endure forever.” II Cor. 9:9
In His Amazing Grace,
Jim and Nancy Smith
Evangelism outreach at Ekubi and Tebetebe - March 2022
Laban Ministries International
P.O. Box 1712
Columbia, TN 38402
Phone: (313) 516-4883
FB: @labanministries
Email: labancongo@aol.com
Support Laban Ministries while you shop on Amazon!
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/38-2974598
Laban Ministries International
July 2023
Dear Friends,
We are so happy to report that although our evangelism team was unable to get back to the big villages of Ekubi and Tebe Tebe where many professed Christ early last year because of slow financial months in May and June, our team was able to get up the hill from our mission to Ntshiangobo and the village of Mpene just down the road last Sunday. Historically, Mpene is the only village that rejected Laban and Marcella Smith: their presence and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On one trip, some years back, our truck took off to attempt to present Jesus once again to them after some unsuccessful trips, and they were so resistant that they threw rocks and mud balls at us, so we “wiped the dust from our feet” and returned to Nkara. Several years later, a new chief was named at Mpene, and he apologized for his village’s behavior and asked if we would come back for a return visit. We did and some were responsive. This past weekend in the two villages, 1080 people showed up, and 220 responded to the Gospel. How we praise the Lord that His word is never chained!
II Timothy 2:9.
Be sure to look at all the pictures Pastor Ebobo sent. Check out our Facebook page as well at Laban Ministries for a video of Pastor Ebobo’s passionate preaching!
This summer will be dedicated to reaching out to our surrounding villages close to Nkara, and when we have the funds it takes to get back to the big villages miles from our mission, you can be sure that the much needed follow up in these war torn places because of property disputes will take place!
We are so grateful that many of you pray fervently for Laban. Please join us in praying for the lull that summer brings on. You have been so generous and kind to our staff of 41 who look to Jesus every month for sustenance.
Gratefully,
Jim and Nancy Smith
Laban Ministries International
P.O. Box 1712
Columbia, TN 38402
Phone: (313) 516-4883
FB: @labanministries
Email: labancongo@aol.com
Support Laban Ministries while you shop on Amazon!
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/38-2974598
Laban Ministries International
June 2023
Dear Friends,
The school year for both Laban Bible Institute and the Women’s Literacy School, named after our dear and precious friend, the late Jody Voth, are soon coming to the close of another year. Thank you for praying, giving, and delighting in their Bible centered education which is life transforming to them.
As some of you may remember, our big MAN truck of several tons broke down on the way to a significant follow up trip after many people in the villages of Ekubi and Tebe Tebe made professions last fall. A replacement motor was provided by a local church in the Detroit area last October, and we are so happy to report that this wonderful instrument is up and running. We have purchased a 55 gallon drum of diesel and a 55 gallon drum of gasoline so all 36 people, including our students at LBI, staff pastors, musicians, and truck team can return there later on in June, Lord willing. Now we need to provide food to feed them all. Please pray for safety and successful travel as everyone is greatly anticipating this trip before our students return home for the summer.
Those of you who read our last newsletter know that we are planning a trip to Congo in January, 2024. Never in the history of Laban Ministries have 3 generations visited Nkara at one time. We are thrilled to say the least! Jack, Molly, and their 5 children, Bella 17, Jackson 15, Landry 14, Reagan 12, and Judah 5 plus Jim and Nancy prayerfully will make our way to the land that has planted a rich heritage in our lives. The children and Molly will for the first time set their eyes on what we consider sacred soil where both Laban and Marcella gave their lives in 1953 and 1978. They will see the beloved faces of people we discuss around the dinner table in America, meet their children, hear their music, imbibe their culture, and eat their food. They will rub shoulders with some whose descendants once ate human flesh. Now, clothed and in their right mind, educated and advanced by the Word of God, these amazing individuals speak on average 5 languages, hold professorships in the Bible institute, and financially back other bush pastors who live on next to nothing, realizing that God can and does make much of their limited resources for the sake of His Kingdom.
Such men and women Jim and Nancy consider spiritual nobility who through hardship and provision, joy and sorrow, sickness and health, trek out daily lives in a country with no infrastructure, no social security, no welfare, and no sophisticated or progressive health facility in their area. They have lain on cement floors in the night fasting and praying for direction for Laban Ministries. They know what it’s like to go hungry and thirsty for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are soldiers and warriors for God, and our grandchildren will soon eat with them around our table, laugh with them, hear their fervent and effectual prayers, watch them in action teaching and ministering in various capacities, and see their wonderful personalities. They have no running water and electricity unless they own a small generator. In reality, the children will step back in time more than a century to experience what life was once like for their ancestors. It’s impossible to convey our excitement over this opportunity for them to taste and see that the Lord is good in our beloved Congo. What a rare privilege!
Will you consider making this dream a reality? We simply cannot do it without your help. You have been so very faithful in making many dreams come true. Will you pray for all the details and ask the Lord if He would have you involve yourself financially in getting us all there together?
Servants of Christ,
Jim and Nancy Smith, Jack and Molly, Bella, Jackson, Landry, Reagon, and Judah
MAN truck
Molly, Reagan, and Judah all getting their yellow fever immunizations in preparation for our trip!
Laban Ministries International
P.O. Box 1712
Columbia, TN 38402
Phone: (313) 516-4883
FB: @labanministries
Email: labancongo@aol.com
Support Laban Ministries while you shop on Amazon!
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/38-2974598
Laban Ministries International
May 2023
Laban Family,
Laban Ministries is generational. Laban and Marcella pioneered this work in 1938 in a very dark period of Congo’s history. They worked with 3 tribes before being invited by the Bayanzi people to come tell them about Jesus. After Laban’s death in 1953, Marcella carried on the work alone until 1978, when she died in her bedroom at Nkara totally unknown when we landed on Congo’s shores less than 1 month later. Now our youngest son, Jack, born in the bush of Africa 6 months after our arrival is at the helm.
As of January 2024, Lord willing, we will have the opportunity in person to visually lay before some of our grandchildren their African heritage. How exciting is that! Jack, his wife, Molly, and their 5 children: Isabella, Jackson, Landry, Reagan, and Judah, as well as Jim and myself are planning to go to Congo. If a picture is worth a thousand words, just imagine what an impact they will receive experiencing for themselves the sights, sounds, touch, taste, and history of their great grandparents’ work and what it looks like today!!!
They will personally meet our dedicated staff, students at Laban Bible Institute, the women attending the literacy school, give their greetings at the airport, have a chance to broadcast on Radio Glory, ride the plains, witness work done at the dispensary, attend church services in another language, and take in a third world culture.
This will be very challenging. The logistics are many. That’s where you come in. Will you:
1. Please pray seriously with us for every detail involved including passing COVID tests going and coming at the airport in Kinshasa, good health, adaptation to the water (we boil all of ours), climate change (hot, hot, and hot in January), protection from snakes, culture shock, significant time change (6 hours difference), and resting in the wonder of God’s grace to receive all that He has for each of them.
2. Consider helping us with the costs of tickets, immunizations, visas, food, lodging, transport into the interior which will most likely require chartering the MAF plane from Kinshasa to Nkara and back to Kinshasa again, and the LONG plane ride to and from Congo.
As always, there are enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ on our mission. We have enemies as did Laban and Marcella. This will be a witness that there will be others to step forward someday. Things will certainly not end with us nor with Jack. From that standpoint, the trip is very important as well.
Thank you for standing with us, for praying for us, and for giving to make this a beautiful and profound reality!
Jim and Nancy Smith
Laban Ministries International
P.O. Box 1712
Columbia, TN 38402
Phone: (313) 516-4883
FB: @labanministries
Email: labancongo@aol.com
Support Laban Ministries while you shop on Amazon!
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/38-2974598
Laban Ministries International
April 2023
Hello Laban Family,
This newsletter will be short and sweet, basically asking you to join us in prayer for the following prayer requests:
Please continue to pray as we plan a future trip to Congo which will include Jim and Nancy Smith and other members of the family! More information on that in the May newsletter.
April trip for three of our pastors and mechanic to make the trip to Kinshasa to buy the new motor for our MAN truck:
- Safety on the long bus ride from the town of Kikwit all the way to the capital city through winding roads in the dark of night.
- Protection from theft and bandits in Kinshasa as our men travel the roads to find just the right motor. This will take days of scrutinizing, discerning, praying, and finally choosing the motor that the Lord has in mind.
Strength and health as our Laban Bible Institute students travel back to their villages for Easter break. Because the big truck is out of commission and unable to drop them off closer to their destinations, some will have to walk for days to get home and then return 2 weeks later for class.
A fervent prayer of ours for ourselves as well as for the 41 members of the overseas staff of Laban Ministries International is that we all continue to end well. The Laban staff in Congo has been in a very sweet spot for the last several years under the leadership of Pastor Mboma. Your continued prayers for them to act with courage, to refuse compromising, protection from our enemies on the mission, good health and healing from the tropical diseases they face, which can take their babies in a few hours, and strength to face their trials in a land with no infrastructure are desperately needed and effectual.
Determination and good health for our ladies in the Women’s Literacy School as they wind up their second year of classes. They face taunts and ridicule from other village women who have a low tolerance level for other women who live outside the box of routine village life year after year. Our valiant women yearn for a better life of literacy and leaving the mediocrity of ignorance, but face paying prices to achieve the ability to read, study God’s Word, and learn new skills.
Thank you so much for your provision of 10 sacks of cement for the Yangalala Church! We are so grateful for you all.
In Christ’s Matchless Name,
Jim and Nancy Smith
Laban Ministries International
P.O. Box 1712
Columbia, TN 38402
Phone: (313) 516-4883
FB: @labanministries
Email: labancongo@aol.com
Support Laban Ministries while you shop on Amazon!
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/38-2974598
Laban Ministries International
March 2023
Hello everyone,
Great news from Congo. All is well. This is the month to honor women there. So three of our staff, Mama Elise (our midwife and President of the Federation of Women in our area, Mama Janine, Assistant Director of the Women’s Literacy School, and Mama Noel, instructor in the literacy school, all spoke on the value and benefit of being a woman who fears God on Radio Glory. The population loved it! In a call yesterday to our head pastors of Laban at Nkara, we talked about the transformation of the women who were saved under Dr. Laban and Marcella’s ministry in the late forties and the women of today. What a transformation it is, our pastors commented. It will encourage you to know what a difference the women’s school has made in the lives of our graduates and present students. The fact that they can read and grasp God’s Word has been like a re-wallpapering of their minds to replace their shame and ignorance with dignity, literacy, and confidence in knowing they are loved and deeply treasured by the God of the universe. He is theirs. He’s working in their lives. He speaks to them. They have access to Him through prayer and the act of opening His mouth through the reading of His words and thoughts. His power can now be theirs. This is Psalm 3:3 in action: “But you, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.” These souls, many of whom, not only cannot read anything, including the notes their children bring home from school, but even much more serious, do not know Christ as their Savior often as they enter class. But as the power of God’s Word is unleashed, absorbed, and processed in their minds, they can say, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me the gladness and joy of my heart.” Jeremiah 15:16.
The Yangalala Church (rejoicing church) in the village of Nkara is growing and has recently purchased 10 bags of cement to pave the inside floor of the building. We’d love to match them with another 10 bags to help them along, just as you helped them years ago by matching the tin they purchased with an equal amount until the roof was completed. They didn’t ask us to do this, but what a great source of encouragement that would be. Pastor Isaac (Dean of Academics at Laban Bible Institute) is what we would call a co pastor of Yangalala and no longer has to make the long trek on foot 2 or 3 times a week to encourage believers and preach there. Thank you so much for the motorbike you provided for him. He is so grateful!
Thank you for continuing to train and feed the dorm students at Laban Bible Institute. They are amazed at God’s goodness and your generosity.
The fact that Radio Glory continues to beam the Gospel of Jesus Christ everyday in Congo is testimony to the Lord’s incredible provision and your prayers. This ministry is so loved and cherished by the population and the only “Bible” many will ever have. By the way, continue to pray that Bibles will become available once again. We need them for the general population when the evangelism team goes out and for all of our female and male students. They have been scarce for so long.
We stand amazed at your faithfulness and hearts for souls. It’s impossible to adequately describe the influence you have and continue to have in our part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. God bless you and return to you a hundred fold the investment that you continue to make in this work, now approaching 85 years in the bush of Africa this October! “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.” Proverbs 11:30
Servants of the Living God,
Jim and Nancy Smith
Laban Ministries International
P.O. Box 1712
Columbia, TN 38402
Phone: (313) 516-4883
FB: @labanministries
Email: labancongo@aol.com
Support Laban Ministries while you shop on Amazon!
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/38-2974598