Disability in Mission: The Church’s Hidden Treasure outlines a radical change in approaches to missiology, missions, and praxis for the twenty-first-century global cultural context. It explores a pattern whereby God works powerfully in missions through disability and not in spite of it. No matter what our disability or vulnerability may be, God can use us; and if the body of Christ is supportive, people with disability can be effective agents of transformation in the mission field. Via a number of case studies of people with disabilities who are involved in missions, and with robust biblical and missiological justification, this book examines the role of those with disability in missions. Includes a foreword by Joni Eareckson Tada. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Foreword by Joni Eareckson Tada Introduction by Nathan G. John 1. Disability and Biblical Weakness by David C. Deuel 2. Moses, Messenger of Weakness by David C. Deuel 3. Kingdom Impact through Weakness and Disability by Bonnie Baker Armistead 4. Unformed yet Ordained by J. M. Paul 5. Called and Equipped through Paraplegia by Barry Funnell 6. Paul the Leper and Olive the Servant by David C. Deuel 7. Being a Mission Partner with Disability in Kenya by Paul Lindoewood 8. People with Disabilities on Short-Term Mission by Jeff McNair 9. Weak to Weaker: For Children with Disabilities across the Globe by Natalie Flickner 10. Deciding to Go on Mission with Disability by Justin Reimer 11. Mission Possible: The Role of Member Care in Mobilizing Workers with Disabilities by Deanna Richey Conclusion: Disability and Mission: For His Glory by Nathan G. John

A largely untold story of an extraordinary historical figure, this biography sheds light on the life of William Sheppard, a 19th-century African American who, for more than 20 years, defied segregation and operated a missionary run by black Americans in the Belgian Congo. This work shows how Sheppard returned to the United States periodically, and traveled the country telling tales of his adventures to packed auditoriums. An anthropologist, photographer, big-game hunter, and art collector, the man billed as the &“Black Livingstone&” helped expose the atrocities that occurred under the reign of King Leopold, and this stirring work tells how he eventually helped to break Belgium's hold on the Congo.

In this volume, Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot, a sociologist and son of a Kimbanguist pastor, provides a fresh and insightful perspective on African Kimbanguism and its traditions. The largest of the African-initiated churches, Kimbanguism claims seventeen million followers worldwide. Like other such churches, it originated out of black African resistance to colonization in the early twentieth century and advocates reconstructing blackness by appropriating the parameters of Christian identity. Mokoko Gampiot provides a contextual history of the religion’s origins and development, compares Kimbanguism with other African-initiated churches and with earlier movements of political and spiritual liberation, and explores the implicit and explicit racial dynamics of Christian identity that inform church leaders and lay practitioners. He explains how Kimbanguists understand their own blackness as both a curse and a mission and how that underlying belief continuously spurs them to reinterpret the Bible through their own prisms. Drawing from an unprecedented investigation into Kimbanguism’s massive body of oral traditions—recorded sermons, participant observations of church services and healing sessions, and translations of hymns—and informed throughout by Mokoko Gampiot’s intimate knowledge of the customs and language of Kimbanguism, this is an unparalleled theological and sociological analysis of a unique African Christian movement.

A vivid portrayal of Kivebulaya's life that interrogates the role of indigenous agents as harbingers of change under colonization, and the influence of emerging polities in the practice of Christian faiths.

A Congolese refugee turned Christian humanitarian shares his inspiring story of survival, faith, and finding your purpose. Emmanuel Ntibonera's quiet life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was shattered when the Great War of Africa plunged his homeland into chaos. Only a boy, Emmanuel's childhood gave way to a daily fight for survival as a refugee. But when miracle-after-miracle pulled his family from the brink of death, Emmanuel devoted his life to God’s work, whatever that may be. Fifteen years after escaping the Congo, Emmanuel decided to leave the safe borders of America and trace his footsteps back to the life he left behind. What he discovered in the Congo—disease, extreme poverty, deficient infrastructure, and, worst of all, a prevalent spirit of hopelessness—changed his life forever, setting him on an ambitious mission. As Emmanuel started collecting gently used footwear to bring hope to his people, his work united thousands across the country.

Protestants entering Africa in the nineteenth century sought to learn from earlier Jesuit presence in Ethiopia and southern Africa. The nineteenth century was itself a century of missionary scramble for Africa during which the Jesuits encountered their Protestant counterparts as both sought to evangelize the African native. Encounters between Jesuits and Protestants in Africa, edited by Robert Alexander Maryks and Festo Mkenda, S.J., presents critical reflections on the nature of those encounters in southern Africa and in Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Fernando Po. Though largely marked by mutual suspicion and outright competition, the encounters also reveal personal appreciations and support across denominational boundaries and thus manifest salient lessons for ecumenical encounters even in our own time. This volume is the result of the second Boston College International Symposium on Jesuit Studies held at the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya) in 2016. Thanks to generous support of the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies at Boston College, it is available in Open Access.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a country ravaged by two civil wars, tribalism, nepotism and the undeniable hardship of daily life. This is the context of the life and ministry of Bishop Muhindo Isesomo and this book tells the remarkable story of his humble, yet bold proclamation of the Good News of Jesus in the jungles of eastern Congo. Born into a life of loincloths, Isesomo, in the midst of a hedonistic and wild youth had a radical conversion to Christ that set him on a path of sharing the gospel at every opportunity and transforming the lives of those God put in front of him. Without ever seeking higher office or power, but serving with integrity and faithfulness, he was consecrated as Bishop of North Kivu and entrusted with unifying a diocese that had seen years of social and political unrest. Based on extensive interviews and research, Joshua Maule masterfully tells this true story of a modern hero of the faith. Isesomo continues to declare God’s glory to all who will listen; may this book encourage others to follow his example.