The Words of the Kayembe Family

Our Brother Kayembe from Kongo

Pamela Stein
January 15, 2011

In February 1976, I arrived in Kinshasa, Zaire as one of the Overseas Missionaries that True Parents sent out to the world. My first nation was Brazzville, Congo -- just a miles across the river from Kinshasa, Zaire (formerly the Belgium Congo). The Congo-Brazzville was a communist state, and I could only stay there for six months. I was imprisoned and fortunately set free, to return to New York in December 1975. After a two month recovery period, True Father sent me back to Africa, this time to Zaire to join the American and Japanese missionary there.

We worked hard and lived humbly. It was in 1977 that the first members started to join us. It was an unforgettable time for the missionaries, who after two years of living in various circumstances of extreme humility and overcoming numerous occasions of serious illnesses and cultural challenges (like worm eggs under our toenails and eating fried caterpillars on occasion) -- that Zairian children called by God appeared on our hard-earned Center front door. We had moved into our first church center on God's Day 1977 in Kintambo, walking distance from our Holy Ground overlooking the Congo River (and Brazzaville!) by the Presidential Palace. It was a joy and a dilemma that here were spiritual children in the flesh, who wanted to live with us!

Kayembe was among those first members who came to our church center and asked to move in. He was a physical therapist at that time, working at the hospital. He was a very gentle, soft-spoken brother who was extremely intelligent and whom would laugh so easily. I remember Kayembe laughing more than any other activity. He was compassionate. 

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