David, Ngongo (d. 2004)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2004 Sep 6 p. 7

Birth date:

text of obituary:

Congo leader, a link to church's early years, dies

By AIMM News Service

Ngongo David, former presient of the Congo Mennonite Church and one of its last surviving early leaders, died Aug. 18. His age was unknown but was probably in the high 90s.

"Pastor Ngongo and those of his generation were truly the founding fathers of today's large and growing Congo Mennonite Church," said Jim Bertsche, former executive secretary of Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission and a missionary in Congo from 1948 to 1974. "We all owe them a debt of profound gratitude."

Mennonite membership in Congo today is 194,000, according to Mennonite World Conference. Congo Mennonite Church is one of three Mennonite conferences in the country.

Ngongo was a colleague of the missionary pioneers, beginning in the 1920s. He and others trekked with the missionaries on foot, encountered villagers' initial resistance and hostility, and witnessed the conversion and baptism of the first handfuls of believers.

His ministry was characterized by the conviction that news about Jesus is good news for Africans. Coming out of traditional African culture, with its fear of evil spirits, he preached that Jesus defeated the evil powers when he die on the cross and rose from the dead.

Ngongo became a Christian after AIMM missionaries, who first came to Congo in 1912, arrived among the Baphende people in 1921. He was among the boys who sat under a tree and watched a teacher trace strange marks on a board suspended from a branch and tell stories about someone names Yesu Kilisto in their language.