Hillsboro, Kan., USA – Maleghi Lumeya has recently been appointed Ministre des affaires foncières (minister of land [property]) of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Lumeya, who has served as a national congressman, is the first Mennonite Brethren to serve at this level of government in DR Congo.

“Serving in the political arena is like being a Good Samaritan,” says Lumeya, the son of a Mennonite Brethren pastor and an attorney by profession. “It’s an opportunity for the poor to see the hand of God.”

Nzash Lumeya, Maleghi’s brother who lives in Fresno, Cal., asks Mennonites around the world to pray for Maleghi as he strives to influence the decisions being made in DR Congo.

“Maleghi and his wife Lyly confess Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord,” says Nzash. “They belong to the Mennonite Brethren church in Congo. Humility and wisdom are much needed as they serve ‘as unto the Lord’ in our beloved country.”

DR Congo is currently led by president Joseph Kabila, whose presidential term ended in 2016, but he continues to hold office. In April, Kabila appointed Bruno Tshibala, a former leading member of the main opposition coalition, as prime minister. A new transitional government, of which Maleghi Lumeya is a member, was sworn into office May 2017.

Nzash says Maleghi’s political involvement is inspired by John Redekop, a Canadian Mennonite Brethren church leader, author and professor of political science at Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ont., who also served as a city councillor in Abbotsford, B.C.

Maleghi attended Redekop’s seminars on principles for political involvement in Kinshasa in 2003.

Nzash points to characters from the Bible like Joseph and Daniel who played a prophetic role in government. “Congo is a place where God’s name can be made known,” he says.

—A Mennonite World Conference release by Connie Faber, originally published in the Christian Leader, the magazine of the U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren. 

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