Leader Bio
Mwema Bertin
I was born in 1987 in DRC Masisi. I came from a Christian family background. Both my parents were Christians and my father served as a pastor in the Pentecostal Church in the 90s. When my father was still alive, he took much time to intentionally teach me the way to obey and to serve God. He wanted me to be like him.
At the age of 11, my father died and the whole church came to the funeral. The pastor who led the funeral encouraged us not to cry. He said that our father was not dead but was with the Lord. So, at my young age, I agreed with the pastor thinking that my father was going to take a few days with the Lord and come back to us.
Later my brothers, sister, and I realized that our father was not coming back until the coming of Christ. Because we struggled so much with this, I convinced my brothers and sister not to go to church again. I was angry with the Lord for taking my father. This was my mindset then. Only my mother continued going to the church regularly.
Later I decided to leave my mother and join my uncle who was a typical Muslim and who started taking me to the mosque.
Then one day my mother became very sick and when I heard this I decided to go back home and see her. Arriving home, I found her close to death, so I decided to stay with her. The following day my mother reminded me what my father taught me when he was still alive. She asked me to pray with her every evening before bed. After 5 days my mother was feeling much better and continued touching my heart, reading me the word of God. Praying with her every evening my heart was finally broken with the realization of my sin and the Lord's love for me. With tears, I repented and accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior. I was overwhelmed with peace and joy.
After I explained to my uncle about my decision to receive Christ, he seriously persecuted me, and I experienced a difficult struggle during this time. He immediately stopped paying for my school fees, but God was my faithful provider.
After my conversion, I quickly started doing ministry. I was young but God used me and gave me the opportunity to serve Him and the desire to serve the Lord grew in my life. One day a Baptist missionary from Rwanda visited and God spoke to him to pay for my school fees. This missionary continued discipling me and after my secondary studies he sent me to Uganda Baptist Seminary to expand my knowledge. There I received a Bachelor of Theology degree and I now serve as the president of Communaute des Eglises Evangelique Baptiste au Congo (Community of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Congo).
After getting married and completing Seminary, I came back and planted a church in Goma as well as other churches beyond Goma.
My first targets were to minister to the unreached people, serve to the poor, orphans, widows, and youth who were traumatized.
My country is war-torn. Many young people, after their studies are complete, can’t wait to join the army—even those who are underage. It is rare to find a young church leader or pastor in churches here.
Several years ago, I experienced the Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry training. I have implemented aspects of it in my churches, denominations, youth ministries, etc.
JFYM has come to be the solution to the youth of my country and for church leaders who say that young people don’t deserve any position in church. Now I am the JFYM country leader for DRCongo. For many years I had asked God to provide me tools that would help me to reach young people of my country. JFYM is the answer. I am training other leaders in JFYM and our goal is to reach every corner of the Congo with the training.
Contact Mwema: bertinmwema@gmail.com