The Land Testimony

As 2023 came to a close, Elijah and I had just returned to the United States after spending four months in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. If you remember from our Serving in Congo blog, one of the last things we shared was about a piece of property in Miramba that we had begun praying over before leaving. We had no idea what the Lord was going to do with it, but we felt He was giving us a “Joshua promise.” Just as the Lord had gone before Joshua and prepared the Promised Land for him to possess, we believed He was going before us and preparing land for One By One Ministries.

Before leaving Congo, we had begun raising the $13,000 needed to purchase the property and, within a short time, received $850 toward the goal. As our departure drew closer, however, we realized that even if we had all the money, we still weren’t ready to move forward. One By One Ministries’ official paperwork in Congo was still unfinished, and we felt the property should be purchased in the ministry’s name rather than our own.

After returning home, we focused on preparing the ministry rather than pursuing the property. We continued working to complete One By One Ministries’ paperwork in Congo, shared the vision with more people, and began looking for ways to raise support for the land the Lord had promised.

By March, very little had gone according to plan. The paperwork in Congo continued to be delayed, and the fundraiser we had organized gained very little traction. As the weeks passed, discouragement began to set in, and I found myself wondering if we had somehow misunderstood what the Lord was doing.

Then, in April, another opportunity came.

A neighboring piece of property, about half an acre in size, became available for $6,000. By then, we had already raised $3,000, leaving us halfway to our goal. It wasn’t the property we had originally set out to buy, but it seemed like a door the Lord was opening.

Over the next several weeks, we continued looking for ways to raise the remaining money. I looked into hosting a pancake breakfast, asked around about organizing a chicken barbecue, and kept waiting. As the weeks passed, I began to lose hope and found myself asking Elijah—and even the Lord—why something we believed He had promised felt so hard to reach.

As the Lord often does, He answered in a way I never expected. The very next day, someone unexpectedly gave One By One Ministries $2,000 toward the land—the largest single gift we had ever received.

That gift brought us within $1,000 of our goal, and by June, the remaining funds had come in. We finally had everything we needed.

From there, our team in Congo handled the purchasing process. There were still documents to complete and details to work through, but in August 2024, the papers were officially signed.

One By One Ministries owned its very first piece of land.