CHICAGO, IL (October 5, 2010) – Evangelical Covenant Church President Gary Walter will get a first-hand look at the ministries of the Congo Covenant Church (CEUM) when he arrives in the African nation on Wednesday for a visit that will run through October 15. He left Chicago today.

Walter is traveling with other Covenant representatives that include Curt Peterson, executive minister of the Department of World Mission, and Harold Spooner, vice president of Outreach Ministries. Covenant missionaries and Byron Miller, executive director of the Paul Carlson Partnership, will join the group. Miller has been in Congo helping to establish the Farmers to Market microenterprise project.

The trip will include visits to hospitals and schools as well as discussions on strengthening mutual ministry.

“This is an important trip to Congo because it is an important time for Congo,” Walter said Monday afternoon. “God has given us this relationship for a reason and we intend to live into it as partners in the gospel.”

Walter will return home following the Congo trip, but Peterson will travel to South Africa as a Covenant representative to Cape Town 2010: The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, which will be held October 16-25.

The conference is being held in collaboration with the World Evangelical Alliance and will bring together 4,000 leaders from more than 200 countries to confront critical issues, such as relationships with other faiths, poverty, HIV/AIDS, and persecution. Attendance is by invitation.

Several other Covenanters from the United States and around the world also will be participating.

Covenant News Service will cover both events through Covenant Newswire, Twitter, and Facebook.