WHY ARE WE ACTIVE ALONG THE CONGO RIVER?
Jacques Vernaud knew the needs of the people living along rivers. Indeed, he saw it with his own eyes. As he grew up in Gabon, he repeatedly navigated on dugout canoes to bring the Gospel to those who had never heard of the Creator God.
In the mid 1960’s, when he arrived in Léopoldville (old name of the city of Kinshasa) with his wife Johanna, the desire to minister on the river is still within his heart.
He buys a small boat to evangelize. He fixes it up with a motor and cabin. Unfortunately, the boat sinks twice. Jacques sets this project aside. It was unknown to him that some decades later he would have an encounter that would revive his vision.
In 2005, Claire Tutonda is told she has blood cancer. This cancer is caused by poisoning perpetrated by a member of her family who wanted to harm her because of her fervent faith in Christ. As she works in the medical field, the personnel tell her of the seriousness of her state of health and encourage her to write a will.
When she informs her husband accordingly, he encourages her to hold on, persuaded she will not die, and that she will one day testify to the glory of God.
In August 2006, suffering from her illness, Claire asks her pastor Jacques Vernaud’s help at La Borne church in Kinshasa. He invites her to a church meeting. There she is anointed with oil and prayed for.
However, her state continues to deteriorate. Nearly one year later, beginning July 2007, in great pain, she returns to see Pastor Vernaud. Jacques Vernaud advises her to forgive the person guilty of her poisoning. The following day she meets this person who poisoned her and tell him she loves him.
On July 20, 2007, two separate medical check-ups confirm the total remission of Claire Tutonda. There are no more cancerous cells.
With this news, Claire makes a vow, as a thanksgiving to God: she will go anywhere the Lord would send her to testify of his love and his goodness.
During this period, an American donates a river boat to the NGO managed by Claire’s boss. Claire convinces her boss to transform a boat he was already using for business purposes into a hospital boat, and to allocate the boat received from the American as a pharmacy, administrative site, and for transportation of the medical staff.
In January 2008, as she is aboard her boss’ boat, Claire asks Jacques Vernaud and the church for prayers of support because she knows she will enter a zone where spiritual warfare is intense.
On May 24, 2008, Claire calls pastor Vernaud. She is exhausted from the spiritual battle she is enduring with the people in her environment.
She shares the fact that medical care is quasi-nonexistent in villages along the Congo River and its tributaries. There are no health centers, nor clinics. The remaining hospitals dating from the Belgium colony are in a dilapidated state. On the ground, the personnel lack medical supplies and basic equipment. The population is constantly facing epidemics and all kinds of illnesses.
From a spiritual point of view, there is a great thirst for the Gospel. A false gospel is taught, mixed with occult practices. Bibles are rare.
Back in Kinshasa, Claire speaks to Pastor Vernaud and suggests the La Borne Church have its own river boat, focusing on evangelism and medical care as a mission. Pastor Jacques Vernaud shares with her the previous vision he had to navigate the Congo River in order to reach isolated communities and to share the Gospel.
That is when he decides to launch the «evangelization and hospital boat» project.
THE JACQUES ANDRE VERNAUD FOUNDATION FOCUSES ON THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE PHYSICAL, SOCIAL, MORAL AND SPIRITUAL LIFE OF THE POPULATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO.
ORGANIZATION OF THE FOUNDATION
Murielle Vernaud Friedman
President
IRIS VERNAUD Ketcham
Vice-President
Jacques M'Pindou
Treasurer
Maître Alain Kasonga
Legal advisor
Jamie Friedman
Advisor
Jeff Ketcham
Advisor