Their heart is still in Congo, but the Groves’ are waiting for peace before they return.

By Michael Wacht

ST. PETERSBURG — Road blocks, vehicle searches, two weeks of detainment and questioning, his wife held at gunpoint and hand grenades held in front of his face were not what Delbert Groves was expecting while doing missionary work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire.

When that nation’s three-year civil war began hitting close to home, Groves said it was time to get his family to safety.

"I just said, ‘Sandy, it’s time for us to get out of the country," he said. "Our work there is going well and our heart is there, but we’re going to wait until the craziness is over."

Groves is a member of Orlando’s Pine Castle United Methodist Church and has been a missionary in Congo off and on since 1982. He and his family—his wife, Sandy, and two of his sons, Seth, 14, and Nathan, 10—have lived in Congo full time since 1992.

Prior to returning to Florida for the current school year, the Groves family lived in Kolwezi, a mining village in the southern part of the country near the Zambian border. Delbert Groves, who owned a print shop in Orlando prior to becoming a missionary, set up and ran a printing shop in the village. It is called "Uzima Mupya," which is Swahili for New Creation.

Groves printed Bibles in Swahili and French, as well as letterhead and Bible study materials. He was working on a song book and Bible story book in the local language when his family left.

Groves’ wife is a medical lab technologist who worked in the Kolwezi Poli-Clinique, an old hotel missionaries converted to a hospital. The clinic provides minor surgical and maternity services for the area. Groves said his wife’s goal is to build a laboratory and set up a nurse training facility when they return. "A microscope and training is all that’s needed," he said.

Groves said he misses his work, friends, partners and colleagues in Congo and is "very sad" over events in the nation.

"It breaks our hearts to see what’s going on," Groves said. "The rebels have taken land and butchered people…they’ve made it illegal to change money so you can’t get money into the country to support ministry…and they’re driving people out of the country."

Despite peace treaties that have been signed, he said the fighting continues, and he expects the country will eventually be divided.

When European nations were colonizing Africa, they created countries that cut across cultures and people, according to Groves. The people of Katanga, in the southern part of the country, merged into what was then Zaire. That is the land the rebels now hold. "The Africans want to get back to their traditions," he said.

The civil war is not the only difficulty missionaries in Africa face, Groves said. The United Methodist Church structure reflects tribal structures there. Unchurched people don’t see a difference between their lives and life in the church. They see the church as another tribe in competition with their own.