“Go to the nearest CRC, and they will help you.” That's the advice a Congolese pastor looking for a place to worship with his Arizona congregation got from a fellow transplanted pastor in Michigan. Three months later, Embassy Church had its first service in the fellowship hall of Phoenix (Ariz.) Christian Reformed Church.
The congregations of Phoenix CRC and Embassy Church, which have been sharing a building since October 2024, worshiped together for Pentecost, June 8. About 20 people from Embassy Church and 80 from Phoenix CRC participated in the combined service. Teens from both churches sang “Takadamu,” “Lead the Way” in Swahili, at the beginning of the time of worship. Phoenix CRC pastor Anthony DeKorte preached from Acts 16, and highlighted the Pentecost as a consequence of Easter, “Pentecost provides a multicultural picture of the people of God … Pentecost is an invitation to live inside an alternative community, the kingdom of God.”
Fabiola Jenson, a leader in the Embassy church, taught the teens to sing together. “Just like the words of the song ‘Takadamu,’ the students worked together to learn the words and helped one another,” she said. “The song is partly in English and partly in Swahili, so those that had learned the song in high school helped those that were learning it for the first time.”
This was the third joint worship service for the two congregations in the short time since Embassy Church began meeting in the CRC building. Embassy pastor Joe Rwemera first visited Phoenix CRC in July, after searching for a few months for a Christian church where he could meet with his parishioners—a group of Swahili-, Kinyarwanda-, and English-speakers who'd immigrated to the U.S. over the past several years.
DeKorte said Rwemera came straight to the church after a flight back from Michigan where he'd seen his friend Claude Maseruka Ngendahayo, pastor of Victory Fellowship, which meets in the building of Oakdale Park Church in Grand Rapids. "Claude told his friend, Joe, ‘When you get back to Phoenix go to the nearest CRC, and they will help you.’ That's exactly what Joe did. His return flight to Phoenix was July 7. It was a Sunday. Joe drove the five miles from the airport to PCRC and worshipped with us, leaving his luggage in our lobby," DeKorte said. Soon Rwemera and DeKorte were meeting weekly for encouragement and relationship. On Oct. 6, Embassy Church had its first service in the fellowship hall of Phoenix CRC.
Teens from both congregations make up a single youth group at the church and are traveling almost 1,250 miles (2,010 km) to Gallatin Valley, Mont., for a SERVE trip together July 12-19. DeKorte said because the Phoenix CRC youth group meets every other week on a Sunday, at about the time the Embassy church’s afternoon service is ending, “It seemed like an obvious invite for us to make since they did not have a youth group nor the leadership capacity to lead one.”
About the Author
Sarah DeGraff is a freelance news correspondent for The Banner. She lives in Madison, Wisc., where she is studying for her Masters in Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin.
