Life as missionaries in the Congo has given Sherrill and her family an up-close look at the faithfulness of God.  In this conversation, we talk about how the gospel weaves itself into Sherrill’s everyday moments: shared meals, long travels, homeschooling, ministering, and more. She shares how the Farming God’s Way curriculum is helping transform not just land, but hearts, as locals learn to release superstition and trust God for provision. From stories of healing and answered prayer to a peek at living in true gospel community, this episode offers a glimpse into a calling that is both stretching and full of abundance!

In this episode, we cover:

• Sherrill shares what daily life looks like as a missionary family with three young sons serving in the Congo
• Their work focuses on discipling local people to carry the gospel into their own communities
• Farming God’s Way curriculum teaches how agriculture and faith are deeply connected, as modeled in the Bible
• Many communities tie farming to spirituality, so learning to turn from witchcraft and trust God with the land is part of discipleship
• Examples of how Scripture speaks to restoration in every area of life, including food production and the fruitfulness of the land
• The beauty of ministry unfolding in everyday moments: traveling, eating together, and visiting remote villages
• How daily life on their team models true gospel community: living in close proximity, sharing meals, prayer, and everyday moments together
• The contrast between American independence and the reliance on God that is required in impoverished communities
• Miraculous stories of people witnessing God’s provision through physical healing, rain, and daily needs being met
• How the team honors leadership structures in the Congo and focuses on reaching local leaders in order to open the door for entire villages to receive the gospel
• A look at raising and homeschooling children within mission life as they integrate family and calling 
• The importance of simple, relational discipleship that multiplies from one person to the next

Thank you to our sponsors!

McMurrayHatchery.com | A wide selection of poultry breeds and supplies to assist you with raising your flock

Nutrimill.com | High-quality small kitchen appliance products that function well, are easy to use, and promote healthy eating

About Sherrill

Sherrill Kaonga, along with her husband Saviour, serves with Overland Missions, a ministry focused on reaching remote and unreached communities with the Gospel. Together they work in the Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo with their three boys, where they are actively involved in missions work throughout the region.

Through their ministry in Congo and Zambia, Saviour and Sherrill help teach local communities practical skills such as caring for the land and growing their own food. This agricultural training supports families in becoming more self-sufficient while also creating meaningful opportunities to share the message of the Gospel.

Their work reflects the broader mission of Overland Missions—bringing both practical help and spiritual encouragement to some of the most remote places in the world.

Resources Mentioned

Learn more about Farming God’s Way and upcoming training events

Visit Overland Missions to support Sherrill and her family’s ministry

Connect

Sherrill Kaonga of Overland Missions | Website | Instagram

Homesteaders of America | Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Pinterest

Farming, the Gospel, and Miracles: Raising a Young Family on Mission in the Congo Transcript

Amy Fewell Welcome to the Homesteaders of America Podcast, where we encourage simple living, hard work, natural healthcare, real food, and building an agrarian society. If you’re pioneering your way through modern noise and conveniences, and you’re an advocate for living a more sustainable and quiet life, this podcast is for you. Welcome to this week’s podcast. I’m your host, Amy Fewell, and I’m the founder of the Homesteaders of America organization and annual events. If you’re not familiar with us, we are a resource for homesteading education and online support. And we even host a couple of in-person events each year with our biggest annual event happening right outside the nation’s capital here in Virginia every October. Check us out online at HomesteadersofAmerica.com. Follow us on all of our social media platforms and subscribe to our newsletter so that you can be the first to know about all things HOA (that’s short for Homesteaders of America). Don’t forget that we have an online membership that gives you access to thousands—yes, literally thousands—of hours worth of information and videos. It also gets you discount codes, an HOA decal sticker when you sign up, and access to event tickets before anyone else. All right. Let’s dive into this week’s episode. 

Amy Fewell Welcome back to the Homesteaders of America podcast. This week we are taking a little bit of a different approach to the HOA podcast. And I’m actually really excited about this because it kind of gives you guys a broader view of life and homesteading and teaching and just mission work. So this week I am welcoming Sherrill from Overland Missions to the podcast. Welcome Sherrill. 

Sherrill Kaonga Thank you so much. It was great to be here. 

Amy Fewell Yeah! So in a minute, I’m going to have you tell everyone who you are and what you guys do, but to give you guys like, how did we get Sherrill on here? Because I know sometimes people are like, “Well, how do you know this person?” And so a couple of years ago, Sherrill and her husband, Savior, were actually vendors for Overland Missions at the HOA conference. And I remember my husband running up to me—because it’s very hard for me to go look at vendor spots during the event because I’m just so busy and so I remember him running up to me. He’s like, “If there’s any vendor that you see at this event, you have to come see these guys. You have to meet them.” And so I’m not sure that you were there, Sherrill, at the time but you might’ve been walking around, but I know that your husband was there. And so we stopped by that vendor spot and I was just amazed at all the information you had and what you guys are doing. And I’m just honored that you’re here to talk to our audience about it. And you guys, before we get started, all of the information we talk about will be in the show notes of this podcast episode, whether it’s on YouTube or Spotify or wherever you’re watching. And so if you just feel led to give to their ministry at any time, that information will be there too. So, okay, Sherrill, why don’t you tell us who you are and what your story is? 

Sherrill Kaonga Sure. As Amy said, my family and I are missionaries with Overland Missions, working in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s an interesting place to live and to minister. But we have three boys, ranging from eight to three. And we’ve been on the ground in Congo since 2019/2020, but we actually met in Zambia. So I’ve been with Overland Missions for almost 16 years and stayed here for, I think, going on 10. So now we’re together as country directors for the work that Overland is doing in Congo. 

Amy Fewell Yeah, that’s amazing. Okay, so what does life look like in Congo? Because obviously that is far different from American living. 

Sherrill Kaonga It’s pretty unpredictable. We live in the midst of teams. So our whole heart is to raise up and send out local missionaries. And right now we have a very multicultural base here. We have a rental property that truly the Lord provided with nine two-bedroom houses and a big main center. So a lot of us live on the same property, but right now there’s four Americans, and five Zambians, and about 17 Congolese missionaries working full time all together. So we live in this community context in the midst of a very communal culture, but Congo in itself holds some very interesting things. I feel like the only things that people often know about Congo are super negative. And it’s true, like all those things are happening. It’s not like they’re not happening. We have an incredible amount of corruption where even, I mean, I think last week, Savior got the car like impounded by the police and he was like, “arrested,” but then it was on false charges, but he still had to pay them a fine: “Oh, but we arrested you.” “But I was innocent.” So you deal with a lot of the corruption and just some really interesting things with different mining riots. We live in Kowaisi, which is the cobalt mining capital of the world, I think. And it provides a really fascinating atmosphere to live in because of the level of exploitation that has taken place, is taking place, and the lack of a real value of human life, that the background of Congo has kind of created. So it’s not the safest place to live, but it’s incredible, like when you get past all of that stuff, like people are so hungry for the gospel, they’re so hungry for life change. Out in the rural communities where we work, our slogan is, “whatever it takes”—like,  whatever it takes to reach the one. And the Lord is truly bringing Congo a new name, a new story, and all of this other stuff is gonna be of the past. 

Amy Fewell Yeah. Okay, so you guys, obviously you’re doing mission work, which we’ll get back to more of that in a second. But one of your focuses is teaching people how to farm. You have this whole curriculum. Why don’t you kind of explain what that’s all about?

Sherrill Kaonga Yes, I’d love to. We didn’t create the Farming God’s Way curriculum. It’s a free resource for anybody to pick up and to use. And so there’s NGOs, there’s independent missionaries or development workers using it truly all around the world. But it’s this incredible tool for regenerative agriculture that really takes you back to, how did the Lord design creation? How can we farm in a way that mimics what he has put in place, the principles that he’s put in place. And it even brings in, in our context especially, some of the things that we’re fighting against in the faith, where a lot of people will believe in Jesus, but then they’ll hold onto the things of witchcraft, which ties into agriculture. And so a lot of times people that have come out and done incredible work evangelizing and all of that, they haven’t talked about agriculture. But here it’s the people’s lives. And so there’s like this missing piece that the gospel hasn’t touched. And then people still feel the need to—”Oh, I need to go get my charms so that I have good production in the field.” I might be going to church every Sunday, but now I have to take the chicken and put the blood on the four corners of my field to protect it. Someone might send a witch in to steal my harvest. So you truly see this connectedness of all areas of life, that we as Americans often mentalize everything. And it’s crazy, because when you look at the Bible, it’s such an agricultural book. Just taking a few of the parables of Jesus, or even the curse affected the land, right? You have Genesis 3, where the land’s now going to produce thorns and thistles. It’s going to be this backbreaking work. Well, if we truly believe that Jesus is the solution to everything that sin affected, then Jesus—He’s the solution for the land. Like there’s just no getting around that, he is enough. And it’s so exciting to go into communities who have heard some aspects of the gospel, they know the name of Jesus, but they don’t know that he cares about their actual provision of food. They don’t think he cares about the rain. But then when you start going into scripture, I mean, there’s just such beautiful passages, like in Ezekiel 36, where God has no divider between the areas of life. Like he’s talking about these promises of like, “I’ll put my spirit in you and cause you to walk in my ways,” which we see fulfilled today. Then he immediately transitions into, “…and I will lay no famine upon you.” And like the fruit of this is going to increase in the fruit of that. And his heart for Israel was that people would look at the land that was desolate—this is towards the end of Ezekiel 36—and he actually says that “they’re gonna look at the land that was desolate and they’ll know that he’s the one that replanted it.” They’re gonna walk through and be like, “This land that is desolate has become like the garden of Eden. And it will be a testament to his goodness.” And so the whole thing with Farming God’s Way is that just as we participated in the downfall of creation, we now get to participate, like Romans 8 says, in its restoration, like “creation is yearning, it’s calling out for the children of God,” and we get to participate in that restoration of the land. And so as we come back to God’s ways, as we follow Him, we acknowledge Him in all things, we seek Him as our all-efficiency—taking what He’s already placed in our hands, no handouts or anything—then it’s incredible to see the abundance that He brings out of that. 

Amy Fewell You know, people will hear you talking—and going back to the beginning of your explanation—like in hearing you say people bring out charms and they’ll be concerned witches will come steal their harvests, you know, primarily our listeners are American, right? I mean, we have people who listen all over the world, but I can already see so many Americans are going to say, “Well, that’s crazy.” Because so many people here don’t have to worry about those things. They don’t even think about those things, right? And even in America, this is a mindset that we see all the time, is that we are cultivating the land, especially in the body of Christ, but we are forgetting that God is the one who provides, right? And He’s the one who partners with us. And so just hearing you talk even is just a testament, not just to where you’ve been sent to be a missionary, but even in America—those are all things that we need to hear too in homesteading and gardening, is that ultimately Jesus is the provider, He’s the healer, He’s restorer of all things. And we get to do things here that are part of that. So what does a typical day look like for you? And I know it’s different every day, but what does it look like for you there and teaching people all of these things? 

Sherrill Kaonga It’s interesting. It always feels like every day is so different and so new. I’ve taken more of an administrative role as our oldest boy is eight and I’m homeschooling, but even last week we were out camping in a rural community with the boys and with another family alongside. And so it’s really fun. The chance to just pick up and drive a few hours and really make your home with people. So basically, especially when we’re teaching agriculture, we’ll have a multiple day training. And so we’ll go out to an area and teach different theories and probably share a meal together. And then, as we’re camping in that community, we’ll have a revival meeting in the evening. And so it’s kind of this, wherever you are, you’re just picking up whatever ministry you can. So in your travels… Savior and the guys took a motorbike trip. A lot of our ministry is on motorbikes because of the difficulty of transit. So they had actually put… it was a small boat, but they put four motorbikes and all the stuff in the boat. And I think there must have been 15 people in the boat, and he’s just preaching the gospel on the boat. So while he’s preaching, like 11 people receive Jesus, just on the boat, like on the way to the other side of the river. So it’s truly this on the go ministry—picking up whatever the Lord lays in front of you—but it’s truly this on-the-go discipleship, even of team members, as we have team members, some of whom have been functioning as independent missionaries now for a couple of years. Some are new volunteers. And so as you go, you’re just continually bringing people in like, “Okay, at first, I’ll preach the message. I’ll pray for the person. Okay, now you come and you pray for that person.” You just start to move into the background and move into that background as you’re discipling people. So that’s always in our minds as we’re moving too, is this like, “Okay, you’re gonna come with me to do the thing and then eventually you’re doing the thing with me.” So in the everyday, there’s always the team involvement that kind of moves through our whole life. So we do, we start the day with worship and prayer together. Those that live on the base, we eat every meal together. So every meal is like a family buffet with anywhere from like 15 to 20 people jumping in. It’s really fun. It has its challenges because we’re bringing together so many cultures, but it just feels so reflective of the Kingdom. 

Amy Fewell Yeah, it really does. I mean, we talk about this a lot, going from, again, two different cultures: America and Africa, obviously. But I was talking to someone the other day about how the entire New Testament is community minded. And it is very much being in fellowship with each other all the time. And that’s how we saw the Kingdom advance so quickly. And that’s exactly what you’re saying. That’s exactly what you’re doing. So I guess it was last year, you guys sent one of your little brochures—it really was more like a magazine—with stories and all the things that you’re doing. And I didn’t get that until months ago for some reason, I’m not sure why, but I just sat down and I read it and I just cried. And I’m like, this is literally like the church, like they’re doing this. And in some ways, I think it’s easier to do it in countries like Africa because there is nothing else. You don’t have all of the amenities that you see here. And so would you kind of talk about that a little bit? What are the differences? I mean, you’re from here, you from America, but you’re there. What are some of those differences that you see that kind of hold us back here, but are just flourishing in the gospel there. 

Sherrill Kaonga Yeah, I think one of the things that makes it so different is having the faith for the miraculous. So in the States, we have the ability to rely on modern healthcare. We have the ability to… I’m thinking even agriculturally, all the technology that’s available. I feel like there’s less need to rely on just God himself because we have all of these things to deal with the variables in our environment. When somebody gets sick, you take them to emergency care. Like there’s always the next step of what to do. When we’re working in communities—honestly, actually here in Kowaisi—we actually really struggle to find different things that we need, like medically. But in rural communities, you’re showing up to a village where the headman, he hasn’t walked in months and months. He’s had this leg injury that’s infected and he’s like, “Well, there’s nothing I can do. I don’t have transport to get to town. I don’t have money to pay anybody. I don’t have any money for medication. Even when we do get to the town, is that medication gonna be available?” There’s all of these variables that just leave him in his place. And there’s this level of—I don’t know if it would be like a level of desperation or this level of, “Listen, I’m at my end. I don’t know what else to do.” And most times in that case, people have tried witchcraft and tried these other things. So then you get to come in, you get be like, “Hey, let’s pray for you. This is what God says—He says he’s the healer.” And you get to lay hands on people and see the Lord do the miraculous and heal the guy’s leg, and then the whole community is open to the gospel. I think we’ve kind of blocked that off, and sometimes we don’t even expect it in the States because we have our systems. So we’re not pushed to the extent of like, “Lord, you heal me or I die,” or, “Lord, You protect my harvest or I lose everything.” We have a testimony from a few years ago where, in Zambia, armyworms are a huge deal. And so they rock into a field and they’re just completely destructive. And one of the team members was reaching out and this was his maize field, “What do I do? I don’t know what to do. Like they just entered my field.” And it was like the only thing kind of “left to do”—should be like the first thing—is to pray. And he prayed to the Lord and they left. They just exited the field. That just doesn’t happen. People praying for rain and seeing miraculous rainfall, even just on their portion of the crop that they were going to lose, and the Lord sends it. So there’s this reliance on the Lord that… Not to romanticize people’s situation because it truly is desperate, like they’re living in poverty situations, but the Lord meets them where they’re at. And the faith, that childlike faith of like, “Lord, I know you can do it. And so let me see it.” And he does. It’s so beautiful. 

Amy Fewell Yeah. It’s incredible that you also get to see that because there are so many that don’t get to see that, right? So this is something we constantly talk about in agriculture especially, is like you said, we have all of these pesticides. We have all these things that we can do at what expense? You know, and there’s a repercussion for that too. My husband definitely has the childlike faith. He’s like, “I’m going to pray, and the bugs are going to go away and this is going to happen.” He actually had a health scare last year and he’s like, “I’m not going to the hospital.” And I was like, “What? Why not?” He’s like, “I’m going to the hospital. God is going to take care of me and heal me and restore me.” And He did. We got to see, you know, God work through that, and never needed the medical attention. And so it’s true. It’s very true that we don’t have to rely on God in America for so many things. I mean, obviously there are situations that arise where people do and they see the miraculous happen, but it’s just such a different culture. 

Amy Fewell We’re taking a break from the podcast so I can tell you a little bit about this year’s sponsor, Murray McMurray Hatchery. Murray McMurray officially started his chicken business in 1917. He had always been interested in poultry as a young man and particularly enjoyed showing birds at the local and state fairs. He was in the banking business at the time and sold baby chicks through the bank to area farmers and hobbyists. But now, we know Murray McMurray as one of the top homesteader’s choice hatcheries here in the United States. They have all kinds of birds, from show birds to exotic birds to meat birds, because who doesn’t want every kind of chicken or poultry possible? They have ducks and all kinds of options for you. Here at Homesteaders of America, Murray McMurray Hatchery has supported homesteaders for at least the last eight years (or as long as we’ve been around) and beyond, since 1917. Make sure you check them out at McMurrayHatchery.com to get your orders in for the year. 

Amy Fewell So let’s talk a bit about the culture in Africa. In the brochure that you sent, one of the things that I loved was there was an article in there that talked about basically the kings of tribes in Africa and how if you can turn them to Jesus, you can turn the entire community to Jesus. So what does a typical community look like in Africa? How does that work? 

Sherrill Kaonga There is still a big reliance on those traditional systems. So it starts with a local headman, and there’ll be a headman of like one village or a senior headman of several villages that oversees headmen. Then it goes to a chief over a chiefdom. So for instance, our team is in I think seven different chiefdoms here in Congo. So they each have their borders. Now, it depends on the nation that you’re in, whether they’re really recognized by the government, whether the government has tried to do away with the traditional systems and just gone to districts and provinces and that. But here in Congo, it’s kind of a mix. They’re still honored. They’re always honored in the people’s hearts, but sometimes the government just doesn’t have a lot of interest. But here in Congo, they’re still respected by the government. And it’s interesting to see that, like, you get to the chief level, then there’s a king over many chiefs. A lot of kings are actually here in Congo that’s different from other nations. They’re actually pulled into government positions, so some of them are members of parliament and different representatives. And then from a king, you go to an emperor. And it’s actually amazing—areas that we wouldn’t be able to get into… For instance, Savior took a team last year to Kasaji, where there were 13 military checkpoints on the way. It ends up being over 12 hours, depending on how long you’re at each military checkpoint. But they made it through, comparatively very easy, because they had a letter from the king that was like, “I’m inviting him to my kingdom,” and people see that and they’re like, “Oh yes, we respect this. You guys can go.” And so it trumps all of our organizational paperwork, all of the things that we have to get together. They’re just like, “There is a letter from a King. Yes.” And we have a tribal chaplaincy program where kings and chiefs can send someone that they trust to be trained up as a spiritual advisor for them, similar to how like David had Nathan, and we just heard from the same king that, “I brought together all of the chiefs under me, and I brought my chaplain,” and he preached the gospel in front of all of these chiefs. So then when the king gives the go ahead, it opens the hearts of the people. So then you have all of these leaders who are like, “Oh, I can follow Jesus and be a chief,” then they take that back to their chiefdoms. And it is just amazing to see how much more open people are when they realize you’ve gone through the traditional leadership. 

Amy Fewell That’s amazing. It just, I don’t know, it amazes me because it’s just something I’ve… You know, you grow up hearing about missionaries to Africa. I’ve never actually like… I’ve listened to people growing up and being in church, but when I sat down with that book and now hearing you talk about it, it just, it’s beautiful to me. Like it feels very beautiful to me to hear what’s happening and how it works and how it is just so community oriented in every way. And then you bring the gospel into that space, in their community, and their agriculture, and everything. And they just, they’re so open to it. I mean, I’m sure you get some pushback. We’ll talk about that in a second, but they’re just so open to it. And so that’s just so amazing. So I love that you’re talking about that. So let’s go to the other side of that. I’m sure that you guys being in Africa have all kinds of pushback sometimes, or you’re dealing with witchcraft, or maybe talk about that side, what does that look like for you guys? 

Sherrill Kaonga Yeah, a lot of our opposition comes from just the moving according to a corrupt government. It becomes really complicated when you’re trying to live and carry yourself as an organization above reproach when the whole system is corrupt and broken. So even to get out to communities, there is, there’s just this like… there’s a different view of money here. It almost grabs the heart of those in power. So you’re trying to get out to a community and you’re stopped by police, like I explained earlier, unnecessarily, and they’re trying to get you to pay something. You’ve done nothing wrong. You have all your paperwork. Then you’re going out and you’re meeting a military checkpoint on the way. So it’s some of those things that you have to deescalate situations very often, and move in the grace of Jesus. And through those experiences, you make new connections and you share the gospel in the midst of it, and pray that they also come to know the Lord. I think sometimes in our type of opposition—like we’re not dealing with a direct, at least people-wise—we’re not dealing with people directly opposed to the gospel, but we’re dealing with people whose society has been built on exploitation. Even these offices, if you read the history of Congo, it’s really fascinating how Belgium set things up, and the first rulers of Congo, how they kind of followed suit. All of that has lasted today. So then you’re working in these systems of where decrees are being made from like the capital, Kinshasa, that you can’t even drive to because only 2% of the roads in our nation are paved. And they’re saying, “Hey, we’re going to make this huge change to mining. We don’t want any more artisanal miners.” Well, that’s how most of the people live here. And that sparks mining riots. And you have to kind of… miners, when they’re upset, they’ll just take anybody out. So you have to like navigate through a lot of chaos, and then you get to the communities. So you’re just kind of like walking in wisdom and not in fear. Like we have complete confidence that the Lord brings us through these situations, but you really have to use a lot of wisdom as you’re navigating all of the government. You’re guilty until proven innocent here, which also complicates everything. 

Amy Fewell Okay. And you have kids that you homeschool. So what does that look like for you guys? You know, you’re a mama and you’ve got kids and you live in Africa. So, what does that look like for you guys? 

Sherrill Kaonga It’s actually really fun. The boys have jumped in and we were at like kids ministry… It’s always just so encouraging when you can bring your kids into the mission. We have things so divided that sometimes you might be doing ministry and then your kids are in like a kids club or they’re being cared for elsewhere. And that happens, but it’s really fun when we get to have the kids—like, “Hey, you’re in the ministry situation with us, you see what’s happening and you’re hearing like the gospel message being preached in this setting.” They pick up so much more than what you think, and it’s really beautiful. Our kids are just going to be this mess of cultures being both like American Zambian growing up in Congo. And I think they feel that sometimes, but then we have such a home with the team and they truly see every team member as an uncle or an aunt. And will just treat them as such. You just cultivate family wherever you go. So even though we’re far away, and we miss our… Like I miss my family in Pennsylvania and New York. The boys just pick up, they live the mission with you. You homeschool, like I take a stack of books as we go out camping and we’ll have like, “Okay, let’s do some math and let’s do this read aloud,” and just kind of do life on the go. It can be a little bit crazy and they’re boys, so they are crazy, but it’s fun to live the mission with them. 

Amy Fewell Yeah. Boys are fun in general, you know, they’re just… And you’re at those great ages where they’re just all over the place and they’re, you know, invincible. They’re so fun. So you are from Pennsylvania, like you just said, or the East Coast. How often do you come back? How often are you there and how often do you come back?

Sherrill Kaonga We’re on a schedule about like every two years, so we’re back for every other Christmas. And we spend a little bit more time in the States as we have more responsibility with funding different projects and things. And so we land back in Pennsylvania and then we travel all along the East Coast, go up to Wisconsin, so we have quite a broad travel schedule as we come back for around four to five months. 

Amy Fewell Okay. So now are you guys coming to the HOA conference to vend again this year? Is that what I remember in email? 

Sherrill Kaonga Yeah, I will be and at least one of my sons. But we have a conflicting missions conference, so Savior is going to be in New York with two other sons. So we’re going to divide and conquer.

Amy Fewell Oh, okay. Divide and conquer, that’s right. So you guys can find Sherrill at the event if you guys are coming. 

Amy Fewell Okay guys, we’re taking a quick break in our podcast to bring you some more information about one of our sponsors this year. We are delighted to have NutriMill with us once again this year as a sponsor. We really enjoy this company and everything that they stand for. They are super like-minded. They educate us about whole grains. You can even check out one of the past podcasts we did with the owner of the company. Nutrimill is dedicated to creating high-quality, small kitchen appliance products that function well, are easy to use, and promote healthy eating. From mixers and grain mills to dehydrators, they have it all. Make sure you hit up this one-stop shop for all things fresh grains at NutriMill.com. 

Amy Fewell Okay, so I won’t keep you too much longer, but what are some testimonies that you feel are valid to our community? I know you’ve shared some already, but what are some things that just have happened for you guys where you’re just like, “Oh, man, I’ve got to share this.” Maybe one or two things that you really feel like would be encouraging to people to hear? 

Sherrill Kaonga I think one of my favorite stories, and this kind of tracks like a few years, is just the power of discipleship and the power of bringing someone alongside. And I think that’s something that everyone can do. I think of even in a farming context of just the conversations that can happen as you’re working alongside someone and say like, “Hey, let’s do this together,” and make that purposeful, intentional conversation to raise someone up. When we first came to Congo, it would have been the end of 2019. And I saw this girl sitting in the front of church. We are in the midst of kind of like building a team, kind of recruiting first team members. And I saw her and I was like, there’s something about this girl. She has to join us. Like, I don’t know what it is. She was still in secondary school. And so she would come with me and we would do house to house ministry. And we visited this one older couple and they invited us inside their house in a village setting. And he was obviously not well, but his wife was like in bed, she was just completely down. We spent some time… Well, we asked them first, like, “Do you believe that God can heal you?” And they’re like, “No.” “Okay, but like let’s go through some of this stuff.” And we went through some scriptures, and this girl, Anastasia, is right beside me, we’re ministering together, and explaining like, God is our healer. We asked like, “Do you believe he can heal you?” Like, “Yeah.” “Okay, let’s pray.” So we pray for both of them. He had had some issues with like his tooth and she was having excruciating stomach pain and just, headache and everything. And we prayed for them and we paused and we’re like, “How are you feeling? Do you see any change?” Like, “No, not really.” “Okay, and let’s like, let us pray a little bit more.” And as we were praying, the woman just suddenly like bolts up and she’s just like, “Hallelujah, Hallelujah.” She’s like, “Jesus!” And the pain was gone. She was completely healed. And the man, he’s just in shock. And so we asked him, “How are you doing?” Like, “No, me too.” Like, he got so caught up in what his wife was doing, he didn’t even realize. Well, you take that moment, which is so beautiful in itself, that the Lord sees each person as an individual. He has so much love. He has so much compassion. And so you see that happen. Well, Ana goes back and she becomes this minister at her school. Anyone who needs prayer. It’s like, she’ll go and pray for them. And one of her friends contacted her. She’s like, “My mom has been in bed for days. She can’t get up. I don’t know what to do.” And Ana is like, “Okay, well, let’s go. We’re going to pray for her.” So Ana prayed for her and they didn’t see anything happen in that moment. And then the next morning, early morning, she gets a phone call from her friend and she’s like, “My mom is up. She’s cleaning the house. She’s making breakfast. Like what has happened?” And Ana to this day, she has her own family, and she continues to have a discipleship group where now she’s bringing alongside more young adults, and they’re going out together and ministering in that same way. And I think just from that multiplication of discipleship is such a beautiful thing—that no matter where you are, no matter what you do as a believer, we can pick that up and incorporate it into our lives and see the Lord just move so beautifully, and see it just passed on seamlessly from one discipleship generation to the next. 

Amy Fewell Yeah. That’s incredible. That’s so fun and awesome. It’s really cool for you too, to see that generational aspect, right? Like it’s taken a couple of years, you knew her when she was a little bit younger, and now she’s duplicating and doing these things. And that’s just the beauty of the Kingdom. And this is something I say all the time: like none of this matters if we’re not duplicating, if we are just holding on to the gospel, and that’s it. You know, we’re dealing with religious doctrines that aren’t duplicating anyone or anything. And so it’s really cool that you get to see that. And people here get to see that too. That’s not what I’m saying. But it’s obviously more prevalent in situations where you get to see, when the gospel is spread, the power of Jesus behind it, and how He speaks to people and meets people where they are. So that’s super cool. Okay, I’ve kept you for 40 minutes and I could talk to you forever. I’m sure we could talk about all kinds of stories, but at the end of each podcast, I always give everyone the opportunity to just share what is on their heart. Like what has God been speaking to you that you would want to share with our audience, or is there any kind of encouragement that you would want to share, or a charge, a challenge, a mission for them? 

Sherrill Kaonga For some reason, I just keep going back to just that thought of, you know, here we have that system of kings and chiefs. And what I’ve seen within the team, and even discussions with my husband, is that it brings such a different perspective of who God is when you have such a system of authority that’s just, “Well, this person is king, and so I listen to the king.” I think sometimes we, as Americans, have the perspective of the Lord as our friend, and that is so important. Like, it’s a critical other side of the coin, but seeing God is our King. It’s so important that He is the authority, that He is Lord of all creation. He has put things into place, he has set things in motion. And it’s our job to just submit to what he says, and to follow him with our whole hearts, to walk forward in obedience. I think our culture so leans towards questions like, “Lord, did you really mean that. Are you sure, Lord? Like, what about this?” And we want to offer opinions. You know, we don’t have that same level of respect, where there are some tribes in our context that, I mean, you don’t touch a king or an emperor. In some cases, in a traditional ceremony, there’s people like bowing and rolling on the ground. It’s a way to show this respect, and there’s a distance that the Lord doesn’t want us to have with kings. And yet at the same time, there’s this like unquestioned authority that they carry. That we actually need to start thinking of God that way a little bit more. I find myself thinking, oh yes, like I’m submitted to everything the Lord says, but then submission, if you are on the same page, is just agreement. Submission really comes into play when you disagree, when it’s something uncomfortable, something that you don’t wanna do. And so for some reason, based on our conversation about the kings and chiefs, I just feel so much like, man, let’s allow the Lord to be Lord, and to see him as King of our lives and to submit to him fully. His love is just, it’s just undescribable. It’s so beautiful. He wants the best for us, and so we can walk forward in confidence as we lay it all down and we’re like, “Lord, everything’s surrendered to you. You are King. You deserve it all. And let me run in your ways because that’s what’s going to bring what’s best anyway.” And so I think that’s what’s on my heart today. 

Amy Fewell Amen. Awesome. I love that. Yes, a thousand percent. It’s a conversation we should all have with ourselves because what you said is so true. I find myself often saying, “Okay, God is my friend. I talk to him like my friend.” But when we get to the King part, it’s a little bit different, you know, because that’s where we die to flesh every day. Like, he is our King. He is the one who created all things, and knows all things, and is in everything. And so it’s like, “Okay, Lord, just have your way and help me be more submissive.” So I love it. I love it. Okay, Sherrill, thank you so much for joining me. I wish your husband could have joined us too. We’ll get him on here one day. And I know that you guys that are listening will be encouraged or have probably already been encouraged by listening to this. And Sherrill, why don’t you tell us where people can find you online, and kind of go over if they wanna give anything in donation to you. 

Sherrill Kaonga Yeah, the thing that I keep updated the most is my personal Instagram page, which is Sherrill.Kaonga. And it has all the testimonies, and a lot of things like just tracking our life here in Congo. And so I’d encourage people to follow that. And then we have a personal donation page with Overland that I’m sure we’ll list somewhere, but it’s just OverlandMissions.com, donate Kaongas. So that’ll be listed, but yeah, everything that goes into the mission, it’s coming out into the team. Our support as a family goes to support local missionaries as well. So as you come alongside us, you’re coming alongside the whole team, allowing us all to just keep running with the gospel. 

Amy Fewell Yeah, awesome. All right, you guys, check out all that information in the show notes, anything that we shared, to make it easy for you to just click on below. That way you can find all these things online or wherever they’re located. You guys don’t forget to meet Sherrill at the Homesteaders of America conference in October, if you’re coming. And until next time, happy homesteading. 

Amy Fewell Hey, thanks for taking the time to listen to this week’s Homesteaders of America episode. We really enjoyed having you here. We welcome questions and you can find the transcript and all the show notes below or on our Homesteaders of America blog post that we have up for this podcast episode. Don’t forget to join us online with a membership or just to read blog posts and find out more information about our events at HomesteadersofAmerica.com. We also have a YouTube channel and follow us on all of our social media accounts to find out more about homesteading during this time in American history. All right, have a great day and happy homesteading.