{"id":3836,"date":"2026-07-02T15:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=3836"},"modified":"2026-07-02T15:18:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:18:58","slug":"blog-july-2nd-democratic-republic-of-congo-drc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=3836","title":{"rendered":"Blog July 2nd Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Taking a week off from sharing Mustard Seed videos to write this, 4 hours before the World Cup Football match between England and the DRC.
\nI read in Premier News the following:
\nDR Congo players have prayed and given glory to God, having made World Cup history.
\nAfter qualifying for the knockout stages for the first time in the nation\u2019s history, players gathered in prayer around the centre circle before their celebrations.
\nHaving beaten Uzbekistan 3-1, players and coaches were seen praying out loud, holding their arms out and making the sign of the cross.
\n\u201cThank you, Jesus,\u201d winger Joris Kayembe posted on social media. \u201cWe did it together, a team, a group, a family and the supporters. Congo to the world, Congo on the map. God is great.\u201d
\nA number of The Leopards players have spoken publicly about their Christian faith, including Sunderland player Noah Sadiki, who has appeared in videos for Ballers in God declaring: \u201cJesus is my Lord and saviour\u201d.
\n\u201cIn a tournament where many chase the spotlight, it\u2019s beautiful to see players first turn their hearts toward the One who deserves all the glory,\u201d the football ministry shared.<\/p>\n

I feel I should point out that England have a number of players who are Christians including Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Marc Guehi, Ivan Toney and Marcus Rashford. However, I should also say not the whole team and coaching staff as would appear to be the case with the DRC!
\nA former name for DRC was the Belgium Congo and that has a special place in my heart. You can read the reason why here- Blog December 24th The Eve of Christmas Eve | Risen<\/a><\/p>\n

Quote of the Week <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Season of Singing featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album The Season of Singing recorded and produced by Ross Gill Taking a week off from sharing Mustard Seed videos to write this, 4 hours before the World Cup Football match between England and the DRC. I read in Premier News the following: DR Congo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3836"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3841,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3836\/revisions\/3841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}