Literary Conference

literary conference. delegate greets west. (note: the western territory is sponsoring capt. mafuta at the international literary publications conference in washington d.c., april 22-29, 2005.). my name is denis mafuta. my wife modestine and i have five children. an only child myself, i was born to a christian family and my parents were deacons in our catholic church. as a young boy, i was very serious about the church—my dream was to become a priest or a journalist. reading and writing have always been my passions! when i was a few years older, i left my parents and attended a small catholic school for six years. here, in secondary school, i mastered latin, greek and french. after my father died suddenly, i changed my mind about my future, deciding not to pursue the priesthood. i went to lubumbashi university, where i studied latin literature for two years. when i left the university i began teaching latin, french and greek in two local secondary schools. i spent many years there—then came the calling of god. i entered the salvation army training college in 1989. my first appointment, as corps officer in kalamu corps in kinshasa 1 division, was a good experience—god was with me. i realized that god was all for me! i spent six blessed years in this corps. from 1995-1999, while serving as corps officer, i took many literature and writing classes. during this time, i became assistant editor. since july 1999, i have been the territorial editor (congo and angola territory). two years ago, i was admitted to a university as a student in journalism. i will graduate in march 2005. regarding my current appointment, i thank our god for everything. i believe that writing is the best way to reach a lot of people and to tell them the story of salvation through jesus christ. it is not easy to write and to be understood. but i like it. god is marvelous. may he use me as a real instrument—one who writes to win new souls to christ.