2018-12-09 – Loth Lanongo

Light of the Nations' Foursquare Church in Denver Podcast

This is the testimony of Loth Lanongo.

I was the first born of 12 children. My father was a pastor and was in the army. When I was 15 years old we were in the city named Bunia. I was sleeping and woke up at 5 am to go to school. But I was so tired that I remained in bed and I saw a light coming through the roof and it filled the room. And there was someone in the light who was full of glory. He had a belt and a crown. And He said my name and said that He had chosen me to take His gospel far. I was only fifteen years old and before the glory of this man I could not even move but only look at Him. He said He would be with me and then He left.

My parents thought I was already at school when I came out and my father questioned why I was not at school. I told him I could not go to school because Jesus came to speak to me. He didn’t believe me and said I was talking crazy. But I insisted and told him what Jesus said to me.

Since that time I have felt that I am not alone and I have someone at my side. I was schooled in a Roman Catholic school. In my country we have big cars that get loaded up very high and after they are loaded people go up on top and catch rides on them. One day I was coming home from school riding on top of a car like that with about six people. The driver was speeding down a hill and he lost his brakes. We came to a turn and the car rolled and we all fell off. But an angel took me very quickly and lifted me off the car and stood on my back and we watched the car roll over. Some villagers came to rescue us and they were asking me what happened but I could not speak. Then I told them what happened and pointed out the angel who rescued me but they could not see him. My father was frustrated because I was seeing things that no one else could see.

I was in a village called Kasenyi which is near Lake Albert. This is the lake that borders Congo and Uganda. My uncle was in charge of all of the troops stationed there. People told me that there is a confluence of two rivers that are different colors and it shows that this is Congo and that is Uganda. So I was very curious and my uncle sent me with five soldiers to go see it. There were soldiers from Uganda and Cong and they were talking. A storm came and we left there but it was raining very hard with a strong wind. It was so bad that our boat broke in two and we were all in the water. Out in the middle I found some shallow water and I thought I was standing on a rock in the middle of the river. I was scared and crying but I started singing. I stood there for three hours and then I heard a sound of an engine coming. Soldiers came and were wondering who this was standing in the middle of the river. As the boat got closer, the rock started moving. It wasn’t a rock. It was a hippo! The hippo saved me. From that day on I thought the name of Jesus was hippo! If you go to Kesenyi they all were talking about this. Hippos are very dangerous. The most dangerous animal in Africa.

After that my father was transferred to Kinshasa which is about 2500km from Bunia. So I thought this was what Jesus meant when He said He was sending me far.

Eventually, my father passed away. Since I was the oldest, I became the father of these eleven children. So I went looking for a job. I found a security job. They asked us to complete a test. There were several circles various sizes. We were to pick out the largest of the circles. Everyone had trouble with this. I heard a voice behind me telling me to choose the smallest looking circle. I thought for sure that the angel was wrong this time. So I wrote that the smallest one was the biggest one. I was the only one to get it right. The man in charge was from America and asked me to explain my answer. I told him I didn’t know and that I just chose it. He took me to the US Embassy and told me there is only one job open. Did I want it? I took it because I didn’t know any better. The next day 9 people came from the US to