When Ben Mathes arrived at Hartsfield International Airport on Sunday, his luggage was filled with tools: circular saws, drills, hammers, nails, bolts -- and Bibles.

In 1995, Mathes founded the Atlanta-based missionary group Rivers of the World, which uses boats to reach remote areas in the countries where it works.

Rivers of the World staffers based in Congo cut off their main source of transportation several years ago when they deliberately sank their steel-bottomed barge, the Kuto Misa, which they had used to travel the San Kuru River providing immunizations and other medical care.

The boat had earlier been seized by the army of the Congo for three months and used to transport supplies in the country's raging civil war.

"We didn't want our ship to be used to carry guns and soldiers around in a war that we don't support," Mathes said.

Mathes, along with seven other volunteers, arrived in Congo this week to help build a new barge.

They have never constructed a boat before, but Mathes and the other members of the group said they have two dugout canoes -- and God -- on their side. The Titanic was built by professionals, they said, but Noah's Ark was built by an amateur.

"We're just going to have to figure out how to make things work," said the Rev. Chris Price, pastor of St. Luke's Presbyterian Chuch in Dunwoody, who is leading this trip with Mathes.

The fact that the village of Lusambo, where Rivers of the World's activities in Congo are based, is in the middle of a jungle, where few humanitarian organizations go, makes their mission even more important.

"There's nobody in Lusambo but us to help," Price said.

Rivers of the World first became involved in Congo in 1995, but it wasn't until 2000 that a team from the organization stopped in Lusambo, where they discovered a deserted Belgian hospital.

"The tiles were still shiny, but nothing worked. There was no power. Everything was deteriorating," recalled Price, who was on that trip. "There was a doctor there, but he had no drugs or painkillers. We promised him and the village that we would come back and help them."

The next year, Rivers of the World gave $250,000 worth of medicine to the hospital, Price said. The building is now named St. Luke's in honor of his Dunwoody congregation's contributions.

Price said his parishioners at St. Luke's have been quick to help from the beginning. "Not only will they write checks, but they'll go. They'll roll up their sleeves and work," he said.

Five of the eight people on this trip to Congo are from St. Luke's, Price said. This will be Price's fifth trip to Congo since Mathes asked him to join Rivers of the World's inaugural trip there in 1995.

A photo of the Kuto Misa sailing successfully down the San Kuru River hangs in his office, and a wood-carved map of Africa and another piece of wood etched with the village's name sit on his shelves.

"Africa just hooked me," Price said. "It's good to come back. You miss the conveniences, but when you come back, you can't forget about it. The need gets to you. I think about it every day."

Half of the members of this team have been to Congo before. But some, like Price's daughter, Jennifer, who graduated last year from the College of Charleston, will be making the trip for the first time.

"I've seen his pictures, and I've been really curious," she said. "I just wanted to go help."

For those who have never been to Africa, Mathes said, "bathing in a river and sleeping on a sandbar and being a thousand miles out in the jungle" provides "a chance for them to be pushed to their limits emotionally, and a lot of times spiritually."

Much has changed in Congo since the group's first trip there. Rivers of the World is now designated as the World Health Organization's representative for the Lusambo health zone.

Each year, the organization's three year-round staffers are responsible for treating close to 200,000 cases of river blindness, immunizing more than 65,000 children against childhood diseases, and treating cases of tuberculosis and leprosy in the region, Mathes said.

More than 3 million people have died since the civil war began there in 1998, and malnutrition and disease have plagued much of the country.

Soldiers were a frequent sight during the group's past trips to Congo, when the San Kuru River was the main artery dividing the warring factions, but now, Mathes said, most of the fighting has moved elsewhere.

"We're not risking people's lives. We're not going into the middle of a war zone. It's a big country," Price said.

The group's members will still take precautionary steps to protect their safety.

"We never wear camouflage. We're very loud," Mathes said. "Everything about what we do tries to give the image that we are anything but mercenaries. That's where you can get into trouble."

In addition to tools to help build the new barge, the team took a fresh supply of medicine and nursing textbooks for Lusambo's nursing school.

Team members also are taking Bibles to distribute and a movie known as "The Jesus Film," which they show in the villages they visit.

Much of the region, which was once colonized by Belgians, is predominantly Christian.

"What's so amazing is when you pull up to a village and thousands of people come up to you and sing hymns to you, and it's very humbling," Mathes said. "The language is different, but the tunes are the same."

Rather than forcing their religion on the people they visit, Mathes said, Rivers of the World attempts to spread God's word by doing God's work.

"While we do our medical work, people know why we're there. We don't wear it on our sleeves ostentatiously," Price said. "We don't even ask [what their religion is]. Our help is there for everybody."

• ON THE WEB: Rivers of the World: www.row.org