Author: SuZan Klassen

True Treasures

The prisoner is set free.
Moses (an alias) will finally go home. A prisoner for over nine years, he was recently released in Kinshasa, a thousand miles from his home in Ituri.

Ituri is a mineral rich province with chronic violence and a raging Ebola epidemic. It has hills and plains and deep forests.

I met Moses through a friend who knew I could help him find competent medical care now that he is free. He has suffered from years of untreated diabetes and hypertension.

Moses’ Story
Nearly a decade ago, Moses and a group of friends were arrested, snatched from their entrepreneurial farming lives in their war-torn homeland of Ituri. Never tried nor charged; they were branded enemies of the state.

“We just wanted to make a living and keep our children from joining militia armies,” Moses said.
The men were transferred from one prison to another and time passed. Moses lost everything–children, spouse, land, and his productive years. He grew accustomed to isolation, hunger, abuse, disease, and neglect.

Moses described one point where he “went crazy”–headaches, dizziness, anxiety, tremors, and lapses of consciousness. Now, aware he has diabetes and high blood pressure, he recognizes those feelings as symptoms of uncontrolled disease.

“God was with us in prison.”
He told me emphatically.
“I survived.” Inmates became “brothers.”

Moses found purpose in helping others and doing cleanup jobs. Sometimes guards gave him money or allowed him to make a phone call “home.”

Our mutual friend visited Kinshasa prisons and gave Moses a Bible. Through the Word, God reached into the prisoners’ lives with solace and courage.

Moses’ release was as unexpected as was his imprisonment. A Christian family, also from Ituri, welcomed him to share a corner of their crowded Kinshasa home.

I helped him find medical care in the maze of Kinshasa. Coping with chronic disease is daunting for anyone, but especially for a broke, newly-freed prisoner whose knowledge of Kinshasa was through crumbling prison walls.

The Journey to Physical and Spiritual Health
Anchored by prayer, Moses is making steady progress on the long journey to health, strength, and hope. Each time Moses stops by for a blood pressure check, or money to buy medicine, he admonishes me, “Never forget prayer.”

He won’t leave without a prayer . . . “God and prayer are all I have. I will get home because of what Jesus has done for me.”

This week I gave Moses a suitcase for his flight home. All he had was a small sack from prison containing the few things he owned.

Our mutual friend provided a ticket and ‘settling in’ funds. It will be a few more days to confirm that medications control his blood pressure, and he should be on his way back home to Ituri.

He is so thankful.

How can someone subjected to so much injustice express such joyful faith?

I am grateful Moses came into my life to remind me to be thankful for the abundance of blessings in my life, and that God and prayer are treasures.

###

We are grateful to Katherine Niles for sharing Moses’ story with us. She is a physician’s assistant working in Kinshasa. She and her husband, Wayne are American Baptist missionaries.

Remember to pray for the peace of every corner of the DRC. And to pray for all of the missionaries working within the country.

Moses lost everything, including his health. So, how can someone subjected to so much injustice express such joyful faith? God and prayer are everything—the true treasures.

© 2019 Hope4Congo

Hungry Souls

In our previous post we spoke about the daily hunger of those growing up in Congo.

Today we want to speak about another kind of hunger—the hunger for God’s word.

The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo are starving for the Word of God. Brad shares below from what he has seen in the twelve years he has walked alongside our brothers and sisters in the DRC.

On our first trip to Congo in 2007 we attended a meeting for leaders who represented a collective body of over 200,000 members. Following the meeting we had a conversation with Fransisca, a leader in women’s ministries. Fransisca told us the biggest challenge for the church was discipleship.

Since that time, the discipleship crisis in Africa
has deepened because the people lack access to Bibles.

God’s Word—which is alive and powerful and able to go down deep into the very depth of souls and create transformation—is absent in Congo. The suffering in Congo on so many levels, is compounded by spiritual starvation.

People come to Christ, but they have no nourishment to carry them forward. No nourishment for growth in their Christian Life. No nourishment for daily living because they do not have God’s Word to study.

I have seen people with Bibles literally falling apart—old, worn, tattered and stained from years of use—handled and protected with greatest care.

In 2016 a pastor’s conference was held along the Kwango River which separates DRC from Angola. thirty-five pastors were expected to attend. 235 sat in the pews the first day! The pastors were asked to raise their Bibles high. Only 8 Bibles were counted.

Only 8 Bibles among 235 Pastors.

Later, they were asked what they used to preach. Parts and pieces—a few pages of this and a few of that. From this meager supply, they wove a sermon. (We wrote about this story in September 1, 2016.
8 Among So Many Please click on this link to read that full story.)

During my trip this past March, 2019, I heard the following story told by Senior National Vice President of Eglise Du Christ Au Congo, (National Protestant organization in Congo). Bishop Nyamuke Asial’ubul Idore recently returned from a rural area close to the provincial city of Kikwit. While there he learned about two pastors from two separate churches.

Two churches, two pastors and one copy of the Bible.

Those two pastors divided their one copy of the Bible into two sections—Old Testament and New Testament. They passed their copies back and forth. This allowed them to preach from the Old Testament for a period and then to preach from the New Testament for a period.

Amazing! Thank you, Brad for bringing us up to date.

As you read the stories of this hunger for the Bible, I hope your heart is moved as much as mine by this deep need. Getting Bibles to the people is the first step to address the discipleship crisis.

Update on Hope4Congo’s Bible Projects

Since the project’s beginning in 2010:
11,742 Bibles have been sold
$105,000 spent to purchase Bibles
$7,600 spent on distribution costs (cost to ship them to the various DRC locations)

Hope4Congo is collaborating with AIMM and Wycliffe Translators on a Kishelele Bible.
The translation team in Congo is working on the final editing of the New Testament.

We are also in contact with Oasis International, publishing a French translation of the Africa Study Bible. This first of it’s kind study Bible, authored by African theologians within an African context, should be completed in 2020.

If you would like to contribute to any of Hope4Congo’s vital Bible projects, please send your tax-deductible gifts to:
Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM)
P.O. Box 744
Goshen, IN 46527-0744

Make your checks payable to AIMM or Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission.
Designate your donations to: Hope4Congo’s Bible Project

If you would like to read some of our previous posts in our latest three-part series: Congo Daily Life,
you may click on the following links: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Also, in case you missed it above, here again is the link to the story:
8 Among So Many.

© 2019 Hope4Congo

Congo Daily Life, Part 3

We are continuing Brad’s account of his trip to the DRC this past March.
The following is the third story in this series.

Click Here to Read Part 1
and to Read Part 2

***

During my visit to the southern Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, I enjoyed the company of my Congolese host.

One evening at dusk my friend and I went for a walk. I saw some children playing soccer while others looked on.

I hoped to interact with some of the bystanders, mostly children. We made our way down to the area where they were playing and I spoke with some of them.

The children always like it when you take their pictures. So I proceeded to take photos of them. It wasn’t long and we found ourselves surrounded by a larger group of older children and young men asking for food.

“Ndi ne zala.” I am hungry. Can you help me?

It was soon evident to my friend that we should leave immediately. If we did not, the situation could escalate and become more volatile.

We walked away. But they continued to follow us. It took some nearby police to help settle things down. This allowed us to separate from the crowd and go back to where we were staying.

Through these stories of my travel in Congo, I hope you sense the great need and desperation of the people.

Please pray for relief from the hunger.
Pray for safety and for healthy ways to obtain or grow food in Congo.

© H4C 2019

Congo Daily Life, Part 2

Kalonda Bible Institute

We are continuing Brad’s account of his trip to the DRC this past March.
The following is the second story in this series.
***

During my visit to the southern Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, I made a trip to a Bible school about 5 kilometers from where I lodged. I met a young couple with great smiles and the “joy of the Lord” evident on their faces. He was a pastoral student at the Bible school.

The next day I met them again at a MCC food relief distribution area. We conversed briefly before they left. My friend filled in the details about this couple’s recent experiences.

For safety concerns and in order to save money, the husband and wife had agreed that she would stay in her home village while he relocated to a different area for Bible school. While they were apart, her home village came under attack. She was forced to run into the forest with their ten-month-old son and hide. She hid in the forest for several weeks. While they were in hiding, the ten-month-old child died.

Joseph, Brad’s host

The families blamed the couple for all that happened because they had chosen to live in different locations. Later she became pregnant again only to lose the child before it was born. Again the family blamed them. They told the couple if they had properly sacrificed a chicken this would not have happened.

With the help, compassion, and teaching of my friend, this couple is working through the trauma that sought to destroy their lives. Through trauma counseling—healing and forgiveness classes—they are moving forward with their lives. Their renewed faith in God has enabled them to seek resolution with their families. He will be graduating in July and looks forward to being a pastor in his home area. They are now expecting another child.

Please pray that God would bless them with a child, and bring spiritual and emotional healing.

Note: Hope4Congo has been giving each graduate of Kalonda Bible Institute a new Bible and an African Bible Commentary. We purchased carpentry tools several years ago for their carpentry shop and we have helped with the purchase of some books for their library. This school was started sometime in the mid to late 50’s by AIMM.

© 2019 Hope4Congo

 

Congo Daily Life, Part 1

For the next three weeks Hope4Congo will share a series of stories
from Brad’s most recent trip to the DRC.

***

Daily Life in Congo means: Hunger, Malnourishment, and Suffering

In March 2019 I visited the provincial capital, Tshikapa, in the Kasai province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This area was deeply affected by the Kamwina Nsafu uprising. Many people fled for their lives during that time. They left the area and/or went into hiding.

Southern Kasai region’s massacres and mass graves of 2017 have given way to general insecurity. Personal safety concerns remain after two years of poor harvests – hunger and malnourishment. The suffering and pain was palpable as I moved about this region.

I had been to Tshikapa on several occasions in the past but this time was different. Things were tense. People were living on the edge.

Over the next weeks I want to share three stories from my time there in an effort to make us more aware of what life is like for many in Congo as well as other countries where there is extreme political unrest among societies mired in poverty.

During breakfast with our host at Tshikapa, he introduced us to a small girl. She was about seven or eight years old. Scars around both wrists of her crippled hands suggested some type of injury.

My host told me her story. She and her younger sister were at home with their parents when some militia entered their home and fired on the family to kill them. In her terror and fear she hid behind her mother and wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist.

Her father and mother fell to the ground. Terrified and crying, this girl and her little sister ran from their hut through the village. Someone reached out to them to ask what the problem was. They told this person they had been attacked and their parents had been killed by the militia.

This person took the children under her care. She learned that the father had been killed, but the mother survived unharmed. The daughter had saved her mother’s life when she wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist.

The bullets intended for her mother struck this girl in both wrists. The emotional and physical scars may never be fully healed unless someone can reach out to this child and her family to provide the spiritual counseling and care most desperately needed.

Please pray for this dear family. Pray for their spiritual and emotional healing.

© 2019 Hope4Congo

A School for Ndjoko Punda

Matthew 9:35-38 Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” He said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!” (The Message)

Ndjoko Punda School circa 1960

Before the harvest can occur, the farmer must first turn over the ground, prepare the soil, plant the seed, and water it.

Wherever the Gospel was taken, this same type of process occurred before the spiritual harvest happened. Missions brought medical aide, education, agriculture, and industry. Missionaries sought to improve relationships and the overall quality of life in the communities they served.

Ministry to the whole body, mind, and soul . . .
Resulted in schools, hospitals, print shops, bookstores, etc.

History reveals this pattern of ministry to be true for many mission efforts around the world. It is seen throughout all of Africa wherever the Gospel was taken.

Ministry to the whole body, mind, and soul is still relevant today. The youth of the Democratic Republic of Congo are the leaders of tomorrow.

For the children at Ndjoko Punda, school is the opportunity of a lifetime.

Problems Prevent Children from an Education:
-Children are needed at home to help the family
-Lack of money to travel for school
-Lack of educational resources
-Lack of nearby classrooms

For several years Hope for Congo has been waiting for the right opportunity and time to build a set of primary classroom buildings at Ndjoko Punda. The time and opportunity has arrived now. “Seed” money has been provided for us to build the first building, which will provide three classrooms.

Only a few buildings remain of the original school complex which once existed. They are in ruins as the attached photographs reveal. They were destroyed by age, neglect due to lack of resources, and damage from periodic storms. This building project will replace the old school buildings.

The complete building plan calls for a total of four buildings in the complex. Two buildings with three classrooms each, one administrative office, and separate lavatories for both boys and girls.

The total project is estimated to cost $56,000. More money is needed to construct all the buildings and to furnish the classrooms and administrative offices. Your prayers and tax-deductible donations can help make this possible. 

Mail your U.S. Dollar Donations to:
Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM)
P.O. Box 744
Goshen, IN 46527-0744

Mail your Canadian Dollar Donations to:
Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM)
440 Main Street
Steinbach, MB R5G 1Z5

© 2018 Hope4Congo