Tuesday, November 3, 2015

God Did Not Forget Us

In previous posts, I have spoken about Nyankunde, a village in northeast DRC where Samaritan’s Purse currently has two health and nutrition programs. For decades, Nyankunde was home to an interdenominational mission base, consisting of a Bible school, airstrip, printing press, a pharmacy and a hospital. Due to the influx of European, North American, and even Asian missionaries, the village was seen as an area of relative prosperity. The village had access to resources that other localities did not. The schools were better, the medicine was better, and jobs could be found with one of the various missions present. Several of my Congolese colleagues grew up in Nyankunde. Almost all of their families were from other villages, and moved to Nyankunde to improve their quality of life. Interestingly, many of my colleagues learned English through playing with the children of the missionaries.

Unfortunately, the resources that attracted the families of my colleagues also attracted military conflict during the Second Congolese Civil War. Viewed as a prime area to loot, militia groups came burning buildings and slaughtering innocent civilians, including over 1,000 hospital staff and patients. As many as 4,500 people were killed in the village as a result of the violence. Thirteen years later, Nyankunde is still feeling the effects of this pointless genocide. Over the last several years, those displaced from the conflict have gradually returned. However, very few have a tangible way of providing for their families, as employment is scarce and basic agricultural information has been lost.
Today, both the hospital and airstrip are running again, but at a much lower capacity than before the war. Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) operates the airstrip, while World Medical Mission, the medical arm of Samaritan’s Purse, employs six expatriate physicians.* Samaritan’s Purse has also constructed an operating room building for the hospital.**


Something That Requires Faith
 In addition to the operating room, Samaritan’s Purse was also hoping to reconstruct the maternity ward that was destroyed during the war. Every winter, Samaritan’s Purse releases a Christmas gift catalogue (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/our-ministry/gift-catalog/) to raise funds for our various projects. In 2013, two American siblings who previously took a cake decorating class, Gabe and Livy, wanted to use their hobby of decorating cakes to raise money for Samaritan’s Purse. They first set off by raising $14 to purchase two chickens. They then raised an additional $75 to buy a goat.
Raising money for these projects came naturally for thirteen year old Gabe and his nine year old sister Livvy. It came so naturally that they were disappointed in how easily they raised the funds. Gabe felt that he was able to meet his previous goals on his own strength, and desired to do “something that requires faith.” That is to say, he wanted to be involved in a project so seemingly impossible that it could only be accomplished through God’s help. So he and his sister searched through the Samaritan’s Purse catalogue and found the most expensive project listed: the construction of a maternity ward for $35,000.

Gabe and Livvy quickly returned to baking and selling cakes. Word of their mission to fund the maternity ward spread, and other children also began helping out. Many of these children became so passionate about project that they asked their parents to donate money in place of receiving birthday and Christmas presents. Upon reaching ten thousand dollars, the project gained media attention. Gabe was invited by a former baker of the Queen of England to be tutored in gourmet baking techniques and be a guest on his television program. During their television appearance, the siblings raised $12,000 for their project. Among the viewers was a representative from the Muhammad Ali Center, who was particularly touched by the children’s story.



Picture of the Gabe and Livvy with Muhammad Ali.***
2014 marked the 40th anniversary of the infamous 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. In an effort to raise the nation’s international profile, recently inaugurated President Mobutu hosted the fight in the capital of Kinshasa. Ali, who knocked-out the then undefeated Foreman, is still beloved in Congo today. In order to commemorate the anniversary of Ali’s victory, the Muhammad Ali Association planned a large party, and the organization wanted Gabe to bake enough dessert for 700 guests. During the celebration, Gabe and Livy were given an opportunity to share their desire to raise money for the maternity ward. An anonymous donor in attendance was so moved by their story, that they provided the remaining $13,000.



Coming Home
The story behind the reconstruction of the maternity ward is multi-layered and can be chronicled from many different angles. It is therefore important not to overlook the many people who made this project possible. The construction of both the maternity ward and the operation room buildings were managed by SP’s Jon Miller. Both Jon and his wife, Heather, are the children and grandchildren of missionaries in Africa. Heather’s grandfather managed the aforementioned printing press and constructed the building that now houses Samaritan’s Purse’s staff in Nyankunde. Perhaps even more amazing is that Jon was born in the same maternity ward that he reconstructed. Not enough credit can be given to this couple for their involvement in this project and the mentoring they have given to the younger SP expat staff.

Exterior of the new maternity ward.


God Will Not Forget Us
I had the privilege of attending the opening ceremony of the maternity ward. In attendance were Gabe, Livvy, and their mother.  It was a blessing to hear them to tell their story first hand, and to eat the softest cupcakes I have ever consumed.

During the ceremony, the president of the hospital gave some stirring words. “When the war started,” he proclaimed. “We said that God will not forget us. [But as the war progressed, we became discouraged, and] we thought that God forgot us. But now we can say that God did not forget us, and that God is with us.”
Even after experiencing unimaginable hardship, our Christian brothers and sisters can affirm that the Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end.



The new delivery room.

 

*Though I need to validate my sources, I was told that over twenty missionary doctors were once simultaneously working at the hospital.


***Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/GabeTheCakeMan/photos/pb.124103517665890.-2207520000.1446388932./715076195235283/?type=3&theater

You can learn more about Gabe “The Cake Man” and his sister Livvy at http://GabeandLivvysavetheday.com/ or by following them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GabeTheCakeMan/

Agricultural & Nutritional Transformation


While traveling through Nyankunde around noon, I consistently see groups of children, hunched over in a circle sharing bars of sugarcane. The first time I observed this, I brushed it off as an anomaly. However, after seeing the fourth or fifth large group of children eating their lunch of this tropical grass, I noted to an educated individual standing next to me, “Lots of children are eating sugarcane...” Thinking I was making a positive observation, he immediately replied, “Yes, it gives them strength!” Surprised by his response, I didn’t say anything. This is probably the first thing most of these kids have eaten today. There isn’t much else in sugarcane besides sugar and water.* I am not a nutrition expert, but I am pretty confident that most American parents would not justify giving their child a candy bar in place of breakfast and lunch because it would made them hyper and “give them strength.”

But it would be incredibly naïve to hold anyone here to American standards. This is not Chicago.* This is Nyankunde, a large village in northeast DRC that was completely devastated by the Second Congolese War. Nyankunde was once home to a large interdenominational mission base with a hospital, printing press, bible school, and airstrip. During the war, militia groups came in and began slaughtering innocent people and burning down homes. It even came to the point that the militants entered into the hospital wards and slaughtered everyone they came across, physicians and patients alike. Though these events happened over ten years ago, the hollow brick buildings seen throughout parts of the village serve as a reminder of the atrocities, and downright evil, that occurred.


Buildings like these were homes to staff at the mission station before the war.
As one could imagine, every type of social service structure (medical, educational, etc.) was undermined during the violence. It is therefore understandable why parents would feed their kids sugarcane: they lack nutritional knowledge and don’t have much of a choice. Sugarcane grows in many of their yards and is simply the most accessible food to give their kids.
 
There is very much a need for improved nutrition in areas like Nyankunde. Most of the residents here were displaced during the civil war and have returned within the last few years. During their time of displacement, families were unable to farm. As a result, parents were unable to teach their children farming techniques, and rates of malnutrition increased. According to Lindsey Cooper, a pediatrician at Nyankunde Hospital, about half of the pediatric inpatients suffer from illnesses caused by malnutrition.

Samaritan’s Purse has been involved in Nyankunde since before the violence, and has helped to reconstruct sections of the missionary hospital. In addition, Two of the programs I am working with: NAMED (see blog post entitled “Settling In and Project NAMED”) and ANT are based in Nyankunde. I recently had the privilege of visiting our team in Nyankunde with the purpose of learning more about Project ANT.

Project ANT (Agricultural & Nutritional Transformation) is an agricultural training program for families with children suffering from severe malnutrition. Each month, the Nyankunde Hospital refers to us families of children who were hospitalized with the worse cases of severe acute malnutrition. The local government also occasionally refers to us families of children who live too far away from the hospital to receive treatment. Once enrolled in the ANT program, Samaritan’s Purse allocates a plot of land in one of our community gardens to for the families to use. Project ANT staff supervise the enrolled families, lead regular training sessions on nutrition and agricultural techniques, and provide seeds and tools.** As with Project NAMED, the training sessions are often accompanied by a Bible lesson.



The vastness of the ANT gardens. Beneficiaries grow cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, soy, eggplant, leeks, green peppers, onions, and corn in gardens such as these.

While visiting many of the different gardens, one thing I was struck by was the genuine gratitude displayed by the beneficiaries. Consistent employment is rare here, and I got the impression while talking with the beneficiaries that they are proud to provide food for their families. However, the impact of Project ANT goes beyond access to vegetables as beneficiaries can sell their excess crops, providing money to buy other foods and even school fees for their children.

Esdras, one of the ANT staff, with some beneficiaries. The cabbages pictured, not even ready to be harvested, demonstrate the large size of the crops.
The Project ANT team is involved in a plethora of activities outside of agricultural and nutritional training for our beneficiaries. Our staff members give nutritional training to outpatients receiving Plumpy’nut, a therapeutic paste made of peanuts and soy, from the hospital. Also, in order to assist new beneficiaries as they wait for their crops to grow, Project ANT distributes food on a monthly basis for families during their first three months of enrollment (the average length of time before a harvest). Lastly, Project ANT, like Project NAMED, gives a weekly radio broadcast to educate the public on nutrition and provide reminders to our beneficiaries. Considering how much the team does, I joked with the staff members after our radio interview that the program should change its name from Project ANT to Project Éléphant.


In what was my probably my most difficult linguistic challenge so far, I was interviewed live on my thoughts about the ANT program via radio. The radio station broadcasts in Swahili, but my responses were translated from French.

Below is a picture of me with the supervisor and assistant supervisor of Project ANT. Our prayer is that, little by little, the program will empower the residents of Nyankunde to have healthy diets, therefore preventing unnecessary illnesses and deaths.








Notes 

 **While I don’t encourage comparing levels of poverty between countries, I don’t want to be ignorant of the nutrition problem in Chicago. Many low-income neighborhoods lack grocery stores, prohibiting many from being able to eat fruits and vegetables. Also, I know several kids who live off a bag of chips or a box of cereal (if anything at all) during their days off of school. It is a shame that this occurs in the wealthiest nation in the world.

***Unlike the training sessions, the tools and seeds are only distributed to the beneficiaries during their first year of enrollment. The beneficiaries are trained on the need to save money for seeds so that they can be independent after the program finishes.





Saturday, September 19, 2015

Portable Bible School Graduation

Samaritan’s Purse has a pretty cool program that provides Biblical training for pastors living in rural DRC. For three months, pastors undergo intensive training not far from their home villages. Most of these ministers did not finish secondary school, yet alone any form of seminary education. The hope is that these trainings will equip and encourage these pastors to continue their ministries amongst the regions most devastated by military conflicts.
This past Sunday, I had the privilege of attending a graduation ceremony for a Portable Bible School in a village about three hours south of Bunia. Roughly 30 pastors graduated. I continue to be impressed with how Samaritan’s Purse works across denominational lines for the sake of advancing the Gospel. The graduating class contained pastors from various church groups, including Baptist, Pentecostal, and even Anglican. Congregants from all the pastors’ churches came to support them for this exciting occasion. It was a great celebration – this was the first academic graduation ceremony many of graduates have participated in. In past graduation ceremonies in other villages, graduates were showered with flour by the audience (somewhat reminiscent of the bride and groom having rice thrown at them in American weddings). This time, however, the graduates were simply tackled with hugs by elderly women upon receiving their diploma.


All in all, the graduation service was a great privilege to attend. Over the span of four hours, various church choirs led worship in Swahili, and speeches were given in French by a graduate, church leaders, and SP staff. The commencement speech, given by Laurent Trabadello of SP Canada, came from Genesis 12 where God calls Abraham to be a blessing to all nations. He shared a very moving story about a single mother in Uganda who was unemployed and recently discovered that she was HIV positive. A concerned neighbor told her pastor, who then invited the woman to their church. The woman immediately felt welcomed by the members of the congregation, and, soon, the church was moved by the woman’s situation. This church, situated in a rural and impoverished region of Uganda, decided to pool all their resources together to ensure that this woman and her children had all their physical needs accounted for. The commencement speaker shared this story to emphasize that the local church, like the one in Uganda, is called to be a blessing to its communities.

One of the choirs leading worship.
All the guests from Samaritan’s Purse were seated stage right, perpendicular to the stage. Directly in front of us were a group of maybe 40 children who gave all of the expat staff curious stares. I honestly believe that these children would have all approached us if it were not for the ushers, who stated that they must all sit on a patch of grass maybe 15 feet from where I was sitting. During one of the worship songs (which frequently involves dancing in Africa), some of my colleagues and I made some new friends by dancing with the children.


Me interacting with some of the kids.


You can learn more information about the Portable Bible School by watching a video at http://video.samaritanspurse.org/revenge-meets-mercy/.

Settling In and Project NAMED

It is hard to believe that I’ve already been in DRC for over three weeks. A lot has happened, and I apologize for not writing sooner.

Settling In
I am based in Bunia, a city in northeast DRC near the Lake Albert and the Ugandan border. Bunia was the center of much of the fighting during the Second Congo Civil War, partially due to its close proximity to gold mines and militia groups based in Uganda. The UN has an extremely strong presence in the city, providing security and political stability to the area. The local rebel groups have been scared off and I am very safe here.
I am also very spoiled. In the walled compounded where I am living, we have hot water heaters, a washing machine (plus a maid who does our laundry), and an Internet router that runs on batteries, allowing us to have internet access even when the power is out. We even have a cook who used to work for missionaries before the war. She knows how to make many Western foods like granola, mashed potatoes, banana bread, and tacos. There are many times when the comforts here make me feel that I am in the US and not in Africa.
All that to say that, after the first few nights, adjusting to life here has been fairly easy. The expats I am living with are all amazing people who humbly desire to serve the Congolese. The 170 Congolese staff members employed by SP are similarly passionate to demonstrate Christ’s love to their fellow nationals, and are some of the friendliest people you will ever meet.

The NAMED Program and My Brief Visit to Nyankunde
Two weeks ago, I made a trip out to Nyankunde, a large village about 45 minutes south of Bunia to learn more about the NAMED Project. NAMED (Nutritional And Maternal Educational Development) is one of the projects I will be assisting in managing as part of my internship. The three-year program employs a team of Samaritan’s Purse national staff who train a group of young mothers and pregnant women from the surrounding villages in various pediatric health topics. These Leader Mothers then each train their neighbors twice a month on these topics. Over six thousand women have participated in these trainings, and these lessons are having an incredible impact. Many of the women take the lessons seriously and immediately seek ways to apply the information. For example, after a recent module on hygiene, a group of women asked if the Samaritan’s Purse staff would help test their community water sources.

A Leader Mother teaching her neighbors as part of Project NAMED.

The responsiveness on these women is particularly encouraging because Nyankunde and the surrounding area were devastated by the civil war. Even ten years later, the hollow walls of many buildings serve as a reminder of the military conflict. At that time rebel groups came in and slaughtered scores of innocent people, including patients at the village’s missionary hospital.* Staff members talk about the conflict as if it were a recent occurrence. I get the impression, however, that the community is now much more upset foreign companies who control the local mines. Despite all these hardships, however, God is far from done with places like Nyankunde.
I had the privilege of recently translating a testimonial of one of our beneficiaries. This young woman was in the midst of marital problems after having two miscarriages. Her husband, upset that she was unable to have children, received permission from his family to divorce the young woman and began searching for a new wife. Not long after becoming a Leader Mother with Project NAMED, the young woman learned that she had become pregnant for a third time. This news was a great source of anxiety, and she was convinced that her husband would divorce her if she miscarried again. Unsure what to do, she remembered learning about the importance of prenatal care from one of the health lessons with Project NAMED. At the nearby health clinic, clinicians discovered that she had a uterine infection that caused the previous miscarriages. The clinicians treated the infection, and the woman eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Today, both the woman and her husband claim that their marriage is as strong as it ever has been. The couple attributes the state of their marriage to God placing Samaritan’s Purse in their village.

The Spiritual Impact of NAMED
            I have been impressed with Samaritan’s Purse’s ability to find ways to seamlessly address the spiritual needs of its beneficiaries. In NAMED, our national staff has done a great job earning the respect of the Leader Mothers they regularly train. There have been several incidences when Leader Mothers have been avoiding each other because of past disagreements. After hearing about these quarrels, our staff members have used the training sessions as an opportunity to preach forgiveness. And each time, the Leader Mothers have resolved their differences.
            The training sessions have also opened doors for SP staff and some of the Leader Mothers to share their faith.** Many have come to ask Christ for forgiveness as a result of the NAMED Project, including a Muslim woman who is now active in a local church.
            To show our appreciation for the Leader Mothers, Samaritan’s Purse distributed hardcover Swahili Bibles and SP t-shirts to the women in April. These women were overjoyed to receive the Bibles. Due to the poverty in the region, people rarely have Bibles, even those who regularly attend church. The Leader Mothers have since shared their Bibles with family and neighbors and have even used the Bibles while giving their health lessons with their neighbors. The excitement and appreciation that the women demonstrated after receiving the Bibles is something I continuously come across while reading reports and talking with those involved with the NAMED Project. I am looking forward to seeing how God continues to use this program to improve both the physical and spiritual wellbeing of His people.



*You can learn about the reopening of the mission hospital in Nyankunde that was affected by the civil war here: http://video.samaritanspurse.org/beacon-of-healing/


**FYI: Staff members who are apart of NAMED are allowed to share their faith because the project is fully funded by Samaritan’s Purse. Projects funded by external groups (like USAID and the WFP) lack such an explicit evangelistic component.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Getting to Congo

I safely arrived in Bunia, DRC yesterday! I have a lot to discuss about all that has happened during the past two weeks.

Orientation
I spent ten days at Samaritan’s Purse’s international head quarters in Boone, North Carolina. There, 14 fellow interns and myself attended a detailed orientation program to learn about the organization’s history and programs. It was somewhat overwhelming to learn about all the ways God is using SP: from proving shelter for those impacted by the Napoli earthquakes to sending 10 million shoe boxes filled with gifts for children last year. I was particularly impressed with how committed Samaritan’s Purse is to ensuring that its employees receive the emotional/spiritual support necessary to prevent burnout and be most effective in our work. I feel humbled to be part of such a great organization, and am excited for all that I will witness and learn in the coming months. 

A group picture of 14 of the 15 interns (plus one new full-time staff person) after a hike in the rain. This fall, Samaritan’s Purse is sending interns to Hati, Liberia, Niger, DRC, South Sudan, Uganda, Cambodia, and the Philippines.
Layover in Uganda
Peter Cain, a fellow SP intern to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and I had a two-night layover in Uganda before reaching our base in Bunia. The time waiting was a great opportunity to fight off jet lag, relax, and become reacquainted with Africa. We visited the Botanical Gardens in Entebbe, a place where British botanists imported plants from all over the world during the Colonial Era. According to the tour guide, it was also the site of where one of the old Tarzan movies was filmed (I have yet to confirm this). But regardless of the accuracy of the information given to us, the time was very well spent for one simple fact: we got to feed monkeys!



Final Connection
Yesterday afternoon, I had the experience of riding a small aircraft for the first time. I will admit to being startled every time our tiny single-engine plane hit a cloud and consequently shook. However, we reached our final destination without any problems. The trip from Entebbe, Uganda to Bunia, DRC only took about 70 minutes. 


PS: I can receive text messages and calls from my American cell phone when connected to the Internet. Feel free to contact me by phone after 11 AM CST.

Monday, August 17, 2015

About Samaritan’s Purse and what I will be doing

As Ken Isaacs, the Vice President of Programs And Government Relations at Samaritan’s Purse, likes to say, “The quality of our work is a platform for our witness.” I love this quote for a variety of reasons; including that it is representative of Samaritan’s Purse’s mission and my mindset while I travel to Congo. Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian relief organization that intervenes in regions of the world hit hardest by disasters. Depending on the region’s ability to recover from the event, Samaritan’s Purse will stay long-term to help build the capacity of the affected region. We emphasize providing the highest quality of service possible to demonstrate our genuine concern for the world’s suffering. In doing so, we hope to provide a living testimony to the message of the Gospel and how God has changed our lives.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), I will be assisting with the management of agricultural training and maternal and child health education programs. I will be working in the northeast part of the country, a region heavily affected by the violence inflicted by the Lord’s Resistance Army and two civil wars within the last twenty years.

Below is a link to a video clip describing Samaritan’s Purse’s involvement with the Ebola crisis in Liberia. I believe that the clip is a fairly good representation of Samaritan’s Purse’s work overseas. One thing not mentioned in the clip: Dr. Kent Brantly was the only one of SP’s 320 employees in Liberia who was infected with the Ebola virus. Considering that the virus infected nearly 900 healthcare workers in the region (killing over 500 of them, including one of the top Liberian Infectious Disease doctors), the fact that everyone from SP was spared is nothing short of a miracle. http://video.samaritanspurse.org/liberia-vs-ebola/

Here is a clip of side project Samaritan’s Purse is doing to train pastors in the region I will be moving to. Unfortunately, there are no videos pertaining to the food distribution program I will be assisting in. http://video.samaritanspurse.org/revenge-meets-mercy/

Que Dieu vous bénisse,

Bruce