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.