Serving the Persecuted Church in Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Airport
Bye-bye amazing LSD Team!
Rosie crushing garlic.
Wedding Dress Project.
Meet a new face at BTM: Gideon and family. Look for his story next time.
CONGO SAFARI IN DECEMBER
An adorable fashion show: fitting little girl dresses.
Sowers of New Hope (kids not pictured)
CEPAC Church with Ps Guillaume.
Typical meal at Zawadi’s home.
Meeting the 7 Rosetta Orphans.
A typical Pygmy home.
Dear Prayer Partners,
The twinkling Christmas tree lights at the Newark, New Jersey, International Airport were a welcome sight! I was nearly home. I then boarded my final plane and arrived Thanksgiving Eve in Phoenix, Arizona. My sweet daughter, Michelle, picked me up. Whew! Five planes in three days. Yikes! No wonder I was tired. I praise God for a successful and healthy ministry in CONGO, UGANDA, KENYA and REFUGEECAMPS these past few months. But this letter is about that last country - CONGO.
Young ‘Youth For Christ’ members.
Christmas! Newark, NJ, Airport!
Charlotte & Grace the Tailor.
PRAY FOR CHANTEL.
Chantel has unfortunately backslidden. The Team and I visited her for a necessary 'confrontation'. Sadly she has turned to alcohol, causing problems with her family, neighbors and landlord. Please pray for her.
SOWERS OF NEW HOPE.
We spent a day with Sowers of New Hope, directed by Alana (a man). They’re our partner. I spoke to a group of Raped Women and later interviewed them one-on-one, listening to their horrifying stories. We brightened their day with ‘Little Girl Dresses’, masks and other gifts including a Wedding Dress to be safely kept by the Women Leader! I wish you could have seen the smiles on their faces as they looked at this ‘white dream dress’. All I can say is that MEN in Congo need a good spanking for their abusive treatment of women plus a great deal of teaching from God’s Word.
YOUTH FOR CHRIST.
Youth for Christ is a BTM partner. We provide Christian and educational books to them for their young people to learn to read English. We heard over a dozen exciting testimonies on how these books help transform lives as YFC has no budget to buy such ‘luxuries’.
Women carry heavy loads.
Zawadi’s home gets 4 hours of electricity a day – not consecutive hours, either. The house has indoor/outdoor plumbing, however, they only get water for a few minutes each morning. Everyone grabs a yellow jerry can to fill up for the day: washing clothes, dishes, bathing - even flushing the toilet. They buy drinking water. Walking around Goma presented a challenge to me as the ground was covered with volcanic stones of all sizes. My radiation treatment last year affected my balance so I simply reach out to grab someone’s arm to steady myself.
HIGHLIGHTS
MASKS. I had the opportunity to speak to Zawadi’s LSD [Living Sustainable Development] Team of dedicated workers and hand out masks. They were a big hit thanks to our USA Sewing Angels! The team also wrote out prayer requests in French. Thank goodness, Zawadi translated them. Oh dear, I must brush up on French!
PLOT FOR BUGAMBA ORPHANS.
Zawadi, Zaire (our driver) and I inspected a new plot we bought for 100+ BUGAMBA ORPHANS. We plan to build simple wooden houses for families of 12 each. We will also buy the adjacent plot which will give us even more room to build a school for them. It’s very rocky due to an ample supply of volcanic stones - a blessing in disguise as these will be used to build a secure wall around the property. We’ll have access to water.
TYPICAL MEAL.
A typical meal was ‘ugali’ (corn meal, the staple diet); pumpkin (eaten as a veggie); 'bitter greens' (not pictured); and fresh fish (with 99 bones) – I’m not complaining since I got pretty good at spitting them out.
WEDDING CLOSET PROJECT.
After speaking at EMISA church, I presented the Women Leader with a wedding dress. This is to encourage young women to be married in the Church instead of the traditional way. None of them have two cents to rub together to go out and buy one. Thus I delivered beautiful wedding dresses all along the mission trail bringing great joy and hope to poor young women.
Youth for Christ’s library.
Psalm 18:6
“In my distress I called to the LORD;
I cried to my God for help.
From His temple He heard my voice;
my cry came before Him, into His ears”.
GRACE THE TAILOR.
Grace was a ‘student’ who was trained a while back on how to use a sewing machine (bought by BTM). She went on to start her own business which I visited for the first time on this trip. Today she has 15 students and 3 employees. They use treadle machines - no electricity. Before, Grace and her 3 children lived in the street - no hope, nor job. Now she has her own business, pays school fees and rents a house, thanks to God and BTM.
ROSETTA ORPHANS.
The story doesn’t end there. Remember the ROSETTA orphans - a family of 7 children? How the eldest, Mwavita, age 22, was contemplating suicide as she lost all hope for a future? Here’s an update: she just graduated from Technical College with a Teaching Certificate! Meantime she asked to enroll in a Sewing Class. Guess who is going to be her teacher? That’s right, Grace the Tailor. Blessings are being passed on!
We visited the Rosetta orphans at their tiny wooden house, provided funds and relief supplies for the whole family. During our visit we learned that Tuombe, the 19-yr old (boy), had dropped out of high school for lack of fees. He’d gone back to his former job of herding cows 100 miles to market, traveling by foot for 24-hours straight; and being ‘paid’ with 4 cows feet a week – no money. He’s now back in school.
100+ BUGAMBA ORPHANS
We spent a day with our 100+ BUGAMBA ORPHANS & MAMAS. We carried the biggest cooking pot in the world along with plastic cups to feed them porridge. We also handed out nutritional cookies. What fun fitting little boys and girls with new shorts and dresses – thanks to our USA Sewing Angels – plus other gifts. This is the group we bought a plot to build homes which they desperately need – just like you and me.
CEPAC CHURCH.
My last Sunday I spoke at CEPAC, one of the largest churches in Goma, at two services. Afterwards I met with vulnerable and other women (even a few men ‘listened in’) to encourage them.
Pastor Guillaume then invited the Team upstairs for a tasty lunch – fresh fish, ‘matoke’ (green banana dish I mentioned earlier), ‘bitter greens’ (Zawadi’s favorite - but alas, not mine), fresh pineapple and sodas. Finally, Pastor Guillaume asked to partner with BTM. He offered to help us with important documents needed to bring our next Container into Congo in early 2021. PTL! Another prayer answered!
100+ Bugamba Orphans & Mamas.
A raped woman & family, holding the baby in her lap.
PYGMIES ARE NOT ALL ‘LITTLE PEOPLE’.
1. I shared God’s word with Pygmies using the window of the car. We conducted feeding programs last July for two groups: the MUGUNGA of 133 families, overseen by Chief Mupepa (also called “the King” as he is over other groups as well).
2. The MUKONDO PYGMIES, 140 families and 240 children with Chief Toya. Sadly, the Pygmy people in Congo are shunned by society and discriminated against with no one to help provide basic needs.
3. The third group, MUBANBINO PYGMIES, are overseen by Chief Joshua, a fine young man. We were not aware of this group until recently and we are doing a Feeding Program as this post is being sent out. This group is the largest of the three mentioned here, with over 250 families and 1,000 children. They also have the greatest needs: NO school, NO clinic, and NO church. Our work is cut out.
We asked the leaders what they wanted first. They shouted, “A Church!” so that’s where we’ll begin. But where?
‘King Mupepa’, who had ridden along to show us the way, entered the conversation: “I have the authority to grant you free land to build your Church!” Now the MUBANBINO PYGMIES have land to not only build the Church but also a future school and clinic. God answered our prayer!
CONCLUSION
This ‘African Safari’ barely scratches the surface of what God, His servants, accomplished, but gives you an idea of how every moment was spent spreading Jesus’ Love in dark places. COVID brought many opportunities to BE the ‘Church in Action’. May these precious photos remind you to pray for our most vulnerable Congo brothers and sisters. You can see for yourselves how God cares for His people through YOU. You are the key to their future.
Zawadi & Charlotte prepare dinner.
Teaching Pygmies.
Lunch time for Bugamba Orphans.
Allie hangs his school uniform to dry.
Visiting new plot for Bugamba Orphans.
Thomas: masks for Team
BACKGROUND (FOR THOSE WHO LIKE FACTS).
CONGO has a population of about 92 million people from 250 ethnic groups. Nearly 94% are Christians (30% Catholic, 27% Protestant, 37% Evangelical). The Second Congo War (1998-2003) involved 9 countries and 20 armed groups but left over 5 million dead and 2 million displaced. Since then another 8 million souls have died needlessly from war, sickness, hunger.
EVEN WITH A PEACE AGREEMENT, rebel groups continue to fight, especially in Ituri and Kivu (where BTM serves) over minerals (gold, diamonds, cobalt, etc.) and food. In BENI, North Kivu and Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province, there is an ongoing massacre by Lendu herders (pagans) against Hema farmers (mostly Christian). They've driven hundreds of thousands from their homes, slaughtering them as they go, leaving 1,000+ orphans. Many BTM friends were killed; our heart breaks for those left behind. We will soon be helping these orphans. (Special thanks to coworker Gideon Mashauri for preparing these facts).
VISA
IT TOOK A STRING OF MIRACLES to receive my CONGO VISA. Space doesn’t permit me to list the many complicated steps to obtain it but trust me; a Visa is almost impossible for a Westerner to get these days. I flew from Nairobi, Kenya, to Goma, Congo, on Ethiopian Airlines, passing through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I usually travel by bus, however, I would have to pass through Rwanda, still in lock down due to COVID. I would have been quarantined two weeks - precious time wasted plus excessive hotel costs.
MY HOST
Each evening I would help Zawadi prepare dinner outside on a charcoal stove. Rosie, 10-yr old, is seen crushing garlic for 'matoke', a popular dish made from green bananas. Yes, I ate the whole thing! Rosie and 17-yr old Allie (hanging clothes) live with Zawadi and her hubby. They were rescued from violent Muslim fathers but have Christian mothers who were 'chased away' from their homes because they refused to convert to Islam. Zawadi pays their school fees, too.
Bringing hope to 250 Mubanbino Pygmy families.