Can anything good come out of the Democratic Republic of Congo?

(a report on my time in the Congo)

"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.
"Come and see," said Philip.
John 1:46

• Every day, 10 new women and girls who have been raped show up in hospitals in a particular region. Many have been so sadistically attacked from the inside out, butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, that their reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair.

• Eastern Congo is going through another one of its convulsions of violence, and this time it seems that women are being systematically attacked on a scale never before seen here. According to the United Nations, 27,000 sexual assaults were reported in 2006 in South Kivu Province alone, and that may be just a fraction of the total number across the country.



• According to victims, one of the newest groups to emerge is called the Rastas, a mysterious gang of dreadlocked fugitives who live deep in the forest, wear shiny tracksuits and Los Angeles Lakers jerseys and are notorious for burning babies, kidnapping women and literally chopping up anybody who gets in their way.

• An 18-year-old woman with high cheekbones and downcast eyes, said she was kidnapped from a village that the Rastas raided in April and kept as a sex slave until August. Most of that time she was tied to a tree, and she still has rope marks ringing her delicate neck. The men would untie her for a few hours each day to gang-rape her, she said.

• “I still have pain and feel chills,” said a patient who was raped in February by five men. The men held an AK-47 rifle to her husband’s chest and made him watch, telling him that if he closed his eyes, they would shoot him. When they were finished, they shot him anyway.

• In Congo, a nation of 63 million people in the heart of Africa, a peace deal signed more than three years ago was supposed to halt a war that drew in belligerents from at least eight other countries, producing a record of human devastation unmatched in recent history. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) estimates that 3.9 million people have died from war-related causes since the conflict in Congo began in 1998, making it the world's most lethal conflict since World War II.

"Can anything good come out of the Congo?"
This is what crossed my mind over and over while I traveled to the DRC. When I was asked to become a temporary staff person for the Congo Initiative in August, I was like many North Americans. I knew very little or nothing about this conflict. My questions arose after researching the country that I would soon be traveling to. And since my return my questions are these, “Can anything good come out of the DRC?” “Where is the international outcry? “”Where is the church?”

I kept thinking about the verse in John, Where Jesus’ disciples questioned…can anything good come from Nazareth. I felt a connection. And we know the answer about Jesus, but I didn’t know about the Congo.

On November 29th, I set out for the DRC. Traveling alone to a place I had never been before was a bit unsettling for me and my family. We got confirmation of my connecting flights only a few days ahead of my scheduled departure which led to some early stress.

Leaving my driveway and on the way to O’Hare airport, I felt uneasy. I had just left my kids and my wife behind. To me, this is the hardest thing about travel and ministry. Forget all the complications of travel and the unknowns. Leaving my family is difficult.

But this time was more difficult for some reason. Given time to reflect and to process this has led me to believe I was under some serious spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare that I have never experienced before. I believe the enemy was putting some things in my head that was very discouraging. Discouraging enough that I wanted to turn back and just forget it.

I have learned a valuable lesson from this. I believe I left without proper prayer coverage. I did not have my full set of armor on and well quite frankly, going into a region like the north Kivu region in the DRC…you need it! I felt like I asked no one to pray over me and my prayer concerns.

My time in the Amsterdam airport, the feelings again came back as I pondered “Is this worth it?” “What am I doing?” I struggled to have focus. I was wrestling with my feelings…and as I look back...I know exactly what was going on. Spiritual Warfare. You see the enemy, satan the greatest deceiver of all time, roams around looking to devour and he thinks he owns this world. He has a tight grip on that region I was about to enter. He knew I was a threat…and I was going to be trespassing on his property and he knew it. He was having a hay day with me. I wanted to go home in all honesty. I wanted to go home.

I arrive in Uganda late in the evening and had to spend a night at Sophie’s motel. Sophie’s was a nice little motel with all the amenities that I needed. In this room, I did not sleep. Again, I was under steady attack. I decided then that I needed to do something. I brought out my tiny bible that has some pretty big words in it. I just opened it up and came to these verses,
1 Thessalonians 1:2-5
We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.

Whoa…I needed this!

I knew that I am inspired by the hope I have in my Lord Jesus and I needed endurance. I spent most of the night reading my bible and praying. I felt better. I was ready.
The next morning I needed to be at a tiny airstrip near Entebbe to catch my flight to Bunia, DRC. The excitement of my ‘first’ small plane ride was churning inside of me. Here I met some other North Americans and Europeans representing different NGO’s. These would be the last ‘white’ people (other than Justin) I would see for awhile. You see, DRC, is not a tourist hot spot. While it has that capability, it’s not a place that is recognized as the ‘top ten vacation hot spots’.

My flight over to Bunia was great. I loved it. The landscape was beautiful and thoughts entered my mind what it would be like to hike and travel through this unbelievable beautiful country side. Landing on a tiny paved airstrip in Bunia was uneventful and that’s the way I like it. But I soon realized that this was a whole different world and the thoughts came ringing to me from the movie the Wizard of Oz….your not in Kansas anymore Rick…your not in Kansas anymore. There where UN helicopters and the UN base was right next to the airport with all the razor wire and the smell of unrest was in the air. What the heck am I doing here, I asked?

Most of the people stayed on the flight and were heading to a different destination or Bunia was it for them…I was left alone with a French speaking couple and had to figure out how I was going to switch planes and how to do that not knowing any French. I made my way through it and waited patiently for my flight which was to depart in a few hours. Once I boarded the plane, I felt at ease. I was on the last leg of my trip which had started about 32 hours ago.



I landed in Beni, this airstrip was gravel and interesting. I got off the plane and there was about 100 armed police men doing some type of military routine. I asked myself jokingly, what a reception…do they do this for all mondeles( a white person)? I was greeted soon by a familiar face from the Congo Initiative website, I recognized him, Daniel. He made me feel welcome and I was safe.

I arrived at Dr. David Kasali’s house soon after and we had warm greetings. I have grown to love and respect David and his wife Kaswera from my time studying at Elmbrook. David was my professor for two classes I took and we built a relationship out of that. He knew my great desire for transformation and love for Africa and it was he who approached me about helping the Congo initiative. What a privilege it was for me to be standing in his house on DRC soil. We then broke into prayer for about 3o minutes. I then realized this is what keeps them going in this environment. Prayer.

I then took a ride to visit the university. The University Christian Bilingual College (UCBC) is a vital part of the initiative. Its goal is to train tomorrow’s leaders for the Congo and teach them to do business, church, government and community with each other with a holistic Christian model. In my opinion, this is probably the best way to transform this country. I was welcomed by the students, 90 of them. When they first opened the doors in September, they were hoping for 30 students. Word travels fast here. The next thing they knew they had 90 students, which led to many logistical issues.



The next ten days I met with students, interviewed them, hung out with them, spoke at chapel, and just observed the HOPE that the Congo Initiative brings to this region. The Holy Spirit is alive and well in Beni and the enemy knows it and now it was making sense to me about my earlier struggles.

This initiative is local and that’s the way it should be. No western influence. This is being done by Congolese and it does not resemble any colonization hangovers. I was amazed by the ‘excitement’ the students had. Over and over I heard the words hope and what can I do for my country, it was impressive. They were taking ownership! Sure, the question is raised that most of the funding came from great partners in the west, BUT most of the labor was provided by the community. The community is taking pride in this new hope. Parents see hope for their children…over and over David and the staff at UCBC hear this.

I also got to know the Kasali’s better and Justin Hubbard, who is the first English teacher, during my time there. I have great admiration for the Kasali’s. They didn’t have to go back to their country. They both have doctorate degrees. You can guess the salaries they would be making here in the west. Instead, they have returned home. Home has limited or no electricity, no running water in the city, very limited goods and services(the services that are available are incredibly high priced),unstable country, bribery everywhere, sexual abuse around every corner, a church that is in disarray and yet they are happy to be home. The Lord will repay them well. They are the servants in 1 Thessalonian that Paul is talking about.

I met many new friends in Beni. Justin, Honoré, Daniel, Charles to name a few. What brothers they are. I left, but they are still there, fighting the good fight day after day with limited resources.

This leads me to my role, to help with resources. I’ve been asked to help find funding for different projects and operational needs. Projects like a bus for the students, a good communication system, and salaries for the staff in the initial years, and building projects. I also will be working on church partnerships with CI. I will be looking to fill staffing needs as they arise also.

I arrived home with a heavy burden. I felt like I am so inadequate for this. Why would God choose to use me in this manner? After downloading with a few trusted friends, the same answer came back again and again. You are right where God wants you. Depending on Him.

So to answer the question” Can anything good come out of the Congo?” The answer is YES. There is now hope in this region because of the Kasali’s and the Congo Initiative. My prayer and hope that this will be a transforming agent for the land of Congo and by God’s grace and goodness, the land will be restored to its rightful owner.

I’m on the winning team.The war has already been won. I know that!

Democratic Republic of Congo, FEWER, 2007

WEST AFRICA: Food prices still climbing, crisis feared

DAKAR, 18 January 2008 (IRIN) - Food prices at markets across West Africa are already high for the time of year and are still rising, suggesting aid agencies should prepare for a potentially serious hunger crisis later in the year as people across the impoverished region may not be able to afford enough to eat, despite food being available.

Normally in January and February cereal and grain prices in West Africa are driven down as harvests from the year before start hitting the markets.

But production of cereals was low across the region in 2007 because of a late start and early end to the rainy season, which affected production of millet, sorghum and maize. Analysts say traders are seeking to maximize profit by hoarding stocks, because they know the low production will yield higher prices.

“Traders are still buying in as much as possible to hold onto it until the price has doubled or more,” said Salif Sow, regional representative of the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) food monitoring group.

FEWS NET has recorded rising prices at important markets in northern Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Benin.

The last time FEWS NET compiled regional information, in November 2007, prices compared to the same month in 2006 were 60 percent higher for millet, 51 percent higher for maize, and 43 percent for sorghum.

Almost all farming in West Africa is rain-fed, meaning farmers experience an intense burst of activity during the June to November rainy season, when they must grow and sell enough food to see them through until the next year.



By June, many of the poorest families in the region have run out of money and food. The period is known as the “hunger gap” or “lean season” and is usually accompanied by quickly accelerating malnutrition rates as families skip meals and in extreme cases rely on wild foods like weeds, leaves and berries and rubbish for sustenance.

For some families, the lean season starts as early as January or February. Even slight shifts in market prices can have a dramatic impact on peoples’ ability to get through the lean season, as all their reserves and credit are already used up.

The hardest hit people are in Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad which are among the poorest countries in the world and together form West Africa’s semi-arid Sahel region. The World Food Programme estimates that there are 1.5 million children under five suffering from under-nutrition in those countries.

Parts of Senegal and northern Benin and Togo also experience similar problems.

Major humanitarian relief operations are launched annually to help support the most vulnerable people and prevent mass malnutrition-related deaths. In November 2007, the UN appealed to donors to provide US$133 million for food security and nutrition projects in West Africa in 2008.

Aid agencies and donors need to focus on putting in place mitigation measures now, before they are called on to respond to a potential crisis when the full lean season starts in May or June, Margie Morard, regional food security adviser at Oxfam said.

“Anticipating that people’s purchasing power is possibly going to be affected, we can support off-season programmes like giving cash grants and to assist people with purchasing the seeds and tools they will be needing for the next growing season, to lighten their load and make them slightly less reliant on the markets,” she suggested.

People in Sahelian countries have weathered successive years of natural disasters including drought, floods and locust invasions during the last decade. Many of them have incurred substantial debts as they struggled to get through the difficult years, and have experienced diminishing harvests because their land is denuded or because they lack the money to buy enough seeds and tools to farm efficiently.

FEWS NET’s Sow suggested the increase in maize prices could prove to be the most serious factor for the poorest families.

“Maize is what people usually buy during the lean season because that is what is cheapest. This year maize will still be on the market but it is going to be really expensive,” he said.

nr/aj

Themes: (IRIN) Aid Policy, (IRIN) Children, (IRIN) Early Warning, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Environment, (IRIN) Food Security, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition, (IRIN) Natural Disasters

Report can be found online at:
http://www.irnnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76323

Copyright © IRIN 2008
The material contained on www.IRINnews.org comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.
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Family Looks for Peanuts After Drought to Survive

Living Water International

We started our trek in heavy snow late Thursday night and we ended up in Houston early Friday morning with bright sunshine and warm temps. That felt so good for a northerner like myself.
David Colwin joined me as we are venturing into what we believe could provide transformational development for hundreds of villages in rural Senegal in the years to come.
We arrived at Living Water at about 10:30 am and we left exhausted from all the info and the excitement of the day at 4 pm.
We met our contact at Living Water International (LWI), Brad Salzman when we arrived. Brad is one of four vice presidents at Living Water. We soon realized how passionate Brad was about his role and his love for providing a cup of clean water in Jesus name.Brad is the leader of the pump repair program at LWI. LWI repaired over 300 pumps in 2007 and has a lofty goal of repairing 1000 pumps in 2008.
Dave and I really resonated with Brad and LWI's approach.
Simple.
Sustainable.
Community involvement.
Spiritual connection.

Brad will be joining us as a consultant in Senegal in March. We look forward as we will be the 'spies' and survey the land and we look forward to the report we will give you in April. I feel something big here. Like the spies returning from the promised land ,we envision of helping thousands of rural Senegalese in the years to come...

stay tuned.

Happy New Year from Beni , Congo

Happy New Year from the CI-UCBC team in DRC!

We at CI-UCBC continue to experience God’s grace and favor. This project is pulling together people from all walks of life as they contribute whatever little they can, visit CI-UCBC campus, and send their sons and daughters, continually thanking God not only for the launching of UCBC but also for the concept of integrating moral, spiritual, manual work and community engagement in an academic endeavor. On Dec. 25, over 400 people walked 3 to 5 km for a 3 hour Christmas worship and celebration at the UCBC main hall.

SENEGAL: Why the`talibe’ problem won’t go away

DAKAR, 3 January 2008 (IRIN) - Empty cans used for begging line the entrance of a house in the overcrowded neighborhood of Grand Yoff in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, where a `marabout’ [Koranic teacher] and 10 boys rent two mosquito-infested rooms.

The boys sleep together on the concrete floor. Each morning they get up, take the empty cans and head onto the street to beg for breakfast.

These boys are `talibes’, followers of a `marabout’, to whom they were entrusted by their families to learn the Koran. But their `marabout’ - like many others who are caretakers of an estimated 10,000 children in Dakar and up to 100,000 across the country according to UNICEF - does not have the means to support them.

Thousands of `talibes’ spend hours each day walking the city in search of scraps of food and begging for money to meet a daily quota exacted by their `marabouts’, or face beatings, talibe children told IRIN.


Often with ripped clothes, barefoot and filthy, the children move alone or in packs. Many never learn the Koran, officials from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say, and rarely do they attain adequate schooling that will lead to jobs when they become adults.

Despite the efforts of NGOs and government agencies to tackle the problem, it continues and may, according to some aid organisations such as Samusocial Sénégal, it may be growing.

NGOs Worldvision and Tostan and government officials from the Ministry of Solidarity cited three main obstacles to solving the problem: persistent poverty, an inadequate response by the government and the power of `marabouts’ in Senegalese society.

“The [`marabout’] system goes above the president,” said Ann Birch, communications leader for World Vision Senegal, and a photographer who has documented `talibe’ children.

People consult `marabouts’ on family matters, money questions, for professional advice, and even guidance on how to vote, Imam Mamadou Ndiaye, director of teaching at the Islamic Institute of Dakar, told IRIN. They are influential in all levels of society.

Financial stakes

`Marabouts’ demand that their `talibes’ give them a daily average minimum of 350 CFA francs (77 US cents), according to various children IRIN interviewed. That is a considerable sum in a country where over half the population lives on less than two dollars a day.

“The economic stakes are enormous,” explained Isabelle de Guillebon, director of Samusocial Sénégal, one of many local NGOs working with street children in Senegal.

“People are making more money off [child] begging than they would if they had jobs,” said Mouhamed Chérif Diop, programme coordinator for the local NGO, Tostan, which helps to reintegrate `talibes’ with their families.

A hesitant government

In 2005 the government passed stricter laws against begging, including stronger sentences for mistreating children. But what is missing, many NGO representatives told IRIN, is government-wide regulation of the Koranic schools.

According to Tostan’s Mouhamed Chérif Diop, “until the government regulates the thousands of informal Koranic schools so that not just anyone can open a `daara’ [Koranic school] the problem will not go away.”

The government is currently creating ‘modern daaras’ in which children do not go out to beg. But “there is lots of talk and very little action,” says Isabelle de Guillebon, director of NGO Samusocial Sénégal. “These steps are more for show and the anti-begging law isn’t being enforced.”

Some officials in the government even blame the persistence of `talibes’ on elected politicians, whom they say are unwilling to tackle the issue. “The state does not want to commit itself to solving the problem because it touches on religion,” Amadou Camara, head of non-conventional learning at the Ministry of Solidarity, told IRIN.

“In every big city, there is a religious leader who has disciples in high places in the social administration.”

Some officials said the solution is to help `marabouts’ generate revenue so they do not need their pupils to go out and beg.

Piecemeal approaches

The government Ministry of Solidarity has funds to support up to 100 `daaras’ every year to try to reduce `marabout’ dependence on begging for income, said Camara, adding that some schools could come away with 500,000 CFA francs a year (US$1,105).

Some NGO officials do not see that as a solution. “It endorses an abnormal situation,” said Mouhamed Chérif Diop, programme coordinator for Tostan. But Camara said: “If you give absolutely nothing, it’s even worse.”

NGO officials admit that their programmes are too small and uncoordinated to address the problem. “We do [all we can] with our limited means,” Samusocial Sénégal’s de Guillebon said, “but little actions we do of returning three or four children [to their families] is not going to solve the problem for 10,000 child beggars in Dakar.”
Some NGOs have tried to encourage `marabouts’ in Dakar to return home to their rural villages and find alternative incomes. With support from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the NGO Enda has helped one `marabout’ and 47 `talibes’ return to his [the `marabout’s’] home village of Pout, where he now grows vegetables and no longer sends his pupils begging.

But “actions are not systematic or on a big scale,” ENDA’s resource coordinator, Moustapha Diop told IRIN. “There needs to be a much more global approach.”

ha/aj/cb

Themes: (IRIN) Aid Policy, (IRIN) Children, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Governance, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition, (IRIN) Urban Risk

[ENDS]
Report can be found online at:
http://www.irnnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76080

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]