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Posts Tagged ‘faith’

What We’re Thankful for in Congo

Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving to God the Creator triumphantly raise!

As we give thanks to the One who fashioned and made us, we thank Him for the miracle of new life. We praise Him for the 500 out of 600 babies born each month in the Karawa health zone who DO live past their first week of life. We praise Him for the Helping Babies Breathe training that a team of doctors just completed, and the promise of many saved lives as this training is spread throughout the system. We rejoice with the parents of the baby, born a few weeks ago by C-section, who was not breathing at birth but began to breathe when Dr. Eddy applied the training he had just received.

As we give thanks to the One who has protected and stayed us, we thank Him for His Church in Congo, that has grown in spirit and in number throughout the nightmare of wars and fighting. We praise Him for His protection, often miraculous, of our brothers and sisters there. And we praise Him that He is even able to use the loss of life – of Paul Carlson 64 years ago this weekend – and many, many Congolese – to teach us the value of life, to teach us that this world cannot be our home, but that our home can only be in Christ.

As we give thanks to the One who guides us and leads to the end of our days, we thank Him that He will be with us as we move through a period of transition, that He will help President Mboka in his continued leadership of the Covenant Church in Congo, and that He will guide us to the right person to replace Byron as PCP director, and give us wisdom as we continue our ministry in Congo.

Ryan in Congo with Farmers to Markets

His light goes before us. And in His light we lift our voices with our jubilant brothers and sisters in Congo, who praise Him out of a depth of reliance on Him, and unite in thanksgiving; to God in the highest, hosanna and praise!

This reflection was offered by our colleague Ryan Einfeldt in Thanksgiving chapel at the ECC offices yesterday. The hymn he based it on (musician that he is) is “Let All Things Now Living,” by Katherine K. Davis, sung to the old Welsh tune “Ash Grove” (no. 59 in The Covenant Hymnal: A Worshipbook).

SAJ 22 Nov 2012

Violence and Prayer

Image NYT, Phil Moore/Agence France-Presse — Getty Image

The M23 rebel force is now pushing towards the city of Goma in eastern Congo, according to a report by the New York Times yesterday. If you’ve been following the continued violence in eastern Congo — where the war never really ended — you probably know about the M23. This rebel force, composed of former members of a militia that the Congolese army tried to integrate into its forces about three years ago, has been increasing its activity along the eastern border. It is now just a few miles from Goma, in South Kivu province, a city of a million people. The M23 is led by Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, who is accused of war crimes and wanted by the International Criminal Court.

The UN peace-keeping forces in Congo have joined with the national army in working to push back the advance of the M23, including making aerial strikes. Read the full story in the Times here.

The Episcopal Church in the U.S. is calling for a week of prayer for Congo. In a news release brought to our attention by retired ECC missionary Eileen Thorpe, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori talked of the church’s own work in Congo and the needs of over 300,000 people displaced by the violence. “Pray for an end to the conflict, an end to violence and the atrocities, that the needs of the suffering may be supplied, and that peace may prevail,” she said. Then she added, “I can think of no better way for the Christian world to prepare for the Advent of the Prince of Peace.” (Read the full statement here.)

Amen. Be it so.

SAJ 19 Nov 2012

What the Congolese Have Taught Me!

Byron Miller, our executive director, offered a devotional at the opening of our board of directors’ meeting on Tuesday. I liked it so much that I asked his permission to share it here. This isn’t verbatim, but reconstructed from his own outline, and two sets of notes.

We tend to think that the Congolese people need to learn and receive a lot from us, that we have a lot to offer the Congolese. While that’s true to some extent, the Congolese also have a lot to offer us. I’ve found that we can learn from them even as they learn from us. I hope each of you who has not yet been to Congo will have an opportunity to visit there. When you do, be alert for opportunities to learn these three lessons.

1. Mere presence counts. The Congolese are teaching me the value of simply being present for each other. Even just to sit with people, with or without talking. Pastors know the value of presence, but in the American world, too many of the rest of us are concerned solely with efficiency–getting it done, moving on. Paul Noren talks about the power of this presence when his father died. His Congolese neighbors surrounded him and Sheryl, just being with them in that sorrow. For several days people gathered on their porch and simply sat. They know the power of having real time for each other.

2. Angels and demons are real. Missiologists talk about the “excluded middle,” an awareness of the reality of spiritual forces and their impact on daily life. We in the western world are so caught up with our scientific method that we’ve almost ruled this out. We have effectively banished the thought of angels and demons. But the Congolese are teaching me that they are real. Our Farmers to Markets agronomist at Loko, Papy Dedua, and his wife, Naomi, had a baby girl born last April–their first. Three months later the baby died. Papy and Naomi are both Christians. But as they grieved, they began recalling other misfortunes that had come to them in the time just before the baby was born. Twice they had found snakes in their house, and other such unusual experiences. They sensed evil forces at work. If we are judgmental in our attitude toward this aspect of Congolese life, we will not only damage our relationships with them, but also miss an opportunity to open our own lives to something that appears often in the Bible.

3. Reliance on God in all things. Let me read two verses of Scripture to you, Matthew 11:25-26: “At that time Jesus said, ’I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.’” Obviously I don’t mean to call the Congolese people children. But they rely on God in a way that we don’t often do. They are teaching me that faith is more than knowledge. We all own Bibles, even several versions. But few Congolese people have Bibles–in fact, many adults cannot read. But they have a strong and sustaining awareness of God in the world and in their lives. God has been revealed to them in ways other than through the words of Scripture. These verses from Matthew suggest that mere knowledge is not sufficient. God reveals himself even to little children. Surely the Son has decided to reveal himself to a people who have little access to the Bible. Even in difficult economic times, we have so many safety nets. The Congolese live so much closer to the edge. They must rely on God.

Here, then, are three things we can learn from the Congolese: the importance of presence, the reality of spiritual forces in our world, and, in all times, a trusting reliance on God.

Byron is retiring at the end of December after four and a half years with PCP. This was his last board meeting.

SAJ 15 Nov 2012

Marking Dr. Paul Carlson’s Birthday

My older son turns 36 in June. Sitting now at the keyboard to write this post, it just struck me that Dr. Paul Carlson was 36 when he was killed in the Simba rebellion in Congo in November 1964. I can’t help imagining my son in that context. Seeing in my mind’s eye the images of Dr. Paul’s capture, his time held captive, finally his death in a hail of gunfire, suddenly my son’s face and form move in and out of the pictures. The story becomes way too vivid and immediate.

March 31 was, is, Dr. Paul’s birthday, and he would be turning 84 this year. In honor of who he was and how he lived his life, here is a taste of an article written in 1991 by Joan O’Connell Hamilton for the Stanford University Alumni Association’s magazine. Note the link below to read the entire article. She begins:

“We are a society that likes to christen heroes. But we like our heroes neat and tidy, easily defined: the star quarterback, the Nobel laureate, the ace fighter pilot. We anoint them, store them away, and then march them out for parades in their golden years.

“It has been 25 years since the world met a most unlikely hero, a gentle doctor who had no desire to capture the public eye. Although he became a hero in death, it was the life of Paul Earle Carlson that is compelling.

“Between ads for Ford Mustangs and Coca-Cola, Life magazine ran a spread on the Congo during the first week of December 1964. It was no exotic travelogue: Africa was erupting and the Congo was its flashpoint. The Congo had been given independence suddenly and unexpectedly from Belgium in 1960 and was highly volatile. For five months, rebel insurgents had held the city of Stanleyville, deep in the country’s interior, and had proclaimed a “People’s Republic.”

“Inside Stanleyville’s Victoria Hotel were 250 hostages, most of them Belgians unlucky enough to be in the region when the rebels, known as Simbas, staged their assault. There were many families with children, a smattering of Americans, several diplomats. But one prisoner, a kind, 36-year-old physician and missionary, would later be remembered more than the others. He moved among the prisoners, setting up his own tiny clinic … (more)

In Memoriam: Dan Ericson

The people of Congo have lost a good friend. L. Daniel Ericson was an Evangelical Covenant Church pastor and a missionary in Congo for 23 years. He died on Saturday, Jan. 7, at the age of 89. Dan and his wife, Anne, went to Congo in 1951, and were there when Paul and Lois Carlson arrived in 1963. As reported in an obituary article on the ECC website, “When Dr. Paul Carlson was murdered in Congo in 1963, it was Ericson who identified the missionary’s body, arranged for the return of Carlson’s body to Karawa, and conducted the funeral.”

The Ericsons returned to the U.S. in 1974, and Dan later served for several years as a leader in the Paul Carlson Medical Program (before it began doing business as the Paul Carlson Partnership). His daughter, Judy Ericson Anderson, has followed her parents in service to Congo, as executive director of HEAL Africa, based in Goma.

The full ECC article is found here. Thanks be to God for the life and witness of his servant Dan.

SAJ 11 Jan 2012

Byron’s Sunday in Bumba

Today was a big day! We (Texa, Palatu, Jean Bosco, Solange, six Animators and myself) all went to the Lingala service this morning. The worship service began about 9:30 a.m. By 11 am we had heard at least 8 different choirs sing often more than one song. There were more activities and then an offering. The sermon began about 11:30. The pastor preached from 1 Timothy 5:10 about the importance of caring for your family. It sounded good, but I can’t report more because I don’t speak Lingala. After the sermon, there was another offering more singing and dancing and worship concluded about 12:40 pm. This may sound long to you, but did not seem so to me as it was all full of energy. The church was full—I would guess at least 400 people but it could easily have been more.

Afterwards, we had a simple lunch with the Responsible Pastor and Assistant Pastor for the church. We discussed the FTM program, the CEUM clinic, and the CEUM schools (2 primary and 2 secondary). Two of the schools appear to be well built (brick walls) but not large—maybe 12 classrooms in all. The other primary school is in a very rude mud, waddle and thatch building. There is another building that was well built, but the western end has fallen in—perhaps from a windstorm. We’ll try to put up some pictures later. Even the well-built schools very much need supplies and improved desks and blackboards.

We toured the clinic buildings. I was impressed. It has the best facilities of any of the CEUM clinics that I have visited. They had basic equipment (including microscope, stethoscope, otoscope, and baby scales). They did not have any of the IDA medicines and the nurse said they had not received any for at least two years. They purchase from local suppliers. They had received and were using eight of the mattresses recently donated by Redeemer Covenant Church. They could easily use another eight. Everything was well laid out and in good order. More impressively, they had at least 15 in-patients today—more than some of the CEUM hospitals have averaged in recent times. Clearly, it is a very well-run clinic.

The Principal Pastor explained that there is sufficient demand to expand the clinic. They will prepare a proposal and submit to the CEUM.

At the conclusion of the tour, I picked up the Pastor’s sermon on caring for the family and commented that our purpose in FTM is to provide families with sufficient income that they could better support the larger family—the church, the clinic and the schools. He immediately caught that and seconded the concept.

It was a day of worship, inspiration, and vision. I did take a good nap this afternoon.For the rest of the week, we will focus on training for the Farmers to Markets program.

BEM

Double Whammy

One day last week two things I read collided with each other in a more kinetic way than usual. First I stumbled over the current issue of Forced Migration Review, a publication I hadn’t known existed. It’s published by the Refugee Studies Center at the University of Oxford (England), and the current issue is on Congo. The 30 articles (they’re not terribly long, don’t worry) focus on the people in Congo who have been forced from their homes by the civil wars of 1996-2003 and the continuing violence in the east. It’s good stuff, with data, analysis, and recommendations, written by people with solid Congo experience.

When I took a break from ransacking the FMR online to check my email, one of the items was the day’s Advent devotional from 4th Presbyterian Church here in Chicago. The reflection for the day was written by John Vest, one of the pastors at 4th Church, and the assigned scripture passage was Jeremiah 23:3-4: “Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock…” Suddenly the mental machinery began rattling, and it grew louder as I read on.

John has graciously agreed to our republishing his meditation here. First, two notes: (1) if you’re interested in reading more from John, see his blog, “Posts from the Blog of an (un)Tamed Cynic”; and (2) it’s easy for us to visualize the promised shepherds as those of us in the West who are trying to be of some use over there; we need to include Congolese shepherds in our mental pictures as well. Here’s John:

Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 23:3-4
“Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord” (NRSV).

Reflection
In the face of human failure to lead people away from pain and suffering, God boldly promises to intervene in human history and raise up new shepherds that will lead us to peace, security, and prosperity.

Centuries and continents removed from the situation that gave rise to these prophetic words, for those with eyes to see, the suffering of our world is just as palpable for us as it was for the Jewish exiles that first heard these words of hope. Like them, we too wonder who will be the leaders that will bring back the glory days of the past. We too wonder who will lead us to peace in places of simmering conflict and outright war. We too wonder who will have a clear vision of a better future for all and a correspondingly clear strategy for getting us there.

Until those leaders rise, we wait. Like generations before us, we wait.

As Christians, we are tempted to read Jesus into this passage. We are tempted to assume that this was some kind of prediction about the Messiah and be content with it as a beautiful Advent passage of hope. But this promise is about shepherds (plural), not a shepherd.

Perhaps some of us hearing these words today are the shepherds God is talking about. Perhaps now is the time for a new intervention. Perhaps now is the time for peace, security, and prosperity for all of God’s people.

Perhaps Advent is not just about waiting. Perhaps it is also about listening for God’s call.

Prayer
God of bold and mysterious promises, give me eyes to see the suffering of your children and ears to hear your voice calling me–even me!–to lead them home. Amen.