Two days earlier “M23” rebels took over the city of Goma, 977 miles from Kinshasa (Orlando to Chicago) now triggering explosions of anger all over the city of Kinshasa (population 18 million).  Crowds attacked Western embassies (including ours) of nations deemed complicit in supporting the rebels to assure cheap minerals essential for cell phones and computers.  We thought, “Here we go again!”  Kinshasa saw looting and violence in the early 1990s and was overrun by rebels itself in 1997.  “Why God?” we questioned. “Is continuing on worth it?”  In God’s mercy, the chaos subsided by day’s end, though an atmosphere of tension lingered another few days.  Life in Kinshasa has since resumed its usual frenzy, even as the rumor mills churn.

Is continuing worth it??!!  A few days of violence threatens years of missionary service built on the shoulders of hundreds of years of faithful missionary servants in years past.  This question cycles back to mind.  “God, is it worth it?”  In these cycles, God’s grace and your prayers turn our eyes to Jesus, and to all God is doing!

The faithful staff at the Baptist mission hospital in Kikongo, which is isolated by impassible roads and sporadic ethnic violence, determined together to take on two initiatives:  a new paint job for the entire hospital lifted the morale of staff and patients both.

Fiston, a young nurse, agreed to go to Vanga for 3 months to train in physical therapy.  Kikongo now has a fledgling physical therapy service.  Here Mama Luti learns to walk again after a stroke condemned her to a mat on the ground outside her hut.

The recently opened health center in Bimina is thriving beyond expectation.  Enabled by gifts from generous donors, we equipped the health center with a selection of basic laboratory equipment and 40 sacks of cement to make bricks to build a permanent health center. Patient numbers are increasing, so two nurses and a lab technician now live in the houses built for permanent staff.

Dr. Arnold and nurse Naomi visit regularly to consult difficult cases and accompany the local team.  With the growing number of patients, health center receipts have increased ten-fold.  They can now imagine building a maternity!  Best of all – hope, healing, and access to health care are reaching a region of under-served people for the first time.

Two weeks ago, Dr. Shannon Potter and two associates, boldly flew to Congo to carry out “fistula campaign 2025” at the Vanga hospital, despite the political unrest.  Her team, in collaboration with Dr. Paulin Kapaya, are tenderly restoring the torn bodies and wounded hearts of 41 women who have come to Vanga for care.  Ten years ago, Shannon and her husband spent 2 years at Vanga, sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse.  Dr. Paulin, born and raised in Vanga, is now a urology specialist at a large hospital in Kinshasa.  Yearly, funded by the US fistula foundation, God uses the fistula campaign, hosted by the Vanga Evangelical Hospital and these willing servants, to minister healing to ostracized and suffering women.

God is at work!  We remain encouraged despite the “rumble in our jungle” and the tragic events in eastern Congo.  Our presence is an encouragement to our Congolese colleagues, and their dedicated service inspires us. Together with you, we build God’s Kingdom.  Thank you for praying for safety and for your partnership in God’s mission of sharing love and healing to a Congo in need.