Back in Congo

October 23, 2021

We made it back to eastern Congo again.  Our first couple of weeks were spent getting settled in Aru, north of the Nyankunde area.  We will be assisting Ania Hospital with education and health care and hopefully other hospitals as well.  We are thankful for the warm welcome we received by the German mission Diguna and the staff of Ania Hospital.

Hearing again

We recently had an opportunity to visit Nyankunde for a few days.  Going back was a sensory experience with something that had become unfamiliar. We left under such abnormal circumstances and these were my last memories, of gunfire followed by deafening silence.  Our last experiences were of fear and flight. I wasn’t sure what we would observe or what our experience would be.

Upon landing I was pleasantly surprised by signs of life returning to the village-like the sounds of spring . The first thing I noticed was the birds singing and the insects making noise! It was magnificent. War chases away the natural world and the silence is deafening. Everything was green, grasses longer than usual, not quite so many fields planted, even a cow or two. Mud, lots of mud. People were milling around everywhere on footpaths and in front of the hospital. Refugees sitting around cooking fires, just sitting, waiting, talking. The atmosphere was that of a refuge. This is such a contrasts from the absence of people, especially children, and quiet in the months leading up to our evacuation from Nyankunde in April.

When I asked people “how do you feel being here?” I most often got the answer, we feel mostly at ease. People were thankful for their fields which still yielded crops, thankful for each other, thankful to be in their homes again. Many people added comments like, “it is passed, in life you have to move on, keep going.” Children were going to school again. There was some semblance of normalcy.

Now I know that it is not as simple as “it is passed.” There was huge issues still, tribal in nature, but people want to live in their homeland.

I woke up to the sound of a bird I had never heard before, a complex melodic song. It sang for maybe 15 minutes and then another species of bird started. How lovely it was! Our home was much the same as we left it and we were thankful to see our dog and parrot again.

Our guesthouse was full of refugees again, this time from Komanda where there was a recent militant attack. It is the third wave of people we have welcomed there for an extended period of time. We are thankful to have the space for them to live and cook outside. There is running water and electricity which are a huge blessing. It is a reminded to count my blessings.

We found many old friends and colleagues living courageously-this was the greatest joy of all.  Even Emmanuel’s friends are back and met up with him again.  There was a lot of tree climbing!  

     

Resilience

Resilience is a property of materials/metals that describes their ability to hold their shape after being deformed. Google provided the following definition: “the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.”  Not all materials are resilient though.  Some materials are resilient but over time the material becomes weakened and can not recover its original shape. 

Resilience is also a word that refers to person’s ability to withstand enormous stress and hardship without falling apart-even more to carry on.  Resilience is a positive attribute to bestow on someone. The word can mean “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.”  It is a quality that keeps missionaries on the field and allows people to overcome tremendous difficulties. 

I believe that Congolese people are very resilient. They have to be to survive. Our muscles can become stronger with right training, but they can also become weak and easily injured by repeated misuse. The Congolese are weakened by continued stresses of life, of insecurity. It may seem like everything is all right, until the next stress comes.  It is more difficult to function. The hidden cracks had not been tested by new weights and the cracks grow wider. Repeated stresses can cause damage to a person’s ability to function psychologically. Anger and even violence, or deep depression can surface. Where is this breaking point? I am not sure.

I do believe that God is able to comfort and heal from tremendous difficulties and despair. We need each other. We need space to mourn and acknowledge loss. It is not about becoming tougher and overcoming something. It is more about inviting God into it, because only He can handle these deep waters.

We live by the grace of God

One afternoon a group of Sunday school kids came to our home and fields to work to earn funds to have new choir uniforms made. What a blessing to see them working together, all different ages. How happy they were! You see their uniforms were pillaged during the recent conflict. Now they will have beautiful new ones. Afterwards they held choir practice in the backyard. I was touched by the song they sang called “We live by the grace of God.” As I looked from face to face, I saw children with serious expressions. Life has been difficult for these children. It occurred to me that probably every single one of them fled the recent violence. They had fled gunfire into the bush. Many slept by rivers, without any belongings, and perhaps not even shoes. They had all experienced hunger at one point of another, fear, and hopelessness. And here they were singing this truth, “We live by the grace of God.” The context of their life experiences makes these words all the more powerful.

It is my prayer that these children will experience hope again and know how incredibly beloved they are by God. Life has dealt them a difficult hand lately. Oh God show your grace and love towards these children.

Displacement

It was a strange experience after we evacuated to visit a new community in Congo and introduce myself as someone displaced by war. It is not common I guess for a foreigner to be “displaced.” It was very humbling to not have a home and depend on others to help you with food and lodging, the practical aspects of life. I think returning to the USA after this happened was important for us to feel grounded again, not as refugees.

So many Iturians have been displaced. No one really knows the actual statistics, but I think it is upwards of 1/5 persons. Ituri Province has more IDPs than anywhere else in the world. So many of these refugees do not live in official camps, so is hard to know their numbers. Our little community of Nyankunde (populations 10,000 previously) has received thousands of refugees over the last couple of years, always in waves. They come, they stay for a while, they work to survive, and they return. At some point they accept the risk of returning home.

We are experiencing another wave of refugees at present due to an extremist group operating to the southwest of us. I will limit my comments, but ask you to please pray and educate yourself about Ituri Province. There is a dark destructive spirit which threatens our Province.

Land is part of a person’s identity

In the Western world, many of us live, more or less disconnected from the land and the food it yields. There is often not a relationship between people and the land they inhabit. There is an Old Testament proverb which wisely says, “Plant your fields before building your house.” People live in close relationship to the land here in Congo. Fields are directly related to people’s livelihood and therefore identity as a people. We grow peanuts, soybeans, corn, squash, and coffee mostly. We do not depend on this exclusively for food or income for food. We do it to appreciate the land, to give needed work, and to learn ourselves a bit about agriculture. It is incredibly hard work!

As we flew over the troubled Ituri region around Bunia I noticed that many areas with arable land had not been planted. Also the land was away from people’s homes. Farming was not happening as much around rivers. All of this is a generalization. Curiously much of these areas are conflict zones, gold mining areas. As we moved out of these conflict areas we then saw parcels of land closer to people’s homes and larger groupings of homes. I keep coming back to how living well seems directly related to being able to have fields, and/or having animals nearby.

Thank you for your prayers as we pay a short visit to Warren’s family in Switzerland.  His stepmother had a recent fall and his father needs increasing assistance with life activities.  It is a blessing to be here to reconnect with them and help in whatever way we can.  We are enjoying cheese, chocolate, and the radiant fall colors and crisp days!

Blessings,

Lindsey for us

Summer in the Mountains of North Carolina

September 8, 2021

Photographs from a Summer in the Mountains 

It has been a truly restful summer of re-connecting with friends and family.  We have spent most of the summer at our home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.  We arrived in late May from the middle of a humanitarian disaster and armed conflict in eastern DRC,  disillusioned and upset.  We are preparing to leave again next week feeling rested and like God healed parts of us.  It took us some time, prayer, and some serious nature therapy.  We have caught many fish and rode mountain trails.  We identified many species of plants and trees and trudged through streams.  We stood on ridges and felt storms passing through, drenching us in the process.  We spent lots of time with friends and family.  Emmanuel is proud to say that he has grown almost 2inches (tall enough to go down waterslides)!

 

Some highlights include Grandma and Grandpa coming to visit us in North Carolina and listening to bluegrass together.  We had quiet afternoons watching hummingbirds and sunsets.   

Several of our fellow missionary friends from Nyankunde came for visits overnight which was such a blessing, including the LaRochelles, Strietzels, and Dimons!  It was a joy to watch the children re-unite.  We rode an alpine roller coaster and went gem mining with our friends the Dimons.  The kids were able to make new memories together.

R

 

At the end of July we traveled to Atlanta to attend our niece Jamie’s wedding to a wonderful man named Yonas.  It was an Ethiopian Orthodox ceremony which started at 5am!  It was a cultural experience, even for us coming from Africa.  The wedding ceremony was simply the very first part of the liturgy and then continued for another 4 hours!  It was a beautiful ceremony and we are so glad that we could be there to witness the joining of their lives.  We visited the Atlanta Aquarium which was simply fantastic!  Our aquarium favorite was probably watching the whale sharks swimming with the sting rays and manta-rays.  Emmanuel spent some very special time with his aunt Alice.  We then welcomed Warren’s brother and sister-in-law from Rhode Island to our home.  It was a blessing to be together again.   

Then mid-August we took a road trip to Wisconsin to see my family, and friends/supporters along the way.  We realized that it had been 4 years since we had been to the Midwest.  Even the trees at my parent’s house had grown!  Emmanuel celebrated his very first birthday in the USA with my family and friends.  It was a very special occasion with a piñata and classic birthday games.  Emmanuel had his very first waterpark experience and dinner delivered on a train.  We attended a birthday party for his youngest cousin Crew.  

 

Then back to North Carolina again for more birthday celebrations with friends and neighbors.  Emmanuel has cultivated some very special friendships with kids his age here in North Carolina.  Emmanuel developed a very special relationship with our neighbors, the Messengers, on the mountain.  They shared their love of reptiles and furry friends with Emmanuel.  We feel like we spent the summer together.

 

Our church family in Boone has been such a blessing to us.  We felt loved and cared for by several groups of people from our church.  People reached out wanting to know us.  They listened well as we worked through some difficult things.  We return to Congo feeling rich in friendship and family.  And just like that the summer is over in the blink of an eye.

 

After much deliberation we have decided that it is time to return to eastern Congo mid-September.  We need to re-locate to the region of Aru, far to the north of the current conflict.  Warren worked in Aru years ago and still has friends and colleagues there.  We will have more freedom of movement by air and land which we haven’t had for years.  We will be close to the Ugandan border and an airport.  Warren will be able to provide some needed relief and assistance to the staff in Nyankunde.  It is not yet considered safe to return to our village of Nyankunde and we do not know when this will change.  The area around Nyankunde continues to be a militarized zone with several armed groups active to the south.  Many people are concerned about the advancement of a group called ADF-Nalu in North Kivu/Ituri with terrorist intentions.  Millions of people remain displaced in our Ituri Province and the situation does not appear to be improving with military operations.  We continue to pray for God to intervene in this very challenging environment.

In this season we are reminded that God moves in mysterious ways and that He is able to bring good out of tremendous suffering.  Sometimes He leads us through seemingly impossible circumstances to reveal a path through deep waters, like the Israelites faced leaving Egypt through the Red Sea.  God makes a path.  For many years  I have loved the hymn called “God Moves in Mysterious Ways”  by the English poet William Cowper.  Jeremy Riddle has a version of the song which came out a few years ago.  He expresses clearly that God brings about his mercy through great storms.  

“God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the seas,

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up his bright designs,

And works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head!

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust him for his grace:

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan his workin vain:

God is his own interpreter,

And he will make it plain!”

 

-Pray for us as we leave the USA next week and of course for a negative Covid test.  Pray that we would make important connections with people and pack wisely.

-Pray that we would be prepared for all the changes in the next few weeks as we settle in Aru.

-Pray for a great year of homeschooling for Emmanuel and some opportunities to learn French in DRC.  Pray for him as he adjusts and makes new friends.

-Pray that we would be a blessing to Ania Hospital and other regional centers and an encouragement to the Church.

-Pray for the security of the region around Nyankunde and that God would encourage the Christians there.  Pray for disarmament of armed groups and that rebels would turn to God.  Pray that the military would not continue to abuse their power.  Pray for many displaced peoples who must feel discouraged and even forgotten by others.

-Pray for renewed spiritual vision as we live and serve as physicians and work out the calling on our lives.

 

Blessings,

Lindsey for us

“But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

 Psalm 13:5-6

Not to worry…it was staged!

Emmanuel and our neighbor Karen

Memorable Stories from Nyankunde & Evacuation

June 23, 2021 

Thank you for so many people who have expressed concern for us following our recent evacuation from Nyankunde.  It was our first time to evacuate in 9 years and an experience no one wants to go through.  It has been an uncertain and destabilizing time for us, but we are thankful to have somewhere to come home to.  We were tremendously thankful to have places to live in eastern DRC during the period of displacement in May, and still help with the relief efforts for the many displaced citizens of Nyankunde.  We are doing just fine and are thankful to be back in North Carolina for the summer.  Even our dog Jacob wanted to travel with us!

We have been physically displaced.  Our hearts are displaced too.  It has been difficult to know what to say.  It is still difficult to put in words what we have seen and experienced.  Much of what we would want to say we simply could not, so as not to endanger anyone who is currently in sensitive areas.  The security situation and ethic/military tensions have remained very fluid.  We read the news about the Tigray conflict in northern Ethiopia with new eyes, seeing that civilians are sometimes sacrificed as casualties of war.  Humanitarian crises occur for a reason and there is usually a strong government hand which causes a lot of suffering.  This is also our experience.  We tell people that we have felt like characters stuck in a bad movie in which we could not change the outcome…powerless, voiceless.  We could interact with the players and even ask questions, but do no more.  It was time to get out. 

Imagine an entire geographic area, some 30,000 people, simply abandoning their homes in order to seek safety.   Many people simply left with the clothing on their backs, a cooking pot if they were fortunate, a sleeping mat, and some food.  There were no displaced persons camps to live in so people fled out of the line of fire and built straw homes.  They could not return for the food that sustains them daily.  They could not return for the elderly or for their animals.  People simply had to run for their lives.

“Lord have mercy, Kyrie Eliason.” This has been the theme of our prayers of our last weeks in DRC.  After evacuation Emmanuel and I (Lindsey) went to a place called Adi which was very peaceful and the only noise at night was that of cows.  We received news one Sunday morning that the military had invaded the town.  Our spirits were distressed all day long. Although we were safe we knew that there was no peace in our village. We knew that innocent people were suffering and that there was little which could be done to help. Our house staff were missing and not answering their calls. We pleaded for God’s mercy.  The following day we Iearned of the destruction done by those supposed to protect the people. Our house staff gave a harrowing account of being shot at and fleeing on foot and we wept.  The military took over Nyankunde and some very difficult things occurred.  Thanks to a few courageous staff and the intervention of God, the hospital and MAF mission were preserved and continued to provide medical care.  Much of the town was leveled and nothing moved.  There were several weeks of ‘dark silence’ when people or goods could not get in.  We weren’t sure what would happen and how long the hospital could continue to feed the many people sheltering within its’ walls.  It is such a difficult feeling to know that people were suffering, had little to eat, and feeling helpless to do much to help.  Every morning we prayed, searching the Scriptures, and sending words of encouragement to our friends and colleagues in exile.  Finally after more than three weeks we were allowed to return on two successive days to Nyankunde to bring in food and retrieve some of our personal things.  The door to our home was kicked in and our belongings turned onto the floor, our goats were missing.  We felt violated but we didn’t lose everything.  We were able to go through our belongings, give things away, burn things, and pack up things of value.  We weren’t sure what the future held, but it felt good to be able to have some closure.   

 

There are certain images that are preserved in my mind as we have seen much of the destruction of Nyankunde. There are the obvious signs of conflict: burned, bombed out homes, empty streets, charred/capsized cars, overgrown fields, looted stores…and most of all SILENCE. But then there are images of people affected by conflict which are more powerful.  The first is of a grown man carrying a baby goat in his arms, a pregnant goat in tow, walking down the side of the highway. His son followed with a mattress on his head. These displaced villagers had returned to their village to recover what was most valuable to them. The most valuable things they owned were a pregnant and a baby goat.  We wonder where these people will go. All they want to do is survive.  They will not be able to live in the city, need to settle nearby, and will likely have to flee again.  They are innocent casualties of armed conflict. 

The second engraved image is of three elderly people hobbling down the road, like from a bygone era. They could barely walk. Suddenly the elderly man fell in the ditch alongside the road, over his head and could not get out. We were leaving the village after recovering our things.  Warren ran out to help, as two soldiers in shorts crossed over.  Would the soldiers hurt these elderly people or simply keep him in the ditch? How incredibly sad that we had to wonder what would happen in front of us. As the soldiers helped Warren to hoist him out, we prayed that the soldiers would see them as their grandparents, respected elders. The older women explained that they were coming from Sezabo. They had been hiding out through all the gunfire and fleeing population. They were too weak to flee when the other thousands of people fled on foot. They were only now just emerging. We wondered what they had been eating all this time when it was unsafe to go to the fields. We later learned that they were admitted to the hospital for medical attention, food, and care. 

The last one still tugs at my heartstrings.  There was a young girl with leukemia who was hospitalized when the conflict erupted mid-April.  I had been talking with an oncologist about palliative chemotherapy, but did not have the opportunity to start therapy.  We talked about evacuating her so that her last memories were not of gunfire and fear.  She was never able to leave the hospital and is buried nearby.  This little girl had nothing to do with this conflict and she suffered.  At times death is a divine mercy.  I will never forget her-this photo is in remembrance of her.  

These people demonstrate who loses most from armed conflict: the elderly, the children, the, rural people who have nothing to do with it. They didn’t ask for armed conflict.  This is where they were born. They are just trying to farm to survive and much of what they have has been taken from them.

 

All of this has hit close to home. We know things. We have witnessed suffering. We experienced personal loss of goods and home, but we did not lose everything. Even our pets went through a traumatizing experience.  We have been sad, angry, and confused.  The local Congolese church is struggling.  It is difficult to know what to do with everything that happened-to know the way forward.  We are resting and putting it before the Lord asking Him to make things right in our hearts.  We are thankful that no one we know was injured in the fighting and that everyone from our hospital was accounted for.  We are thankful that we were able to play a small role to relieve suffering, to encourage the staff, and advocate for the humanitarian needs that we have seen.  We are so thankful Nyankunde Hospital survived!  

 

These recent events are a scar and have set our village back many years.  The spiritual needs of people are tremendous.  There is a deep need for confession, reconciliation, and for God to work powerfully among the Bira people.  I still believe it can and will happen.  Anyone who says that the Congo has been “Christianized” simply does not understand the deep nature of tribalism which threatens to take first place in people’s hearts.  It is heavy stuff because sin is heavy and can’t be ignored.

These last days we have been able to talk with friends of ours that have recently returned to Nyankunde.  They are thankful for the crops they are able to harvest from the fields, despite the lack of attention these last 2.5 months.  They see it as God’s favor on their lives.  The Lord has not forgotten Nyankunde.  Our dog has adapted to his temporary Congolese master which gives us joy.  We ask for your prayers for us as we rest and consider our next steps.

We love to hear from family and friends during our adventures this summer in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Thank you for your prayers.  

Blessings,

Lindsey (for us)