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How God grabbed my heart for the DRC
Craig Pixley, World Relief Director of Church Engagement, shares how God first grabbed his heart for the Democratic Republic of Congo. Seven years ago, I was sitting in a Nissan-Mercedes dealership having my oil changed. The cover story in the recent Time magazine caught my attention: āCongo: The Hidden Toll of the Worldās Deadliest Warā. Beautiful waiting room, coffee, cookies, comfy chairs. Free shoe shine. I brought along some work to do as I typically did but saw this cover sitting on the table next to me when I set my coffee down next to it. I reached over to pick it up, truly oblivious to what was happening in the Congo. Yet curious. I began reading the article.
A poignant paragraph from the June 5, 2006 article:
āIs the world willing to see it through? The shame of indifference should be reason enough for action. But without more money from the developed world to help rebuild, without more troops to secure the peace and protect innocent civilians, without a genuine effort by Congo’s leaders to work for the country rather than just their part of it and without Congo’s neighbors ending their meddlesome ways, Africa’s broken heart is unlikely to heal. In 10 years’ time, you may be reading another story much like this one. The only difference will be that millions more people will have died.ā
Four things happened way out of the ordinary for me once I finished reading. First, as I processed the challenges to fix the Congo I recall thinking,āThis is a God-sized problem ā¦ this will not be fixed even by well-meaning countries and aid organizations. This problem needs God.ā Second, I had tears streaming down my face ā right in the Nissan-Mercedes showroom! I held up the magazine in front of my face so nobody could see and brushed away my tears. Then third, I was compelled to briefly pray, āAnd God, if I can help be part of the solution, I am willing.ā
Again, these three things are not ordinary for me. I typically donāt think in the context of āGod-sized problemsā, I donāt often cry (especially in public for Pete sakes), and I usually donāt offer to God ridiculous propositions to help be part of a solution with those circumstances in the way that I did on that day.
I left that dealership different as I drove back to work. No plans or resolutions or really even any new passions. But something inside of me had shifted.
I said there were four things out of the ordinary for me. Hereās the fourth ā¦ Through a series of unlikely events, I applied for a job to an organization called World Relief eight months later or so. I can remember as I read over the list of countries World Relief was actively working in, I saw the DR Congo on the list. Suddenly that word āCongoā on the website drew me back into the Nissan-Mercedes showroom with the Time magazine on my lap. God knew.
Today, Craig Pixley is working as the Director of Church Engagement with World Relief and continues to Stand for the DR Congo. Read more about World Relief and the work of the Congolese church in the DRC.
“Resurrection Rescue”: Reflections on Easter in Malawi
Roberta Nagel, volunteer Church Partnership Coordinator for Malawi, shares her reflections on Easter and the work of the Church in Malawi.
We are just a few short days from Easter. As I remember and reflect upon relationships formed half a world away from my birthplace, I am captured by the intimate analogies between what I have personally witnessed in lives here, and the miracle of our Lordās resurrection.
Time after time, I see firsthand a life at the brink of poverty-induced despair or death from HIV/AIDS, but which now presents the picture of joy and health ā all because of the love of God made manifest through World Relief servants who extended a small kindness ā a cup of cold water – their lives have been āresurrectedā from death to life.
Because a volunteer visited, and later accompanied her to get tested for HIV, a woman whose village was planning her funeral as they saw her wasting away from an AIDS related illness, is free from any symptoms and serves her neighbors as the leader of the very group who reached out to her with love in action. This, just one of hundreds, perhaps thousands of stories from World Relief venues the world over.
Just think, because of His Resurrection, we are in the unparalleled business of bringing resurrection rescue to those in our circles of influence as the extension of the hands and feet of our Lord Jesus. What a blessing and what a responsibility!
If you think this language is too dramatic, I invite you to ask them for yourself and see how they describe their transformation. They will assure you it is nothing short of a resurrection day miracle.
Easter Blessings to all ā HE IS RISEN INDEED!
second photo by Marianne Bach
World Water Day: Walking for Water in Rwanda
Nsabimana Aloys, Water Project Manager withEmily Haas, Church Partnership Coordinator share how Rwanda’s Water Team celebrated World Water Day this year. Thanks to 20Liters, Mars Hill and our other partners who help make all this possible.
World Relief hosted their annual Walk for Water in Masaka Sector, Rwanda. Around 10 am, the gathering of 200 staff, local leaders, pastors and community members began at the church site. After hiking for about 40 minutes down to the swamp, they gathered water then hiked back up to the celebration site, singing and dancing as they went.
On the way back,they stopped at one home to demonstrate the water filtering of the freshly fetched water. Some commented that the water we gathered in the swamp looked clear and clean, but it is still not drinkable. Because it is stagnant water, it is even worse than the Nyabarongo River.
The family at the home gave news about how before they received the filter, they had much sickness in the home but now their members are healthy and are not falling sick due to unclean water.
For the rest of the celebration, staff distributed 100 jerry cans and 10 filters to participants, Water Project volunteers performed a skit to demonstrate the importance of clean water and how to manage filters, many gave testimonies about life before and after the filters, and leaders gave speeches about the importance of clean water.
In the various speeches, many gave thanks to all who contributed in this project. One local leader shared the important role his filter had played in his family. Before he received a filter, his children were sick every day as they used unfiltered rain and river water. Now, his family was no longer falling sick. He asked the blessing of the Lord on World Relief and all who were involved in bringing clean water.
Two beneficiaries shared their testimonies about how they would drink water directly from the river or swamp without stopping to boil it first. Now that they have filters, they use this clean water for everything, drinking, cooking, washing, food preparation, and in preparing drinks like juice and tea.
They are grateful to World Relief, Mars Hill, 20 Liters, and the Water Project volunteers.
It was a great time of celebration and all participants were happy for what God has done in these communities through World Relief, 20 Liters, and Mars Hill.
“This should not happen to people”
In honor of International Women’s Day, our Country Director of Indonesia, Jo Ann de Belen reflects on those close to her heart and why she wants to be part of changing the world.
I once knew a leper. He was close to me. Apart from his leprosy, he was just like any one of us. A creation made in the image of God. Without touching me, he taught me music, math, and how to laugh at myself. He contracted this dreaded illness when he was a child, at a time when there was no definite cure for it.
The stigma of the illness was so great, that his own family was ashamed to tell others. And so his parents kept this dark secret to themselves while they can. The teenage boy did not enjoy what others enjoyed. He was kept inside the house, not brought to big family gatherings or to be ādisplayedā publicly. He wore clothes that would conceal his open lesions.
Even when he was in a crowd, he felt alone. He suffered all this by himself, not understanding what it was. His parents, perhaps not knowing what to do, just pretended to the world that he did not exist. He grew up to be an adult and married and had children and tried to live a normal life. But the world wouldnāt let him. He died a lonely man, alone in a room, visited by only a handful.
As I remember this friend with leprosy and feel his isolation and pain, I remember the people we serve in the highlands of Papua. The ones infected with AIDS. What could they be feeling? Whatever it is, it couldnāt be much different from what the leper felt. Alone, isolated, shunned.
The stigma against AIDS is so strong, the oppression against people with AIDS so overpowering, that I askā¦. What can we do? How can we change all this?
This should not happen to people, Godās own creatures made after His image and likeness.
This is why I feel so strongly about Godās children learning to love those that the world has shunned, ridiculed, thrown away, isolated.
I long to see the church in Papua embrace back those who are afflicted with AIDS, to care for the children orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS, and to make sure that this disease is wiped out of Papua.
I pray that God makes this happen soon. So that no one will have to suffer, and suffer alone.
#Justice2013: Sound Bites of the Justice Conference
by Larissa Peters, your Official World Relief Tweeter…(thanks to Paul Kim and Allison Harp for these excellent pics)
If youāre like me, perhaps you felt that the Justice Conference was similar to those meals where you scarfed down as much good food as quickly as possible without truly tasting or savoring it.
I found myself frantically trying to record all the great quotes of the week end. My fear, however, was that I spent more time tracking the sound bites (pun intended) than I did remembering them, let alone digesting and internalizing them.
For those who werenāt able to taste everything, I thought I would put a couple of the favorite here (allowing one per speaker). My hope is that these bites become more than sound bites (as John Perkins so eloquently said), but that they become realities in each of our lives.
- āWe’re not called to be them [the saints of Philly], we’re called to be us. Get inspired.” @ShaneClaiborne
- “When you study God, you learn about justice, when you study justice, you learn about God.” @KJWystma
- “Your theology will influence your anthropology.” @RevDocBrenda
- āWe live justly because it brings God to light. It brings reconciliation.ā @LeroyBarber
- Justice is doing more than saving the drowning people, itās changing the ones who are pushing them into the lake. @NoelCCDA
- āYou cannot play the victim. When you think the grass is greener on the other side, it probably is. Water the grass you are standing on.ā @EugeneCho
- “If we are to have any hope for this era, we must not only recover justice, but we must recover prayer.ā @GaryHaugen
- āMore people have access to mobile phone technology than clean waterā¦twitter is a real-time information platform, not a social media platformā @Claire Diaz-Ortiz
- āThe DRCongo is the greatest tragedy to disfigure the human conscious.ā @Stephanjbauman
- Do-go-Mez-an-yeah “strengthen together” ā Cyprien Nikiriyumwami
- “Treating your neighbor justly is a way of loving your neighbor” – Nicholas Wolterstorf
- āThere is an old Chinese proverb that says, āWomen hold up half the skyā.ā ā Sheryl @Wudunn
- “It may seem counterintuitive to offer forgiveness before justice, but Jesus did.” @realchailing
- “Budgets are moral documents. They tell us who we care for and who we want to protect.” @LisaSHarper
- “We live out our call most fully when we are a community of faith with arms wrapped about a community of pain.” @JohnMPerkins
- And the final bite comes from @LynneHybels: āRemember you are standing on the shoulders of those who have been doing this [justice] for a long time.ā
If, after the conference or reading through the numerous blogs and articles about it, you are wondering āNow What?āclick here to see what we have going on this year and how you could get involved.
Thanks to ALL who contributed, spoke, volunteered, cheered, sang, and listened at the Justice Conference. We hope to see you in Los Angeles but to also continue the conversations year-round.
Fingerprints.
by Maggie Utsey
fingerprints.They tell a story all by themselves.
Anointed and blessed are my days. His fingerprints are all over them.
This week began in a 15-passenger van packed with 8 languages and 7 eager faces ready to put their best foot forward. Hours and interviews later, Iād picked up new words in each language and forgot for a moment that people actually get paid to do this. I love teaching our clients and learning from them; the city is our classroom and it always feels like recess.
I love racing a child on his tricycle in the rickety WR van; rearranging car seats and buckling kids; making faces when words are few, lost in translation and teaching me to value the quiet. I love feeling like a mom as we adopt every person in love, as Christ adopted me. I love realizing that weāve moved from strangers to family.
Looking through pictures of the refugee camp, Sās whole family, and his best friendās wedding, my heart does not pity but rather swells as I see in his eyes that these are good memories, and this new season is good too. Itās amazing what our eyes can communicate without a word from our lips.
I love how much Iām learning and how much I still donāt know – about people, God, the world and its stories -and the hunger for more.
I love authentic Ethiopian food, eaten only with your hands, and the way I speak refugee on accident these days.
I love the story that unfolds over three glasses of peach punch around the dining table. The one that Iām so careful not to ask about. I love that the laughter is more powerful than the pain and loss – which are being redeemed. He is already made new, restored; heās just figuring it out one day at a time.
Today I helped one of my favorite people apply for jobs, spent time looking at a map, meandered the international farmers market, wrote a letter in spanrwali (a delightful language that fits me perfectly – Spanish, Kinyarwanda, & Swahili), and tucked away a few smiles. I love those moments – when you donāt want the other person to know how much they make you smile so you wait until theyāre not looking to let it light up your face. Itās a special kind of secret with God, and He smiles with me.
These are good days. He is in the details.
Maggie Utsey is a volunteer with World Relief in Atlanta. You can follow her blog here.
Changing the Reality in Haiti
By Jean-Baptiste Francois, Agriculture Manager, World Relief Haiti
When I was a child, I had the opportunity to live in the rural area of Haiti with my uncle for two months every year during school vacations. For two decades, I saw my uncle always laboring the soil with a rake, pickaxe, hoe, and a cow when necessary. During that time, he was never able to buy a much-needed motorcycle to help him and his family because the income produced was not enough.
He always talked about losses. Many were the factors for the low income and the losses: lack of rain (because there wasnāt any irrigation system), pests and disease invading the plantation, among others.
Today, at World Reliefās Demonstration Farm in Christianville, we are producing vegetable seedlings (pepper and tomatoes) in one of the high-tunnels – similar to greenhouses, but made for warm climate, such as Haitiās. With this high-tunnel, the impact of pests and disease can be reduced and controlled.
Agriculturally speaking, plants are similar to human beings, as they are most vulnerable during their first 30 days of life, a period called the ānursing stageā, which includes seed germination and the emergence of a new plant. It is important to provide maximum care in order have healthy plants ready to be transplanted. Often, crop deficiencies and diseases noted in the field initiate during this nursing stage.
As agriculture specialists, it is easy for us to understand the importance of producing seedlings in a controlled area. Plants are easier to manage, transport and transplant, develop a healthier and fuller root system to sustain the plant and provide ample nutrition for a better harvest.
However, small-holder farmers in Haiti, accustomed to using traditional methods, do not adopt these practices and technologies quickly. They require a much greater investment in the short-term than farmers are able to afford. We continue in our work even if more time is needed for the farmers to both understand the importance and have the ability to adopt appropriate technology in the rural areas. We know it will be more beneficial and profitable for them in the long-term.
We want the farmers to experience what can be accomplished by adopting appropriate technologies, so they can be as successful in agricultural production as farmers from other countries.
As Agriculture Manager for World Relief, I can now help small-holder farmers in Haiti, like my uncle, to change that reality of loss.
Following the Flood – Part 2
Paul Erickson continues his account of his journey through Gaza Province, Mozambique. To see more pictures, click here.It will take months and months for everyone to establish their normal lives again, if at all. But this will be unlikely if they donāt receive food and potable water and electricity soon. Those who stayed behind or returned to Chokwe after the waters began to recede, are far from the relocation centers where at least some basic provisions are being distributed.
As we leave Chokwe late in the afternoon, I notice with great sadness that the horrific sight that greeted me this morning while driving into town is still there ā a precious life lost, the body still uncollected. I canāt make sense of it. All Iām clear about is that the residents of Chokwe and those thousands who fled the floodwaters and who have little or nothing to return to need our help. In times like these, which seem ever more frequent, Christ calls us still to reach out with compassion to a world in need.
The latest figures reported by AFP are that at least 36 Mozambicans have been killed and nearly 70,000 have been displaced.
Later in the afternoon, as we make the return drive to Macia, we stop to drop off Maposse at his makeshift, under-a-tree shelter. Maposse is a local World Relief staff person and now also a displaced former resident of Chokwe who, together with his family, is himself sheltering in the temporary resettlement camp in Chihaquelane.
The vast increase in the number of relocated victims here now compared to when we passed by only several hours earlier is astonishing. Initially set up to āhouseā perhaps 20-30,000 people, the makeshift camps have been burgeoning with people fleeing with their families and belongings. In the hours between morning and afternoon, the numbers increased visibly, and as the waters recede further, relief agencies are predicting that more people will arrive from across the Limpopo River. As the camps are just being set up today, systems for food and water distribution are still being prepared. Key problems are latrines as well as shelter, as more and more people arrive to the site. Without adequate sanitation, disease will spread quickly; and if cholera strikes, a new disaster may begin.
Both in the camps and in the town, food is a serious issue. Food stores in Chokwe and other affected towns were destroyed, and people ā mainly women and children ā are waiting desperately for distributions to reach them.
Aid is arriving. While we were there, helicopters and trucks were passing through the area, leaving supplies, and seeking out still stranded people. Those in the camp, however, must simply wait. They will not be able to return to what is left of their homes for weeks or even months. They will eventually receive temporary shelter ā tents or supplies to build a makeshift roof ā and they will receive stipends of food or water. Children will learn to play between the tents and under the trees, and some lucky ones may even get to go to school, but life will never be the same for any of them.
Paul Erickson Maputo, Mozambique
Click here for World Reliefās response to the flood.
Following the Flood – Part 1
Thank you to Paul Erickson for this firsthand account and these pictures as he travels through the flood-affected areas in Mozambique.
Saturday 26 January, 2013, Southern Gaza Province, Mozambique
Just outside Chokwe, the road parallels an as yet swollen irrigation canal and Maposse comments that when he had last passed here, fleeing the rising flood waters, the irrigation channel was invisible, at one with the rising flood waters. We pass where the road into Chokwe had been cut off and where a construction crew continues to busily make repairs. Maposse continues his drive-by account, relating that the surrounding fields, which look to me like a vast lake, are full of submerged plantations of rice, tomatoes and other cash crops that are now clearly a complete loss.
These staples, until last week promising to offer a chance for a livelihood to the farmers who had cultivated them, are now destroyed.
The town of Chokwe appears to be surrounded by a sea of water and is itself half-submerged ā and this is after much of the water has reportedly receded! We come to two cars stopped with people looking and pointing excitedly toward the water at what I (at first glance) mistake for a dead animal. The sudden, horrible realization that it is actually a human victim haunts me even now.
The end of the town at this entrance point must be the lowest part of town because as we continue down the road, it is evident that it is now just a muddy, debris strewn mess. The highest level that the raging flood waters reached remains visible by the waterline left on concrete buildings and windows. The mark is well over a meter and a half high. The high water mark at the lower corner of town where we have just entered may have had a water surge closer to two meters high or more. The thought that anyone, much less children, caught in fast-flowing water this deep would have had no chance of survival leaves me without anything to say.
In time, we stop to ask people questions and whether they mind me taking a few pictures. By now, it is the fourth day after the flood surge. I am surprised by how many people are here. Clearly many did not evacuate as the government and other agencies had encouraged them to do. We have stopped at the part of Chokwe with many more homes made from wood poles with corrugated iron sheets or thatch for roofs.
On a normal day, it would be a patchwork of the poorer residents of Chokwe, but now it is a devastated sea of broken homes; some collapsed, but all with the mud-mortar washed away revealing what little remains of the wet, mud-covered contents inside. It is clearly the first day that anyone has had the opportunity to clean anything up, and the blankets, clothing, plastic chairs, and other items are being washed in the same slowly receding muddy water along side their homes.
Too many things strike me about this horrible reality to adequately process. I am struck by the number of people that rode out the flood in Chokwe, never leaving. I wonder why there were not more victims who perished, overtaken by deep, fast moving water. I estimate that even on the raised main road, the water could have easily been waist deep and fast. People we talk to say that neighbors who had concrete homes with secure roofs harbored many people and that some climbed trees to escape ā again echoes of the devastating pictures remembered from the floods in 2000.
I am struck by the havoc and hardship brought upon innocent people by disasters such as this. And yet, here they are cleaning up and salvaging what they can. Everyone we talk to says they have no food, and we witness long lines of women and children waiting with empty plastic containers for the small water-tanker truck to return full of water so they can have this basic necessity. A necessity that I unthinkingly waste and take for granted daily. It is clear to me that there is obviously not enough potable water brought by this truck for everyone, so many are just collecting muddy-brown receding flood water from the side of the road or from hand-dug wells with hand pumps, but this shallow groundwater too must definitely be contaminated.
While a town like Chokwe obviously has both rich and poor inhabitants, a floodās havoc washes over everyone.
So Much Happening in Twenty-Thirteen…
by Larissa Peters, World Relief Communications Liaison I donāt know about you, but I have an especially good feeling about 2013. I admit, I keep a journal, and on the first of every year, I wonder what will fill its pages. The same is true in managing this blog ā what will be the stories, reflections, and prayers that fill this year?
So many things are happening at World Relief, and so many great things we get to be a part of this year as more and more stand for the vulnerable! So I thought I would share 13 of the ones that Iām personally excited about and that others could even join:
In no particular order, here they are:
- Immigration Reform: From publishing the book Welcoming the Stranger in 2009 to speaking at Willow Creek Church and the G92 Summit, Jenny Yang ā Vice President of Advocacy & Policy and Matt Soerens ā US Church Training Specialist are truly affecting change for the immigration system. We believe this is the year for reform. Want to keep up to date on the issue? Follow Jenny and Matt on twitter at: @JennyYangWR and @MatthewSoerens.
- Peace building in the Congo: Village Peace Committees are changing their communities in the DR Congo. Conflict still abounds, but the grassroots movement of the Church is transforming lives. This is something to be a part of! Follow updates and watch our video.
- Our partnership with Pure Charity: if you havenāt checked this organization out and you shop online or use a credit card (which should cover most of you), click here now. Here is a creative way to raise funds: shop and the stores you shop at will give to your charity of choice. World Relief has a few projects of their own there, and youāll find Pure Charity at the Justice Conference. I already wish I knew about them earlier ā I have to admit Iāve become slightly addicted to online shopping.
- Fighting the battle of slavery: more and more people are taking on the cause of anti-trafficking. Currently, there are 14,500 people trafficked into the US each year (this is a low estimate). But our offices in Spokane, Tampa, High Point (and even internationally in Cambodia) are fighting to prevent that number from going up. Follow World Reliefās efforts on twitter and find out how you can promote awareness through races, workshops, or advocacy.
- Church Partnership: Churches around the US have partnered with World Relief with a commitment of investing in a country or program for 3 to 5 years. Building relationships with the field and giving opportunity for long-term sustainable development, partnership is about wholistic mission. More and more churches are signing on, and we are excited about the changes it is bringing! Want your church to be part of this?
- Catalog of Hope: This year, our Catalog of Hope has a new section: fair trade items that benefit refugees in the US, empower women in Burundi, Rwanda, and Indonesia, and provide a monster for children in the US. A monster? Yes! See what this is all about.
- Stand Together Project: The premise is simple: Empowering women who are heroes in their own communities around the world. Check it out here: www.standtogetherproject.org.
- Savings for Life: A woman in Rwanda had never held a 5000 Franc note (worth $8 USD). For the first time in her life this year, she saved up SIX of them because of her Savings group! How much more exciting can that get? Savings for Life is making credit available to those even the microfinance institutions canāt consider. Watch a video on what Savings group is here: www.savings-revolution.org .
- Reviving and strengthening marriages in India: There is a quiet and unique program in India. One that is saving marriages, helping couples to be faithful to each other, and actually preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS. Check out the story on India.
- Volunteering with refugees in the US: more and more people are asking, āWhat can I do?ā Our US program with refugees provides tangible volunteering. I can promise you that your 2013 will be incredibly enriched by befriending a refugee and welcoming them into your home and life.
- Volunteering with refugees in Indonesia: you have to check this unique opportunity out: living in Indonesia and ministering to refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Sri Lanka. You can read about some of the volunteersā experiences here: www.worldreliefindonesia.com .
12 AND 13
Tis the season for conferences! So Iāll have to just wrap them all up into the last two: Churches and organizations are stepping out and bringing awareness to issues of injustice, educating their communities on how to respond. World Relief is privileged to be a part of these conferences with other Justice advocate hall-of–famers:
- Passion Conference 2013
- Ignite Justice: www.ignitejusticeconference.org
- International Wholistic Missions conference www.wholisticmissions.com
- The Justice Conference: www.thejusticeconference.com
- Mission on Our Doorsteps: www.missiononourdoorsteps.com
My hope is that these 13 (and then some) inspire and encourage you. And may this year be full of all that is more than we can ask or imagine!*
*Ephesians 3:20