Dear family and friends,

We had a great day today. We are really enjoying Rwanda and Simon Pierre and his family. In the morning the boys played basketball with neighborhood kids and Simon and I visited some families we have previously helped in the Gisenyi area. In the afternoon the boys helped me assemble a pineapple juice machine that we will be taking to Gahinga tomorrow. This is the same machine we checked in as luggage at DIA which weighed close to 200 pounds! Everything arrived in tact, except for four crucial nuts that Simon sent someone to find at a local hardware store in Gisenyi.

We will be here in Gisenyi until Friday when we travel back to Kigali with the work and witness team from Hawaii here that is building a playground for the Gisenyi Church. A playground may sound frivilous at first glance in a place of such desperate physical need, but for children who have no access to play euipment of any kind, even at school, a playground is a wonderful gift. While in Kigali we will visit the Genocide Memorial as well as the Church at Ntarama which was one of the many churches where thousands of men, women, and children were slaughtered during the 1994 Genocide. On Sunday afternoon we fly to Nairobi where we will be until June 25. We return home on Friday afternoon, June 26.

Some of you have asked about Baraka, the little boy who had a stick shoved into his right eye and out his cheek by some monstrous person last fall. Julienne, who is now helping make beaded items, adopted Baraka and was taking wonderful care of him when the remaining part of Baraka’s family came and took him away a few months ago. After the family took him away to their home village, the local authorities heard that he was not being properly taken care of so Baraka was taken back to Gisenyi to be with Julienne. A few weeks later his so-called family came and kidnapped him again. The latest report that Simon has received is that there seems to be an infection of some kind in Baraka’s right eye and ear that needs prompt and significant medical attention. He really needs to see a doctor in Kigali and possibly have follow-up surgery to make sure that his eye properly heals.

Here’s a story from a while ago that again presents just a sliver of what life is like for too many people in Congo:

About six weeks ago Celestin was so busy trying to send the various reports he is required to send as the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Coordinator for the French Equatorial Field that he didn’t even want Esperance to talk to him. He said it was a “horrible, no good, very bad day.” (he’s read the children’s book by Judith Viorst). Celestin says it’s much better to hear some stories than to be an actual participant in them. And this is one of those kinds of stories.

Celestin was busily writing reports when there was a knock at the door. A young boy and his father, both clearly from the countryside, stood before Celestin. Even before the father said anything, Celestin smelled something incredibly foul. The father quickly told him that he and his son were from the Nazarene Church in Kamituga, a small rural village about twelve hours away from Bukavu. Come to find out the father and the boy had already been in Bukavu for a couple of days searching for Celestin. They knew his name, but did not know where he lived. Eventually, they found someone to direct them to the right address.

The reason the father and son were in Bukavu was to seek medical treatment for the boy’s arm. Celestin said smelling the boys’ arm was enough. He didn’t need to see it to tell him that the boy needed immediate medical care. Celestin said the boys’ arm was about the most abhorrent thing he has ever seen. And that’s saying a lot.

Apparently a few weeks before the boy had been playing soccer with some friends and he was knocked or shoved down-no one seems exactly sure if the knocking down was accidental or intentional. In any case the boy broke his arm. The parents sought a traditional medical cure which only made his arm worse.

Somehow an infection set in the boys’ arm and the infection was now eating away the flesh on his arm and threatening his life. When Celestin met him, the boy was listless and feverish. Knowing that there was no time to lose, Celestin committed to God all the projects that had previously seemed so important and hailed a taxi to take the boy and his father to Bukavu’s General Hospital.

Hiring a taxi to take them to the hospital was not easy. Celestin said the smell was so atrocious that they tried four taxi drivers before they finally found one who would take them to the hospital.
The doctors were not able to save the arm, but they did save the boys’
life. The doctor’s bill was $150 and follow-up antibiotic treatments were another $35. The money to care for the boy came from money that was leftover from the Betsaida grinder project. After sharing this story with Steve Neil, the Executive Director of Co-Aid, Steve quickly posted the story on www.coaid.org and asked for donors to help establish an emergency medical fund. That very day a donor gave $1000 that is now available for these kinds of medical emergencies.

I find it amazing how God brought together the right resources at the right time to help this boy. God’s eye is truly on the sparrow. And, if God cares for the sparrow, a dying boy, and a scared father from a village in Congo that none of us have ever heard of, then he certainly will take care of us as well.

Love and prayers,

Joe, Jimmie, and Chuck