Democratic Republic of Congo Report 2007 (Celestia Tracy)

The Kingdom of God is Within Us

Spending time in Africa has changed us. America’s affluence has removed us from what is real. Our comfort affords us the luxury of a lullaby - if we are not careful we can drift off to sleep and never know what we have missed. Jesus ascended so that we could take His place on this earth. He knew fully the world He had left behind. A world full of exquisite beauty and goodness - imaging Him in details of design that are indescribable - beauty that can only be felt and experienced to be known. In contrast, He also left a world of sin - a world marred with the ugly effects of the fall from Eden. A world where immorality can be our cruel master and take us to depths of darkness we could not imagine.

The gospels record Jesus living an irresistible yet unpopular authority of love - humble and coexistent with evil. He walked among the poor and oppressed, offering comfort and consolation to people He was close enough to touch. Philip Yancy describes Christ as leaving “the world in our hands”. Therefore, he argues, the question is not ‘Where is God when it hurts?’ but, ‘Where is the church when it hurts?’.

We have the outrageous privilege and overwhelming responsibility to join His side. To be a part of His redemptive plan in people’s lives. The time for this work is now. We have a window of opportunity to show up - to be on the front row and participate in this cosmic drama. To play a specific role or part, that only we can play. God’s kingdom on this earth advances humbly and slowly, yet someday, Jesus will walk onto the stage, and the play will be over. The new kingdom will be ushered in with the second coming of Christ. Of course, we hope in a new heaven and a new earth where sin and its misery will be abolished and every tear will be dried. This is our final hope and joy. Yet today we live between the ages - the “kingdom of God is within us” (Luke 17:21). God’s reputation on this earth is entrusted to us! Our team was able to to this work together. To pray, fast, pray, plan, pray, laugh, pray, cry - arm in arm - boldly dependent on the spirit’s power to break the foothold of Satan that was in our midst.

“Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.” - Elisha
II Kings 2:9

To Our Wounds - Only God’s Wounds Can Speak

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

I will never read Isaiah 53 with the same eyes. As a team, we were addressing two taboo topics that have decimated eastern Africa: abuse and sexuality. One of our translators revealed to us that he could not speak these words in his own tribal language, without significant waves of shame. In a country where over 40,000 women have been raped in the last decade, sexual shame and its destructive, inter-generational patterns must be acknowledged so they can be healed and redeemed.

We are thankful for our African partners, Drs. David and Kassie Kasali, founders of the Congo Initiative for the vision and boldness they have demonstrated in addressing the pressing needs of their country. They invited Mending the Soul Ministries and Phoenix Seminary to come and begin the process of equipping the church for this task. We were privileged to train several hundred church and denominational leaders from two major cities in the DRC– Beni and Butembo. Since our return, we have been invited back to both of these cities and to Goma for the summer of 2008 to extend the teaching on a theology of healing and biblical sexuality to the youth of that city and to over 2000 prostitutes who are in need of the restoration and redemption that only Christ provides. During the same time, Lord permitting, Dr. Chris and Carol Nahm will be leading a medical team that will offer surgical repair and healing alongside of the sexuality training and soul care. By God’s grace we get to be His hands and feet and eagerly anticipate this work. God is in disguise in the face of the poor. We feel His presence most poignantly when we are there.

In closing, I would like to share my greatest joy coming out of these days of training. As a counselor, I know and teach the humanly absurd Scriptural principles that God uses our weakness and foolishness to confound the wise. He is made strong and is glorified in our weakness. I have witnessed over and over again His power, love and eagerness to heal and redeem that which has been lost through abuse and sin. I have staked my claim on passages such as II Corinthians 1 that describe the prescription for God’s presence and power demonstrated through our life - to the degree that we have known suffering, to that same degree can we know the comfort of Christ’s healing and presence, and to that same degree will we be effective in helping others heal.

Steve and I have often admired the courage and perseverance of the many men and women we have known, who have chosen to face the devastating truth of their lives and have grappled with the Word of God and what they cognitively KNOW to be true of Jesus’ love, until they can feel it and experience it in their own heart and life. Then, from this platform they minister and speak. We witnessed that on our team. One by one we got up and testified to the story of healing in our own lives. We told our stories of sin, abuse, shame and abandonment and the healing pathways we had found. Each of us publicly told more than we had ever before. This was clearly mediated for us by the Spirit and was the vehicle God used to transmit His message of hope and healing. Tears shamelessly rolled down our faces as we watched and listened. Within our nature we resist grace, because grace changes us.

“After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life, and be satisfied.”
Isaiah 53:11

Your fellow servants,
Steve and Celestia