Democratic Republic of Congo Report 2007 (Steve Tracy)

Dear friends and family,

We arrived back from our Africa trip this past weekend safe and sound. Before we even packed our bags to return to the U.S., we wrestled with how to communicate what we experienced in Congo. We unanimously agreed that: this was one of the most profound experiences of our lives; God utterly shattered our expectations; words and photos cannot begin to capture life and ministry in Africa. I can encapsulate our trip by saying that virtually everything we encountered was much, much more than we had expected-the evil and the destruction unleashed by ten years of civil war and foreign invasion, the joy and graciousness of the believers, the universal patriarchy as well as outrageous entrenched misogyny (hatred of women), the overwhelming, ubiquitous physical needs, the supernatural hand of God, and the unity and maturity of our team. In over twenty-five years of Christian ministry Celestia and I have never encountered God or Satan like we did in the Congo. We were utterly dependent on Christ to work on our behalf and He did, big time. Thanks so much for your prayers and support. We continually felt them.

A Biblical Explanation

On one of the four flights home as I was translating various Pauline passages Rom 5:17 jumped out at me as a perfect explanation for the extremes we experienced in the Congo-evil, suffering, grace, and redemption. This verse gives a devastating assessment of the plight of the human race–through one man’s sin (Adam), death (and depravity) has come to reign over all humanity and human history. From the moment we stepped foot in the Congo at the airport in Bunia, site of a horrendous massacre a few years ago, we begin to see, feel, and hear unspeakable accounts of evil, depravity, and death. But in Rom 5:17 the Apostle Paul goes on in this verse to give the outrageous sequel to universal depravity and death. He says that if (since) the one man’s transgression caused death to reign (literally become ruler or king over), how much more the ones receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign (same word used of death reigning) in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. This says it all. This world is utterly riddled with human depravity, suffering, and death–more than most of us in the affluent west can imagine. But the Lord of the universe has acted in the most dramatic manner imaginable. Through the cross of Christ the reign of death, suffering, and evil has been shattered by the overwhelming power of grace. While from the dawn of biblical history sin has caused death to reign, now all those in Christ will reign in life. Yes, the fullness of this reign is yet to come, but since Christ has inaugurated the kingdom of God, we believers get to see brilliant eruptions of the triumph of grace in this life.

Why Congo?

We chose the DRC because of the incredible needs and strategic opportunity which fits perfectly with our ministry calling. We were particularly drawn to the strategic ministry of Congo Initiative led by Drs. David and Kassie Kasali, the host ministry for our trip. The Kasalis have impeccable credentials, an incredible ministry vision for Congo and an amazing network of Christian leaders and even political leaders, and the needs of DRC are among the greatest in the world. DRC is the third largest country in Africa (roughly the size of the United States east of the Mississippi), has vast natural resources, and yet is one of the poorest countries in the world. Furthermore, the population has experienced some of the world’s greatest suffering. In the past decade over four million have died due to military conflict and life expectancy has plunged to the mid 40s. Until quite recently armies from six surrounding nations invaded and thousands of brutal militia roamed the country side, especially in the east where we went, raping an estimated 40,000 women, murdering thousands, and creating profound universal suffering. Adding to this suffering, HIV/AIDS is reaching epidemic levels. Complicating all of this is a shame based culture which finds it virtually impossible to address issues of sexuality. Abuse survivors and those with HIV/AIDS are routinely thrown out onto the streets by husbands or fathers and are most often banned from churches. Women have virtually none of the rights, dignity, or legal protection we simply assume in the west. Intense poverty (the average daily income is less than a dollar) has created tremendous hardship. The silent pain of the Congolese people hovers over the villages of this beautiful country like a dark cloud.

What we did

At the request of Congolese leaders in partnership with Congo Initiative we took a team of eleven professionals to minister for two weeks in the DRC. We went representing Mending The Soul Ministries, a Christian sexuality and abuse education and healing ministry. The team included trained counselors (Celestia Tracy, Carol Nahm), a gynecologist (Chris Nahm), a scientist and seminary graduate (Christine Stephenson), an academic specializing in gender and abuse (Steve Tracy), a singles pastor (Jim Rutherford), veteran missionaries (Malcolm Hartnell, Gene and Terri Ratley), a college student who has been living in Africa (Abby Tracy), and a former French citizen who spent her adolescent years in French speaking Africa (Chantal Harkenrider). Our team conducted two four day seminars for approximately 300 church and community leaders in two cities in eastern Congo. We taught on marriage, sexuality, the value and dignity of women, sexual abuse, AIDS, sexual purity, and healing sexual shame. We also preached in ten different churches, conducted meeting with church leaders, and visited and ministered in two abuse clinics, a residency clinic for the mentally ill (mainly due to horrific abuse), and an AIDS ministry center.

What we experienced

Literally from the moment we arrived in Beni where a delegation of leaders met us next to the dirt airstrip to welcome us, we were shown gracious love. The hospitality, joy, and fervor of these Congolese believers were a great encouragement. We were also overwhelmed with the grinding poverty and constant requests for assistance. Knowing that most of the leaders we addressed had not had the opportunity of formal education we were amazed at their knowledge of Scripture and their processing skills. Ironically, from the first day of the first seminar we also encountered breathtaking spiritual warfare, patriarchy, and cultural opposition. From the first day on pastors publicly challenged our teaching and declared Scripture to teach that a husband is a woman’s lord and she must literally bow down before him (supported by a citation of Ps. 45:10-11). Several pastors defended forcing women in their churches to take back and sleep with unfaithful husbands who had abandoned them and had subsequently gotten AIDS from prostitutes or mistresses. When we pointed out that reuniting with a promiscuous, AIDS infected husband would be a death sentence for the wife and possibly her children, one pastor stood up and declared “she would die a good death.” At that several men in the front row cheered. Many of the singles forcefully insisted that any woman who is raped had it coming (even after we had taught on sexual abuse). Sadly, we found out later that one of the women who had made this declaration had herself been raped by her doctor when she went to the hospital. Literally at the same time men were declaring the biblical propriety of male dominance when we broke the men and the women down into small groups, virtually every one of the single women were disclosing their experiences with rape or attempted rape, and many of the women (largely pastors wives) were disclosing marital rape by their husbands. Finally, we were engulfed with a cloud of satanic evil as we visited clinics and saw the faces of abuse survivors (many who had gone insane), heard their stories, and saw the babies born from violent rape. We heard over and over of the orgy of violence carried out as recently as 18 months earlier in this very community by armed militia. Most of the women and children in the clinics who were brutally abused were thrown out on the streets by their husbands and families and even their churches. All of the abuse and AIDS clinics we visited received no church support and had not had a single visit by a pastor in their ten plus years of existence.

What God did

Yes, this paints a very painful and bleak picture. And yes, it was traumatic for our team. We are still dealing with what we witnessed and experienced and need your prayers in this regard. However, God moved in unbelievable ways, particularly at the first conference in Beni. We really had nothing to offer these Christian leaders in terms of materials or programs, let alone legal protection. All we could give them was biblical teaching, our own honest testimonies of how God has forgiven our sin, and healed our own pain caused by physical and sexual abuse. We exclusively had the crucified and resurrected Christ to give them and that is what they needed! God worked because you prayed. He delights in accomplishing His will through fervent prayer. To begin with, God brought several hundred of the most influential Christian and community leaders to the conferences, many traveling for several days over dangerous roads to get there. We had dozens of the top denominational officials, including the director of the entire women’s ministry for the largest Christian denomination in the area (Conservative Baptists), the assistant director of the entire denomination, a man who oversees 40 different churches and leads large seminars for churches in three other countries, a man who oversees 50 churches all over Congo, and various directors of influential non profit organizations from around the country. Perhaps most supernaturally, over half a dozen military officers attended (mainly chaplains in the Congolese Army). This was shocking because the army is largely composed of former militia members, many of whom participated in the orgy of rape, dismemberment, and murder. Not only did these men attend the conference, but they publicly committed to taking what they learned back to the solders no matter how difficult it would be, and pleaded with us to come back and do seminars for the military.

Toward the end of the first conference we witnessed a miracle none of us had ever seen, and several Congolese believers told us they had never seen. On the final day after much discussion and prayer, the men went up in front of the entire church and had a spokesman share a covenant they had written after hearing our teaching. They publicly repented and apologized for abusing their wives, for dishonoring women, for not loving and serving their wives as husbands are commanded to (Eph 5), and for dominating and not respecting women in their churches. They acknowledged their failure to minister to the abused and shared shelter contact information and asked the pastors to sign up to help that ministry. Most incredibly, they committed to printing a copy of their declaration for their wives to post in their homes and asked their wives to hold them accountable for each commitment. Then the spokesman for “the fathers” asked his wife to come forward and share with all of us how he could give her more honor and respect. I literally gasped when he said this. I have never in my life seen such a bold, prompt, and humble response to biblical teaching. We could palpably watch and feel the Holy Spirit working in our midst. These men also made other commitments about supporting abuse ministries in the community and formed a coalition to structure healing ministries in their churches.

Abby

Many of you asked about our daughter Abby who has been in Uganda and Rwanda since January. It was wonderful to have 21/2 weeks with her. She was invaluable in our ministry to the singles and showed us how to boldly love Africans. We spent two days with her in Kampala at the end of our DRC trip. We were especially blessed by visiting the Mengo Boys were she is now living until June 6 when she leaves for Rwanda to fill a director of interns position for Food for the Hungry. These boys, many of whom had been living hopeless and violent lives as orphaned street children, were the sweetest, most hard working and appreciative boys imaginable. God is doing an amazing work there. We understand why Abby has come to love them and why she chooses to live with them in very difficult physical conditions.

The future

In spite of the challenges and pain we encountered, this was the best ministry experience most of us have ever had. This trip has permanently changed us, clarified our life priorities, produced profound joy, and allowed us to taste the sweetness and power of Christ and of being used by Christ. We want more of all of this! Even before we left Africa our team began discussing returning to DRC next summer with several specialized teams. We anticipate returning to Beni and also going south to Goma next summer. Numerous Goma leaders with bold abuse and sexuality ministries implored us to come assist them. As much brutality as Beni and Butembo have experienced, Goma has experienced more, starting in 1995 when the Rwandan genocide spilled over into this area. In fact, while we were traveling back from Africa last week, 18-30 villagers not far from Goma were hacked to death reportedly by Rwandan soldiers while they slept.

While the needs in DRC are overwhelming, it has became crystal clear that the greatest and most strategic need we could help meet is for printed, biblical resources on marriage, sexuality, and abuse. Several seminary educated Congolese leaders offered to translate sermons and booklets we gave them into French and Swahili. We are currently writing curriculum for the Congolese leaders and securing funds to translate Mending the Soul, and the workbook, into French, and to print several booklets.

Prayer requests:

• That the conference attendees in Beni and Butembo will apply what they learned to their families, churches, and communities
• That God would give these Christian leaders boldness to stand against their patriarchal culture and to endure certain opposition and ridicule
• That God will bless and meet the needs of Mama Julianne who leads ministry to abused women, and for the Christian mental health and AIDS clinics.
• That God would bless and guide David and Kassie Kasali and Congo Initiative. Pray they will be able to open UCBC (the university) in the fall where they want to impact long term change by training a new generation of church and community leaders. Pray for their conference follow up.
• That we will be able to produce effective written curriculum for the church in DRC this next year and that God would provide the funding for this, particularly for translating and printing a French version of Mending the Soul.
• That God would grant peace and healing in the DRC and would guide Joseph Kabila, the new president.
• Pray that God will guide Mending the Soul Ministries and ministries represented by our team to best serve the church in Africa.

Thanks again for your prayers,
Steve Tracy