Democratic Republic of Congo Report 2008 (Christine Stephenson)

Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the third largest country in Africa, roughly the size of the United States east of the Mississippi. In spite of its rich natural resources, its population (approximately 60 million people) has suffered horribly for decades under repressive and corrupt regimes, invading armies, and savage rebel groups. Roughly 5.4 million have died directly or indirectly in the past decade due to military conflict. As an extension of this conflict, for the past several years rebels have systematically tortured women through rapes so brutal that the women develop fistulas (a condition resulting in a rupture of the walls that separate the vagina and bladder or rectum) and become incontinent. These rapes are epidemic in eastern Congo the region of the country we went to. It is estimated that 250,000 have been raped and yet this figure is considered an underestimate because it is calculated from those women who have stepped forward for medical treatment or to report their attacks. In 2007 Congo Initiative founded by Dr. David Kasali invited Mending the Soul Ministries, an evangelical sexuality and abuse education and healing ministry to partner with them to conduct two four day sexuality seminars, one in the city of Beni and the other in Butembo. As a result, our Congo 2007 Team conducted these two seminars for approximately 300 church and community leaders. 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 meetings 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.

Invitation from the Leaders in DRC

The work that was started in May 2007 has been sustained and continued since May by Congo Initiative and other leaders in Congo in partnership with Mending the Soul Ministries. Due to the success of the 2007 seminars, the ongoing work in Congo by Congo Initiative and other community and church leaders, Mending the Soul Ministries was asked to send another team this past July (2008) to provide more advanced sexual abuse healing training in Beni. Consequently, we went and did 1) an extensive 3-track 3-day conference on sexuality, abuse and healing, and training on ministering to the abused for the caregivers, social workers, psychologists, pastors, church and community leaders, 2) the third track of the first conference was for the youth on healthy sexuality, 3) a 2-day conference for prostituted women, 4) a 2-day conference for rape survivors, 5) a 4 hour afternoon meeting with political officials and leaders to discuss the prevention of violence and serving the community with integrity, and 6) a 4- hour seminar to the military on serving with honor, courage and integrity, protecting women and the community.

Conference 1: July 8-10

This first conference which took place at the Université Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo in Beni, DRC consisted of three tracks as follows:

Track 1: Nature and effects of abuse, healing and recovery from abuse

For: Community/church leaders and pastors/ministers This track was for pastors and community/church leaders and focused on the nature and effects of abuse, the Biblical mandate to care for the abused, working with the abuse survivors and also working with those who were the abusers. The conference also had application sessions which allowed for discussion, practical tips for ministry and caring for abuse survivors and included small group discussions.

Track 2: Nature and effects of abuse, healing and recovery from abuse

For: Caregivers (counselors, psychologists, social workers) This track was for those who were involved in caring for the abuse survivors and focused on the nature and effects of abuse, the secondary effects of abuse (soul care for the caregiver) and the practical aspects of a guided biblical pathway for healing. There were also application sessions, which allowed for discussion, practical exercises and small group discussions/counseling.

Track 3: Healthy Sexuality

For: Youth This track for the youth focused on God’s plan for sexuality, healthy sexuality including abstinence, cultural myths verses biblical truth (what culture and society says verses what the Bible says and the pressures youth face as a result) and self-worth and identity. There were also application sessions and discussion time geared towards giving the youth practical suggestions for applying and living the truths they were learning about in the teaching sessions.

Université Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo in Beni

This is where the all the conferences took place. UCBC is still just one building with dirt floors and a few rooms but it is definitely a building very much in use. Each day, the attendees would be brought in by van. We were able not only to provide teaching and training but scholarships for people to attend by providing for their travel and lodging expenses. In addition, each day we were able to provide food and snacks for the attendees. Many of the attendees traveled many miles to attend and for many the only food they had was what we provided. Basic medical care was also provided.

At the caregiver’s and community/church leaders tracks of the conference there were almost 140 participants representing 22 different organizations, 13 different churches and 5 media personnel (radio and newspapers). The organizations ranged from counseling organizations, clinics for the abuse survivors, mental health clinics and professional development (micro-business) organizations.

Conference 2: July 11-12

This second conference which also took place at the Université Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo in Beni, DRC was for prostituted women. The conference was called:

Free to Live: The Hope Jesus Gives to Every Woman No Matter What.

This conference did not only focus on the spiritual but also the professional skill development of the women. It was important not only to provide the women with hope for the future and healing from their life experiences but also to provide them with a means to leave prostitution if they desired to do so. Our goal was to enable them to do this in a way that empowered them, trained them in new skills and enabled them to build themselves up as leaders. Thus the conference had two components.

The first was the spiritual which consisted of four sessions focusing on the following:

1. The truth of my original design: my value and worth as a woman created in God’s Image
2. The truth of God’s love for me; His Goodness and Power to bring life out of death
3. The truth of my identity in Christ; His suffering for me and His power to heal
4. The truth about my shame; Jesus gives freedom from shame and hope for my future.

Each woman was provided with a workbook that helped them work through the above topics.

The second component consisted of workshops that discussed professional skill development. The women were taught how to learn a new skill, enroll in training and further, how to set up in business through micro-business development and financing.

Any woman who wanted to leave prostitution could sign up for such training through a partnership we had developed with a local agency. The team was able to provide sponsorships for all the women who attended the conference. The plan is that upon completion of training the women will be provided with seed money to set up their own businesses.

Seventy-seven prostituted women attended the conference. Of these 58 women signed up for training. Since our return to the USA these women have been meeting three times a week for training. The women who have enrolled in this program are determined to rebuild their lives and be successful in business.

The sponsorships provided were possible because of the donations received and additional monies donated by individual team members.

Conference 3: July 14-16

This third conference which took place at the Université Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo in Beni, DRC was specifically for abuse survivors:

This conference for abuse survivors was designed to help them understand the effects of abuse and provided the survivors with tools to help them recover and heal from their abuse. The conference presented a guided Biblical pathway for healing. After each session there was an application session where in a large group setting the participants were guided through various healing exercises, sharing of stories and discussion.

This conference had 73 participants of whom 43 were abuse survivors. There were also 23 caregivers that attended and several others including interpreters.

This was an amazing conference. Many of the abuse survivors wanted to and did share their stories. This seemed to be a great help to them. Many of the survivors were counseled and were put in contact with local caregivers who could support and counsel them in the future. The conference sessions taught the abuse survivors what they could do to help themselves as they recover and heal from their experiences.

All participants were given a healing art workbook in French that was printed using the educational funds raised for this trip. These workbooks were greatly appreciated and valued by the participants. For all of them, this was the first resource they had ever received to help them in their healing from abuse.

The conference taught on topics such as healing from sexual shame, the effects of abuse, and how to recover and heal from abuse. The conference even had a session on forgiveness in terms of releasing the anger and desire for revenge while recognizing the importance of establishing healthy boundaries and not to enter into reconciliation unless there was clear and definite repentance and demonstration of changed behavior. Woman after woman shared their stories, their desire for healing and also their stories of recovery and hope, and their desire to help other abuse survivors. Every abuse survivor left knowing that they were not alone; they had support and a means of help in their recovery process in their own communities.

Many of these women were also put in contact with the local organization that worked with the prostituted women to provide skills training and business development. Many of the abuse survivors were abandoned by their husbands and families. Learning professional skills and learning how to set up their own businesses was an exciting prospect for these women who had literally nothing because of their abandonment and rejection. We were also able to sponsor these women in this endeavor due to funds raised and the local partnerships we had built over the past year.

This work is ongoing and will be built upon over the next year.

Political Leaders Conference: July 12

This conference took place on Saturday afternoon. The two main speakers were Peggy Bilsten (Goodwill Ambassador for the city of Phoenix and former councilwoman and vice-mayor of Phoenix) and Jumah Patrick (pastor from Uganda who is an expert in religion and politics).

This conference was attended by Valery Kitwana Shibari the counselor to the governor of North Kivu and 28 other political leaders. The topic of the conference was serving the people, transforming and involving the community and incorporating ethics in public service.

This conference was so successful that the counselor to the governor called the governor and other political leaders in Kinshasa stating that they needed to see the work that was ongoing in Beni (our host city) and being done by Congo Initiative - our partner organization in Congo. As a result of this seminar and the work happening in Beni, the governor is organizing a summit to take place sometime later this year - perhaps in October - with the political leaders from the different cities in Eastern Congo (Goma, Beni, Butembo, Bunia). Peggy Bilsten has been invited to moderate this summit between the leaders. This summit is an invitation to these leaders to unite as they rebuild their country and to provide them the opportunity to show the world their determination and commitment to prevent sexual violence, bring about healing and empowering of woman and care of children.

Military Seminar July 13

This seminar took place on Sunday July 13 and was at held at the Mukakira military camp in the town of Oicha some 8 km from Beni. There were 123 attendees with 50 military officers present. Dan Hoffman a former US marine spoke on serving with honor and integrity, the protection of women and the need for courage and commitment to achieve these goals. He was followed by the counselor to the Governor who also spoke on leadership and the true meaning of leadership with honor and integrity.

The Story of Elige

Elige is one of my heroes. This is a lady who is incredibly brave and courageous. She counsels rape survivors at great personal risk and danger. She sees the tremendous need in her country, the pain and suffering endured by the survivors and feels committed to help however she can. Her husband supports and encourages her because he knows she is called by God to do this. She is truly a heroic woman and a role model not only for her fellow country women and men but also for men and women in the western world.

Last year Elige attended one of the conferences we did when we were in Butembo, Congo in May 2007. As a result of our teachings, she started a program in her church to care for rape survivors. As part of this program she visits survivors in their villages often traveling up to 150 km a week on foot!

Elige described to me how she is so terrified when she visits these ladies, as she has to travel many kilometers through the jungle on her own. She told me that she would wear the wooden cross on a string that I had given her last year. When she would come across rebels and bandits who wanted to harm her they would see the cross around her neck and say, “this is a woman of God - let her pass”. This happened time and time again. She mentioned that the string had broken and she had lost the cross. I was able to give her another cross. This lady counsels women with boldness and courage. She is determined to continue despite the danger she faces. As a result of her ministry she has ministered to over a 100 women in the past year. She is a hero - a woman whom I admire and respect so much.

Her work is a direct result of the work we started on our visit last year and which continues throughout the year because of our partnerships with local Congolese organizations. Elige attended the conference for the caregivers and was able to learn and obtain more resources to help her in her work with rape survivors.

Elige is an example of the sustainability of the work done by Mending the Soul Ministries in the DRC.

The Story of Naama and CEPIMA

We visited a mental health clinic and hospital - CEPIMA - that we had visited last year. Since last year this organization has opened up five more clinics including one in Beni where we were based. This organization deals with some of the most severely traumatized survivors of abuse. Often these women and men are so severely traumatized that they are catatonic or severely mentally ill. They literally have gone mad because of the severe and extreme evil they have experienced. We heard of how they have helped so many patients.

Last year we visited their only clinic in Butembo. This year we were able to visit their new clinic in Beni which had recently opened. One patient we saw last year in May was a young lady called Naama. She was an inpatient at the Butembo clinic. When we saw her she was catatonic as a result of the rape she had experienced. However, she had since made a full recovery. Naama traveled over 100 miles and had walked 5 miles through the jungle just to come and see us in Beni. Since our last visit she had spent 5 months in the clinic and accepted Christ. Naamas’ life then radically transformed as a result of her healing. Her rapist saw how much her life had changed and as a result he too accepted Christ and repented of his actions, entered a two year discipleship program in the church and wanted to marry Naama to care for her and the child she had as a result of the rape. Naama however, has refused his offer of marriage and wants instead to wait for the man who will value her for who she is in Christ. Naama is in the photo on the right with Celestia Tracy one of the team members and founder of Mending the Soul Ministries. This organization CEPIMA combines psychiatric care and counseling with spiritual nurturing and simple loving of the patients.

Last year we heard that the caregivers at CEPIMA walked for miles just to see patients in villages so on our return to the USA we raised money to buy them two motorbikes (the common form of transportation in Congo). As a result in the past three months alone they have been able to do a year’s worth of work in terms of visiting patients and facilitating their treatment. When we arrived in the clinic in Beni we were surprised and honored to be greeted by hoards of patients and villagers waving flowers and singing. We were ushered into a mud hut meeting room where we were presented with a live goat, tons of passion fruit, potatoes and onions. What an honor! A live goat is the highest honor we could be given. It costs more than a month’s wage to buy a goat. This clinic often barely has enough food to feed its patients on a given day. We went home that day in a van crowded with team members and Hopeless the goat (see photo on left). We originally called the goat Hope but it got changed to Hopeless when we all realized that it would be eaten for dinner one day. We made our hosts promise not to tell us when they ate the goat, as we want to treasure the memory of a live goat!

CEPIMA is an amazing organization that works with severely traumatized patients under difficult circumstances. In the past year and on this trip we have been able to support them not only financially, but with the resources we have provided through our teachings and counsel but also have been able to support them by our presence with not only the caretakers but also the patients.

The Next Steps

Mending the Soul Ministries has a long term relationship with our strategic partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a true partnership between Christian leaders in Africa and an evangelical Christian abuse ministry in the US. Our intention is to continue the work to empower believers in the developing world. This work takes place not only while we are in Congo but throughout the year by continuing to provide resources and teachings so that the African spiritual leaders can in turn train and minister to their congregations and communities. We shall continue to work with community leaders on the prevention of violence and healing in their communities. Further, we will continue to train the caregivers and provide them the resources they need so that they can minister to the abused in their communities. In addition, we will continue to provide support (training and financial) for sponsorships for the women (abuse survivors, prostituted women) so that they can learn professional skills and thus have a means to support themselves and also provide scholarships for the students.

Next year, Mending the Soul Ministries plans to return to the Democratic Republic of Congo to undertake additional seminars, training and conferences. The training will be more strategic as it will be more advanced and build upon the training provided these last two years and it will build upon the work that will develop and grow in Congo throughout this coming year. We shall be working throughout the year with our African partners so that our teaching and training can be very specifically planned based on what happens in the following months. We continue to be in communication with the African leaders and caregivers, we continue to provide resources, and together we plan for the next trip.

Your support has enabled so much work to be accomplished. We are truly thankful for your support. It has encouraged us to continue this work in the knowledge that there are those who are committed to helping a people who have suffered enormously and who seek with determination to recover, heal and improve their country. There are not enough words to express our heartfelt gratitude; however, we THANK YOU.

The Congo 2008 Team

Front row (left to right): Christine Stephenson, Jeff Merry, Peggy Bilsten
Back row (left to right): Celestia Tracy, Steve Tracy, Serge Cloud (Congolese friend), Dan Hoffman, John Baker, Jumah Patrick, Lorraine Ebright (in front of Jumah), Bettina Gross, Joyce Baker, Godfrey Ebright