This is a pic of all the people helping to cultivate a field on the edge of Rutshuru that will feed widows and others in the town. So many people came out to help even though they had been serving all week. It was really hard work, but we all really enjoyed working alongside the pastors and church members. And not to mention, DR Congo is incredibly beautiful!

A pic of our team with one of the widows who received a new home.....in front of her new mud house!

Me going into a crazy bathroom in Nyrangongo

Update!!!

Yes, we are home now! I have just taken awhile to update our blog. I have emailed our newsletter out to as many as possible, but I thought I would copy and paste most of it onto here in case you would like to read it! The trip was incredible in so many ways and is hard to pack into a few paragraphs! I am continuing to learn some keys lessons since we returned....

The majority of our time in DR Congo was spent in the town of Rutshuru, joining with the local churches in a compassion mission. World Relief helps empower the local church to do a variety of things, including taking care of their own. We arrived a few weeks after our missions pastor Joe Johns had spent time in DR Congo teaching pastors on servant leadership. We helped to reinforce the concepts Joe had presented to pastors in the area.
One of other goals was to sit down with each pastor connected with WR in order to receive prayer requests from them. What a privilege and burden at the same time! These will be passed on to our congregation and help to form a connection and strengthen the partnership between FMC and the churches in DR Congo.

Two of my (Emily) biggest frustrations on this trip showed me the greatest lessons. I was discouraged about the language barrier, not being able to easily communicate with the Congolese. Also, because of a situation you’ll read about, I was feeling like I had not accomplished much. However, the day we went to help the churches cultivate (or hoe) a field on the edge of town, I was working next to a girl named Leah. Although we couldn’t talk directly to one another, I felt the Holy Spirit between us as we worked. We were united by a common goal and felt connected. On a broader scale, I usually think that I have to “DO” in order to make a difference. I’ve since been reminded that my job is partly to encourage, support, and pray for these churches in DR Congo. In more than one instance, I was reminded that our job in this partnership looks different than what I had thought at first!

Two words that I (Clint) would use to best describe this trip would be HOPE and PRAYER. The hope comes from seeing many people from all different denominations coming together to work at building mud houses, making and distributing food, cultivating land, and worshiping. The picture of this can not be described with words. I am talking about groups of people that did not want anything to do with the other, but now are working side by side. You throw our team plus staff from World Relief into it, and you get a glimpse of the body of Christ. This is not always perfect though. At one worship gathering, many choirs from different churches left because they were not asked to sing first. But through the partnership we in America have a lot to learn about reconciliation and working together as the body of Christ.
I use the word prayer because as Emily said we were not able to “DO” as often as we thought we should. The story Emily was talking about that was frustrating, but a good lesson, was when the church took food to the hospital. When you are in the hospital you are not fed unless your family brings it. So there are many that are starving plus dealing with whatever else they are in the hospital for. This group of churches has started to bring food once a month to the hospital. But this time we were stopped for many different reasons but mainly because we were with the churches. So we left and went back to our guest house.
You can not imagine the feelings we were having. We all decided to get in a circle and pray against the spiritual warfare and our attitudes. There were a lot of tears, anger, and confusion in those prayers, but we kept praying. The pastors and Marcel decided to take the food to 2 different prisons, the police, and a church first aid station. We as a team were not able to go to any one of them because of security. We were able to pray though, and you know some amazing things happened. In one prison all the inmates knelt and prayed with the pastors, and in the other 8 men accepted Christ and said they want forgiveness. The even more amazing thing is these men shared that they were planning when they got out to kill and get revenge, but now they understand they need to forgive. You know our team did not “DO” but we did stand up with prayer and fight the battle that is going on every day all around us. Pray has more power than we know!!! This is just one of the times we got to see God on the move!

God has His hand in DR Congo and we need to keep lifting up the Body of Christ worldwide. Thank you for your support in this very important mission. Hopefully we can talk with each of you personally and share more about God’s glory in DR Congo!

Jambo! After a LONG trip, we are here! This morning we crossed the border into Congo. No time to write more, but we are safe (a little tired, too)!

Its almost here!

We are in the final stages of preparing for our trip. Today and tomorrow will be spent getting the house ready to be gone for 2 weeks, packing, and all that. Emotionally we are both a little nervous....not sure about what exactly, but still nervous. Currently, travel into DR Congo is not advised, yet on we march. I am continuing to pray for God's protection on our whole group. There is no "goal" attached to this venture, but a greater understanding, greater passion, and greater self sacrifice to gain. Please continue to pray for us that we would allow the Holy Spirit to be our guide. Can't wait to tell you all about it when we return!
We are leaving from Fort Wayne about 1:30 am Sunday morning.......

Meetings for Prayer

We are holding two prayer meetings before we leave to pray for the financial situation, the trip in general, and for the country of DR Congo. You are invited to join us! We're meeting in the prayer room at Fellowship Missionary tomorrow (July14) and next Monday (July 21) from 7-8ish. We would love for you to pray with us. =)

Thank you!

Thank you so much to all of you who donated items for our garage sale or stopped by! We are sooooo thankful for the donations that we received. It went really well, had good weather, and enjoyed talking to many about our trip.
Also, if you are looking for the info on how to contribute money, scroll down to the second post in this blog near the end. The info is there!

What will be your response?

Last night at our meeting, Joe and Steph Johns (missional living pastor) shared with us about their recent trip to DR Congo. The purpose of their trip with to define the partnership with World Relief in Congo and to contribute to a 3 year strategic plan. Joe talked about some of the aspects of what World Relief is doing there. WR uses the churches to alleviate suffering by forming networks that are called upon to help with numerous things. One of the main focuses is peace keeping.
Some facts:
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the weakest nation states in the world. The US ranks it third-- (1) Somalia, (2) Afganistan, (3) DRC, (4) Iraq. In the last decade, over 5.4 million people have died in the bloodiest man-made catastrophe since WW2. 1.5 million people are intally displaced from their homes. 45,000 people die daily from conflict and disease. The largest UN peace-keeping force world-wide is deployed in eastern Congo. Nearly half a million Conglese have become refugees--some even resettled to Fort Wayne. And the most shocking statistic: Congo is reported to be over 95% Christian......
World Relief is using church mobilization to change lives in DRC. The people there have a hard life to begin with, considering the poverty. But add in the threat of war and violence, and life gets even tougher. I am so excited to see the work that is being done there. We will have a two-part mission: compassion through widow home-building and prayer, and also documentation by getting bios of the pastors in the area for a later project.
We are feeling the weight of the pain and suffering in this country. And also some sense of amazement that no one really knows that this is happening. I challenge you to tell someone else about this tragedy. The next person's response maybe greater than mine or yours.

More Congo News

From Gwen..........Just thought I’d pass on a couple of things you might be interested in. First is a link to a story that Anderson Cooper did for 60 Minutes a while back on rape as a weapon in the DR Congo. It’s a sobering perspective on the realities of the people we will be serving with and for.http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/11/60minutes/main3701249.shtml

You may also be interested in checking out this month’s National Geographic. The cover story is “who murdered the mountain gorillas”. The author and photographer went into the national park in Congo that borders Rwanda and actually sat down for an interview with General Laurent Nkunda, the rebel leader who has been at the heart of all the fighting in the region. Nkunda and his forces control these border lands which include the land where the silverback gorillas live. It is believed these soldiers may have been the ones who killed 5 of these endangered gorillas last year. (Made the cover of Newsweek magazine last summer).

Less than one month to go!

Last night we had another training meeting for our trip. It was fun to spend more time with our team and get to know them better. We spent some time discussing the book and then also in prayer. Some of the topics we've discussed from the book have been hard to reconcile. These recent chapters have touched on the issue of the Bible and what we think is right vs. what is cultural differences. We've had to ask ourselves if there are thing we think are the "right way" of "the way of Jesus" that may just be our culture's way of doing things.
We also discussed the issue of poverty. We assume that everyone wants what we have, because they look poor to us. In my own mind, the easiest way to help someone in poverty is to give them money. Maybe what they actually need is relationship, someone to get to know them and find out what their true needs are. In our culture, that takes too long....we want a quick fix to the problems we see. This trip will provide us a tangible opportunity to deal with those issues of poverty.
On a different note, Gwen (leader) informed us that a week of our time will be spent in Rootshuru (sp?) which is close to the border of Uganda and the national forest. It is the hometown of the World Relief national coordinator Marcel. This area is more "rustic" as she put it, meaning it's unlikely we'll have modern conveniences. The town was also previously controlled by rebels at one time. There is no threat currently and we are assured we won't go anywhere there is significant danger.
Please be in prayer for our financial situation. Our whole team is struggling to raise the funds needed to go. Clint and I learned last night that we currently have only a fraction of what we need. God can do mighty things are we're counting on Him for this one!

Cultural Awareness

The book that we are reading as a part of our training is called "Serving with Eyes Wide Open" Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence. It has been so great to read and discuss it with our team. Some of our discussions this week touched on expectations we have of the trip, what we will accomplish, and what fruit we will see. Expectations largely influence the experience that you have. We concluded that we wanted to expect to be used by God is whatever shape that may be. The author writes "Honesty about what does and doesn't occur through short-term missions allows us to see our trips as an integral part of our lifelong journey of following Jesus, rather than just a two-week project."
Another topic from the book is that many times we have a tendency to generalize about the culture we're working in. We need to resist this temptation and instead have an open mind about each person and situation. A desire to understand our surroundings will enhace our ability to learn and serve. We cannot bust into another culture and insist that we as Americans have the best way to do ministry, better techniques, better whatever....we must strive to be servants.
I am really excited to encourage those working in DR Congo for World Relief. They are the ones in the trenches each day of the year, and the ones who will hopefully see the fruits of their labor. Yes, we are planning to construct 3 homes for widows among other things, but our most valuable task may be the support we give to the national staff.
I could type so much more, but will leave it at that for now. Please continue to pray for us as we prepare spiritually and physically.

Garage sale!

July 11-12 we're having a garage sale to raise funds for our trip. It will be at Clint's grandparent's house in Berne (1246 Mill Pond Rd Berne, IN 46711). If you would like to contribute any items to sell, just let me know. Or you can bake cookies, bars, bread, etc to sell. And of course, please come and buy lots of stuff!!! =) If you have any other questions, just call or email us.

Brief History of DR Congo

We had our second training meeting last night. I am more excited than before about the trip after spending time with our team, discussing the book we're reading (more to come on that), and talk about other issues. Gwen gave us a brief history of DR Congo and other info about where we're going....and I wanted to share that with you all...

The Great Lakes region of Africa includes the Congo countries, Rwanda, Burundi, etc. (Check out a map...I should put one on here!). DR Congo is formerly known as Zaire and changed only in 1997. The area was subject to colonialism many years ago by the Belgians. They pitted African against African. If you are familiar with the Rwandan genocide...you know the two tribes involved in that conflict (Tutsi and Hutu). When the Belgians pulled out, it left a power struggle and the genocide insued. Both tribes at one point fled across the border into Congo and then back to Rwanda. The town we are staying in is called Goma, and is close to the border where much of this happened. All this is directly related to the recent wars in DR Congo between an assortment of the Congolese army, Tutsi rebels, Hutu rebels, and whoever else decides to join in. There has been a cease fire for a little while, so hopefully that holds for us!
The town of Goma is next to a volcano that erupted at some point recently. The town basically was destroyed and then rebuilt on top of the hardened lava. So that will be interesting.

Recent news from DR Congo

DR Congo to attack Ugandan rebels
The Congolese army has agreed to take military action against Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army.
The decision comes after the LRA leader Joseph Kony failed to sign a peace agreement with the Ugandan government.
He has been hiding in eastern DR Congo throughout recent peace talks, fearing he would be arrested for war crimes.
A final peace deal was reached in March after almost two years of talks, but Mr Kony failed to turn up on several occasions to sign it.
The chiefs of defence forces in Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the UN Mission in Congo, Monuc, have been meeting in the Ugandan capital Kampala this week to find a military solution to the problem of the LRA.
The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Kampala says their decision to allow the Congolese army to pursue the rebels on their territory, signals the end to a long period of negotiation between the LRA and the Ugandan government.
Ugandan army spokesman Major Paddy Ankunda said there was "still room for peace talks if some people can convince the world that it can work out".
"But in our view, there is room also for taking military action on this group, which has up to now persistently shown that they are not ready to sign the peace agreement," he added.
Throughout the peace talks, in the South Sudan capital Juba, Mr Kony remained in eastern DR Congo, while he and his top commanders were the subjects of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
He is accused of numerous war crimes, including mutilating and abducting civilians and forcing thousands of children into combat.
During the peace talks, the threat of attack by the LRA rebels receded from northern Uganda and security there has improved over the last two years.
But our correspondent says there have been reports of the rebels attacking and abducting civilians in both eastern DR Congo and the Central African Republic, suggesting that the problem has been displaced, not removed.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7436254.stmPublished: 2008/06/04 16:40:14 GMT© BBC MMVIII

You can get lots of great info on DR Congo from the BBC News website....I encourage you to check it out or even make it your homepage to keep up to date on recent news.

Your support is needed!

Our church, Fellowship Missionary, recently has formed a partnership with the evangelical relief organization, World Relief, to make a difference in the lives of the people who live in the African Great Lakes countries of Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We have an opportunity to travel this summer (July 27-August 8) with a team from our church to support the work of World Relief in D.R. Congo. This team will be engaging in a Compassion mission, building homes for widows, helping with outreaches, visiting hospitals and orphanages, encouraging the efforts of the HIV/AIDs work of World Relief, and possibly other aspects of ministry.

Our hearts have been linked to this region of Africa for some time now. We know that God has called us to do something....even though the need is so great and our effort seems so small.

We desperately need your prayer support and if possible, financial support as well. In order to go, we need to jointly raise $8000 before July 15th. If you are able to make a tax-deductible contribution, you can send a check addressed to World Partners (World Partners USA PO Box 9127 Fort Wayne, IN 46899) Please write ‘VA11’ in the memo line of the check (do not write our names, only the code) so that the contribution goes into our account. Thank you for considering us!

We are headed to Congo, Africa!

As many of you may know, Clint and I are taking a trip later this summer to Congo. We are going with our church, who has a partnership with World Relief. We are very excited for this awesome opportunity. More information to come very soon....

I am brand new to this blogging thing, so sorry if its confusing. I will learn soon! =)