A letter from Ruth Brown in Congo
Christmas 2013
Muoyo webe!
Life to you! And Merry Christmas!
Water source near Kananga, capital of West Kasai.
While I was in Kerrville, Texas, a few weeks ago, Congo and America’s “South” suddenly became one in the Spirit. I experienced the thrill of these nations joining together in God’s presence when the usual calm of a Sunday morning worship service in the South was suddenly punctuated with absolutely thrilling, stirring (and loud!) DRUMBEATS during the morning anthem! What good news transpired through this joyful music!
The love of Christ, as powerful and as pervasive as a drumbeat, unites us as partners in mission. Traveling all over the USA this fall, I found many Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) members working to address critical global initiatives of the PC(USA)’s World Mission: evangelism, sharing the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ, and working to eliminate the root causes of poverty.
Many of the churches with which I’ve met this fall in the USA are already assisting in providing drinking water for different countries. The Church of Congo is also very concerned about the lack of drinking water in Congo. According to the World Health Organization in 2010, only twelve percent of the people in West Kasai province of D. R. Congo had access to potable water.
Pastors Kazadi and Kongomikobi work to correct unhealthy water sources.
This past month, people moved quickly in both Congo and the states in the love of neighbors and for the provision of clean water to these neighbors. In Congo, Pastor Kazadi Sylvain, Coordinator of Presbyterian Church of Congo’s Community Development Program (CDP), and Pastor Kongomikobi Pierre, office manager for the CDP, met with Woody Collins, a PC(USA) elder and Director of Congo Helping Hands, to record and photograph a much used water source at the eastern city limits of Kananga. The CDP suspects this site to be a major factor in many recent cases of typhoid. Woody Collins wrote to me that he was “deeply saddened” at the sight of the contaminated water source.
The day after the photos of this water source near Kananga arrived, they were viewed by Rotarians in Kerrville, Texas. The Rotary members were very interested and helpful in suggesting how churches might partner with Rotary International so that their funds for safe, potable water may receive 100% matching funds from Rotary International.
Only 12% of West Kasai residents have access to clean drinking water (WHO, 2010)
The PC(USA)’s partnership with Presbyterian Church of Congo (CPC) is supporting the CPC’s Community Development Program which is working to cap six natural artesian springs in and near Kananga, the capital city of West Kasai, before the end of 2014. Please contact me if you have an interest in assisting with this effort.
Your gifts and prayers in support of my position as technical assistant to the Presbyterian Church of Congo’s Community Development program have been helpful in creating more transparency in this work and more public health and program management training for the leaders of eight community development programs sponsored by the Presbyterian Church of Congo (CPC). Also, this year we were able to obtain a Christian Leadership Scholarship grant that enabled fifty Congolese Church staff to pursue English language and computer courses, per their requests. Of these church leaders, six were female leaders of the CPC’s Department of Women and Families.
Please let me know if I may answer any questions you may have about our community development work in Congo. Thank you for the consideration you give to supporting this mission.
Thank you for making these trainings and these community development programs possible.
Thank you for all your prayers and support of my own position with the people and church of Congo. You will be in my thoughts and prayers this Christmas.
Christmas ~the celebration of earth and heaven being together….poor shepherds, foreign travelers, an unwed mother, a faithful husband, a nation exploited by rulers, a heavenly host, and the Son of God. Christmas -the story of God’s presence in our own human history.
When we are one in God we have hope. When there is hope, there is peace.
May the hope and the peace of Christmas be yours ~
Ruth
Ruth Brown
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 110
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