A letter from Ruth Brown serving in Congo
Christmas 2014 - Abiba's Story
Muoyo-webe (Life to you!) and Merry Christmas to you!
For this Christmas-time newsletter, here is a story about two children and the love of Christians who are assisting them in the Presbyterian Church of Congo’s Ditekemena (Hope) program, which provides a temporary home for street children and tries to resettle the children into the homes of their family members.
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Ruth with Ditekemena children and staff. Sisters Noella and Abiba, front, center in green
Abiba, a tall, smiling 12-year-old girl, may be found at almost any time of day playing with her baby sister, Noella.
Noella, as her name suggests, was born on Christmas Day. On December 25, 2012, in Kinshasa, the sprawling, noisy, capital city of Congo, the birth of Noella was soon followed by tragedy when her mother, weak from childbirth and from AIDS, which she had contracted from her husband, died, leaving six orphans: the newborn infant, Noella, and her five older siblings. The father of the children had died earlier that year in the mines where he was working. Noella, mercifully, was not infected with HIV.
The children’s maternal grandmother went to Kinshasa for her daughter’s funeral and brought back her six grandchildren to her home in Kananga, the capital of West Kasai. Soon afterward it became evident that the grandparents were unable to provide for all the children, and the children lived with hunger. Within a year the grandmother died. Extended family members then chased Abiba and her older sister out of the home, accusing them of being of “ill repute.”
Because the baby needed regular food, Abiba carried the child with her as she tried to make a living in the marketplace, working as a dishwasher for small, open-air restaurants in the marketplace. With her baby sister resting against her, tied by cloth to her back, the 11-year-old worked 10- and 12-hour days, seven days a week, in exchange for food.
Abiba’s older sister, that sister’s baby, and Abiba and Noella’s three brothers returned to Kinshasa to live with an aunt. The driver who was taking the other siblings back to Kinshasa didn’t take the time to find Abiba and Noella, so they were left behind to live on the streets of Kananga.
Abiba continued caring for Noella, finding different places to sleep in the market after it closed down for the day. After a short time in these harsh conditions Noella became quite sick with the fevers and chills of malaria. Abiba took Noella to a health center for treatment. Abiba didn’t have money to pay for the medical care, nor was there anyone who could help her; however, the doctor was compassionate and let them leave the hospital without paying.
Ditekemena staff found them at the market and placed them in temporary housing in a Christian camp-like atmosphere of support until relatives of the children are found who will nurture the children.
Noella was about 14 months when she began living in the Ditekemena program. She was unable to walk due to sickness, malnourishment, and muscular weakness from being carried too frequently. However, now, seven months later, she is walking and is still faithfully being nurtured by her ever-loving older sister, Abiba.
Abiba had attended fourth grade while living with her mother in Kinshasa, but by the time she entered the Ditekemena program she had not attended school for two years and had forgotten many of her writing skills. Now she is enrolled in Ditekemena’s “catch-up school,” a new program designed to catch her up to her age-appropriate school level by the end of this school year.
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Abiba’s great desire is to learn to sew so that she can care for her little sister. During a recent drawing and coloring exercise at the Ditekemena center, a teacher asked Abiba to draw a picture of “something that she thought was beautiful, something that made her happy when she looked at it.” Abiba smiled and said, “clothes,” and began drawing the skirt and pants that you see in the photograph.
The care and nurturing of family members has always been a part of our Christmas story. Every year we read how Joseph cared for his betrothed wife, Mary, who had become pregnant. Every year we read of Joseph taking Mary as his wife and remaining with her through the birth of Jesus. And we read of his protecting his family through the journey in Egypt. “Joseph … did as the angel of the Lord commanded him…” (Matthew 1:24).
This deep, committed love is the love of Abiba for Noella. It is also the love of Pastor Manyayi for the street children. Since his seminary days at Shepherd-Lapsley Institute near Kananga, Pastor Manyayi says he has felt a call from Christ to care for Kananga’s street children. He wrote his seminary dissertation on the responsibility of the church to care for street children. After seminary he presented his dissertation to his presbytery, calling on the church leadership to care for street children. A committee was formed at the presbytery level to consider how the church could do this. Pastor Manyayi led this committee to apply for a grant from Presbyterian Women’s Thank Offering in order to begin the Ditekemena program. He now works 10- and 12-hour days as director of Ditekemena and as principal of Ditekemena’s “catch-up school” program. Pastor Manyayi’s devotion to the children has become an example to leaders and members of the Presbyterian Church of Congo and to us as mission co-workers.
In response to the needs of the former street children Tshibashi Presbytery has pledged a monthly offering of two cups of dried beans from every church in the presbytery to go toward feeding the children. And Kananga Presbytery has organized a meal on Sundays for the children, brought to them by the youth of a church in the presbytery. The youth play each other in soccer, then sit down to enjoy a meal together.
Churches and individual Christians in America have also responded to the needs of these street children. Funds have come from Shepherd-Lapsley Presbytery in Alabama to provide for the medical needs of the children and to provide an entire year of schooling for the children. Funds have come from committed Christians and churches to support meals for the children and the rent of the children’s center. Please contact me by email if you, too, wish to support Ditekemena.
Thank you for contributing to this work of the Presbyterian Church of Congo through your prayers and through your generous gifts. Donations in support of my position make it possible for me to be in Congo to support the work of Ditekemena and other programs working to alleviate childhood hunger in Kananga and to provide sustainable agriculture throughout the two Kasai provinces. Together with World Mission, PC(USA) churches, and the Church of Congo, you are helping to address a critical global issue: to alleviate the root causes of poverty, especially as they affect women and children. Please continue to pray for Abiba and Noella and other street children in Congo and for the Presbyterian Church of Congo as they further define their role in assisting the street children. And please continue to give generously in support of this mission. With this beautiful Christmas season comes yet another opportunity to seek to follow Joseph’s brave example of hearing the Word and doing what the Lord commands.
Thank you so very much for your love and support to me and to the people and Church of Congo.
A Merry Christmas to you all!
Ruth
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 138
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 146, 147
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