The God who lifts shame and brings healing...

The story of Joy Sarah

July 4th, 2009 was a special day. Yes, that is the day we celebrated independence in the USA but on this day in Beni, DRC Pastor Abrahim and his wife Joy Sarah celebrated 17 years of marriage. On the left is a photo I took for them in recognition of the occasion. Both had come to our conference which was for caregivers who work with abuse survivors . At this conference , Joy Sarah shared with me how she as a child was chronically and severely abused and further more, to her regret she had done the very same thing to her 17 year old daughter.

At the conference we had a session that taught on toxic shame and how it belonged to the abuser and not to the abuse survivor. In typical African fashion, the attendees wanted to hand over there and then the unhealthy shame they had carried for years. So we held a service where the attendees wrote letters to their abusers handing back their shame to them. Then we took these letters and placed them at the foot of a wooden cross we had built to symbolize that while we hand back the shame to the abuser (which physically could not be done) we could surrender that shame to Jesus. One after another, the attendees came and placed their letters at the foot of the cross. Abrahim , Joy Sarah and even Joy Sarah’s daughter all came and surrendered their letters at the cross. After everyone had done this, Joy Sarah and her daughter were left at the cross - they were embracing each other (photo on right - daughter in red t-shirt). They had forgiven each other and were just weeping and weeping and hugging each other. They were there for a very long time. The service ended almost an hour and half later - we ended African style with lots of singing and dancing - celebrating the freedom from shame everyone was experiencing. It was an incredible celebration and worship of God!

We worship a God who can heal the deepest of wounds and restore hope, freedom and relationships. The story of Joy Sarah does not end here. Last week I heard that she now has 9 (yes, NINE) classes (based on the Mending the Soul workbook material) for traumatized children and one similar class for married couples. Joy Sarah is an incredible woman of God who has embraced the healing in her life and is now allowing God to use her to reach out to many, many wounded and help them receive God’s healing.

Our God is an awesome God!

Beauty in Congo

The Beauty and Sights of Congo

Congo is a very beautiful country. Most of the stories I have told you about in my blog have had to do with the people and the situation in the country. Tonight I want to show you some of the beauty found in the country - aside from its beautiful and wonderful people...

The photo on the right (above) is an early evening shot just outside UCBC - the Bilingual Christian University of Congo located in Beni where we hold our conferences. It shows the density of the greenery in the countryside, the clouds and the first orange rays as the sun sets in the early evening. The sky at times can be full of bright oranges, reds and various shades thereof as the sun sets and as the rays penetrate through the clouds. See the photo to the left - it is an evening shot taken from the house we stayed in in Beni. Rolling folds of clouds with wonderful colorful orange and red rays shining through. I love sunsets.

Goma

We visited Goma for the first time on this trip. Finally after a few years of wanting to go to Goma we were able to due to the situation being somewhat more stable. Goma is right on the edge of Lake Kivu and beside some volcanos. We flew over the active volcano that had a major eruption in 2002 along with some minor ones since. We literally flew over the top and got to peer down the center. The photo on the right shows the top of the volcano as we reach it - you can see part of the plane's wing - and the photo beneath it on the right is looking straight down in the center of the volcano. We could actually see flames beneath the smoke and we could smell the sulphur from the volcano. Interestingly, you can see vegetation growing between the very center of the volcano and the edge of the rim of the top of the volcano. We were in a little 10 seater plane and so very close to the top of the volcano. I had visions of the volcano erupting and the plane being tossed around like a tiny fly in whirlwind or vortex - with us in it! It was quite a thought to have while flying over the volcano - but it was an amazing sight to behold.

I also saw some really beautiful flowers in Goma. We stayed at this wonderful place by Lake Kivu which had beautiful gardens and loads of different flowers. It was wonderful to come home every day and sit by the peaceful lake, absorb the great scenery and enjoy all the beautiful plants and flowers. It was actually hard to wrap our minds around the fact that here we were staying in what felt like paradise in the middle of a hell hole. Not to say that Goma is a hell hole but it is just a place in the middle of the troubles of Eastern Congo and full of desperate and devasted people, and lots of suffereing and pain which you can see and feel as you travel around the city. It was somewhat surreal coming home every night. Anyway, here are some of the photos I took of the flowers.

And to close, here are a couple of shots of Lake Kivu taken from the shore of the guest house we were staying at.

Gratia Counceling Center, Goma

Gratia Counseling Center
Gratia Counseling Center (right photo)was started in Goma, DRC one year ago by Daphrose Muteho Kyakimwa. She attended the first conference we did on the effects of abuse and healing in May 2007. As a result she, a high school teacher, decided that the school needed a counselor for the students who were deeply traumatized. She persisted, also attended our second training last year, and a year ago opened up this center (photo on right). Gratia is located in the very center of the school grounds - Daphrose says the heart of a person is their center and so Gratia should be physically representative of that. In this past year alone Daphrose (left photo: Daphrose in blue blouse with her family) and her team have counseled 534 students, mentored 255 students through a Bible correspondence course, helped 500 students with reading, helped a group of 90 orphans (and still are), mediated between students, parents and teachers in 780 cases, seen 336 kids become believers, shown 16 Christian movies, prevented multiple suicides, got 336 students to pledge sexual abstinence until marriage, mentored 50 youth leaders (still ongoing), and are currently talking to other school districts to implement similar counseling models in their schools throughout the country. What an incredible woman of God. Please pray for her.

Back in Congo

Greetings from Congo!
I am so happy to be back in Congo. We arrived yesterday - it was raining but it was beautiful. It was and is great to see old friends. We discovered today June 30th is indepence day here in Congo and so we got an unexpected day of rest which was much needed. Our conference starts tomorrow.

When we arrived in Kampala, Uganda I got to meet with a group of Congolese refugees some of who we had met last year. The photo above is of them at our meeting. It was good to see them and spend time with them. They have gone through a lot this past year but finally have houses they live in, are officially recognized as refugees and are no longer on the streets - which is a great relief.

Congo is a beautiful country with beautiful people but there is so much destroying it. The level of corruption we have seen these past two days is worse than ever. Yet the people have so much hope. People are rising up to say they want to change the country and they want to be leaders. I was talking to our hosts and saying wouldn't it be wonderful if the African continent was not known as "The Dark Continent" but instead "The Continent of Light" or "The Continent of Hope". And with the determination of the poeple here in Congo I can see this being the case. It is always inspiring to me to come to Congo, to see the suffering and pain, to feel the intense evil and yet see the amazing spirit of the people here, their deep faith and desire to break the strongholds in this country and make it a great nation once again. Truly an inspiration for those of us from the Western world where our biggest decision sometimes is literally which restaurant are we going to eat at today!

Well, our conference starts tomorrow - so I'll provide an update in a few days. The conference is for caregivers (counselors, social workers, pscychologists, pastors, church leaders) who work with abuse survivors. The training is on how to work with the survivors and guide them through their healing and recovery process. We have many attendees who are working with human rights groups and action groups against violence. So we hopefuly will connect with many organizations and be able to equip many to work effectively with rape and abuse survivors. We are looking forward to all that God will ccomplish through this. For the first time we have materials and resources in Swahili which is going to be so helpful.

Thank for your prayers - they are truly felt and needed. Please pray for the conference.