COGIC Missions

Mother Mary Beth Kennedy, Supervisor
Department of Women
Congo Jurisdiction
2108 German Street
Erie, Pennsylvania 16503
(814) 455-6155 = phone
(814) 455-2565 = fax
motherkennedy@anglefire.com = e-mail

THE FOLLOWING IS A MARCH, 2001 REPORT THAT WAS FILED WITH THE WOMEN'S DEPARTMENT AND THE INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF MISSIONS

BY MOTHER MARY BETH KENNEDY, SUPERVISOR OF CONGO ........

Finally we are home again! It has been a long, difficult and dangerous journey. Yet we are very glad that we went (and very glad to be home!) because God blessed us and helped us to accomplish the work we went to do.

Just getting to Democratic Republic of Congo (D. R. Congo) is difficult and takes several days. We were routed through Rome, Italy and Johannesburg, South Africa and then flew into Kinshasa, The capital of D. R. Congo for a 3-hour layover before going on to Lubumbashi, our final destination. We waited. Everyone else in the terminal left to get on the plan. We were told that it was not our plane. Naturally, they had our passports....deja vu. We inquired as to when we might go. We were told "Sorry, but your plane has been cancelled. You cannot go".

Fortunately, we have a Community Of Caring branch in Kinshasa and the director, Farbrice Malundama Mbumba, had come to the airport to greet us and to be with us during the 3-hour layover. He belongs to a family that has some influence with the government, so he was able to secure our passports and get us released into the family's custody. Exactly how, I am not sure, probably with some money changing hands and a solemn promise to never let us out of sight or away from the family compound.

At any rate, we were grateful that we had a place for the three of us to go. Elder Havious Green (of Detroit, Michigan) Elder Kennedy and I made up the American side of the Mission Of Mercy Team. Faithful workers in Kinshasas and later Lubumbashi complete the team.

The Panzu house was really our Kinshasa home. We had stayed there before and loved the huge (about 30 living under one roof) extended family and were loved and cared for by them.

We tried to fly out the next day but were told we would have to get a special paper, "Laissez-Passe", from the government before we could go to Lumbaumbashi. Of course, we had not been told any of this prior to our arrival. Our passports and D.R. Congo visas were both in order so we felt that we should be allowed to go. What we felt mattered not at all. Nothing could be done until Monday, therefore we settled in for the weekend.

The bright side of the situation was that Fabrice and the Panzu family could take us anywhere so long as they kept us under surveillance. This was not a problem to them or us because we trusted one another and wanted to be together. Fabrice took us out to the Community Of Caring Center twice. The first day we helped to feed the children. There are 50 - 65 homeless and orphaned children who are fed twice a week!

WHY NOT MORE OFTEN?????? No money, of course. Many of them live in the open

fields without even a roof over their heads. They range in age from one year to fourteen years. Most were between 4 and 12. They were fed stiff cornmeal mush (yellow meal was used) called nshema and greens with a bit of fish. They are ravenously, although there was no pushing or shoving as they waited. Older ones helped feed little ones, some of whom they carried on their backs. We ate with them; because we were hungry, the food, though strange to us, tasted good. The food the children received here twice a week was the only source of food for most of them. I was helping with the serving and so did not get a good look at them. When I did look at them closely a few days later, I was shocked at what I saw.

The Community Of Caring works with Sight and Life, an organization with headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. This organization is dedicated tithe eradication of exophthalmia, the leading cause of blindness in Third World countries. Massive doses (200,000 I.U.) of Vitamin A can prevent and/or treat this condition. During Mission Of Mercy, we usually conduct screenings and administer the Vitamin A capsules. We did this at Kinshasa Community Of Caring Center.

We left the center with serious, (no smiling faces, no playing) starving children and went back into the city. I determined in my heart that with God's help I would somehow find a way for these dying children and/or others like them to have a roof over their heads and at least one meal every day.

Finally after going through various governmental red tape, we were given the previous document that would allow us to get over to Lubumbashi, a thousand miles away. We left on Wednesday flying over vast stretches of impenetrable jungle. There is no motor road between Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, the largest cities of the D. R. Congo.

We had no way to inform Bishop Mayuke that we would not be arriving when our FAX sent from the U.S. had said we would or that we would be arriving on this plane. They had met plane after plane (not an inexpensive matter in D. R. Congo) and finally sent the Bishop's secretary, Robert Teuluila to meet this plane in case we were on it. We were all very happy to see one another. Robert steered us through formalities; we produced the laissez-passé and had no further trouble.

We reached Bishop Mayuke's home. His wife, Mother Godalieve Mayuke, was really in very poor condition. She has various health problems and indeed might have been dead within a short time as she was rapidly becoming weaker. Complicating her medical problems (high blood pressure, heart arrhythmia and other maladies) was the very basic problem of malnutrition. Like many Congolese, she was not eating every day and when she ate it was the basic Congolese diet of nshema (cornmeal mush) and a few greens. NO MEAT, NO FISH, NO EGGS, NO MILK, NO FRUIT OR NO VEGETABLES (other than greens). We prayed and thanked God for a safe journey and for the fact that He kept Mother Mayuke alive until we reached Lubumbashi. H A L L E L U J A H !!!!!!!!

The next morning we went with Robert into town to buy food. Thanks to the generosity of the people of Erie, Pa., we had money to buy rice, fish, a little meat, peanuts, fruit and vegetables (and of course cornmeal) so that she and the rest of the household world have enough to eat at least while were there. We gave the bishop the peanut butter he had requested and Erie had donated.

Most of the Congolese live in crowded conditions of almost unbelievable poverty and squalor. If families eat one meal a day, they consider themselves fortunate. Many eat only two or three meals a week. Nor are their meals nutritious and representative of all the major food groups. Usually the meal consists of nshema, which is a stiff cornmeal mush and a few vegetables cooked in a stew. Rarely is there meat or fish. There is simply no money for a more nutritious diet.

This is particularly sad because the climate permits a year-around growing season. Fresh fruits and vegetables abound: oranges, bananas, plantains, papaya, mangoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, onions, various types of leafy greens, etc. The problem is that everything is very expensive, priced well beyond what a typical family can afford.

Most people do not have jobs. Many of those who do ....... work for the mines. The laborers who work or the copper mines earn from $ 10.00 to $ 20.00 per month.

A person earning $ 15.00/month might buy a 100 ld. sack of cornmeal (white cornmeal, lacking in nutrition - no yellow available on the market) and a few bunches of greens, which could feed his family of 10 or 12 one meal every day for a month. That amount of money ($15.00) could also buy 10 lbs. of rice, 10 dried fish, 2 avocados, 8 bananas, 2 bunches of greens, 1 bunch of onions: fixings for one good nutritious meal that would feed his family for one day. Needless to say.......millions eat the cheap but filling cornmeal mush and don't even get that on a daily basis.

We screened 65 children. of that group, 35 showed signs of exophthalmia. A truly astonishing 53%. The disease was evident in various stages: conjunctiva xerosis, foamy Bitot's spots, cheesy Bitot's spots and advanced conjunctiva xerosis. As I examined each child, my own eyes began to blur with TEARS.

Most of them also showed signs of kwashiorkor or marasmus; they were slowly starving to death. Some looked like little skeletons covered with a bit of wrinkled skin. Ribs and collar bones protruded; shoulder blades dug into my hands as I drew the little ones to me so that I could examine them more closely.

My heart was breaking as I realized that although they might begin it, many of them would never live to complete a full course of treatment...

The thin, big-eyed children were everywhere but they still laughed and played. They were not in the same state of semi-starvation as the ones in Kinshasa. In my role as "church mother" or "supervisor of women", I am in charge of all the women and children in the Church Of God In Christ (C.O.G.I.C.) in the D. R. Congo. Of course, this is far more than I can do effectively even with the help of hundreds of Congolese women.

We decided to have a party for dry bread, peanuts and ONE were six hundred children present, and grateful for what the children. They had vitamins, jellybean, brought from Erie. There quietly waiting till they were served they had received.

During the week that we were in Lubumbashi, I convened the annual assembly of Congolese C.O.G.I.C. women, The Women's Convention. Some women had come from villages as far away as 600 miles; some had walked many miles; all attended service after service with NO food. Approximately 700 women at the convention held in the largest C.O.G.I.C. church there. "Jacob's Well", a cement plastered mud brick building with a floor that was partially cement and partially beaten mud. The women who had come from the interior slept on the floor at night. Crude split logs supported by a few dried mud bricks formed backless benches where the women sat crammed together. Elder Havious Green generously pledge funds to finish cementing the floor and to purchases pews.

Days were spent in Bible teachings, prayer, discussions and praise and worship. Praise and worship services conducted by the Congolese are truly something to experience.

One is caught up in the rhythm of the singing, the deep beat of huge drums ... .... 2 feet in diameter, the melodic wooden xylophones and above all, the shrill uvula- ting cries of the women!

On Sunday after service, we had a farewell feast for the women.

There was rice and nshema and greens cooked with fish. Over 500 women were still present and were fed. All were very happy and felt the love and presence of God.

We lived with the Mayukes and Chug (Elder Kennedy) monitored Mother Mayuke's blood pressure and I , her overall health and diet. We praise God that before we left, we saw remarkable improvement.

We had to have a special permit to enable us to leave the D. R. Congo (naturally!) plus pay an exit tax but this was done with a minimum of confusion. We left with mixed emotions:

1) relief at having successfully completed what we came to do, by the grace of God

but

2) sadness at the terrible situations our brave and dedicated Congolese Christians of all denominations must face every day.

We came home with a renewed determination to do all that we can to help the people of Congo, especially the homeless and hungry children.

IN GENERAL
I feel that we can say that the situation in The Democratic Republic of Congo is critical. The fact that the war is still raging in certain areas, thus disturbing natural food production and displacing families is definitely an extremely negative factor. So also is the fact that many parents are dying from AIDS, leaving orphans to fend for themselves. we saw children 7 of 8 carrying younger children of 2 or 3 on their backs or feeding them at the center. We saw at least one funeral EVERY day while we were in Lubumbashi. The crude wooden casket was balanced on a bicycle or borne by hand by relatives and friends who walked behind a leader carrying a simple cross, singing as they accompanied the body of their beloved.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HELP?
The problems are many and complex. Almost anything will hardly be more than a band-aid on the gaping wound of the Democratic Republic Of Congo, a nation rich in natural wealth (minerals and timber) yet with a population, which is possibly the poorest on the great continent of Africa.

THE HORROR IS STAGGERING!
The country has lost an estimated 2.5 million people to war and starvation!!!

STILL WE MUST TRY
We cannot simply fold our hands, shrug our shoulders and let millions of children suffer and die. We must get additional teams to go in to screen for exophthalmia, even though it is very difficult to get to the country and almost impossible to travel within it. The teams must administer the Vitamin A capsules for prevention and treatment thus saving the sight of millions who would be otherwise doomed to a life of blindness.

WE MUST DO ALL THAT WE CAN DO AND GOD WILL BLESS OUR EFFORTS

FINANCIAL SUPPORT IS NEEDED FOR THE CHILDREN .... PLEASE HELP SAVE THEM PHYSICALLY & SPIRITUALLY!!!!

PROJECT OF CONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOL & ORPHANAGE

FOR

BOYS AND GIRLS

NEEDS and Prices
2 Buildings $100,000.00
225 Storied Beds $9,000.00
450 Mattresses $9,000.00
450 Covers $2,700.00
450 Bed Sheets $2,250.00
450 Plates $450.00
900 Spoons & Forks $450.00
450 Table Knives $450.00
450 Uniform Cloth $4,500.00
1 Kitchen Implements $1,350.00
4 Wash - house implements $1,000.00
TOTAL $ 131,150.00*

* = this doe NOT include the cost for annual maintenance per orphanage (up keep, teachers salaries, etc.) which is $ 20,000.00

"I don't want to be forced to be a prostitute!"

"I don't want to be raped by teen-age soldiers and forced to give them my body!"

"I don't want to be kidnapped, beaten and sold into slavery!"

"I don't want to have to watch my baby brother or sister die of hunger!"

CAN'T YOU HEAR THE UNSPOKEN BUT VERY REAL CRIES OF OUR CONGOLESE ORPHANED CHILDREN? THESE INNOCENT CHILDREN ARE STOLEN, BEATEN, RAPED, SOLD INTO SLAVERY. THEY ARE CRYING TO US FOR HELP. WE ARE DETERMINED, WITH THE HELP OF GOD TO START TWO ORPHANAGES FOR THEM, ONE IN KINSHASA (IN THE WEST) AND ONE IN LUBUMASHI (IN THE EAST).

EACH ORPHANAGE WILL COST APPROXIMATELY $ 50,000.00 TO CONSTRUCT.

WE ARE BEGINNING TO RAISE FUNDS NOW!

JOIN US IN THIS GREAT HUMANITARIAN EFFORT AND HELP START THE FIRST C.O.G.I.C. ORPHANAGE IN CONGO, AFRICA.

GOD WILL REWARD YOU AND SAY..." WELL DONE ........"

WHAT CAN YOU DO?????
Just give $ 10.00 per month and get nine more people to do the same (or give $ 25.00 per month and get three more people to do likewise). This would make $ 100.00 per month.

Make all checks payable to: HOUSE OF PRAYER FOREIGN MISSIONS

Mail to: The Department of Missions MASON TEMPLE 938 Mason Street Memphis, Tennessee 38126

earmarked for "Congo Orphanages"

If we can get 100 churches or individuals who will do the above, we can get two orphanages built THIS YEAR! and save hundreds of Congolese children from possible slavery, prostitution or starvation!

LET GOD SPEAK TO YOUR HEART!