Saying Goodbye to Congo

Having seen what I've seen here in Congo...having met so many people whose lives are in complete chaos...having my heart ripped out by kids living without any parent or family member...having seen the selfless work of pastors and church leaders, trying to show Christ-like compassion without the simplest of resources...having spoken with moms who cannot find their babies...having heard from relief workers who are simply overwhelmed with the numbers of displaced people...

It's almost impossible for me to walk away...to get in a plane and fly home.

Temporary shelters of tarps and twigs holding hungry, confused and terrified people.

People trying their best to disassociate themselves from the fresh memories of civil war and abuse by rebels, government forces, and even peacekeepers.
Silas, poking his head through the only window in a 140 person tent.  

He has no idea where his mom or dad or brothers or sisters are.

Neither does anyone at the camp.

When the rebels came to his village, Silas just ran to the forest and hid.
Driving back to the Rwanda border we met these kids who won't go to an IDP camp.

They feel they are better off on their own.

THE IDP CAMPS outside GOMA, CONGO

One of the biggest reasons I went to DR Congo was to see and hear, first-hand, if what I have been reading about in the western press matched with reality...

• terrified families
• brutalized women
• murdered men
• abused and abandoned children

The stories I have been told, by mothers and fathers and kids I've spoken with, and the pastors who are trying to comfort and assist them...

they are ugly, and vile, and nasty stories of man's inhumanity to man, of unceasing tribal conflict, of the basest of human treatment by fellow human beings.

If you look and listen inside every tent, every shelter, every tarp lean-to...you hear the most sad and sickening stories of a nation torn apart by war...war that is so complex and yet so basically simple that it is staggeringly difficult to wrap my mind around...so I just listen...and pray for the kind of discernment offered by the Lord in James chapter 1.
And look at the thousands of displaced families...

And the little children who should be singing... and playing... and going to school, but instead they are stuck in this hell of a survival existence.

This is their home...this is their village...this is their marketplace...this is their school...this is their church...this is their clinic...this is their security...this is their existence...for how long?

Only God knows.

LIFE IN THE CAMPS

Life in the Refugee Camps outside Goma, Congo seems, to me, to be a blur of endless need, coupled with a certain resignation that this is the way it is going to be, while the various political factions work out their differences and deeds.

I changed this picture from its grim black and white and tried adding some color...as if that might change the subject or tone...but dressing up a bad situation doesn't change a thing...the eyes speak louder than the background colors... 

This little guy was cold and hungry and alone outside his tent. The tent he is assigned to has 140 people living in it and I feel like he just came out here to get away from the set of problems inside the tent. 

When I left the camp he was huddled in the exact same place...in the exact same squatting stupor.

Looking out, but at what? I don't know...

In this tent...where you sit...is where you eat...is where you sleep...is where you live...is where you play...is where you dream, if you can, in all the commotion.
At this camp, OXFAM(www.oxfam.org) supplies the water and gathering the daily water is a task of the children.

IT'S ALWAYS THE KIDS THAT CATCH YOUR HEART

Just walking across this IDP camp is an overwhelming exercise...My mind struggles with trying to envision 'solutions' to the simplest of the problems these kids face...lost or dead parents...disruption of all schooling...fear and insecurity...constant hunger...sickness and disease... 

Blankets and water and toilets certainly help, but the kind of emotional garbage that begins to collect when you have this many thousands of kids just living in survival mode...what about their dreams?...what about their nurturing?...what about their health, inside and out?

I just look at a 2 year old sitting in the mud outside a tattered tarp and grass dwelling and wonder...'who deserves that?'  

Not that all these kids came from the most wonderful settings BEFORE all of this chaos, but at least some of them were with their mom, some of them slept in safety and security, and some of them had enough food to fight a fair fight against hunger and disease...

Some things just shouldn't be.

But if I stay in that place...of 'this isn't fair'...'this isn't right'...then I get close to SHUT DOWN MODE.

We can't solve this mess, but we CAN serve and bring some measure of comfort to these kids.

'Even a cold cup of water in My Name'

ARMS DON'T EQUAL SECURITY

If guns and tanks and soldiers equaled security and safety, Goma might be one of the safest places on the planet right now.

Every other vehicle you pass on the roads into the IDP camps seems to be an armoured vehicle of UN peacekeepers...mostly Indian...or a lorrie transporting government forces or police forces of various loyalties...I feel like I need a program to keep up with who exactly the forces at work here are.

Taking pictures of peacekeeper vehicles was probably not one of the smartest moves I made, (I remember yelling at Jeff Frumm when he was shooting photos of rioters outside of ElDoret during the Kenya chaos earlier this year.)

For all the military presence, people are still terrified...One woman in the Norwegian IDP camp told of being raped by soldiers in her village, then when she was 'rescued' by rebels, she was further abused throughout the night by her rescuers.

While the cease-fire talks continue in Nairobi between Congo military and the  Laurent Nkunda led CNDP, the rebel armies are just 3 kilometers from our IDP camp...just over the ridgeline.  

Our Friends from ALARM CONGO

Our friends from AFRICA LEADERSHIP and RECONCILIATION MINISTRIES (learn about them at ALARM-INC.org ) escorted Stonic and me into a few IDP camps, run by the Norwegian Refugee Council and the United Nations High Commission on Refugees.

I was attempting to see what the response of the church was inside these Congo refugee camps...how Christians were encouraging these terrified displaced victims of the ongoing Congo Civil wars.

What we saw and heard first hand over the next days was disturbing.

There are an estimated 300,000 internally displaced people in the Goma corridor who lack security, basic health care, adequate food and reasonable shelter.

The brutal clashes between the government forces, the rebel forces, and other well-armed militia from neighboring nations has created a nightmare of murder, rape, child abuse, and absolute terror among these eastern Congolese.

Saddleback Church's PEACE RELIEF program has worked with local indigenous church pastors and church leaders in bringing Christian comfort and relief assistance to victims of natural and man-made disasters in Peru, Myanmar, Indonesia, China, Kenya, and in stateside crisis situations from 9/11 to Katrina...from the LA RIOTS to Galveston ...from the Laguna and Crestline fires to this year's Santiago firestorms.

I have, however, not seen or heard anything as complex and brutal as the chaos being visited upon the residents of eastern Congo. 

My permission to pass from Rwanda to Congo.

One tiny slice of the people we will be meeting.

IF YOU'RE GOING TO CONGO...TAKE STONIC!

4 excellent reasons you should take Stonic Koipah with you to Congo.

#1 Any guy who has killed a lion is the guy I want to be with when trouble strikes.

#2 He's Masai...enough said.

#3 I've never seen him flinch under pressure...even once.

#4 The best campfire stories you will ever hear.

Stonic met this young boy on our first day at the Goma IDP camps.

He told Stonic about the horror of being forcibly enlisted as a child soldier, and the terrible things he was made to do to people. It broke Stonic's heart and he never stopped talking and thinking about that kid. 

SISTER FREDA IS COMING TO TEXAS AND CALIFORNIA !!!!

Sister Freda Robinson, the founder and director of a cottage hospital in Kitale, Kenya, is coming to Texas and California in January of 2009 (next month!) to speak with folks about the school for nursing that will be completed during this next year. 

The school for nurses has long been a dream of Freda's as her way to continue the work of caring for the sick and suffering in this region of the Rift Valley. But that dream didn't take flight until a gentleman named John West began praying and talking with Sister Freda and her husband, Richard Robinson about a legacy training site for young nurses in the Tranzoia area of Kenya.

Slowly ('poli-poli' in Swahili) the idea began to take shape and many others began to rally around the concept of Sister Freda 'duplicating' and 'multiplying' her work through training a new generation of nurses at her cottage hospital outside Kitale, Kenya.

DARLENE SALA has written the most wonderful account of Sister Freda's journey called 'HEART of COMPASSION, HANDS OF CARE, which you can find on Harold and Darlene Sala's ministry website...www.GUIDELINES.org   or call 1 (949) 582-5001 and ask how you can get a copy.

It is a wonderfully written book about a wonderful woman of God who does what she can with what she has.

Freda arrives in California around the 10th of January and will be in Texas around the 20th.

Get a few copies and give them to your friends....

To get details about where to meet and greet Freda, email Linda at calllinda2@aol.com

HOLY COW !!!!!

I'm only going to be in Kitale for 3 days ...on my way to Congo...more on THAT later...  

I just have to drop in on one of my favorite cows...donated by Sandy Green's small group for the children at Patricia Sowa's HIV Home, Discover to Recover.  

HERE'S HOW 'HOLY COW' WORKS !!!!

• A person or small group donates $450. to SADDLEBACK CHURCH's HOLY COW designated acct.
• The Holy Cow training team from Deliverance Church, Kitale Kenya, selects a needy family from the community.
• The family builds a simple 'zero-grazing' shed to house and shelter the gift cow.
• The recipient family completes a course, taught by team members from the Department of Agriculture, in raising and caring for this gifted asset.
• The milk cow is awarded, delivered and dedicated.
• The milk from the morning is SOLD and used for income for school fees and materials.
• The milk from the evening milking is fed to the children for calcium, vitamins, protein , and fat.
• After a year the HOLY COW is artificially inseminated by the Agriculture team.
• The first offspring calf goes BACK into the HOLY COW Program and is donated to another family.
• The second and third calf belong to the recipient family, so now they own 3 HOLY COWS.

IN 2004, we started HOLY COW with just one cow donated to Patricia and Frances Sowa, who had been fired from their jobs when it was discovered they were both HIV positive.

Today there are over 150 cows and calves in the program and it continues to grow from the inside out.

Ukraine PEACE Trip May 09

CAROLINE LOSES AN APPENDIX !!!

This tiny red body part sure changed Caroline's weekend plans.

FRIDAY PM...Caroline tells Connie her tummy hurts...things start happening...Saturday tests at Saddleback Memorial...inconclusive...Saturday PM...a CT SCAN confirms...APPENDICITIS...

SUDOKU on PAINKILLERS...better wear a seatbelt

Flowers from the Hamers

PLEASE !!! No Papparazzi in the ER !!!

Connie and I are grateful that Caroline was back from Africa before this happened

Sunday Morning...APPENDIX GONE and things are starting to get better.

YAHTZEE !!!!!!

WHEN YOU SEE THOSE FACES...

When I walk into a church in the Kipsongo slums and see 200 little faces looking back...

When I realize that they will struggle their whole lives with illness we'll never know...

When I see there is NO ONE to take them to the district hospital...

When I see that even if they found a doctor, they have no way to pay for the meds they need...

When I see the effects of malaria and cholera and worms and parasites and HIV...

When a meal of rice and beans and ugali does so much to cancel malnutrition...

When I see the huge results of a mobile medical clinic...

I am forced to  ask myself...

How can I just walk away and not do something?

For me that SOMETHING is helping with Sister Freda's Mobile Medical Clinics.

We just purchased a used Land Cruiser from simple gifts.

We just bought life-saving meds with simple gifts.

We just de-wormed over 2,000 kids with simple gifts.

We just bought hundreds of blankets and cooking pots and cups with simple gifts.

Simple gifts go a long way...don't get me wrong...if you want to give some huge gift, I think that's ok, but most of the folks I know are simple gifts kind of folks...not 'what am I gonna do with this extra $200,000.?'  kind of folks.

Actually a few folks giving a simple gift works out just fine.

Two ways to give to a Mobile Medical Clinic for Sister Freda...

#1 If you go to Saddleback Church... write an offering to 'SVCC' and designate that you want it to go Sister Freda Fund. Send it Saddleback Church, 1 Saddleback Parkway, Lake Forest CA 92630

#2 If you don't give through Saddleback...give through:

 'Reaching Beyond Ourselves' 

21961 Calatrava Dr.

Mission Viejo, CA 92692

 It's an all volunteer group and it ALL goes to the work.

There's no gift too simple or too small.

Sugar Rae...made my day!!!

Some Random thoughts on the birth of Raegan Lynn Rutenbar

1. The amazing team of cousins and grandkids, Harper and Lukey, has added a new fantasy draft pick to it's DREAM TEAM.
2. This picture of Courtney and Kyle and Rae Rae makes my jaws sore from smiling so big. (go to www.maryrosenbaum.com/raegan to see more and a video that will make your bitterest, angry uncle cry ...it'll make your dog cry !!)
3. Kaiser Hospital Irvine is a sweet hospital...but they need a larger waiting room for these Woodstock-like events.
4.  After months of speculation over what this baby would look like...the results are IN...the DORMAN genetic pool overwhelmed the Rutenbar DNA and this little RAEGAN is a beautifully complete copy of baby Courtney 22 years ago. 
5. They should bottle and market the smell of newborn baby...
6. Seeing Connie hold and kiss Reagan reminds me why I love her.
7. Courtney was so calm and collected...which shouldn't surprise me, but amazes me.
8. Seeing all of Kyle and Court's friends gather to celebrate Raegan's birth makes me so happy for them all...there's alot of community and shared joy in all our lives and that's the way God planned it.
9. Playing cards with Bumper in the waiting room takes me back to distant Ukraine bus and train rides with the Dormans.
10. If baby's could pick parents...Rae Rae couldn't pick any better and loving and fun parents than Kyle and Court.
11. Lord Jesus...Bless this little gift and help all of us encourage her along the Path.

        I John 1:7  'If we walk in the LIGHT... we have fellowship...'

4 GIRLS...and ONE AWESOME GUY

There are five terrific kids from Saddleback who are living in Kitale, Kenya today.

Teaching and encouraging and ministering at:

• OASIS of HOPE  Street Kid Outreach
• Gilgal Secondary School
• Deliverance Church
• Sister Freda's Cottage Hospital
• Purpose Driven Academy
• and Discover to Recover HIV/AIDS Center   
  

Allison is one of the very best examples of a Christian who has moved from an 'awakening' PEACE experience to becoming a true 'advocate' for the sick, the poor, and the hurting. 

Daina's heart for people is so evident...from the moment she walks into an orphanage or a church or a hospital...she goes right after relationship. 

Is Megan a journalist because she asks GREAT QUESTIONS? Or does she ask great questions because she has the heart and skills of a journalist? She dives into ministry by seeking out the truth and the facts and the background. 

Caroline could care less if she EVER is on stage or up front or in the limelight...in fact, she prefers to lead quietly from the middle of the pack...by example, not word.

 

Chris will do ANYTHING, ANY TIME, ANYWHERE...to help share the GOOD NEWS of GOD'S LOVE. I admire his humor and his energy for ministry.

We're not here to SOLVE! We're here to SERVE !

As Don Thompson spoke to a church in a Bukusu slum during a community assessment day...his t-shirt gave me reason to flash back to Hurricane Katrina and the hundreds of servant-hearted Saddleback folks who spread out along the Gulf Coast during the past 3 years. Our teams have blessed over 150 churches and pastors through PEACE RELIEF. And in the process hundreds of abiding friendships have emerged. 

The problems at hand were absolutely overwhelming, but because we reminded ourselves daily that our role was to serve not solve...it relieved the anxiety that comes from trying to 'fix the unfixable'.

 

Don, a retired fire chief, and his family, are shining examples to our church and our worldwide friends that by showing up...in Mt. Elgon, in Slidell, Louisiana, or in Burma...the most wonderful things happen in the most devastated places. 

Matthew 16:24 

FEEDING PROGRAM at KIPSONGO

When you enter the broken backdoor at Pastor John’s Caanon Church in Kipsongo Slums, you immediately are greeted by 200 + tiny chocolate faces.

The number of kids is deceiving because, frankly, they are so very little and only take up a few rows in the wood and mud building. Then you start counting...

The daily feeding program supplies 2 meals for kids between 1 and 3 years of age and in most cases it is the ONLY food they will ever see.

Their moms are nowhere to be found…maybe scavenging for something of some worth in the dump…maybe drinking ‘changa’, the local brew…maybe worse…much worse.

Their dads, if they were EVER around, are long gone…off to Lodwar…off to town…just off…permanently off.

We brought two 90 kilo bags of maize and beans…a good mix of carbs and protein…along with cooking oil and ugali, a Kenya staple, sugar and rice for future days.

Allison, Caroline, Chris, Daina, and Megan jumped right in and began serving…and cuddling…and hanging with these very sweet kids.

Not one bean or kernel of maize remained an hour later…

No ‘finnecky’ eaters in this group.

I like feeding kids…they are so dang happy to be with you and so grateful for whatever comes their way.

“For I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me water…”

Matthew 25:35