May 19, 2004

Dear Friends,

We would like to introduce you to two of your beautiful sisters in the Congo. Their stories are similar but each illuminates a different aspect of mission. These two ladies are Madia Katengu and Kapinga Kankonde.

Madia

Madia, dressed in the American Eagle shirt and wearing earrings in the photo, came to Nancy’s prenatal clinic some two years ago with a belly very distended, as in a term pregnancy, but she was so weak she could hardly walk. Nancy recognized that this was not a pregnancy and sent for Mike. They examined her together, concluded that it was a cardiac problem, and referred her to Dr. Bill Sager, an internist serving as a Presbyterian missionary at that time at Good Shepherd Hospital.

Bill diagnosed aortic stenosis, a tightening of a valve in the heart due to rheumatic fever. Bill started her on medicines, and she gradually improved. She was too weak to grow food for herself, so her neighbors in the distant village where she lived helped her. We invited her to participate in a project of used clothing sales. With this help, Madia was able to support herself and has continued to blossom.

Kapinga

Kapinga came to our emergency room from Muamba Mbui. She also came with a distended belly that looked at first like a term pregnancy. Mike first saw her and recognized immediately that her problem was, most likely, an advanced cancer. She had been operated elsewhere, three months before, and a “tumor” removed that she was told would cure her problem. The swelling in her belly returned rapidly. She was desperate, saying that she had sold all that she had to come to have the tumor removed. Hoping, as any human being, but doubting as a doctor, to find something treatable, such as tuberculosis, Mike took her to surgery and, under only local anesthesia, as she was too weak to tolerate other anesthesia, opened her belly to find a horrible and untreatable cancer. The following day she slept for the first time in days thanks to some valium Mike prescribed. Talking to her through a translator (since she only speaks Tshiluba) Mike told her the truth. In this culture, it is difficult to tell people that they cannot be cured of their disease and will die of it. She immediately asked if she was going to die and was told yes.

We drove her for an hour and a half out into the bush to her village home. When we stopped at her house she began to cry. She had not wanted to die alone in the hospital, and now she was home with her family, a huge crowd. They listened to her needs and our explanations and demonstrated that they cared deeply for her. We were thanked for what we could do and we prayed together. There was no end to the tears as we returned to our home. Your generous donations were used to pay her hospital bill allowing the family some money to help care for her in her remaining days.

What is mission? Sometimes we are blessed in helping to save a life but always we are blessed in the opportunities that God puts before us to share our love.

From the Congo,

Mike and Nancy