Christmas 2004

For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:11

C’est aujourd’hui, dans la ville de David, il vous est né un Saveur, qui est le Christ, le Seigneur.
Luc 2:11

Lelu bakunulelela Musungidi mu musoko wa Davidi, yeye udi Kilisto Mukelenge.
Luka 2:11

This month in Tshikaji we come together in love to celebrate the blessed birth of our Lord Jesus Christ in three languages: English, French, and Tshiluba. On Christmas Day we will sing, along with several church choirs, praises of adoration and gratitude for the great gift of our Savior. The church service will last several hours and will be followed by some with the sharing of an afternoon meal. Most will not eat until the late evening meal, as they are too poor to afford an “extra” meal on Christmas Day. There will be no gift exchanges, as the Congolese are too poor to purchase gifts.

It has been very challenging to keep the babies healthy and growing, since they are quite fragile and susceptible to infection. In the hospital, they have been receiving expensive artificial milk by a feeding tube every three hours while also encouraging them to breastfeed. We pray that the babies will stay healthy and continue to grow well (today they each weigh over four pounds), and hope to transfer them to the nutrition rehabilitation center in a few weeks, where they will be cared for until they are big enough to be safely discharged to home.

Madilu and her triplets represent an absolute poverty case. Their hospital bills and nutrition center care will all be paid for through donations that have been sent by individuals and congregations to PC(USA) or Medical Benevolence Foundation (MBF) in support of the mission efforts in Tshikaji. We feel profound gratitude for all of our U.S. church partners in mission. We say to you “tuasakidila wa bunyi,” thank you so much, for your gifts of love and kindness, without which God’s work here would not be possible.

December also marks our third anniversary serving in Tshikaji. With each passing day our deep love and respect for our dear Congolese brothers and sisters continue to grow. There have been many exciting changes since we arrived in Tshikaji: increased medical education and high risk obstetric patient management, improved obstetric fistula care, a new village health center, increased primary school attendance, four new village clean water sources, new efforts at malnutrition prevention and treatment (moringa tree project), agricultural development programs, gender equality programs, and others. For all these wonderful gifts, we say “thanks be to God,” as they all represent God’s loving and caring hand reaching out to help ease the daily suffering of His Congolese children.

We want to wish all of you a very blessed Christmas and joyous New Year! Please pray in earnest for peace in the world, and also for peace in our region of east DR Congo where there is a renewed threat of war.

God Bless You All,

Nancy and Mike

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 318