March 8, 2007

Dear Friends,

Returning to our home in Tshikaji has been a wonderful gift from God. We met many old friends, got up to speed on developments in Congo, and once again experienced the difficulty of just about everything. For any who wonder why things are so difficult, we suggest King Leopold’s Ghost and In the footsteps of Mr. Kurtz. These two books, historical novels, tell the story of 500 years of oppression. Today we have an emerging democracy that is still very dysfunctional and corrupt. Hopefully, a true hero will emerge to lead this bountiful nation.

After five weeks in Kinshasa waiting for our missionary visas to be renewed, we finally got to fly to our home in Tshikaji at the Good Shepherd Hospital. Each one of the 17 days that we were able to spend in Tshikaji was filled with warm welcomes. People would come to our home to pray and sing and share old stories. They were interested in Mike’s health and strength. They had prayed mightily for his recovery and return and there was true joy in each of the greetings. “Dieu est grand” “God is Great” These words were repeated many times. The church is alive, and there is true love.

We were limited in our time in Tshikaji due to the necessity of our return to the States for Mike’s next post treatment check-ups in mid March. The time in Kinshasa was not wasted, because Kinshasa is where all the health-and-development movers and shakers live and where organizational decisions are made. Nancy went right to work on the moringa malnutrition project. A good groundwork was established for coordination of this initiative in three areas of Congo: Kinshasa, Tshikaji and Mbuji Mayi. This could be a program that can expand to address malnutrition nationwide. In Kinshasa, we also met with leaders of other health-related NGOs working on women and children’s initiatives in Congo.

In Tshikaji, our feet hit the ground running. Nancy met with leaders and participants in each of the community health and development projects to evaluate the projects’ activities for 2006 and plan for the remainder of 2007. The reports were exciting and heartwarming. While the Congolese partners demonstrated great happiness that we had returned, we are so fortune in having found many great leaders among the Congolese who have continued and enlarged these initiatives. All project ideas were their ideas, their initiatives, and they have truly taken ownership and are committed to solve their most pressing problems. Later, we will elaborate, but we wanted to give a general impression.

Mike was immediately pressed into service for complex cases as well as non-medical needs of the institution. We couldn’t communicate, as the Internet was down except for one computer. Although we have a small satellite dish that Internet service, a horrendous virus and some hardware malfunctions rendered all but this one computer useless. Mike and a local priest, Fr. Leopold, spent many days putting things back in order.

Good Shepherd Hospital continues to be a major educational center, with 84 nursing and lab students, 15 medical students doing their final year of clinical rotation, 4 medical residents, and 5 doctors receiving additional training experience. Having an Internet connection is a vital source of current medical research, so restoring this was a priority.

The idea of having resources locked in our house had haunted us during our time in the States while Mike underwent treatment for cancer, so it was a priority for us to distribute things to the community. When we left in 2005, we had schools supplies, baby clothes, soccer balls, medical supplies, and books stored for gradual distribution. A lesson learned by Mike’s unexpected illness is that nothing that is needed by others should be left sitting. We gave these materials to the community, and there are a lot of happy mothers with beautiful clothes for their kids, kids with pens and notebooks, churches with soccer balls for their teams, and a good library in obstetrics and gynecology. This is a good beginning.

While working with the business office, we discovered improvements in accounting and bookkeeping and a lot of overspending in one area. We had received donations to pay for the surgical repair of obstetric fistulas. (We have written about this before.) Good Shepherd Hospital is now recognized as the hospital of reference in central Congo for victims of sexual violence and fistula. Women who suffer fistula here are outcast, rejected by their husbands and families, and impoverished. Their only hope of returning to society is to have their fistula surgically repaired. Since 2004, donations from generous congregations have allowed us to initiate a program of repair, and it has drawn many more cases than we had funds to cover. The institution has continued to provide free care in spite of its financial impact. They cannot survive economically and provide free care. This is a moral question which we must address. We have some of the most vulnerable women in the world in need. Too often we speak of limited resources. Do you think Jesus would agree that our resources are limited and that we cannot serve all in need? We are asking you to help with funding to continue to repair fistulas and allow women to re-enter their society with dignity. The average cost for one surgery is $150. Contact us for instructions on how to give.

Thank you all for your support through a trying time. Your support has allowed us to return to Congo and to continue on the loving path that Jesus lived and preached, providing hope and help for the suffering of the poor.

Mike and Nancy Haninger

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 313