November 18, 2001

Dear Family, Friends and Mission Associates,

"The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye and it looks like…." Some of the Kasai food shortages will soon be over, as a bumper crop of
corn is about to be harvested from the women’s household gardens.

Our home is a small bungalow with a spacious lawn with scattered
mango, guava, banana, and flamboyant trees. The surrounding
countryside as far as the eye can see from our verandah is a wide,
rolling savannah with five-foot-high green grass.

People live on the tops of the hills in village clusters of mud or brick
houses with thatched or metal roofs. Most of the village people have
gardens, a few chickens, a goat, and many children. They fetch their
water from the rivers in the ravines that wind between the hills. All
these villages are connected by deeply gullied but well-used
footpaths. An occasional supply truck, mission vehicle, or motorbike passes by on our road connecting Tshikaji to the other villages and
to Kananga, the provincial capital some eight miles distant.

The foot traffic on our road is interesting and colorful. There are women and children carrying heavy loads on their heads, and often also
a baby on their backs, walking to and from the local markets to sell and buy garden produce. Children are on their way to and from
school, pastors and elders with Bibles in hand are visiting their parishes, men are pushing bicycles laden with sacks of charcoal, manioc,
corn, salt, and lumber. And there are the ubiquitous chickens, guinea hens, and goats scurrying about.

Late this afternoon, as I returned along this road from my rounds at the hospital, a barefoot woman dressed in colorful cloth passed
gracefully by me with a large heavy tub of pineapples balanced carefully on her head. She was singing a lilting Tshiluba song quietly to
herself in rhythm with her smooth swinging gait. "Malukai, Docteur!" "Malu bimpe, Mama! Anu wewe? Eho, nji bimpe" were our gentle
Tshiluba greetings. So natural and peaceful here with no noise from machines, no litter strewn about on the path, no traffic lights, air
pollution; nice cool soft sand from the recent rains for her feet, many clouds shading her intermittently from the sun, a fresh cool breeze,
and a grand vista for the eyes to feast on. Such a gift she had given me in her gracious and friendly greeting! What a contrast from the
sadness and difficulties I had just been wrestling with at the hospital.

Sometimes, in the morning, I feel like Don Quixote donning my armor of hope and prayer, mounting my faithful steed and sallying forth to
attack the windmill! The motivations seem honorable, but in the evening, the results bewildering.

The most difficult challenge for me is finding that the IMCK Congolese administration and staff have different ideas, interests, and
priorities than what I had anticipated. I haven’t yet been able to incorporate my own vision, mission, and strategic plan with theirs. But
before I become too critical of them, I must say the school, hospital, and clinics are functioning despite a very dysfunctional and difficult
environment. We are "Christian mission partners" in this complicated function, are we not? Don’t we have a partner’s obligation to make
a serious combined effort here? It’s important for the IMCK Board of Directors, the Congolese Church, and the PC(USA) to examine
and clarify each of the partner motivations, intentions, and commitments for our future together. I fear continuing as we are without this
will lead to further decline and decay in the quality of education and the care of patients.

At the same time, we are trying to remain aware of our own limitations and inadequacies as temporary invited guests. Helping the people here to find realistic and appropriate ways of addressing the scourges of extreme poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB has been particularly elusive.

Last Saturday, I was surprised and pleased when my medical resident, Dr. Kabamba John, chose to present to the medical staff an informational questionnaire and lab order form to be filled out by doctors and nurses when ordering the HIV/AIDS test. I had suggested this approach and presented it to the doctors in an educational effort several months ago. There was little interest at that time. With Dr. Kabamba’s excellent presentation and persuasive explanations for the new form, a very positive and enthusiastic discussion followed. The staff adopted it and the patient advised consent form is now going to be used routinely.

A few years ago in Oregon I attempted to reforest some mountain property that had been neglected after being clear-cut years before. I worked hard to replant it with trees. I then made efforts to protect and nurture them. My anticipation of what my efforts would accomplish was soon tempered and whittled away by the realities of hot sun, drought, gophers and competing vegetation. The survival rate after two years was poor and very discouraging.

Today I find myself again planting, planting health care information, asking challenging questions, offering new ideas, demonstrating alternative models for health care delivery. In short, we are trying to create appealing Christian incentives in the minds of students and staff, hoping to improve ways of caring for themselves and their neighbors.

God does not expect us to reproduce His beautiful forests, but I believe he is pleased if we help Him plant some of the seeds and take an interest in nurturing what he loves.

To paraphrase 1 Corinthians 3:5-8,

‘....and what are we? Only servants...as God has assigned to each his task. One plants the seed, another one waters it, but God makes it grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have a purpose, but neither the one who plants, nor the one who waters is really accomplishing anything important, but only God, who makes things grow.’

Our love and wishes for peace to you all at Christmas and for the New Year,

Bill and Sue Sager

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 31