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Democratic Republic of the Congo
 These Presbyterian youth stand in front of the new home that they built for MamuTshiela (center).
One day while walking through the village of Tshikaji, mission co-worker Nancy Haninger was asked to visit the home of MamuTshiela. She is a widow, blind from cataracts and living in a crumbling hut. During a great thunderstorm, a wall of her home fell on her. Without any family she was totally alone, dependent on intermittent charity from neighbors for food. Nancy arranged a consultation with Dr. Roget, the ophthalmologist at Tshikaji’s Good Shepherd Hospital. He agreed to perform cataract surgery on MamuTshiela. Nancy writes, “You cannot imagine the joy of this woman when she regained her sight! She best expressed it in saying that she could now do the thing that she missed the most — walk to church and join the other Presbyterian women in the choir!”
Still, she had no means of fixing her house. The village Presbyterian church responded by organizing a group of youth who, though desperately poor themselves, went to work and constructed a new home for her. With funds from Presbyterians in the United States the house was upgraded to include a solid door, windows that closed, and a roof that didn’t leak. Nancy and Mike Haninger write that the idea of Habitat for Humanity was conceived and first tested in Congo, one of the poorest countries in the entire world. They remind us that we can learn much about love from the actions of those lacking even the essentials of life themselves, who behave as the old widow in Mark 12:42–44.
PC(USA) People in Mission
Presbyterian Community in Congo: Dr. Michael Haninger, obstetrician/ gynecologist, physician, Nancy Haninger, certified nurse midwife, Inge Sthreshley, team ministry, Dr. Lawrence Sthreshley, health consultant in Africa
Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa: Valerie Shepard, team ministry, Rev. Walt Shepard, Jr., theological college consultant/pastor
PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Rev. Vernon Broyles, OGA
Deborah Bruce, GAMC
Our most loving God, we are grateful to you for the love that you show to us, providing the example for us to follow in taking care of the needs of old widows. Help us to fully embrace your will with no expectation but to serve you. Amen.
Ps. 63, 149 Ps. 125, 90
Isa. 56:1–8
Gal. 5:25–6:10; Mark 9:14–29
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