07348
June 12, 2007

Complex Congo

Empowering Congolese Presbyterians to be self-reliant is huge task, given tragic history, few resources

by Toya Richards Hill

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO – A thick, sticky heat enveloped the Presbyterians as they emerged after flying day and night to step foot on this rich, yet traumatized soil.

     It surely must have been the same sweltering heat that met Presbyterian missionaries William Sheppard and Samuel Lapsley upon their arrival in the Central African nation in the late 1880s.

     Like the sun’s rays in this equatorial region, everything about the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) seems more intense. Over the years, unfortunately that intensity has included violence, corruption, victimization and unspeakable poverty, just to name a few.

     One of Congo’s most brutal periods came in the late 1800s during the occupation of Belgium’s King Leopold II, who ruled the country as his personal domain, severely exploiting and brutalizing the Congolese people while raping the nation of its rich natural resources.

     The visitors from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) arrived in the capital city of Kinshasa in early May to view the Congo’s intensity through the lens of church-sponsored programs and partnerships here.

The streets in Congo’s capital city of Kinshasa, which vividly show signs of war and decay, are full of people trying to make a living any way possible. Photo by Toya Richards Hill

     The delegation included representatives from the Medical Benevolence Foundation (MBF), a validated mission support group of the PC(USA); Presbyterian Women (PW) and the PC(USA)’s office of International Health Ministries (IHM).

     Presbyterians have had a presence in the DRC – later called Zaire, and then changed back to the Democratic Republic of Congo as it is today – for more than 100 years. Sheppard and Lapsley led the charge, and eventually hundreds of missionaries helped run more than 10 mission stations, anchored mainly by hospitals.

     Today only a skeleton crew remains, and the emphasis is on empowering Congolese Presbyterians to care for and provide spiritual nurture to a nation of people who have been wracked by ongoing war and poverty on a massive scale.

     Since Congo’s independence in 1960, the country has faced constant upheaval and political rebellions as ill-equipped and corrupt leaders have attempted to govern, most notably dictator Joseph Mobutu, who held power from the mid 1960s to the late 1990s.

     Ethnic battles spilling over from the neighboring Rwandan Hutu-Tutsi wars only compounded the violence and struggle for power in the DRC.

     Given that as the backdrop, the mission to build up and empower Presbyterians here has been a tall order.

     Lack of education and training, high turnover or an exodus out of the country of those capable of enacting change, a donor dependence that stems back centuries, and the sheer difficulty of maneuvering around a country one-quarter the size of the United States have made sustainable progress difficult.

     “Everything is complicated here,” said Larry Streshley, a PC(USA) mission co-worker based in Congo. “You’re just fighting against everything you do.”

PC(USA) Mission Co-worker Larry Streshley (center) believes training is essential in building up the people of Congo. Photo by Toya Richards Hill

     At the same time, the PC(USA) has been struggling in the area of world mission, with fewer dollars available to support those out in the field and more members, congregations and presbyteries opting to do mission themselves rather than work through the national church.

     “We’ve lost a lot of our capacity,” said the Rev. Bob Ellis, coordinator of IHM. “It’s becoming more difficult to mobilize ongoing support.”

A view from Lubondai

     The situation, needless to say, is complex. And the intricacies hit home even more from an on-the-ground vantage point.

     Take, for example, Lubondai, where Presbyterians established a mission station in 1925. Situated in the interior, isolated Kasai region, the station and its surrounding area are a vast land with limited access to decent roads or water safe enough to drink without boiling first.

     Electricity is a luxury, and only if a generator is on hand – and working.

     “There is definite remoteness,” said Dr. Chip Lambert, outreach coordinator for MBF. “You get a sense of their survival – as painful and as bad as it is.”

     Lambert was with the Presbyterians as they arrived in Lubondai on a tiny airplane operated by Mission Aviation Fellowship. The mission station, whose landing strip is a swath of hacked-down grass, doesn’t get guests often, and certainly not by plane.

     A host of people circled the group, singing, hugging and shaking hands. And children – literally hundreds of them – were everywhere.

     The centerpiece of the mission station is the 80-bed Lubondai Hospital, which at one time was a hearty operation supported by scores of missionaries living on site, including Streshley’s own parents.

     Today, two Congolese doctors run the place, where patients lie on dirty mattresses in rooms where the paint chips easily off the walls. “It’s been hard to keep a doctor here,” said Streshley.

     The hospital has the ability to do general surgery, and the doctors say the most common ailments they treat include malaria, tuberculosis and dysentery.

Patients like this man are among those who seek care at Lubondai Hospital.  Photo by Toya Richards Hill

     Streshley noted that the facility is under-used because there are few people nearby and “this is a very poor area.”

     Seventy-five patients were seen and 12 operations were performed in April, the doctors said.

     On the day the PC(USA) visitors toured, there was much ado about an unusable well. Though the well is dug and a generator installed to power a pump, no water flows three years after the project began with money from MBF and other Presbyterians.

     The well’s pump is incomplete, and the doctors said the firm hired to do the work shut down its local operation and moved three hours away. Streshley, who was already familiar with the problem, said he would intervene to try and resolve the issue.

Long-term training essential

     Lubondai is not unique. Frustration was apparent everywhere the Presbyterian delegation visited, and residents greeted them with laundry lists of things that needed attention. Yet Ellis and others say the denomination is limited in what it can do without stepping outside its appropriate role.

     The situation is a Catch 22 of sorts.

     Limited mission resources and the tenets of effective capacity building necessitate that the PC(USA) maintain a supportive, and not authoritative, role in Congo and other mission fields.

     Yet the Congolese desperately need help, and have never been fully equipped to be self-reliant. For example, even writing comprehensive, detailed grant requests to obtain aid is difficult.

     The key is “helping people to help themselves,” said the Rev. Marcel Tshibemba Tshimpaka, legal representative with the Presbyterian Community of Congo (CPC). Also, “changing the mentality.”

     “It involves a lot of training,” and over a long period of time, said Streshley, a veteran missionary who currently operates a multi-million-dollar health program in partnership with the DRC government.

     “What I’ve done is try to create this whole team of Congolese who are competent,” he said. 

     The end result is people like Medi Kanda, director of Prodek, a community-based development program of the CPC.

Villagers at Lake Munkamba surround Medi Kanda, director of the community-based development program Prodek. Photo by Toya Richards Hill

     His program works to battle poverty and increase agriculture production through a mixture of more than 130 community farming associations and Prodek’s own growing fields.

     Two of the crops Congolese are producing via Prodek are imported dwarf palm trees — a more improved variety over what has traditionally grown in Congo and from which palm oil is produced — and Acacia, from which charcoal is made.

     Women, often marginalized in Congolese society, are leaders in Prodek operations. “Prodek has a philosophy of integrating women totally,” Kanda said, adding that the women also are involved in income-generating efforts such as sewing and soapmaking.

     “There’s a lot of hope within the community,” Kanda told the PC(USA) visitors in a meeting just off the banks of Lake Munkamba. “We want the work that was done by the missionaries … to continue to bear fruit.”

     Many of the mission stations are almost dead now, and “it’s difficult to know what to do,” he said. “So it’s important that we exchange together.”

     Support from PC(USA) for Prodek includes money both from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) and Presbyterian Women.

     “Medi has the heart to change the community,” said Streshley, who has worked with Kanda for years and counts him as a friend.

     Kanda, who has worked with the church since 1981 and whose father did too, has had many offers to do other things. Yet for more than 20 years he’s remained in Congo in order “to leave something behind,” he said.