July 2004

Dear Friends,

The last couple of months have been quite busy for us in a different sort of way with the visits of many groups from the United States and the 50th anniversary celebration of our partner institution, the IMCK (the Christian Medical Institute of the Kasai). In previous years, except for one visit from a group representing the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley, the only visitors have been former missionaries and representatives of PC(USA).

This year has been quite different with the visits of several groups and individuals beginning with a group composed of Walter and Nancy Hull, Birch Rambo, and Melissa Lowe, who were here when we arrived. Walter, Nancy and Birch served here (Walter an obstetrician and gynecologist, Birch a general surgeon, and Nancy as business manager). Melissa Lowe came as an obstetrician and gynecologist resident from the Ohio State University where Walter works.

We also had visits from Woody Collins and Mike Meltzer, members of a Presbyterian church in Indiana who have made several trips here in support of Bulape hospital; a group from New Castle Presbytery in Deleware (the Reverend Stephen Hundley, the Reverend Laurie Loveless, Irene Witoski, Nancy Boyer and Dennison Hatch) working to help establish a cultivation project with Presbyterian churches in the city of Kananga; another contingent from Sheppards and Lapsley Presbytery consisting of the Reverend Terry Newland, the Reverend Wayne Bruchey, the Reverend Dr. Richard S. Dietrich, the Reverend James Ephraim and Elders Debbie Feagin, Marie Craig, Lydia Wifong, and Dean Vandergrift. They were doing the groundwork for establishing a partnership between their presbytery and two presbyteries in our area.

The Rules brought the Reverend Chemwemwe and Linda Mhango for the 50th anniversary celebration, and they also visited Bulape and Lubondayi. A group from Myers Park Presbyterian Church, which has contributed generously to the mission here as well as to primary education, was composed of Dr. Bill Bradley, Fay Walters Grasty, Anne Shankle Wright, Elizabeth Ann Gaither, Barbara Walker, Jan Carol Post Stubblefield. They came to see firsthand the schools, clinics, and churches. We all visited Lubondayi together. A group comprised of Beth McKee-Huger, her husband Ray, Katherine McKee Sthreshley, and Marianne Seabrooke-Huger visited old friends and familiar places. (Those of you familiar with Congo will recognize family names, as there were generations of missionary children in this group.) Finally, two people came to work for about six weeks each—John Clark, a college student from North Carolina doing an internship in mission, and Dr. John Martens, who brought his family, a Mennonite general surgeon who was born in Congo of missionary parents and who has served in medical mission in Cambodia.

We realize that this reads somewhat like 1 Chronicles in the litany of names (not too many sermons preached on those verses) but these folks have brought back many memories and new hope to a land and people living so long in despair, and struggling to survive, to simply live!

We could write volumes on the good times we have had with all of our friends here, both Congolese and American, but want to focus, in particular, on the 50th anniversary. The Presbyterian Church has been in mission here in the Congo since 1891 with the arrival of the Reverend Dr. William Sheppard and the Reverend Samuel Lapsley. Part of that mission included building churches, hospitals, and schools. All of these were combined in a mission station, Lubondayi, where IMCK had its beginnings, in 1954, when nursing and dental schools were opened. The nursing school moved to its current site in Tshikaji, and the Good Shepherd hospital was founded soon after, providing education to graduates of the nursing school and also, now, providing training and employment to medical technicians, medical students, and young physicians in a family practice residency program.

The village of Tshikaji has grown up next to the institution, which is truly a one-of-a-kind place charged with the mission of providing high-quality education to all of its students by and with the delivery of high-quality health care to people in the surrounding area and, in reality, the entire province. The institution was built with a great spirit of partnership and sharing and has continued to function throughout bad times and worse. Despite the civil war, the IMCK has never closed its doors.

It was a grand celebration made even more festive by the presence of dignitaries from the church, state, former missionaries and their families, institution workers, and local people all coming together in witness to faith in Jesus Christ thanking Him and you for making this possible. It is impossible in a letter to give you the intense feelings that these visits and the celebration have provoked. These are feelings of hope. This is a land and a people so long abused by so many. Other lands are in the news for their strategic oil, terrorism, etc., and this land should be included in the minds, hearts, and prayers of all. Congo has suffered for over 500 years, having been the source of slaves, ivory, rubber, diamonds and other minerals that the developed, industrialized world needed and wanted. These resources were here for the taking, and others took them without leaving anything but destruction and despair. There is hope again!

From the Congo,

Mike and Nancy