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CEUM Leaders Seek to Move Forward Despite Hardships
UBANGI, CONGO (July 19, 2001) - The death of a president, economic and medical
struggles and numerous acts of violence give many the impression that all is lost in Congo.
But, the 155,000 people comprising the Covenant Church in Congo (more commonly known as
the CEUM) have helped solidify the northwest part of the country. Recent meetings involving CEUM leaders give at least one administrator hope that better times are ahead for the Congo church.
Jim Gustafson, executive minister of the Department of World Mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), traveled to Gemena and Karawa for the CEUM leadership meetings. He reports that leadership has held together despite the recent months of chaos in the nation.
"The hope in the Congo is in the church and how they can meet the needs of the people in the Ubangi area," said Gustafson following the seventh meeting of CEUM leaders in two years. "The issues now are how we can maintain sustainability and how we can move forward as a church after all of the devastation. They were good meetings - there were no problems along the way - and this is a vibrant church."
Gustafson said CEUM has developed solid leadership, noting the lack of adequate financial resources to fund projects will make future progress difficult. When Covenant missionaries were in the area (prior to the 1997 evacuation), they maintained financial links to churches and parachurch organizations, as well as various other agencies capable of providing resources. Since the departure of the onsite missionaries, those links have disappeared.
"Basically, there was no government there and the church did everything, from education to hospitals," said Gustafson. "How does that continue when it takes so much money to run that kind of infrastructure? Those are the kinds of questions they're asking. And the question is how
to proceed with them (in leadership at the Department of World Mission) and enable them to do it themselves, in ways that are specifically African."
Although financial resources are not as plentiful as in previous years, the leadership base is solid, Gustafson said, citing examples like CEUM President Luyada Gbuda, Vice President Nubea Mbote and Pastor Fohle, director of the cabinet, among others. Leadership is excited about doing ministry to people in Congo and neighboring areas, Gustafson said. In the midst of political conflict last year, approximately 1,000 leaders attended a mission conference, he noted, stating that CEUM wants to send missionaries to Sudan and Kenya, among other places.
"Pastor Fohle is the missiologist and ministry person of the group, President Luyada is the strategist and is very wise, and Vice President Nubea is the oldest in the group and has a long history of evangelism in the Congo," said Gustafson. "This group is united, but the church council (more than a dozen people) has been restructured and we're dealing with a brand new group of people who are heads of departments. They are moving forward, but there is lots to do."
Gustafson and others have discussed two specific areas of need: an improved transportation infrastructure and medical services.
Poor roads in the area keep trucks from reaching supply sites, according to Keith Gustafson, World Mission country coordinator for Congo. "Bad roads keep trucks from coming to buy the crops grown," he said. "People are cash poor, but have food. Lack of cash means few clothes and delayed medical care. Roads are lined with young men pushing bicycles loaded with over 200 pounds of coffee or other cash crops. But after pushing a bike for up to 300 miles, the
profit is often less than a few dollars."
The Congolese hope they may have gained improved trade access following the United Nations Security Council declaration that the 2,720-mile Congo River is open to commercial traffic following two years of war (according to an Associated Press report). Some consider the Congo River "the spinal column of the nation" because of its transportation value. The symbolic claiming of the waterway for peacetime traffic marks an important step toward resuming food and other needed shipments to the vast African nation.
With the Congo River closed by war, farmers in Congo's most fertile regions planted only enough to feed themselves, sometimes burning any surplus. In cut-off cities, meanwhile, countless
Congolese survived on only one meal a day or every other day.
Medical problems have grown in astronomical proportions. In May, the International Rescue Committee reported 3.5 million deaths (one million being children under age five) - that is 2.5 million more than had been expected. Most died from hunger and disease, according to Religion News Service. "This emergency is perhaps worse than any to unfold in Africa in recent decades," concluded the humanitarian group's report, based on a survey of mortality rates in one central and five eastern provinces conducted between February 1999 and April 2001. About 350,000 deaths can be attributed to violence, but disease - particularly malaria and diarrhea - is the main cause of most deaths, said epidemiologist Les Roberts, who conducted the survey.
The good news for CEUM, however, is that medical care has been more readily available because of the work of Covenant World Relief and others. The three Covenant hospitals and more than 60 clinics have been stocked with medicines and have been able to pay medical staff, who have been stretched to their limits, according to Gustafson.
Development funds from Covenant churches in North America and other groups have aided the effort to address agricultural needs, road repairs and basic rehabilitation. The Belgian government has provided funds to help with basic emergency repair of roads in areas served by Covenant ministries.
"In contrast to the East . . . people have been able to get to medical facilities, albeit with difficulty due to the lack of transportation," said Pete Ekstrand, Africa regional coordinator for the Department of World Mission. "Thanks to Covenant World Relief, our hospitals and health centers did have basic medicines. Even so, the devastation of the economy has meant that people commonly did not have the means to pay for the medicines. Our doctors and nurses have reported that often those arriving at the health centers and hospitals were much sicker due to waiting until later to come. This makes any disease harder to treat and mortality higher."
Ekstrand asked everyone to pray for doctors in their battle against various diseases, especially malaria and sleeping sickness. The spread of disease increases when there are disruptions in the refrigeration systems needed to keep vaccines viable, Ekstrand said, noting that a project involving USAID working through World Relief International promises to help address the problem by installing solar-powered refrigerators.
"Prayer has bound us together when there was no way to communicate," said Keith Gustafson. "God has preserved our people and our church. The Covenant Church in Congo says 'Thank you' to the Covenant churches around the world," he continued. "The Church has said that it wants to be a light of hope during this period of darkness. They want that light to be a practical, lived-out Christian faith. The Church also wants to be a witness beyond our borders. (They say,) 'God has called us to go, and we will go.' We have continued to meet and to minister with whatever is available. There is truly joy in living, and living hope in confronting an uncertain future."
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