A diverse team of 12 Presbyterians will journey to Goma, on the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on January 27, to take part in a 10-day World Mission travel-study seminar. This pilgrimage of hope and solidarity is designed to promote understanding of the impact of conflict and sexual violence in this volatile region and to enable Presbyterians to learn best practices for accompanying the Church of Christ in Congo in ministering to survivors of violence.
“Myers Park Presbyterians are passionate about global mission,” says Frank Dimmock, catalyst addressing the root causes of global poverty for Presbyterian World Mission. “They are committed to improving health care and education in the Congo, especially education for girls.”
Although the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Congo Mission Network focuses its efforts on long-term, sustainable solutions, sometimes there’s a need so glaring that emergency relief is the only option. When members of the network learned that the Tudisha Bana Bimpe Nutrition Center in Tshikaji, Democratic Republic of Congo, had closed because of a lack of funding, they acted quickly and decisively.
It was 2007 and Ebola had just been confirmed at the town of Luebo.
Orphaned at age 12, Isuku Isuku (nicknamed Socrate) has experienced some tough times in his short life in the far west of Congo. Compared to many other orphaned Congolese children, however, he was fortunate in that a local woman, Mama Micheline Kakene Kikar, had agreed to be a foster mother to him and two of his siblings.