To DRC and back

It has been a busy past few weeks for us! We have travelled to new countries and met many wonderful people.

We had the great privilege of visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the middle of June. For both of us, it had been a long time coming. I have been working with our local office in DRC for over two years now and Morgan first dreamed of visiting the DRC back in 2006 after her dad’s first trip. One of Hands at Work’s core values focuses on relationships; this was the main purpose for our trip. To love, support, listen and build relationships with our brother in sisters in DRC. We were both excited to go but also a little bit nervous as the DRC/Zambia border is known for being difficult sometimes. Luckily we crossed the border very easily and met Erick on the DRC side. We still had a four-hour journey by car to Likasi where our office is located. Our time in DRC was very short, only 8 days so we tried to balance our time between the communities and the office. Hands at Work currently works in five communities in DRC in both urban and rural areas. We had the chance to visit two of those communities, Kitabataba and Kikula.

In Kikula, a home was recently renovated into a life centre for the local community. A life centre is the place in the community where children can come and feel safe and forget all the worries. It is a place where they receive one nutritious meal a day as well as life and love that they might not otherwise get at home. Morgan and I were some of the first visitors to see the newly renovated life centre in use. We spent the afternoon playing games with the children and Care Workers. As the

children where getting ready to leave for the day, we started off on a home visit. We walked home with a five-year-old boy named Paul. He lives with his father Etienne and his four-year-old brother Thierry. Their mother abandoned the family when Etienne got sick with TB. When we arrive at the house, we found that Thierry had not been at school that day because he had to go and fetch water. The closest clean water source is so far from their home that the boys have to take it in turns to collect water each day. Etienne is too sick and weak to be able to help the boys. The boys are falling behind in school and have to forgo a meal every other day to have clean water. We sat with the family for a while, before we left we prayed for them. Stories like Paul and Thierry are all too common in DRC, it is a place of great vulnerability and in need of lots of prayer.

Kitabataba was much more urban that we expected! We walked down dirt tracks and through busy markets lined with people selling everything you could imagine! In Kitabataba the life centre has recently moved from one local church to another. In the new location children received their food under a very simple structure made of wooden posts covered by a tarpaulin. Before we arrived at the life centre, we visited one home where we met Rosie and Joseph. Their older brothers were in their late teenage years and spent lots of time away from home working. It is often Rosie and Joseph at home by themselves and Rosie taking up the role of the mother of the house. Rosie told us she enjoys dancing and singing, just like any nine year old girl. Sadly she has no-one to help her with daily chores or homework and her life is often too busy to be a normal nine year old girl. We noticed that Rosie had many dishes in her garden piled up in tubs and it was obvious that it would take her a long time to do them on top of all her other tasks. The Care Workers, Morgan and I helped out by cleaning some of the dishes. The Care Workers showed Jesus’ love in action by helping Rosie and her family, you could see the big impact it has on their lives.

One of the big differences between DRC and our other countries is the language. In nearly all our other countries that we serve in, English is spoken to some degree as long as the local language.

However, in DRC, there is very little or no English spoken but instead it is Swahili and French. We took the opportunity to practice our French with the kids. It’s amazing how little language you need to connect with children.

The time we spent in the DRC was amazing! Our team in the local office is an incredibly dedicated group of men and women; they have such compassion for the vulnerable in their communities. We look forward to spending time with them again one day.

After our trip to DRC, Morgan hosted a team of nurses from all over the USA and Canada. We have a few of these specialized teams every year; they come to “be” as well as to care for the vulnerable in our communities. It was an intense week of home visits and mobile clinic days but God did something very special in everyone during this time.

The past couple of weeks, both Morgan and I have been busy with our quarter two reporting. It’s an opportunity to share with our partners and supporters about the work being done on the ground and what they are a part of. Morgan works on the narrative side and I work on the financial side. It takes a lot of gathering of information but it is worth it in the end to know that all our partners are receiving the up to date highlights and stories coming out of all the communities we serve in.