Broken

No other word seems to more adequately describe the condition of this country of Congo DRC than. . . broken. From east to west, north to south, every aspect of how this place exists is in a state of brokenness. Let me just give a few examples:

1.       Police - There is no competent police force to speak of. Anyone who is somehow allowed to wear the uniform of a policeman sees it as a means of making his living by ulterior means. Multiple times on this trip, the car I was driving in was stopped at a check point that was set up simply to give a uniformed policeman a reason to check over our papers after which he wanted to know what we would pay him for performing his “important” task.

2.       Power – There is not a single city or large village that has any reliable, 24-hour electric power. In most of the bigger cities like Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, the power is on more often than not, but will come and go with no dependability. In places like Gemena, these is no longer any city power grid at all.  All this despite Congo DR possessing the most plentiful hydro-producing electrical energy in the entire continent. In fact, South Africa is negotiating with DRC for the rights to build out the rest of the Inga dam across the Congo River and install enough hydro energy to power all of southern Africa.

 Mineral Resource – Many countries of central Africa have few resources on which to build a national economy. Not Congo DR. Vast mineral pockets of copper, gold, tin, titanium, uranium and, of course, diamonds are found across the land. But unlike Botswana, were national policies allow all citizens to benefit equally, in Congo it’s a free-for all. Now international agencies are attempting to set rules for tracking and processing “conflict metals” similar to the agreement for precious stones made famous in the movie, Blood Diamonds.

4.       Taxes and Fees – As with any uncontrolled nation, everyone has to fend for themselves dreaming all sorts of taxes and fees. Besides my $200 visa for entering the country, I also had to be $40 to be stamped in and $20 to be stamped out.  I even had to pay $5 just to have my health card verified that it was up to date. Notorious among fee-mongers are the RVA airport officials.  An MAF flight from Bunia to Entebbe costs around $120.  The total Bunia airport departure tax? $140!

5.       The Church – Unfortunately, leaders within the church have tended to be more influenced by politics and tribal favoritism than truly caring about the growth of God’s Kingdom. Following the pattern of Africa, as soon as someone gets into a position of authority, the idea is to use it for personal and family benefit as quickly as possible – while the chance lasts. This poor example of leadership has significantly kept the church from becoming all it can be.

The scene is not totally pessimistic, however. I discovered a number of key people whose vision for improving life and conditions in the country were exceptional. They each deserve mentioning:

With Dr. Khato head of
University Shaloam Unversity

1.       Dr. Khato, Director of the University Shaloam Bunia (USB) truly desires to see a new kind of practical education available that will help the next generation of leaders bring a Christian worldview to all areas of life including business and agronomy. Accepting strong criticism from his missionary mentors, he transitioned the former ISTB Theological Bible School with 70 students into a full university with a student body of 800 all focused on holisticly designed courses.   

With David Kasali of the
Congo Initiative

2.       Dr. David Kasali, Founder of the Congo Initiative. With a PhD from Trinity Seminary, Illinois and a remarkable ten year history of leading the renown NEGST seminary in Nairobi, David left all of that behind to start remarkable training experiment in his home town of Beni. Focused around six major themes, the Initiative includes a Bi-Lingual University (French & English), a Center for Church Renewal and Ministry of Reconciliation. “Instead of pumping more facts and knowledge into people’s heads,” David says, “I want to help bring about a whole new mindset among my people that will truly transform they think and act.”

Dr. Mike in front of new surgery wing

      Dr. Mike Upio, Medical Director of the Centre Medical Evangelique. After multiple rebel attacks destroyed the famous Nyankunde hospital back in the late 90’s, Mike is back rebuilding it and designing a new style medical support center that will serve virtually the whole northeastern province of the country. Thanks to some help from Samaritan’s Purse, a surgery wing is almost ready for operations, complete with solar panels and new generator. What is most impressive is that Mike is today doing what it took a whole team of expats to do before.

It will take a long time before DRC’s broken nature is turned around—especially in the political sector. But I’m so encouraged to find some of Congo’s own “sons” who have put despair aside for now and are striving to model some ways of doing things right.

A Good Ol’ Gal

Early shot of Alpha Uniform when it still had the
original "N" number.

A real treat for me during this trip was meeting and getting reacquainted with an old friend. Niner Quebec Charlie Alpha Uniform is the oldest and, I believe, the most utilized Cessna 208 Caravan in the MAF fleet. I had the unique privilege of requesting this aircraft for MAF-Zaire back in the mid 1980’s when I was functioning as program manager.  And, not only did I watch it makes its first landing at the Ndjili airport after it’s long ferry flight from the US, but I was also one of four pilots that got the first check out in the plane.

So, it was really fun to see it again in operations at the MAF Bunia program and even sit in the right seat during a flight with a hand on the controls just like years ago.

Getting reacquainted after a landing at Nyankunde

What is particularly special about this good ol’ gal, however, is its amazing service history to missions.  

Here’s a snapshot of that history:

·          

1    1985 – Cessna Caravan Serial No.10 and registered N9314Fwas ferried to Kinshasa, Zaire to begin operations. It was one of the first of its kind to be seen in the continent.

After almost 30 years - a hand at the controls again!

·         85-93 – Operated in the Kinsahsa program regularly flying 1000 mile routes to the various corners of the country. We switched its registration to 9Q-CAU. In 91, it was sub-based in Brazzaville and used to evacuate missionaries all over Zaire during the first of several civil revolts.

·         93-96 – Operated out of the Nyankunde program in NE Zaire.

·         96-97 – Was ferried back to the US for some major spar damage repair.

·         90-2001 – Operated in Mali, Africa in the SAS flight program – a commercial endeavor of MAF.

·         2002 – Sent to Nairobi to prepare it for a new flight program in Afghanistan. (Never made it there.)

·         02-03 – Leased to Air Serv International and was sub-based out of Kisangani, DRC.

·         03-08 – Returned to MAF and based out of Kajasi, Uganda providing regular flight service into eastern DRC.

·         08-Present – Now back in Bunia, DRC, it is the flagship and workhorse of the base’s three plane fleet.

By the end of this calendar year, 9Q-CAU will have flown 20,000 hours and have made 22,000 landings!

Not bad. . .for a good ol’ gal!!

A Glossary of Rebels

One of the saddest and most disturbing facts I’ve learned during this two week trek across the Democratic Republic of Congo is how much rebel militia factions have taken advantage of the political instability of this country to savagely press their various agendas. Some are motivated by lust for gold, titanium and tantalum, amply found in the eastern provinces while others are no better than jungle thugs getting their latest revenge on neighboring tribes. As people shared story after story of recent atrocities, it took me a while to grasp just which rebel group was which. So here is just what you've wanted: a glossary of DRC rebel groups and their recent activities:

COBRA – Formerly a part of the old Zairian army, this group was later rejected by authorities and settled in the hills near the mission station of Nyankunde where raids have been conducted on neighboring villages. MAF pilots have seen their camps from the air.

New paved road through the jungle that is supposed to
reduce the threat of rebel activity.

M-23 – Staging their operations near the Rwandan border, this group is perhaps the largest and most well organized.  Thought to be secretly funded and equipped by Rwandan military, they recently captured the town of Rutchuru in a skirmish where 5000 government troops threw down their weapons and fled across the border to Uganda.

Nalu – Also working out of the jungle area near the Rwenzori Mountains, they have made raids on villages in the vicinity of Beni.

Morgan – Known by the name of its leader, this band of thugs in the deep Ituri forest were responsible just two weeks ago for savagely pillaging the Epulu Forest Station known for its research of the famous Okapi animals. Killing several guards and village people, they looted and burned the station and shot all of the Okapi being used for research.

LRA – The Lord’s Resistance Army now has several decades of infamy all across northeast Uganda, southern Sudan and northeast DRC.  Utilizing child soldiers they have kidnapped, the LRA has burned, pillaged and raped throughout the region.  Now even at the hint of their presence, people abandon their villages and gardens to seek security in larger towns.  As a result, there is a huge food shortage in the area.

Mai Mai – Meaning “Water, Water” this group was known first during the civil war in the 1960’s. Now the title has become the defacto name for any militia that uses witchcraft for personal protection. Believing that black magic will transform into water any bullet shot at them, they will charge well-armed troops with total abandon who, in turn, usually flee fearing the power of the magic themselves. A raid of a hospital in the Katanga province a week ago was the latest report of Mai Mai activities.

FARDC – You might wonder why the official Congo DRC army is on this list. Unfortunately, I’ve heard of multiple incidents where instead of protecting the population from wild militia groups, disgruntled and poorly-paid army members have actually allied themselves with rebel groups for their own advantage. Sadly, after the Morgan raid on Epulu mentioned above, the FARDC showed up almost on queue and finished the looting themselves taking all remaining equipment and destroying several other buildings.

The bottom line of all this is a country that truly feels like a Wild West where everyone does what they want and there is no rule of law let alone a national deterrent to such incredible expressions of evil. This is today’s normal context of the DRC. 

As I said above, disturbing and so very sad!

Congo's Clock

Typical Kinshasa street scene

Sometimes it feels like the clock stopped back in 1990 and nothing has really changed since. That was my first impression of Congo DRC this week during three days in its capital city, Kinshasa. The rundown, 1960’s-look of the Ndjili International Airport, the thousands of people lining the main boulevard into town, the slum-like dwellings everywhere except in the central city, the unreliable and inconsistent power and water service, the potholes and, of course, the policemen still using their authority to extort a “gift” from you in order to feed their families.

But after several days of interviews with a number of national church and mission leaders, I now know how much has changed.  And except for a few nice avenues being built by the Chinese, most of it is not good. From the days of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to the present, Congo has had a penchant for attracting strife, conflict and corruption. During the eight years my family and I lived here, the theme was president Mobutu’s incredible ability to line his pockets while keeping the rest of the country from enjoying its vast wealth. Unfortunately, Mobutu’s legacy lives on today in a myriad of mini dictators who use the “Wild West” nature of this country to personally profit from its mineral and natural resources.

On top of that, reports are rampant about the resurgence of the occult. The practice of “traditional medicine” has been around for centuries, of course, but leader after leader reports how much it is growing in the pop culture, especially among youth. Then there’s the new breed of missionary showing up everywhere with aggressive evangelistic methods--spreading the gospel of Islam! With ample funding from the Gulf States, these expats from neighboring northern countries are building mosques everywhere as well as hospitals, schools and universities with free tuition for all.

Meeting with Rev Nyamuke, national director of evangelism 

This has brought a new level of sober reflection from church leaders I have met with. “We cannot compete with Muslims’ economic tactics,” says Rev Nyamuke, vice president of the Eglise du Christ au Congo and national director of evangelism. “Instead, we must collaborate as never before to prevent the loss of impact and influence of the many Christian churches all over this land.” Leading the way, Nyamuke has helped author a comprehensive plan with five key strategies designed to unite all Protestant churches in evangelistic outreach endeavors while simultaneously strengthening Christian families and the 18,000 church-sponsored schools. Having interacted with a lot of church leaders in this country every since 1982, I have to say I’m impressed with this humble man and his strategic plan for breathing new life into the Church.  As I continue for another week in both Lubumbashi and Bunia evaluating the ministry service of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), I will definitely be thinking about how a strategic application of appropriate air service could become a key part of making this plan a success.

My good friend and former assistant in the MAF Kinshasa office, Bob Fish, used to say about Congo, “It’s all a game—and you lose!” Sadly, much of that commentary still seems to be true in this country. But with quality leaders like Nyamuke modeling both humility and vision, I believe God’s people here still have the opportunity to be true winners.

Continental Crisscross

Last summer, a friend of mine was asked by a Christian foundation to conduct a study of mission aviation service and create a statistical picture of how that service is impacting the mission world.  Surveying the six largest missison aviation organizations the final result was presented in this interesting pie chart graph. Obviously over the last couple of decades, there has been a significant shift from serving just Western missionaries to helping outher humanitarian organizations and the general commercial population as well.  What is most telling about this graph, however, is the small percentage of national or Non-Western mission organizations that are using air service.

It is partly because of this reality that Mission Aviation Fellowship has asked me to spend the next two weeks in the country of DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) conducting a program evaluation of their operations. In particular, I’ve been asked to focus on interviews with national church, mission and government leaders to get a better sense of their current situations and how they envision their potential need for MAF flight service in the future.

It’s a treat being able to return to the country where I flew as an MAF pilot during the 1980s. I’m sure I’ll find much has changed. But I suspect that I also will find many things that plagued the progress of development in the DRC years ago to be no different today.  The key will be to determine how an organization like MAF can and should reshape its mission service in order to maintain strategic relevance into the future.

Taking advantage of being in the “neighborhood,” I’m also tacking on a third week to this trip to spend time with two national Bible translation organizations on behalf of Wycliffe Associates.  Located in Bangui, CAR and Gemena, DRC, these two agencies alone are responsible for some sixty potential language projects in their two countries. My goal? To help them assess any areas of organizational development that might help accelerate their Bible translation efforts.

I will appreciate your prayers for health, safety and wisdom as I crisscross the entire region of central Africa during this trip. This map will give you a quick glimpse of all the places my trip will take me from July 7 to 29.

Stay tuned.  I hope to share my next few blogposts with observations made along the way.

Under His wings,

 Jon

From IHOP to Chengdu

Recently, I visited with Jeff McNair, an old friend from Redlands, CA.  For over ten years, Jeff and I participated in a group of four guys who met every other Tuesday morning at IHOP to eat a short stack of pancakes and encourage each other in our personal and professional growth.

During those years, we watched Jeff’s commitment for the disabled grow from a teaching job at Cal State San Bernardino into a passion for promoting a Christian view of disability on a worldwide scale. Today, Jeff is a tenured professor at California Baptist University in Riverside, CA and one of the world’s leading voices of hope for thousands around the world who have been ostracized from society due to being physically or mentally handicapped.

It began 20 years ago when he and his wife, Kathi, started the Power & Light Sunday School class at our church to reach out to the needs of the disabled in our community.  That class grew into having a weekly attendance of sixty to eighty. Next, Jeff launched a website focused on helping other churches understand their role in serving the disabled. That, in turn, led him to writing books and articles on the subject leading to extensive speaking engagements at conferences and national events.

Now, I’ve learned that Jeff is significantly involved as an advisor with Joni and Friends, the ministry to handicapped people developed by Joni Eareckson Tada. Together with several other renowned authors, including Chuck Colson and John MacArthur, Jeff helped create an outstanding study course called Beyond Suffering, A Christian View of Disability Ministry and is one of the master trainers teaching the course throughout the US and around the world. Whether in Seattle or Serbia, Jeff is finding church leaders absolutely stunned by all that the Bible has to say about a theology of suffering and disability.

When we met a few weeks ago for a delicious chicken dinner at the home of another one of our famous Tuesday morning pancake guys, Jeff informed me that Joni and Friends had been approached by top officials in the Chinese religious bureau, asking if training on disability ministry could be extended to the church in China. So, for the past several weeks, Jeff has been part of a delegation hosted by national leaders of the Chinese Three Self Church, conducting training workshops on the subject all across that country.

What a thrill it is to see how God has taken a guy who is fond of blueberry pancake syrup and thrust him into a worldwide ministry of such significant challenge and encouragement for His people.

Here are links to Jeff’s personal website: http://jeffmcnair.com/ and the Beyond Suffering course:

http://www.joniandfriends.org/store/product/beyond-suffering-christian-view-disability-ministry-study-guide/.

Doing Something Right

In his famous little book, The One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard encourages leaders to “catch people doing something right.”  I think the same principle should apply to the mission world--which is just what this blog post is about.

Orphan children from the Seeds Children's Home in
Kitale, Kenya (courtesy of The Gathering, CO)

Recently, I was asked to provide some consulting advice to an elder from a Colorado church that has had an emerging relationship with a national ministry in Kenya.  Richard Makani and his wife, Hellen, both native Kenyans, were so moved by the plight of the poor in the slums of their city that they dropped everything to start Seeds, a group of outreach ministries responding to the needs of those slum dwellers. As I listened to my new friend describe both the local Kenyan ministry and the subsequent response from a group of caring US supporters, I was impressed by how much seemed to be right about what I was hearing.  Here are some examples:

• The vision for responding to this need came from a local, national couple, not one imposed by an outside foreign mission.
• Seeds has developed a balanced ministry approach of preaching/teaching/healing—just what Jesus modeled for us in Matthew 9:35.
• The US donors have been very careful to develop a relationship with Seeds that would not lead to an indefinite dependence on foreign funds.
• My friend has already read the book, When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, one of the best publications available on how not to ruin national ministries by overwhelming them with too many “good intentions” from the West.
• The US donors are ready and willing to create a unified advisory group so as to provide more consistent and helpful input to Seeds as well as streamline and simplify Richard’s need to provide project reports.

So what more advice could I offer someone who is already doing so much right?  Here’s what I shared:

• Encouraged to create a partnership agreement with Seeds that is based on the new Lausanne Standards recently created to help set accountability guidelines for missions (www.lausannestandards.org)
• Explained how to build a cross-cultural relationship based on Servant Partnership as opposed to the typical business model of partnership based on mutual benefit. (See my chapter on Servant Partnership in Shared Strength, Exploring Cross-cultural Christian Partnerships, Birmingham and Todd, p.55)
• Suggested that the US stakeholders help Seeds develop stronger organizational capacity using something like my Organizational Capacity Assessment Matrix tool to determine where and how they should improve different ministry areas, especially their board governance function.
• Recommended checking out the website on Cultural Intelligence (http://culturalq.com/) and learning more about the differences between American and Kenyan cultural values.
• Advised developing an agreed-upon annual partnership strategy based on the model that Partners International uses with their PDPs—Partnership Development Plans.

What a pleasure to be able to “catch” so many things going right in a single mission relationship.  Now, if more cross-cultural ministry endeavors could follow suit, I believe we would see significant acceleration in the advancement of God’s Kingdom around the world.