The United Nations Joint Human Rights Office reported almost 7,000 human rights violations and abuses in the DRC in 2021. Violence against humanitarian workers have increased as well as attacks on the edges of IDP camps.

(Photo courtesy of MAF)

Sheryl Strietzel with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in East DRC says several families in the IDP camps are separated from loved ones. “Many times, the husband has to go back to the village if he can to continue trying to raise food and to keep the home that they have there.”

Tangible Hope

MAF has a base in Bunia, DRC where they provide aviation services reaching remote areas with physical aid and the Gospel. The ministry funds a team of 12 counselors to provide biblical support in three of the local IDP camps.

Pastor Balikenga Bisoke Bernard, a chaplain with MAF says, “We are there trying to give hope to those people who are really vulnerable.”

The counselors spend five days a week in the IDP camps listening to people, praying with them, working on goals, and giving biblical encouragement. Several nurses can also provide necessary medicine.

Pastor Bisoke says, “Even though we are helping them to release their trauma, to ease their trauma, we are trying to…also to bring the Gospel to them.

“It’s really amazing to see some of those people. They are suffering, they lost everything, they lost even their loved ones, but they are coming to Jesus. You can’t even imagine, but God is doing a big work among those people!”

Left to right: Mama Neema (one of the nurse counselors), Papa Mambo and his wife Mama Celestine, and Sheryl Strietzel. (Photo courtesy of MAF)

Strietzel has met several survivors in the camps with incredible stories.

She shares the story of Mama Celestine, a mother of six who “had lost part of her left arm in the attack about two and a half years ago on their village. She was left among the dead until someone realized that she was still breathing.

“Today, I look at her and I don’t really consider her as a handicapped person because she can accomplish all of her work with great speed, including wrapping her baby on her back as the Congolese women carry their children. She is smiling and thankful and praises God for His grace.”

Holistic Care

In addition to biblical support for violence and trauma survivors, the counselors help identify specific needs in the IDP camps. Strietzel says their one of their visions is for MAF to hire three literacy teachers — one for each camp they work in — to teach women to read.

They also want to see activities provided for children as healthy alternatives to spending time on the streets, where these vulnerable kids are often introduced to drugs and alcohol.

Finally, the counselors see malnutrition as a major problem, especially for young children, pregnant women, and those vulnerable to illness. Strietzel says, “About 70% of the children are suffering to some degree of malnutrition. Also, the malnutrition is affecting pregnant women and some are dying during childbirth. So that’s really an important place to be able to concentrate our efforts as well.”

Prayer Requests from the Counselors

Strietzel passes along four specific prayer requests from the counselor team. Pray for:

• An end to tribal violence in the villages and the outskirts of Bunia.
• Necessary resources to reach displaced people who need them.
• Survivors to hold onto hope of returning to their homes.
• Displaced people to not lose faith that God loves them and He hears their prayers.

Sheryl Strietzel with Congolese children in the IDP camp. (Photo courtesy of MAF)

“If anyone has the gift of giving also, you can be encouraged to give something towards these ministries that we mentioned today for the women to learn how to read, to have activities for the children, and to have a bit more food for the children,” Strietzel says.

Click here to give to MAF’s ministry in East DRC! Select “search for a different fund” then enter 4039 in the fund box to direct the donation to IDP work.

Strietzel shares, “We’ve come to work amongst these people, but we are also very blessed because we’re understanding more and more the fellowship of Christ’s suffering, that there is strength in that. We see the communities growing closer and they’re reaching out to God for help. The very breath that they’re taking next, they’re depending on the Lord to supply that.”

Header photo depicts counselors Pastor Ezra & Mama Neema along with MAF chaplain, Pastor Bisoke; courtesy of MAF.

DR Congo (MNN) — A new wave of extreme violence in DR Congo is making a bad situation even worse. Ebola continues to spread in the nation at a frightening pace since the outbreak began in August. And as the UN and ministries try to stem the Ebola tide, there have been 130 attacks on health facilities this year alone. Additional attacks on villages have sent people flooding into internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.

IDP camp in East DRC. (Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

Mission Aviation Fellowship has a base near an IDP camp in Bunia. Jon Cadd with MAF says the situation is desperate.

“A year ago, we had a huge influx of IDPs — internally displaced people — and refugees into the town close to us, Bunia. There were over 100,000 refugees in the camp [and with families in town] there, and then more camps opened up and there were more refugees. It was a really terrible situation.

“We were just getting ready this month [for] people who would be going back to their homes, and the government was trying to be helpful with transportation and stuff like that. Then all of a sudden, violence has erupted again and people are pouring back into the camp.”

In the last few weeks, Cadd reports Bunia’s IDP camp — whose capacity is already bursting at the seams — took in nearly 1,000 more people.

“They’re coming into the camp with nothing except for what they have walked with on their back…. The violence in their villages [is] people coming in and burning houses and shooting people and hacking them up with machetes. They just run for their lives and are hiding in the bush for a while. Then they walk all the way to Bunia to try to get to a safer place.”

Wash station in IDP camp. (Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

Some of the new arrivals haven’t eaten in days. Many of them are children.

Cadd met one woman who walked four days with her five kids — one of whom is just an infant still breastfeeding — to escape certain death.

“Imagine you in America having to do something like that. You would be devastated with nothing, no place to live. And it’s the rainy season. It’s pouring down rain. So a lot of these people are just stuffed into one tent that’s about 10-by-20 feet and it’s just wall-to-wall people in there with pouring down rain outside.”

MAF is responding with food, tarps for shelter, and spiritual encouragement.

They show the “Jesus” film with the help of national pastors, and MAF’s chaplain, Pastor Bisoke initiated the start of a sewing class for rape survivors in the IDP camp.

“We just love being able to help [in Christ’s name] and be an extension of the Church in the States and around the world.”

Jon Cadd with children in IDP camp. (Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

But Cadd says there is more they want to do. “We have kind of exhausted all of the funds that we had for helping just as this was happening, so it’s been really a challenge. Through MAF’s Disaster Response Team, they gave us some money to get some tarps and things for helping with shelters and some money for food.

“We basically give about $4,000-worth of food a week. They kind of spread that out over 10,000-plus people. You wonder how they can live on that much, but it’s what we can provide…. Then the new people that are coming, we try to get a tarp for each one of them as a shelter.”

MAF’s Sheryl Strietzel also goes to the IDP camps to help where she can and be Christ’s encouragement. An 11-year-old girl in the camp named Grace left a lasting impression on her.

Grace [2nd from the right] with family members and ministry workers. (Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

“Her father and her other siblings, they seemed really traumatized to me,” says Strietzel. “Yet, there was Grace smiling, acting as if nothing had happened. To me, she was really a blessing and encouragement and a good example, because she was like a light in that camp…and so just really showed to me a reflection of God’s grace in those difficult circumstances.”

Strietzel says their goal in the IDP camp is so people like Grace and her family can know true comfort that only comes from Jesus Christ.

“I give them a little bit of Scripture, I share the Gospel message with them,…and I listen to them. Some of them just want to confess their sins so that I can reassure them of the forgiveness of sins that they have through Jesus. And then I pray specifically for those who are ill.

Sheryl Strietzel praying for healing in the IDP camp. (Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

“One time when I went, mothers were there with their children. They came and they each told what they would like the Lord to do for them, where they were hurting, and what they needed. So I was able to pray for them, specifically. And then some of them have burdens. They just want to share a burden, so I can be there to listen and pray for them and just point them to Christ.”

To support MAF’s “EDRC IDP” fund as they provide relief, click here!

Your donations really do have a profound impact, Strietzel says. “The people are sending their thanks. They know that people from far away are remembering them and care about them. That’s what I hear from everyone who talks to me, including people who are not in the camp. They say that’s an amazing thing that we can talk to people in the States and that they’re remembering us and thinking about us to help us here in Congo. So I just wanted especially for you to know that.”

Header photo courtesy of MAF.