Something I have seen a lot as a missionary in Democratic Republic of Congo is suffering. Nearly everyday someone comes to see me and they explain how they are suffering. Sometimes I can help. More often than not I am not able to help. What I have come to learn is that even if I help it will only ease their suffering for a while. It will return.
I have had my share of unpleasant happenings while in Congo. My house was in the middle of an eight hour gun and heave weapons fight between a group from Rwanda and the Congolese army. Frightening for a while but it ended and I was safe. I have been very sick in a hospital in Congo. Not an easy thing to go through. I have been surrounded by evil forces which is scary. But God showed up and Satan’s forces had to flee. I have slid off a cliff in the mountains and was extremely beat up. I stepped on a rock and cracked my ankle. Both of these are from my own clumsiness but still it hurt!
I personally know girls as young as 12 year old who were kidnapped and taken to a rebel camp to be gang raped on a daily bases. I personally know people who have watched their children die because there was no money for medicine. I personally know people who are desperate for any way to make money so they can feed their children. I know people who have been put in prison for no wrong on their part or very little offense and left there for years and years. Now many of them are dying from starvation. I know people who sleep in the mud because their house was washed away in the flood and there is no place to sleep. This is suffering.
We seem to see God more when we are suffering than when we are doing well. These same people I have seen suffer I have also seen them praising God because he has let them see another day. I have seen them thanking and praising God when they were starving but Christians in America sent money for them to be given food and clothing. I have seen them praising God and giving thanks when their sick child is healed and there is no medical reason for it. God is close to those who suffer. There are many people around the world suffering from this pandemic right now. I just now heard about a dear friend who has died because of it. I pray we all feel God’s presence in the middle of the suffering. I pray we can live within his peace and feel how much he loves each of us. John 16:33 says “I have told you these things so that in me you will have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” And in Romans 15:13 we read “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” During this time I am learning that even when things look hopeless that is a lie. Our hope is in Jesus and our circumstances do not change that. Praise God for the joy and hope we can have every day. Even if the world is not as it was yesterday Jesus is the same always. Praise God!
Brenda Buell, Tracy’s Heart Foundation, DR Congo, Africa
