Trying Times
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
According to Jon Cadd, East DRC program manager, around 100,000 refugees are now in Bunia. None of the large NGOs have arrived yet to help, and the camps lack enough food and shelter. A small group of local Christian volunteers is attempting to feed the hungry. Two weeks ago MAF purchased rice, beans, maize meal, and cooking oil for the camp, as well as plates and cups. Then last week our team purchased 30 more bags of rice and a 300-liter cooking pot.
Though 30 bags of rice sounds like a lot it is only a drop in the bucket for the people in these camps. Our teammate Ashley Peterson went on the flight when MAF was delivering some of its aid you can read about her experience here. This is difficult for our MAF team in EDRC as well because its has only been a few years since they have moved back into Nyankunde after they were forced to leave because of violence in the 90s.
Now that violence is creeping towards them again. If you would like to see a little bit more history of the conflict watch this video. If you would like help towards MAFs disaster response in this IDP camp, visit here.
Something else that happened a little bit closer to home was that missionaries with IMB, Jeff & Barbara Singerman and Randy & Kathy Arnett were involved in a serious car accident on March 14th while traveling from Kinshasa to Kikwit to conduct a training. Randy and Kathy were killed. Jeff sustained serious injuries. As well, their Congolese driver Jean Louis was seriously injured.
Our Teammates the Hales are very close to the IMB missionaries and grew up with the Arnetts children. One of the Arnetts children are in Kinshasa right now and will be traveling back with their parents for burial. You can read more about who the Arnetts were and their amazing work in Africa here.The Singermans were medevaced to South Africa where Jeff had surgery for an infection, reattaching his shoulder and some skin grafting. Barbara had surgery on her fractured elbow.
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| The Singermans at the Hospital |
If you could please pray for the conflict in East Congo and the political situation in the DRC. Please pray for physical, and emotional healing of the Singermans after their traumatic event. Pray for the entire IMB team as the work to repatriate the Arnetts back to the US with their Daughter and her husband that everything would go smoothly. Also pray for the emotional healing for their team after dealing with this difficult time.
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