SUFFERING

In an Indonesian restaurant in Sweden, Jonathan, a Swede who grew up in the Congo, shared with us Tulo’s* story. Tulo and 44 of his friends and relatives (to include a two-week old baby), fled Bukavu, Congo to escape an enemy intent on taking their lives. For one month they walked approximately 700 km (434 miles) and lived off monkey meat, fruit and anything else they could scrounge until they reached the city of Kisangani. It took a week in a hospital for Tulo to recover—others remained longer. Miraculously, none of these Jesus-followers died!

In a Catholic Church in the same country, a priest celebrated mass. While the people worshiped, rebels attacked by throwing grenades in the building—killing everyone inside, over 1000 people perished! Anup Shah reports in Conflicts in Africa, “At the end of April, 2001, the International Rescue Committee estimated that there have been around 2.5 million deaths since the outbreak of the fighting in August 1998, with the majority dying of malnutrition and disease that has resulted from the war.” Warring tribal factions and soldiers from Rwanda and Uganda are using the unrest to profit from Congo’s vast natural resources.

Meditation
1 Peter 4:12-14—Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

It was hard to sit across from Tulo and imagine the horrors this quiet young man experienced. By God’s grace through the help of missionaries, he was able to escape to Nairobi, Kenya. Together we prayed for his suffering countrymen. I could not help asking myself soul-searching questions. Why are we so ignorant of a human disaster that dwarfs what happened 9-11? Why is the world media silent about a human tragedy that grows with each passing day? While our government sends troops to Bosnia and Afghanistan, why is it so strangely silent about the slaughter occurring in Africa?

Are we ignorant to the suffering that goes on around us by intention? The top selling books in Christian bookstores are the Left Behind series. It’s all so convenient to believe in the rapture and firmly look forward to bypassing tribulation. But what of our countless brothers and sisters around the world who die or flee every day because they choose to follow Jesus—in Sudan, Somalia, China, Iraq, North Korea, Laos, Pakistan, etc.? Why would God allow them to suffer but airlift us from persecution? Maybe we ought to carefully reevaluate our theology and listen more closely to Jesus Who warned, “There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven. But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of My name.” (Luke 21:11,12)

Someday in heaven we will sit at the feet of those, who on earth, we would have crossed the road to avoid. In our haste to shun suffering we dishonor our Lord Who bled for our sins. God help us!

Inspiration
To “suffer as a Christian” is to suffer because there is an essential difference between you and world which rouses the contempt of the world and the disgust and hatred of the spirit that is in the world.”—Oswald Chambers in The Discipline of Suffering

*Not his real name for protection purposes. If you would like to know how you can get involved helping persecuted Christians contact Voice of the Martyrs by calling (918) 337-8015 or go to http://www.persecution.com/

Statistics from an updated Oxfam report note the following facts:
· More than two million people are internally displaced; of these, over 50 per cent are in eastern DRC. More than one million of the displaced have received absolutely no outside assistance.
· At least 37 per cent of the population, approximately 18.5 million people, have no access to any kind of formal health care.
· 16 million people have critical food needs.
· There are 2,056 doctors for a population of 50 million; of these, 930 are in Kinshasa.
· Infant mortality rates in the east of the country have in places reached 41% per year.
· Severe malnutrition rates among children under five have reached 30% in some areas.
· National maternal mortality is 1837 per 100,000 live births, one of the worst in the world. Rates as high as 3,000/100,000 live births have been recorded in eastern DRC.
· DRC is ranked 152nd on the UNDP Human Development index of 174 countries: a fall of 12 places since 1992.
· 2.5 million people in Kinshasa live on less than US$1 per day. In some parts of eastern DRC, people are living on US$0.18 per day.
· 80 per cent of families in rural areas of the two Kivu Provinces have been displaced at least once in the past five years.
· There are more than 10,000 child-soldiers. Over 15 % of newly recruited combatants are children under the age of 18. A substantial number are under the age of 12.
· Officially, between 800,000 and 900,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS.
· Only 45 % of people have access to safe drinking water. In some rural areas, this is as low as 3%.
· Four out of ten children are not in school. 400,000 displaced children have no access to education.
· Of 145,000 km of roads, no more than 2,500km are asphalt.