Compassion for Congo is a ministry for the care of our fellow churches and orphans in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We are currently rebuilding our site for this ministry and we appreciate your patience. In the meantime, please feel free to contact us directly with any questions you may have.
If you would like to contribute to the ministry through PayPal, please use the email address donations@compassionforcongo.org or this link.
March 26, 2020
Dear Praying Partners,
We are so grateful to you all. Your prayers and gifts have been a source of great joy to us and to many, many others in Congo.
The Christmas Shoes Project was a wonderful blessing to hundreds of local children. We are so grateful to all who contributed to this project. Most of the pictures of the shoe distribution did not come through, but you can see the happy faces and new shoes in this one.
Sporting some new shoes
In January I received this report from Didier:
“Dear Pastor, bonjour!
All my family have been sick the past days. The same diseases are coming back over and over. According to the report of the World Organization of Health 100 million people are dying every year in Africa because of the fake medicines from China and India. Now we understand why we do not get well. Even the Belgium clinic is falling to the trap. When we are sick now we go to the hospital but we trust more in the Lord.
I was very sick with my right leg. It started with some severe cramps in the thigh and finally all my right leg was immobilized. The pain was very strong from the hip to the toes. Dr. Bill tried to help with some massage but in vain. Finally I was obliged to see a physiotherapist for some physical sessions.” Didier
I shared this prayer request for Didier with several of you by phone, but as of this moment we still do not have a definitive plan of action. That is partly the reason I have not written this update sooner. I was hoping something could be said for certain. Health care is very unreliable in Congo. Some of it is worse than having NO HEALTH CARE at all. The medicines are all from China. The Chinese have no scruples about falsely labeling everything they sell there. If Congolese merchants order a certain medicine the Chinese will label it to match what they ordered, but it is anyone’s guess what it might be. You can just imagine the health problems this could cause.
In Didier’s case we strongly suspect a disc injury, but the nearest MRI is in Kinshasa and if you have ever had such an injury you know how impossible it would be to sit on a plane flight. That also rules out going to Belgium or Germany. Also both those countries have a 3 month wait for a visa. The only thing available in Lubumbashi is a CAT scan. Didier had this test in February and a friend in Belgium agreed to take the results to a doctor he knows. In this way at least something is being done. We still have not heard anything back from Belgium.
As we were pondering what to do and discussing it with Didier, the Corona virus began to cause its global terror. As you know Europe is being severely impacted and there is not the slightest possibility of going there for treatment at this time. To make matters worse the virus is now spilling into Congo. Congo is deeply involved with China. Chinese citizens and flags abound in Lubumbashi. As might be expected they are now having many cases of Corona virus. On March 19th Didier wrote this:
“Dear Pastor, bonjour!
Yesterday our president spoke to the nation about covid-19. We have 14 cases so far. Our minister of economic and her director of cabinet are tested positive. The situation start becoming very serious in my country. We don’t know how things are going to be. Kinshasa has 18 millions people and each house has at least 10 people leaving together. And we do not have equipped hospitals who can take care of patients in case many people are contaminated.
Our president asked everybody to stay at home. Only few activities will be allowed (super market, pharmacy, banks and hospitals). The schools, universities and so on are closed starting today until April 20. It can be extended to 3 or 4 months if needed. I asked all our pastors with a small group of people (maximum 20 according to our government) to organize every day from next Monday from 10am to 11am a time of prayer.
As you know, in my country we don’t have the middle class. We have a minority of very rich people and the majority of miserable people. 80% of the population do not have any reserve (bank account).” Didier
SOCIAL DISTANCING is going to be somewhere between difficult and impossible in Congo.
There are over 150 kids in this small room
There are 18 kids in this minivan plus the driver
With the outbreak of Corona in Congo came the panic buying as well. We were able to send a some money to help buy emergency food. We only had enough for the workers at the Mission Station, the orphans and the Pastors and their children. Didier wrote this to me on March 25th :
“Dearest Pastor, bonjour!
I was blessed by your letter this morning. Thank you very much.
I was able to buy food from the emergency money you sent to me 4 days ago. I bought 15 bags of 25kg each of maize, meal. Before it used to cost $22, but because of covid-19, we bought it at $60 each. I bought 10 bags of rice of 35kg each. It cost $47 instead of the usually price($30). Again 100kg of beans. 40 liters of cooking oil. 100 kg of sugar. 50 kg of powder soap. 100kg of powder milk. 120 liters of gasoil (diesel) for the Generator. 60 liters of gas for the van and other few things.
Right now the situation is so very bad already. My government wants people to stay home (which is very good, but people do not have food). It’s very complicated. For sure we will have revolution in the days to come because empty stomachs do not have ears.” Didier
Emergency Food for 51 people
We were able to send $100.00 extra to each of our four pastors this month. This is to help them feed their children and wives while food staples triple in price. Please pray for basic needs to be met in the coming months. We also sent $50 extra to each one of our workers who care for the orphans.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Praise God with us for safety and provision of food and shelter for everyone to this point.
- Praise Him also for the provision of new shoes for all the children in our 4 churches.
- Please pray for Pastor Didier’s health. It is hard to care for a ministry this size when you are in pain and cannot sleep.
- Praise our Lord for a new mattress for Didier and Annie. He says it is helping his pain and sleep.
- Please pray for protection from the Corona virus.
- Please pray with us for Corona to subside worldwide.
- Pray that God will use this Corona crisis to impress the temporal and fragile nature of human life on men so that they will turn to Christ.
- Please petition God for provision of food and basic needs for everyone in Congo during this worldwide crisis.
FINALLY: Please pray for all your brothers and sisters in Congo. There are around 500 in our four churches. Please pray for our orphans, our 4 Pastors and their children. There are 51 of them just in that group.
The churches in Congo are praying for you! They tell me this all the time. They are praying for our country and our president. They know we are bound together by the Holy Spirit into Christ’s church on the earth. They have few resources, but they pray for God’s hand of protection on their American brothers and sisters.
If you have questions of any kind please call me or text at 530-391-6363
If you want to give to any of these needs you can go to our website at www.compassionforcongo.org and press the “donate” button. That will take you to PayPal.
You can send checks made out to “Community Bible Church” with C4C or Congo in the memo. Every penny will go to Congo.
May God give you His peace during this trying time. He knows you and cares for you just as He does for our dear brethren in Congo.
I am Your Servant,
Pastor Paul Anthes
christalone@cbcplacerville.org
Lamentations 3:21-26 21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 22 The LORD’S loving kindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” 25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. 26 It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the LORD.
Jeremiah 29:11-14 11 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD,