Celebrating with Congolese

8/24/2012 08:13:00 PM sendtheroths 0 Comments

Culture Lesson 101
In African culture, the value of a person is determined by the amount of people he/she has around in good times, but most especially bad times.

We chose to stay in Goma, DRC when many westerners chose to evacuate, because of the threat of rebels attacking the city. We had an extreme peace about staying and I think that I know why.

Congolese Graduation

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Baraka had already planned his "defense" celebration for several months. He didn't know that it would fall on the weekend when Goma would threatened to be attacked. And when the feared weekend came, he did what all Congolese do. He continued with life.

"Where would I go?" He said. "This is my home."

A defense is public oral examination where a university student sums up his degree in a short speech. The student is then grilled by professors and is forced to 'defend' his research. A defense in Congo is usually followed by a huge celebration. It is equivalent to a graduation (from university) in the US.

Andrew and I helped to arrange his celebration and also attended as one of his guests. We ate, sang and danced with old friends and new friends. The time spent at that celebration, taught us more than any "project" could.

It taught us that the greatest gifts about working in Congo aren't evangelistic crusades, development projects or leadership trainings. The greatest gift about working in Congo is falling in love with its people and sharing life with them.

"Your government wants you to leave why? So that we can all stay here and die?" one of our friends said to us that day. "Maybe if you stood, we'd have a chance to be saved too."

The greatest form of ministry
Congolese are used to foreigners leaving when things get bad in their country. Many Congolese will admit that they can't blame anyone for leaving. 

I believe that staying was a form of ministry. Not just staying to stay, but staying to continue life as normal-- just like the Congolese do. To work when there's work to be done; to cry when there's something to cry about; to celebrate when there's a reason to celebrate.

Regardless of the socio-political environment that weekend, I know that something special happened in me. I remembered why I was a missionary. And I saw the Congolese in all their glory: community and celebration. They reminded me why I would love to raise my children there. They gave me a picture of how great that country will be when the seeds of hatred are completely destroyed and the love and freedom of Christ bears fruit.