CONGO

NAME: Democratic Republic
of the Congo (formerly called
Zaire).
CAPITAL: Kinshasa.
AREA: 2,344,889 sq km.
POPULATION: 51,263,800.
ETHNIC GROUPS: Over
200 African ethnic groups of
which the majority are Bantu;
the four largest tribes - Mongo,
Luba, Kongo (all Bantu), and
the Mangbetu-Azande (Hamitic)
make up about 45% of the
population.
LAND BOUNDARIES:
Angola 2,511 km (of which
225 km is the boundary of
Angola’s discontiguous Cabinda
Province), Burundi 233 km,
Central African Republic 1,577
km, Republic of the Congo
2,410 km, Rwanda 217 km,
Sudan 628 km, Tanzania 459
km, Uganda 765 km, Zambia
1,930 km.

THE „GOOD
SAMARITAN”
IN CONGO
(ZAIRE)

Just on arrival at the airport one
has the feeling one is in the heart
of Africa. Five years of war have
left visible wounds everywhere.
In the midst of that chaos and
aggressiveness we can spot some
smiley and calm faces, they are
our brothers in the faith who are
waiting for us.
A Christian can keep calm and
peaceful in the biggest turmoil just
because he is not a citizen of this
earth and he has a living hope!
The week we spend in Kinshasa,
the capital city with 10 millions
inhabitants are quite busy and
rather hectic since transport is not
easy to find, the condition of the
streets is deplorable and distances
are big.
Many are the situations we
encounter that call not only for
one good Samaritan but for an
army of them. The churches are
very numerous and the members
extremely poor. Some sleep on the
floor of the church because they
have no roof of their own and no

belongings. In some areas there
is not even a church but dozens
of women gather under a tree to
worship the Lord until the heavy
rain disperses them. They ask us
to get them at least some canvass
to use as a roof! Most people have
no steady income, and those who
work count on a salary of 10 to 20
dollars a month.
One may think that could be enough
to live in a country of the Third
World, but a meal for a family of
8 to 10 persons costs U$ 5 a day
and most people cannot afford to
eat every day. The poverty of the
country is almost an insult to the
beauty of the landscape that hides
treasures of precious metals and
diamonds!
Everywhere there are refugees
from the war zone, they have lost
everything, some of them even a
few of their beloved ones. Those
who survived traveled for months
on foot to cover a distance of 1300
kilometers carrying their children
on their back and sleeping in
forests around a fire and with an
empty stomach. Now they have
been sleeping for three years on
the floor, without a mattress or a
cover, in a shelter the government
has provided for them.
We were introduced to eight
families from our denomination,

some with many children and
even an old minister and his
wife. The first thing we do is buy
them bedding but with the money
we have we can afford mattresses
only for three families, the rest are
waiting we may not forget them
when we come back to Europe.
We buy some tools and seeds so
that they may cultivate some land
the church has and the plots the
government has given them at the
side of the big roads. One can see
young and old, women carrying
their babies on their back and
even children removing the trash
from the land so that they may
plant something.
The Good Samaritan leader wants
to show us something. We travel
along the muddy roads and even
get stuck in the mud before we
arrive to a very poor neighborhood
and go to the house of a sister who
for nine months has been sitting
and sleeping on a mattress on
the floor. One of her legs is in a
state of organic decomposition. A
neighbor who is a nurse assists her
but nobody has been able to heal
her. She cannot afford going to the
doctor since her husband who is a
teacher earns 10 dollars a month!
We give her U$200 and the next
day we hear she has been operated
and is in intensive care.

Our tour is not yet over, there
is more to see. We drive to a
place near the river. It looks very
picturesque but the reality of many
people who live on the banks of
the Congo river is nothing to
covet. One of our pastors lives
there with his large family in a
house made of wood. Every now
and then his temporary dwelling
collapses or is blown away by
the inclemency of the weather
and he has to improvise another
one. Mosquitoes abound in that
area and the threat of malaria
is always present. He needs to
buy bricks to build a permanent
dwelling place but where can he
obtain the necessary means for
that? Lord, only you can multiply
the means we have!
We are taken to the home of
another minister of the gospel.
This brother has nine children,
two of them are stark naked.
Besides this fact, I notice as I
step into that room three by three
with a dust floor and no furniture,
that there is practically no roof.
„It is the rainy season, how do
you do when there are those
heavy showers at night?” I ask
him naively. With a patient smile
he answers: „We spend the night
standing against the wall.” (It
rained almost everyday we were

in Kinshasa… U$500 for a roof, a
door and windows is for them out
of the question since our workers
do not have a salary and the more
members the church gets the more
people in need of assistance there
are.
There are hundreds of roofl ess
homes and homeless people, there
are millions of starving and sick
children and adults, and even if we
are few and have little, as little as
the handful of fl our and the little oil
in a cruse the widow of Zarephath
had, if we are willing to share with
those who are more needy than we
are, the Lord can work miracles
not only for the people in Congo
but for the whole world.
But let us not forget that the greatest
gift we can give those people is to
prepare the way for Jesus’ second
coming because, only then will
poverty, sickness and death be
uprooted forever. Maranatha! say
the people in Congo all the time.
Let us do everything on our part
so that theirs and our wish may be
answered. „Surely I come quickly”
said Jesus. „Amen, even so, come
Lord Jesus.” (Rev. 22:20).

–T. Corti
The Good Samaritan Team

“Among earth’s inhabitants, scattered
in every land, there are those who
have not bowed the knee to Baal. Like
the stars of heaven, which appear only
at night, these faithful ones will shine
forth when darkness covers the earth
and gross darkness the people. In
heathen Africa, in the Catholic lands
of Europe and of South America, in
China, in India, in the islands of the
sea, and in all the dark corners of the
earth, God has in reserve a fi rmament
of chosen ones that will yet shine forth
amidst the darkness revealing clearly
to an apostate world the transforming
power of obedience to His law.”
–Prophets and Kings, pp. 188, 189.