BY NORMAN WETTERAU, MD
Image courtesy of NorthwesternNow
Africa is in the news. USAID has been cut off, and due to lack of medications, children are already dying from TB and HIV. Some children may die from starvation. Other groups (church and Bill Gates) are trying to make up for the loss of USAID. According to Dr. Marx, this is affecting Free Methodists children. Could your church help make up this lost aid? (go to congohealth.org and also to gocaho.org)
Eastern Congo has been in the news. There has been a civil war and the Free Methodists have major churches there. The good news is that the rebel army stopped before reaching our hospital in Nundu and the 50 clinics in the area. The hospital and clinics remain open. However, rebels do occupy many areas further north where there are Free Methodist Churches. A truce has just been announced, and we will have to pray it will hold.
Several years ago we had an article on the civil war and Dr. Mukwege, a Christian doctor in Eastern Congo who won the Nobel Peace Prize. He is an ob-gyn specialist who operates on women who have been sexually abused and whose sexual organs have been badly damaged. He is also outspoken in his Christian testimony and on the need for the civil war to end.
Christianity Today (May-June 2025) has a major article on the situation in Eastern Congo and on Dr. Mukwege. It is a long article and gives many details of the 30 years of war in Eastern Congo. It also details what Dr. Mukwege and his hospital are doing. In spite of all the evil, God is at work. Dr. Mukwege’s work and Nobel Peace Prize are great testimonies to Christ's work in the world today. (read from CT, May 2025, or try this link: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/05/inside-crowded-hospital-congo-rape-victims/)
In late June, the United States brokered a treaty between Congo and Rwanda. The rebels were not asked to sign, but the two countries that back them did sign. Also, the United States was going to become involved in the mining of rare minerals which hopefully will be better than China, the rebels, and Rwanda. Because the Free Methodist Church is so involved in medical work in eastern Congo, I would encourage our members to pray for peace there and to keep up to date on what is happening.
Ask people in your church to pray. Do our members know how our brothers and sisters are suffering? On the other hand, do they rejoice because our hospital is still open? Do they rejoice over the work of Dr. Mukwege who is such a Christian witness to love and healing in that hurting region?