More Information

Our June-July United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) trip to Democratic Republic of the Congo was certainly in the “adventures of a lifetime” category. We thank all of you who prayed for us to have a safe journey and a successful mission.  Ray is already looking for a surgical team to hook up with next year.  He was able to teach Dr. Kasongo, the intelligent and dedicated Congolese physician, how to repair hernias using mesh.  For all we know this was the first surgery ever performed in that country using that technique?  Diana spent the first week with the majority of the team at Mulungwishi, a site half way between Lubumbashi and Kolwezi. I'd never been able to find it on a map, but as soon as we pulled in - after about 4 hours of going at an average speed of 20 mph over mostly ruts and ditches- I realized I was on a college campus! 

It's actually a missionary outpost where they opened a teacher training college and thus have preschool, kindergarten, primary and secondary schools on site.  Next they opened a theological school where they gave 11 bachelors degrees and 7 masters this year.  Most recently they added the school of information technology and we saw the satellite disc for high-speed Internet access just installed 2 weeks before. 

The clinic there is not actually part of the university but will probably eventually be integrated into it.  The two "super nurses" who run it have dreams for it to become a regional medical center.  Part of the team rotated from Mulungwishi to remote village clinics, Takepi Village the first week where I worked until I joined Ray in Kolwezi for the second week, and Dakula Village the second. 

The churches and the missionaries are certainly providing the bright rays of hope in a country fraught with problems. A little later this year we hope to be able to show you some of our photographs and tell you more about the wonderful work the United Methodist Church is doing in that part of Africa.