Widows, Orphans, and Strangers
by Kathryn Wilkes
Summer 2005

God has a special soft spot for the people of this world who are weak, vulnerable, and in need. When someone cares about something they talk about it a lot in many different contexts and many different ways. This is how God is with widows, orphans, and strangers. Continually throughout the Bible the people of God are called on to defend, care for, and protect these groups. The book of James calls it "true religion" when we care for the widows and orphans in their distress. True religion is happening at the Kamina Orphaned Children’s Home.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has undergone many years of oscillating peace and violence. In the final years of the 21st century this country went through a massive upheaval after the fall of long time dictator Mobutu Sece Seko. In the midst of the chaos and instability many foreign troops and rebel armies took over land especially rich in minerals. There have been many deaths in the process, but equally as tragic has been the complete upheaval of communities, tribes, and cultures as people fled from the storm.

Kamina DRC was blessed because of its location. It is not near a border, nor the much sought after minerals. It did not escape the turmoil unscathed, but was not a major battle ground. For this reason tens of thousands of people fled towards this island of semi-security. Among these displaced people were hundreds of orphans.

Often following the death of parents, children are taken in by other family members. Unfortunately the speed and quantity of children orphaned at this time was more than the community could absorb. Hundreds of children in Kamina alone were left without parents or means of survival. In 1997 the United Methodist Church in the North Katanga District responded to this need by opening an abandoned children’s home. It started with 6 children, grew to around 40 in 2000, and is currently at 47 and growing. The children originally selected were those who were seen to be most at risk.

George, the most recent member of the orphanage family, is one such child. His parents died during the violence and he and his older sister fled to Kamina. The Methodist church did not have capacity at this time for all the orphaned children, so partnered with UMCOR in creating an external feeding program. Orphaned and at risk children living with extended relatives were fed three times per week. George was a part of this program until his sister got married to a man in the Congolese army and was moved to a neighboring village.

A few months ago George turned up once again at the door of the feeding program. A pastor’s wife found him there and learned that his sister no longer felt she could care for him and left with her husband. George somehow made his way to Kamina because he remembered, though it had been a couple of years, that here women had fed and cared for him. So like any of God’s creations he returned to that place. He is now living at the orphanage with his 46 new brothers and sisters and undergoing medical treatment for some fairly serious wounds he had on his arm.

Women were also left vulnerable from the violence of war. Many lost their husbands and therefore the means of survival for the entire family. It was some of these women that the church hired to care for and raise the orphaned children. The vulnerable serving the vulnerable and thereby both being made stronger is a further stroke in painting of the picture of the kingdom.

The final paint stroke in this picture is Mama Alfo, the second in command, and one of the many internally displaced people within the DRC. In biblical terms, Mama Alfo is a stranger. She and her husband were helicopter evacuated from Manono, an area rich in coltan known as black gold, after a bomb exploded next to her husband, severely burning most of his body and damaging his eyes and ears. The church in Kamina sent him to Lubumbashi and later Belgium to undergo massive surgeries and gave Alfo a job caring for the children at the orphanage.

The Kamina orphanage is a picture of new life. Each stroke adds new depth and color to the already breathtaking portrait of the widows, orphans, and strangers caring and being cared for. Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God is at hand and when I stand in this place I know that it is true.

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