Our friends are calling on our prayers and help!

We heard from our Amahoro friends in Eastern Congo confirming that the situation is increasingly brutal. Our friends visited camps and communities in the north and south of Goma and their findings reveal that civilians continue to face widespread brutality after they have fled from the heart of the fighting.

In camps across North Kivu women have been raped while searching for food and firewood, children are being separated from their families and recruited into armed groups.

Our friends told us that they feel like they are the living dead and that their lives no longer have any value. They feel like the world has forgotten them once again and even the Christian communities are nowhere to be seen or heard.

Our friends need us to pressure our western governments to redouble their efforts to secure a ceasefire and to providing immediate additional support to the UN peacekeepers. They need us to dispatch immediate support through the few humanitarian organizations that are still in place and, most importantly, they need us to intercede for them.
Here is some context regarding the Congo conflict:

•    An estimated 5.4 million people dead since 1998
•    Around 1 million people made homeless
•    Rape used as a systematic weapon of war

Despite the signing of a peace deal in 2002 and democratic elections in 2006, there is still instability in the eastern region of the country.
A quarter of a million people have been forced to flee their homes since late August 2008 as a result of intense fighting between the forces of rebel general Laurent Nkunda and Congolese army soldiers and their allied militia. People have dispersed over a vast, inhospitable area without access to shelter, water, food, and medicines.
The fighting has severely hampered the ability of aid agencies to reach those in need.

We have a long way to go in helping:

Helping communities rebuild their lives is a major task.
Up to 1 million people have been living in camps for displaced people within the DR Congo
A million more people sought refuge in neighboring Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi.
People have lost virtually everything – family, friends, homes and their means of making a living!  The systematic practice of rape and sexual slavery has led to the rapid advance of HIV and AIDS

We are working with the Amahoro network in Goma, which is involved in many recovery efforts, and we hope you will join us in sending them financial support as well as render them our voice through the One Campaign: Help Congo: Sign the ONE Declaration.

If you want to be part of this effort financially, please send your gift to Amahoro Africa, P.O.Box 8867 - Surprise, AZ  85374 - We will make sure 100% of it goes to our friends in the Congo.

You can also give with your credit card here:

… I am finally coming around to sending this update.

We returned home in early September.  Since then, I have been to Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica and Houston, Texas. We have also hosted a number of friends in our home, and as a matter of fact, this is the first week we have been home and with no friends filling our guestrooms! It’s been a very exciting season and we look forward to an even more exciting future as we prepare to move back to Burundi in February 2009. In Burundi, we will continue to give leadership to the Amahoro Africa. In addition, we will also endeavor to live out the words of Proverbs 31:8-9: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” - (more on this in the months to come).
Our summer started with our annual Amahoro Gathering in Rwanda, which was a huge success.  One of the highlights for me during our time together was a member of the Batwa community of Burundi, Etienne, sharing his story and of the struggle of his people (one of the three ethnic groups of Burundi we too seldom hear about). Etienne Ndayishimiye is also a member of parliament of the Burundian Government. He articulated the deep hurt of those often ridiculed by their countrymen, marginalized and shut out from opportunity, suffering generations of injustice.   He spoke of hope for the Batwa, his dream to see God bring a better future for his community.  I found myself sharing his hope for the Batwa, as did others in the room that were rapt by his testimony of life from the margins.

During one of the field trips, some friends and I walked through the Batwa village of Bubanza alongside Etienne.  The sparse living conditions caught the attention of all present, but also the joyful countenance of the Batwa people.  God began stirring something in the hearts and imaginations of all of us as we drove away that day.  Our encounter with ‘the least of these’ in Burundi captivated us.

Amahoro Africa is working to see the Gospel of Jesus bringing transformation to communities across Africa.  We facilitate holistic transformation by encouraging, resourcing and connecting emerging African leaders who are committed to the tangible manifestation of justice, mercy and goodness in their local context. We do this by creating space for conversation, connection and action.  The Gathering is our annual convening of such friends to move forward in Christ and in stride with one another.

This year, The Gathering will be hosted in Soweto, South Africa. After two years of coming together (Uganda 2007 and Rwanda 2008), The Gathering this year promises to be the best gathering yet. South Africa is a beautiful country in many respects. Some parts of South Africa have been classified as the ‘best in the world.’  However, what happened in South Africa in 1994 was of historical import,  the first time the blacks and coloureds were allowed to vote and then the first black African president, Nelson Mandela, was elected. From that day, Africa started hoping again.  So many across Africa sensed the birth of a new African Era.  New possibilities were on the horizon.

I believe the election of Barack Obama in the US just confirmed that the West has entered a new season as well.  There is a new chapter that needs to be written in the world and the  global Church is looking to Africa, the cradle of humanity (and to Asia and South America), for the emergence of a reformed and renewed paradigm in Christian thinking and practice.

Emerging Christian leaders in Africa are giving voice to what is being birthed – not so much to give answers, craft doctrines, or create structures – but they are asking the difficult questions and grappling with the very real challenges of interpreting the gospel in a  Kingdom way and establishing God’s Kingdom in a still fractured world.
In this note, I really want to encourage you to consider joining us in South Africa this coming June 2009.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, a transformational adventure. I know the times are hard economically but I want to suggest to you that this will be a Kingdom investment that will have lasting dividends.

Please visit www.amahorogathering.org for more information.

Claude Nikondeha