read the cover of Time Magazine in 1994, quoting missionary Karen Homer during the Rwandan genocide.

Few in this part of Africa could ever forget the stories of the estimated one million people who were brutally killed at the hand of machetes and axes in a conflict between two rival ethnic groups in the East African country of Rwanda which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo where we serve.

Nine years later it seems the demons have resurfaced, this time on the Congo side of the border where many responsible for the genocide were chased into the forest or blended into refugee camps set up by humanitarian organizations.And indeed the killings have started up again as the perpetrators have come out of hiding to prey upon an unsuspecting population of largely women and children in Eastern Congo.

After flying from our base in Kinshasa (Western Congo) our Christian health team entered Congo through the back door via Kenya and Rwanda to visit Eastern Congo, severed from the rest of the country by a lingering rebel war.Driving in a rented jeep I visited health districts and former Christian mission stations in South Kivu Province where missionaries left some 8 -10 years ago at the start of the war.The roads are not safe to drive on between dusk and dawn; even our driver removed his watch and personal belongings and gave them to security personnel as we passed the check point out of Bukavu into the lush hills of South Kivu…..where silver-backed gorillas used to breed…. but now soldiers lurk waiting for human prey.

At each hospital, clinic and health center along the way we see the same picture; men, women and children, survivors who were attacked and maimed by armed elements in the forest.In the lakeside city of Goma, site of a devastating volcanic eruption in 2002, Christian surgeon, Dr Joe Lusi took me on a tour of his surgical center (DOCS) where victims from surrounding villages come for medical, surgical treatment and spiritual support. Joe and his staff have set up ‘trauma wards" to hold these newcomers; row after row of people with traumatic injuries including amputations, bullet wounds, a man whose tongue was severed and then shot through the mouth for ‘informing', a child who fled in fear when his family was being attacked and escaped with a bullet lodged in his thigh (his family long since dead), an infant shot in the side of the face and left for dead…..and women, many women,who were raped and then disfigured, or shot, or had their legs broken. Unspeakable atrocities.

No one knows the number of victims but it is clear from hospital records that the number is rising and the level of brutality staggering."Demonic," is how one Christian missionary based in the city of Bukavu described the current situation.What would possess people to do such things…to men, to women, to young girls…to children?Demons indeed have resurfaced in the lush hills of Eastern Congo…and we have a responsibility to bring these stories home.

My last stop was an orphanage in the relative safety of one of the cities started by a Christian couple who themselves fled in fear when rebels attacked their village and indiscriminately started to slaughter…. whomever. The couple managed to run into the woods with their 8 children…as well as collect and hide 60 other children who had fled as their parents were being beaten, raped and killed.This couple with then 68 children hid in the forest for over a month miraculously avoiding the soldiers in the midst.When they found a road, they walked by night and hid by day….two months later arriving in the city of Goma.Many of the children were malnourished when they arrived and several had to be hospitalized. But not one died. The couple settled in an abandoned five room dwelling and named their home "Orphanage de Marie Jean."Other children found on the road or who had escaped similar carnages, were later brought to them.The children today, number 127, many with physical scars from machete wounds or bullets...all with emotional scars of lost parents who were captured or brutally slain by the demons in the forest.

Two children who recently arrived related a chilling tale, all too familiar in this current setting.When rebels attacked their village the two children, ages around 6 and 8 quickly ran into the forest and hid. Their parents and other siblings however, were not so lucky. The next day when the two children ventured tenuously back home they found with horror their parent's severed heads just outside the door…and inside: bloodied clothes and remnants of their bodies. They fled and hid for what Jean Marie estimates was several months.The children have surprisingly assimilated into the orphanage finding refuge with others who share similar experiences, and with loving care-givers who lead them in song and prayer each night and assure them that Jesus watches over them as they sleep.The two children have written a song about their traumatic experience,,, "we fled our village" they sing in Swahili, "and ran and ran…we went from village ‘x' to village' y'…we saw no one …and ran and ran…we came upon a road and followed it for days…and ran and ran…we came to Goma and saw Jesus…… and he opened his arms to us and welcomed us home."

It is hard to know how to respond to the sweet voices of children, relating in song, horrors that I cannot fathom.I take comfort in the verse "He who is in us… is greater than he who is in the world".Our testimony is that there is one in the world; sometimes subtle and sometimes overt…but who is both evil and destructive.Hell is not void of demons, of that I am sure…but I am equally convinced that, like the orphans of genocide in Congo, to those who fall into the waiting arms of Jesus…there is nothing in this world or out of this world which can pull us away and separate us from the one who has the power to overcome such evil...for all eternity. (Rom 8:38)

In faith…. and in the promises, of God

Bill

William C. Clemmer, MD
American Baptist Missionary
IMA Representative to SANRU III
Democratic Republic of Congo