Do you remember what it was like when your children were born?I remember the colors in the room.The bright lights, the vibrant wall hangings, the pinkness of a new baby's skin, the glowing look in Ann's eyes as we beheld that miracle of life; our newborn sons and daughters.

Imagine having a baby in the pitch dark of night? The midwife or doctor who delivered your baby did so by kerosene lamp or flashlight in a dimly lit room….and now you are alone in the dark. Your pain and uncertainty is augmented by the darkness.Who is looking after your newborn child; is he breathing as he should; how is his color, what will happen if you start bleeding?

A disturbingly high number of mothers and babies die in Congo in the hours during and shortly after delivery due to the inability to see. In fact Congo has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world…. caused most often by a lack of light!

There are many problems in Africa we can't fix….but lighting and safe delivery are ones we should be able to resolve.Thanks to assistance from our American Baptist supported medical relief program we are currently installing solar powered lights in maternities and hospitals across Congo (over 500 solar systems to date) in some of the most isolated and ‘difficult-to-get-to places' in the world!

This past week I was in Eastern Congo, traveling though South Kivu Province, site of continued fighting between the perpetrators of the 1990 Rwandan genocide (Interhamwe rebels) and UN backed government troops.Many of the hospitals in this area had electricity and running water 10 and 15 years ago …but that was before the war.Any remnant of a power plant has long since fallen into disrepair, and remaining electric cables, transformers and lights were pillaged during half a decade of fighting.It will be years, if ever, before electricity is restored to these areas.The hospitals and maternities are now open…..but few services are provided after dark due to the paucity of light. Imagine the distress of going into labor or having an acutely ill child in the middle of the night and having to wait for the light of day for safe care? Not any more in hundreds of hospitals and health centers across Congo where solar-powered lights are bringing light to darkness.

The Good News of Jesus Christ has the same effect; bringing certainty where there was doubt and hope where there was despair.

We are mindful of your continued prayers and faithful support which allow us to bring not only physical light to birthing rooms across Congo ………but spiritual light to combat the darkness which permeates this troubled nation in the heart of Africa?

Shine Jesus shine,

Bill and Ann Clemmer

Kinshasa

Democratic Republic of Congo