New organization finds ‘life challenge’ in river blindness By Ben C. Mathes The Presbyterian Layman Nov/Dec, 1997 They can be found in almost any church library. Usually they are dusty and left alone on the bottom shelf. This is where most of the old books on missions can be located. Mission books reflect some of the most adventurous history of the Presbyterian Church. In 1994, I found a copy of Kapitan of the Congo, an amazing story of the missionary effort in the Kasai Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (the former Zaire). Hippos, jungles, snakes, and crocodiles filled each page with thrilling accounts of carrying the Gospel “up country” on a steamship. Imagine traveling the heart of Africa by boat. What would it be like to actually camp and sleep on sandbars? How would people living in remote villages accept the presence of visitors obviously from another country? The more I read, the more excited I became about the possibilities for a mission adventure like none other. I shared my dream with Presbyterian elder Thomas Webb of Meridian, Miss., Dr. J. B. Norton of Little Rock, Ark., Rev. Chris Price of Dunwoody, Ga., U.S. Marine Corpsman Marcel Telders, and other close friends. We decided to trace a portion of the route of the old steamship “Lapsley” (see book review, p. 20). We chose the San Kuru River as our expedition route. Our goal would be to travel the river, see who lives there, and find out what life is like – and if there would be a life challenge that we could address together. A life challenge We launched our trip July 8, 1995 (see Nov/Dec 1995 Layman). Presbyterian missionaries David and Paul Law provided the ship – the Kuto Misa. With five Zairians and eight Americans, we set out to explore 200 miles of the river – from Lusambo to Idumbe. The experience was unforgettable. Our team conducted a health survey in villages with names like Bungongo, Ntuma, and Kombe-Kombe. We showed the “Jesus Film” to enthusiastic crowds. With a generator and sheets tied in the trees, the life of Christ came alive and was followed by revival after revival. We returned to the States having made wonderful new friends. We also discovered the life challenge facing the people of the river basin. Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, affects the lives of almost everyone on the San Kuru River. The long-term effect of the disease is that a microscopic worm destroys your eye. It is estimated that 4,565,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are infected. About 37,500 are blind as a consequence. An unnecessary disease, river blindness can be controlled with Ivermectin, the same medicine we give our dogs for heartworm! Our team accomplished its goal – to explore the river and to learn the life challenge facing the people we met. What now? Team members from the expedition began to see that this experience could be a model for future mission efforts: Target remote rivers, meet the inhabitants, and work together. ROW (Rivers Of the World) was formed to meet the challenge. Presbyterian elders like Henry Hurt, the editor of The Reader’s Digest, and Lt. Gen. Sam Wilson, president of Hampden-Sydney College, agreed to advise our board. Dr. Paul Law, ROW project coordinator for Zaire, led another expedition down the river in 1996. His team surveyed 18 villages and documented an overall prevalence of onchocerciasis of 95.03 percent. A dime an eye To address this epidemic, he consulted with the Presbyterian Church of Zaire and a famous German ministry, Christoffel Blindenmission. The decision was to educate others to diagnose and treat river blindness. ROW staff in Zaire, Omba Ngandu and Shamba Akasa, participated in the development of a river blindness team. Twenty-five volunteers from as many villages were educated, equipped, and put in place to fight river blindness and offer immunizations to children. For 20 days of the month, the Kuto Misa and her staff plied the San Kuru healing, preaching, and preventing suffering. More than 70,000 tablets of Ivermectin were distributed at a cost of 10 cents an eye! For a dime an eye, people heard the Gospel, and received the medicine that stopped the ravages of river blindness. The project was accepted as a new evangelism effort of the Presbyterian Church of Zaire and confirmed by our own General Assembly in Louisville as the San Kuru River Project. In the midst of their great efforts, a civil war exploded in Zaire. As mission agencies evacuated the country, Paul Law returned to the Kasai Province to care for his parents and assure the safety of ROW staff. Shamba disabled the Kuto Misa. The ship would not be used by either side of the war as a gunship. Paul’s father, David Law, endured an unbelievable adventure to finally escape from soldiers determined to loot Presbyterian hospitals. Omba and Shamba were forced to move their families to Kinshasa, the capital, for reasons of safety. Training goes on As the war continued in Zaire, ROW was actively applying the model created on the San Kuru. To train team members for remote expeditions, Presbyterian churches from Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, and Michigan assisted ROW in the development and construction of a base camp in Belize. Working with the Presbyterian Church of Belize, volunteers are building cabins, a dining hall, and shower facilities on Honey Camp Lagoon. Church teams spend a week at a time working with Presbyterians in Belize. The finished product will be a retreat for churches from the United States and Belize. It will also serve as the base camp for ROW. Before teams launch for remote rivers, they must be trained in every aspect of jungle survival. In June, Presbyterians from across the country launched an expedition down the Napo and Nanay Rivers of Northeastern Peru. Their work included feeding 1,600 people in three villages, performing a health survey similar to the one done in Zaire, participating in revival services, and learning about bacteria that kill black flies (which carry river blindness) and mosquitoes (which carry malaria). The bacteria, called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), can be incubated inside coconuts, which are broken up and thrown into bodies of water. Then, the bacteria kill mosquito or blackfly larvae. ROW is now raising $24,000 to build and operate a lab in Belize and another $24,000 for a lab in Congo specifically for the culture of the bacteria. A lab in Peru is already under way. An exciting time The war is over. Zaire is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. ROW’s work continues along the San Kuru, Napo, and Nanay Rivers. We are about to launch new work in Asia and the Caribbean. Churches are signing up to assist in the construction of our base camp. It’s an exciting time for Presbyterians to be involved in effective, evangelical, and adventurous missionary efforts! A T-shirt we had printed for the San Kuru Expedition says it best, “Si Dieu est pour nous, qui peut etre contre nous?” – if God is for us, who can ever be against us? River blindness can be controlled with bacteria and with drugs. We can stop it while at the same time sharing the compassion of Christ. It only takes 10 cents an eye to make a difference. What is sight worth to you? Our friends in Congo, Peru, and Belize welcome you in the name of Christ! |
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