Hard-hit Goma Baptists carry on
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GOMA, DR Congo — When molten lava poured through Goma in January, thousands of people lost everything. Among the hardest hit were Goma’s Baptists, led by the Rev Mauka Mathe Bulalo, Legal Representative (chief executive) of the Baptist Community in the Centre of Africa (CBCA). One of a number of Baptist groups in DR Congo, the CBCA centres much of its work in Goma. And that work has been devastated.
“We lost our church, our offices, our guest house and our hospital,” Mr Mauka notes. “I also lost my home. All we have left is our garage.”
Only income
The garage is a working vehicle repair facility that was opened to care for the Baptists’ fleet of vehicles. Later, it was opened to other customers, and now represents the Baptists’ only source of outside income.
As a pastor and denominational leader, perhaps the greatest loss to Mr Mauka personally was his home and library.
“I lost my house, all of my books,
everything!” he exclaimed. “But this is a natural catastrophe.
We accept it on faith, like Job.”
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Chiding those in the West who place their security in material things, the minister expounded his own philosophy of suffering.
“I was born without anything,” he says. “God gave me all that I lost. But he can give again! People in the West have forgotten this. How do we cope with all these disasters? God is our answer.”
He praised the Bible Society of Congo for providing Bibles for pastors, adding, “Now we are waiting for more Bibles for the people!
“Normally, in Goma, every family has one Bible,” he explains. “And they read it! They take it to church every Sunday and study it. But now many have lost their Bible.”
Turning to the Bible Society is natural for the Baptist leader, because Baptist and Bible Society history are intertwined.
Wiped out
“I have worked with the Bible Society for some years,” Mr Mauka recalls. “In fact, the Bible Society office in Goma started in our office. The first person responsible for storing Bibles in Goma was our secretary for evangelism.”
Baptist work in Goma began in 1927, and grew to include a hospital, schools, churches and a guest house, as well as the garage. When the volcano struck, almost 80 years of building was wiped out.
Now Mr Mauka speaks of the daunting task of rebuilding.
“Before the eruption we had 37 employees – now we have just 10,” he notes. “We had to let the others go. Part of the reason is that when we lost the guest house, we lost a good source of income.”
Among the priorities, the hospital comes
first. “The hospital had 188 beds,” he notes. “It was
central to our ministry to the refugees who came from Rwanda in 1994.
Now we have just 17 beds.”
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To replace the hospital will cost US$1.5 million. “Next come the schools,” Mr Mauka says. “We lost 45 classrooms with a replacement cost of more than US$150,000.”
Guest house buried
The guest house – a service to visiting Christians as well as a major source of income – is now buried in the lava. It would require US$350,000 to replace. It would take US$72,000 to replace church-owned houses that were destroyed, and a store that sold crops grown by church members would take more than US$74,000 to replace.
Despite the odds, the Baptists and other
Christians in Goma are pressing forward, planning for the future and
beginning to rebuild. The Bible Society is playing its part by providing
them with the Scriptures they need to sustain their ministries. But
it is clear that the real ‘fuel’ for their recovery comes
from their rock-like faith in a God who is in control, no matter what
the circumstances. (WR 372/18 -
11.02) 