Best viewed at minimum 600px screen width (Rotate your device to landscape orientation)
Featured Advertiser
Visit our
Christian Business Directory
Be inspired by a true African hero
Church in the Community - Media Release in the Herald: 13 February 2023
Source: TCN / Russell Viljoen
Date Added: 2023-02-13
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General,
Date Added: 2023-02-13
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General,
In late January this year, I returned from an international pastors’ conference in Stockholm Sweden.
It was my seventh trip to Sweden but my first in the heart of the northern winter – and my last! While it was really cold, I was exposed to something extremely heart-warming and lifechanging during the conference.
There is a Biblical saying that “a prophet is not without honour except in his own country.”
This was so true when I first heard about one of the main speakers in the conference, a certain Dr Denis Mukwege from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
It was extremely surprising to most of my Swedish friends when I told them that I had not heard of the man.
There were about 1 000 pastors and leaders from 62 different countries with the main speakers from Ukraine, Bangladesh, South Sudan and Dr Mukwege from the DRC.
The moment he arrived you could sense a quiet stir in the crowd as this tall, elegant, and handsome man took to the stage.
He spoke in French with an English translator, but his spirit and message could be felt reverberating through the hearts and minds of most of the hearers in that auditorium. I still was not sure who this man was who spoke with such passion and power accompanied by a humility and modesty that caused his words to cut straight to the heart. After listening to him challenge the whole conference about a church that is too silent in a time when it needs to speak out against a rising tide of human crisis and need, I decided to find out who this man is!
Dr Denis Mukwege is a 67-year-old world renowned Nobel Peace Prize winner Gynaecologist and pastor who founded and works in the “Panzi Hospital” in Bukavu where he specializes in the treatment of women who have been raped by armed rebels.
His story is movingly captured in the documentary movie, “The man who mends women” (free to watch on YouTube - Warning: This true story is unimaginably horrible and unbelievably moving at the same time, like nothing I have ever watched in my life).
It details what the Lord can do through one person amid some of the most brutal human atrocities imaginable.
It is absolutely inspiring to listen to Dr Mukwege’s story of how, in his youth, he would visit the sick with his pastor father and afterward challenge his dad as to how come he could only pray for them but not give them medicine.
His father would reply that he was a pastor and not a doctor. Upon hearing this reply, young Denis decided to become a doctor so that he could help the sick and not just pray for them.
This led him to his medical path in Paris France where he specialized in paediatrics.
On his return to Congo, he encountered countless women and children who had been brutally raped and sexually abused.
This horror moved him to change and specialize in gynaecology so that he could be more effective in treating this scourge.
He soon realized that treating the symptoms only was not enough and that he also needed to address the root causes of the use of rape as a weapon of war.
This decision led him to speak out against the root of this tragedy on huge platforms, before the United Nations, cabinets, and parliaments all over the world.Not everybody was happy about this in his home country and once upon his return from a speaking engagement overseas, there was an assassination attempt on his life in which one of his workers was killed while defending him.
Dr Mukwege had to flee his home and country with his wife and children and ended up in Europe.
Amazingly, the women and community of his hometown started to sell their harvest of pineapples to pay for his flight back home.
When Dr Mukwege heard this, he could not remain safely and comfortably in exile in Europe while there was a cry for help from his people.
Fearfully he and his family made the decision to return home and continue their work of helping to mend the broken and devastated lives of sexually abused women.
He returned to a hero’s welcome in the Congo and was greeted by literally thousands of people who thronged the streets.
The people declared him to be their father and saviour. This illustrates the huge impact that Dr Mukwege’s work has had upon the life of his nation.
Dr Mukwege literally lives and works as a prisoner for the Lord in his country as daily he is guarded and escorted by United Nations soldiers and vehicles.
Imagine that – a Pentecostal pastor daily guarded and escorted by UN soldiers!
I don’t think my life and purpose will be the same after being exposed to such bravery and faith during unimaginable pain and devastation.
I pray that you, the reader, will please take the time and watch the documentary of this vessel and tool of the Lord, and be inspired to be the solution to the challenges around us.
To all the pastors and leaders, I end with a quote from Dr Mukwege himself, “I identify every woman raped with my wife, I identify every mother raped with my own mother, and every child raped with my own children...How can we remain silent?”
Russell Viljoen
Pastor at Ebenezer North Community Church
It was my seventh trip to Sweden but my first in the heart of the northern winter – and my last! While it was really cold, I was exposed to something extremely heart-warming and lifechanging during the conference.
There is a Biblical saying that “a prophet is not without honour except in his own country.”
This was so true when I first heard about one of the main speakers in the conference, a certain Dr Denis Mukwege from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
It was extremely surprising to most of my Swedish friends when I told them that I had not heard of the man.
There were about 1 000 pastors and leaders from 62 different countries with the main speakers from Ukraine, Bangladesh, South Sudan and Dr Mukwege from the DRC.
The moment he arrived you could sense a quiet stir in the crowd as this tall, elegant, and handsome man took to the stage.
He spoke in French with an English translator, but his spirit and message could be felt reverberating through the hearts and minds of most of the hearers in that auditorium. I still was not sure who this man was who spoke with such passion and power accompanied by a humility and modesty that caused his words to cut straight to the heart. After listening to him challenge the whole conference about a church that is too silent in a time when it needs to speak out against a rising tide of human crisis and need, I decided to find out who this man is!
Dr Denis Mukwege is a 67-year-old world renowned Nobel Peace Prize winner Gynaecologist and pastor who founded and works in the “Panzi Hospital” in Bukavu where he specializes in the treatment of women who have been raped by armed rebels.
His story is movingly captured in the documentary movie, “The man who mends women” (free to watch on YouTube - Warning: This true story is unimaginably horrible and unbelievably moving at the same time, like nothing I have ever watched in my life).
It details what the Lord can do through one person amid some of the most brutal human atrocities imaginable.
It is absolutely inspiring to listen to Dr Mukwege’s story of how, in his youth, he would visit the sick with his pastor father and afterward challenge his dad as to how come he could only pray for them but not give them medicine.
His father would reply that he was a pastor and not a doctor. Upon hearing this reply, young Denis decided to become a doctor so that he could help the sick and not just pray for them.
This led him to his medical path in Paris France where he specialized in paediatrics.
On his return to Congo, he encountered countless women and children who had been brutally raped and sexually abused.
This horror moved him to change and specialize in gynaecology so that he could be more effective in treating this scourge.
He soon realized that treating the symptoms only was not enough and that he also needed to address the root causes of the use of rape as a weapon of war.
This decision led him to speak out against the root of this tragedy on huge platforms, before the United Nations, cabinets, and parliaments all over the world.Not everybody was happy about this in his home country and once upon his return from a speaking engagement overseas, there was an assassination attempt on his life in which one of his workers was killed while defending him.
Dr Mukwege had to flee his home and country with his wife and children and ended up in Europe.
Amazingly, the women and community of his hometown started to sell their harvest of pineapples to pay for his flight back home.
When Dr Mukwege heard this, he could not remain safely and comfortably in exile in Europe while there was a cry for help from his people.
Fearfully he and his family made the decision to return home and continue their work of helping to mend the broken and devastated lives of sexually abused women.
He returned to a hero’s welcome in the Congo and was greeted by literally thousands of people who thronged the streets.
The people declared him to be their father and saviour. This illustrates the huge impact that Dr Mukwege’s work has had upon the life of his nation.
Dr Mukwege literally lives and works as a prisoner for the Lord in his country as daily he is guarded and escorted by United Nations soldiers and vehicles.
Imagine that – a Pentecostal pastor daily guarded and escorted by UN soldiers!
I don’t think my life and purpose will be the same after being exposed to such bravery and faith during unimaginable pain and devastation.
I pray that you, the reader, will please take the time and watch the documentary of this vessel and tool of the Lord, and be inspired to be the solution to the challenges around us.
To all the pastors and leaders, I end with a quote from Dr Mukwege himself, “I identify every woman raped with my wife, I identify every mother raped with my own mother, and every child raped with my own children...How can we remain silent?”
Russell Viljoen
Pastor at Ebenezer North Community Church
Source: TCN / Russell Viljoen
Date Added: 2023-02-13
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General,
Back to News IndexDate Added: 2023-02-13
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General,
_______________________________________________
Please read our disclaimer
This section of our site aims to keep you informed about news in the local church, and worldwide.
Please email us any items of interest.
Please email us any items of interest.
 |
| Christian News to strengthen God's people at www.gatewaynews.co.za News that is fresh, relevant, edifying and which glorifies Jesus! |
Worthy News is a website with a good selection of news articles from around the world in a number of categories, both Christian and secular. They also offer a free subsciption service to deliver daily news headlines to your email box. Click here to pay them a visit.