The equipment did have an unintended consequence, however. “The rope swing was finished on the team’s first day and proved so popular that it contributed to truancy at school,” says Kent Pastor Keith Carpenter. “Sabuli Sanguma remedied the problem by giving a stern lecture to those skipping school – and then sending them back to their classes.” Sanguma is the wife of Dr. Mossai Sanguma, president of the Congo Evangelical Covenant Church (CEUM).
President Sanguma had dreamed of building a playground for children living in the midst of the AIDS crisis – kids who also have endured a civil war, watching airplanes drop their bombs. “Sanguma’s heart has the vision for a place for kids to be kids,” says Dan Peterson, director of the Paul Carlson Partnership (PCP), who accompanied the team.
Work is just beginning on the playground. In addition to the rope swing, workers built a swing set and teeter-totter. Two hundred children swarmed the playground, Peterson said. “They would have 11 kids on the teeter-totter. It was amazing.”
Even adults had to be shown how to use the equipment, Peterson says, recalling a young man who received a lesson about using the swing set. “He had to be shown how to kick his legs forward.”
The three-person team from Kent – Ted Stephens, Roger Yurczyk and Carpenter – traveled from September 25 to October 6. The group also determined which school buildings will get new roofs and assessed electrical and plumbing needs.
The team was enlisted for several other projects as well. Those included rebuilding a birthing table, a cabinet, and an administrative table for the hospital in Bokonzo. They also built a table stand for a grinder provided by PCP that is used for milling corn, peanuts, coffee and other items.
Also traveling with the team were two women from Rolling Hills Covenant Church – Divina Apollinaro, a nurse, and Rosa Alvarez, a family therapist. They assessed needs at the hospitals in Bokonzo and Loko. “Divina was wonderful at Bokonzo and gave immunizations for two days,” Peterson says. “She just dove right in for two mornings.”
“It was so much fun, and yet it was heart-wrenching at the same time,” Apollinaro says. She returned to Rolling Hills ready to encourage the congregation, which already is supporting the Loko hospital, to continue with the assistance.
Kent Covenant hopes to send another group in February and at least one additional team later on to fulfill its commitment of providing $100,000 for school roofs and filling other urgent needs.
Peterson hopes more churches will work with PCP on specific projects, noting that building these new relationships not only benefit the people of Congo, but the churches as well.
Covenant missionary Bob Thornbloom accompanied the workers. To see additional photos, please visit New Playground.
