Grace Stories

You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
"Here is your God!"

See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.

He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.

Isaiah 40:9-11

Advent is a time for stories. In my childhood, these weeks were filled with Sunday school pageants, beautifully illustrated children's books, and swapping out Legos for the figurines in my mom’s Nativity collection. My favorite part of the Advent story was always the gathering of unlikely companions — magi, shepherds, angels, and a menagerie of farm animals. This year, I find the Advent story accompanied by another, and it starts like this:

Gold, frankincense, myrrh: precious gifts carried by three magi for the King of kings and Lord of lords. Gold, coltan, diamonds: precious gifts of Creation held in the earth of Congo, taken by the "kings" of powerful nations for the commodities of their people. Coltan alone can be found in the cell phones, hearing aids, and prosthetic devices we use in the West every day. These gifts have become a curse with the massacre of over 5.5 million Congolese, numbers nearly equal to the Holocaust. Yet Congo’s conflict remains mostly silent.

I first met Dr. Edwige Mubonzi and Pastor Kubisa Sosthene at Grace University Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minn. We were all newcomers at Grace — I had just returned to my home state after a year of service in Washington, D.C., and they had left their home in Congo and were now living in Minnesota. Through them, I am learning the story of Congo.

Dr. Mubonzi and Pastor Sosthene are healers, their ministries poignantly connected. As an OBGYN, Dr. Mubonzi performs reparative surgery for women whose bodies have been traumatized by rape as a tool of war. Her patients are from three months to 76 years old. As the sole female physician, Dr. Mubonzi brought comfort to women who fear and distrust male touch. Pastor Sosthene’s ministry Let Africa Live rescues children who have been drugged, armed, and trained as soldiers for the militia. In his vocational schools, guns are traded for tools, and his colleagues work to bring reconciliation between these children and the communities they ravaged.

After sharing at adult forums around the Twin Cities, they are often asked, "Where do you find hope?" Pastor Sosthene responds, "It is hard, because hope means you have some vision of how things will be in the future. No one knows what will happen in Congo. But what gives me hope is the grace of God that I see in all we meet who hear our story and help us share it, who open the eyes of the world to what is happening in Congo."

I am moved by Edwige and Kubisa; by their ministry, their courage, their embodiment of peace and grace, and their resilient trust in the power and love of God. I cannot fathom what their eyes have seen. That is why I need to hear their story. I believe that as Christians, we are called to be vigilant, to awake and see both the beauty of Creation and when it is violated by injustice.

Advent is a time for stories. Storytelling is central to our humanity, and part of our ability to survive and thrive. Yet sometimes, more than words are needed to gain our attention. God’s message of grace and love is so important for us to know that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God continues to dwell among us as we answer the call to be healers together, as a gathering of unlikely companions. Like Kubisa, it is in this embodied grace that I find hope for Congo and all places where there is injustice, and can declare, "Here is your God."

Amen.

WATCH Let Africa Live (Laissez L’Afrique Vivre) here. 

Amy Chatelaine lives in St. Paul, MN and works for the Minnesota AIDS Project.