submittted by Carolyn Jacobs
André Zoule, president/bishop of the Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic (CAR), and Simone Baigo-Dari, president of the Lutheran women’s organization there, visited our synod in Houston, in October. They spoke at Christ the King Church, during the adult class, about the Lutheran church in CAR, and about a women’s training and cultural center that is soon to be built in Bouar. Our synod and two others in North Dakota are partner synods with the church in CAR. We are supporting the women’s center, which will serve for meetings, for literacy and vocational skills classes, and will provide beds for women who come from a distance to attend workshops.
I had the privilege of interpreting for our French-speaking visitors on several occasions during their week in Houston. Bishop Zoule and Madame Baigo-Dari seemed impressed by the social service facilities of Christian Community Services Emergency Center and of the Houston Area Women’s Center. At the Houston Area Women’s Center, a wall of drawings by abused children especially caught the eye of Simone and led her to talk about the problem of raising women’s awareness of what constitutes abusive behavior by husbands. They also mentioned the difficulty of recruiting volunteers in CAR because people are so busy trying to make ends meet.
As we strolled through the Galleria to see the ice-rink, I wondered what it must be like to come from a country which has so little in the way of material comforts to a land where there is such abundance. Two thirds of the people of CAR live below the international poverty rate of $1 per day. Two thirds do not have safe drinking water, sanitation, or health services. One Web site gives these telling statistics: For every 1000 people in CAR, there are 6 televisions, 2 land-line phones, 3 cell phones, and 1.9 PCs. During his stay here, Bishop Zoule remarked on how much people eat. Both our guests were impressed by the good quality leather shoes they saw that are not available there. Another comment was how busy people are here.
CAR has experienced political and social turmoil for some years, although there has been improvement in recent months. At a welcome dinner, Simone was asked: “What questions do you have for us?” After thinking a moment, she replied: “We experience ourselves as living in chaos. What did you [in the U.S.] do to come out of the chaos and develop your country?” What a humbling question. Both Bishop Zoule and Madame Baigo-Dari showed such immediacy in their faith. Perhaps it is the experience of chaos and want that leads to such strong and expressive faith. They also showed that humor and warmth, especially apparent when they spoke to each other in Songho, their national language, that I have observed between Africans in other contexts. We have much to learn from our sisters and brothers in the Central African Republic.