J Ron Byler
MCC U.S. Executive Director
RonByler@mcc.org
“Now I am looking toward a future for my children,” Matthieu Kisanula’s mother shares in this issue.
What better endorsement could there be for MCC’s Global Family education program?
This issue of A Common Place features two Global Family projects I have personally visited — one in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and one in Burundi.
In Eastern Congo, the ongoing conflict between armed groups has resulted in more than 2 million internally displaced people.
When I visited Mubimbi, a camp for displaced people, a year ago, MCC was sponsoring 120 children and youth like Matthieu. MCC provides school kits and pays school fees. MCC also is assisting the parents in the camp to grow their own food.
In the Mutaho region of Burundi, the children of the marginalized Twa people are able to attend the MCC-supported Hope School. Some walk up to three hours to get there.
The school significantly reduces the discrimination the Twa people face in the majority Hutu and Tutsi community. Almost half of these children traditionally would not have received any education. The principal of the school told me, “You are God’s footsteps. The hope we have is because of MCC.”
The prophet Isaiah tells us that the kind of worship God desires is worship rooted in care for the poor, people who are hungry and without a home.
With your help, MCC’s ministries support people in need around the world. This is the kind of worship, the prophet says, that will result in our lights rising in the darkness.
