Saint Paul School of Theology to thank partners in Congo mission

Bill Clemmer (left) of Interchurch Medical Assistance and Sillah Sheku (right) of UMCOR help to unload medical supplies for distribution to hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A UMNS photo courtesy of UMCOR.

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*

The Rev. Pamela Couture has a deep interest in peace-building efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is writing a book on the topic.

Couture, the vice president for academic affairs and dean at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo., was planning a research trip to the African nation in January and wondered what type of gift she could bring the people there.

As a result, Saint Paul's and others developed a plan to deliver more than $14 million worth of medicines to Congo.

The United Methodist-related seminary will present four individuals with "Good Samaritan" awards for helping to organize the life-saving delivery. The awards will be part of an April 7 banquet at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown recognizing the contributions of the Saint Paul Council and Board of Trustees.

Recipients include two staff members of the U.S. Department of Defense: Theresa Whalen, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Africa, and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Mark Ellington, regional director for Central and West Africa OSD, African Affairs. The other honorees are Ahmad El Bendary, senior consultant and past CEO of Islamic Relief USA, and Diana Sufian, president, Nour International Relief Aid.

The Rev. Pamela Couture

Couture also will give a public presentation of her research at 2:30 p.m. April 6 at Central United Methodist Church in Kansas City.

Couture's relationship with the Congolese began in 1996 when she and United Methodist Bishop Ntambo Nkulu Ntanda were appointed to serve on the task force for the United Methodist Bishops' Initiative on Children and Poverty. Ntambo had just been elected to serve the North Katanga Episcopal Area in Congo, based in Lubumbashi.

Over an eight-year period, they saw each other every three months. In 2003, Couture accompanied two different church-related groups that were visiting the Congo. "That's when I realized there was a book to be written about what was going on," she said.

Proactive in peacemaking
Couture's goal now is "to write about the Congolese who are not only living lives but also proactively involved in creating peace." The United Methodist Church, she added, "is a major force in all the areas of conflict."

Ntambo presided over the Kamina Peace Conference in 2004, which was funded by United Methodist donations. Couture is focusing her book on peacemaking practices generating from the city of Kamina.

Last October, she spoke with the Rev. James Glass, Saint Paul's vice president of development, about a possible gift for the Congolese people. Glass, who is a retired volunteer chaplain for the U.S. Army, contacted an Army friend who put him in touch with Ellington, who is under Whalen in African Affairs at the Pentagon. The son of Presbyterian missionary parents, Ellington had grown up in Kinshasa.

After some research and discussions with Couture, Ellington proposed focusing the aid on medical assistance. That appealed to Couture, who believes that medicine helps to contribute to peace-building. "Medicine and health care along with basic commodities … are central to being able to create a peace and keep the peace and make the peace," she said.

Ellington connected Glass with Sufian who, in turn, put him in touch with Islamic Relief USA. El Bendary said his organization would fund what was becoming a medical airlift, as long as it went to people in need. The conditions of the gift also required a nongovernmental organization to receive and distribute the aid, and the United Methodist Committee on Relief was an obvious choice.

"We turned to UMCOR and UMCOR said 'we can do this,'" Glass said. UMCOR brought one of its partners, Interchurch Medical Assistance, which has an extensive health network in Congo, to assist UMCOR and The United Methodist Church there with distribution of the medicines needed to treat infections, malaria, anemia and other illnesses common to the region.

"My role … was to handle the logistical end and to keep everybody talking," Glass said. During the month of January, while Couture was in the Democratic Republic of Congo, "it fell to me (to make sure) we were on target and on time."

Medicines distributed
With more help from the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, the Congo capital, the shipment of medicines arrived Feb. 2. Receiving the medicines were 11 hospitals and clinics, including eight United Methodist facilities. A later shipment of medical supplies is planned.

The Rev. Myron McCoy, president of Saint Paul School of Theology, joined Couture, Glass, Ntambo and the Rev. Sam Dixon, UMCOR's chief executive, in Kinshasa on Jan. 28 to celebrate the airlift. The reception was attended by both religious and government leaders. Leaders from the Katanga region participated in another celebration the following day in Lubumbashi.

The group also toured three hospitals and saw the need not just for medicine but for every basic type of supply such as sheets for the hospital beds. Glass remembered one particular mother who was with her child. "The only sheet they had for her baby was the dress that she was wearing," he said. "We're going to make a difference in that hospital and others."

Couture had not visited hospitals during her previous trips to Congo. "It was overwhelming, both to see how deep the needs were as well as to see how much people were trying to do with nothing," she said.

Before she left Africa in January, Couture had given money to Ntambo for the care of an orphaned child in the hospital who had been burned and was receiving only sporadic attention from a grandmother. She knows the girl's health has improved but wonders what will happen to her once she leaves the hospital.

"Relief efforts like this are not at the end of the story," Couture said, adding that relief supplies are necessary "in an interim period when a society is trying to stabilize itself."

Building infrastructure
The United Methodist Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she noted, has built an infrastructure that "allows us to bring pharmaceuticals into the country and put them into the hands of Congolese health care workers … that we know and we trust."

Couture said Saint Paul "has always been a school interested in theory and practice." In this case, the school is supporting both her research and the practice of peacemaking.

Glass believes Saint Paul may be the only seminary to have arranged such a mission effort. "As an alum (1965), I take a great deal of pride in having a hand in helping my institution do something this remarkable," he said.

He saluted the "superb leadership" offered by McCoy throughout the process of creating the airlift. "He supported this effort right from the start," Glass said.

The Good Samaritan awards are a small effort to say thank you, according to Glass. He lauded the enterprise, which brought together the military, Muslims and United Methodists "to deal with human need and to deal with it in its most pure and generous form."

Drawing upon such partnerships, Glass believes that Saint Paul may be able to provide similar aid in another part of the world. "That's a wonderful gift to be given," he said.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.