Experiences in Goma, Zaire in 1994 with Rwandan Refugees

by Doug Nichols

“Do not be afraid of sudden fear, nor of the onslaught (storm) of the wicked when it comes…” (Proverbs 3:25).

•Helped with a spinal tap.

•Carried and comforted babies sick with dysentery, pneumonia, malnutrition, meningitis, fear and loneliness.

•Drove five different vans and trucks.

•Lined up 15 children at a time in an orphanage to treat them for scabies.

•Being an advocate for children.

•Preached to 300 on a hillside mainly to encourage Christians in their walk with God. This was in a “toilet area” on the hillside. This was the only place available. This was a wonderful and glorious service, but very smelly.

•Put up a large 20-bed military hospital tent in pouring down rain with a crazy Puerta Rican/New Yorker (and 50 Rwandans all laughing at us!).

•Preached the Gospel daily to individuals and groups including about 15 men and women “bean cooks” in a make shift kitchen in a tent hospital run by Doctors without Borders. When I finished, one of the cooks said, “Thank you for that wonderful story!”

•Teaching the Word of God to 100 Rwandan workers for three hours. One man stated in his testimony, “There are two things you cannot have; my Bible and my wife!”

•Preaching the Gospel (John 3:1-16) one Sunday morning before hospital rounds to 600 on a hillside overlooking the Kimbumbe camp of over 200,000 people.

•Begging for Jesus. Every day I had to make the rounds to Christian and secular organizations to beg for beans, rice, wheat, blankets, tents, buckets, jerry cans, plastic coverings, gloves, clothes, milk, baby bottles, medicines, water, a truck, wheel barrels, stretchers, tracts, booklets and Bibles. When I drove, I would cry out, “Oh God, please supply, please be merciful, please provide.”

•Sharing the Word of God to team #4 every evening.

•Seeking to be a Christian before the pagan world of the UN officials. What a wicked bunch. They were seeking to build the city of man; God’s people were building the city of God!

•Someone said “Rwanda is a peaceful place these days because the demons are all gone. They are now living in Goma!”

However, Stan Lee (a missionary from Rwanda who was working with us in Goma) said, “The demons are finding it very difficult to work in Goma, because God’s people from around the world have come to Goma to do battle for the Sovereign Lord God.”