Love Needs No Translation

I first met Tresor 10 years ago. He was my family group leader at church camp and the missionary for the week. After hearing his stories, I could tell God was doing incredible things through Tresor with Mwangaza International, and I knew one day I wanted to visit his home country. Needless to say, this trip had been greatly anticipated for many years. Seeing the DRC in person, and visiting each aspect of Mwangaza’s ministry, only magnified my amazement of God’s ability to work through people. Overall, through the people in the Congo, I saw pride, passion, and love.

I saw pride on mama’s face as she led us from Kinkole through the fish market to her shop. Her shop was funded through Tabora Funds after completing a business class through the Kinkole Hope Center. Mama asked to take our group to the Congo River so we could see her shop. As we walked through the market, she beamed while telling other shop owners we were with her. She was proud to be able to show us the success of her business.

When we visited the Duale Farm, I saw pride and passion ignited by the work of the farm manager, Somo. He proudly showed us the cassava plants and charcoal pits that were currently in progress at Duale. The passion he has for his work shined through the way he described the process of making charcoal, explained the many uses of cassava, and showed us how to pick cassava leaves.

More than anything in the DRC, I saw love. Love was shown through simple things like climbing trees, painting, sewing, teaching English, and failed attempts at learning French. I also witnessed the intrinsic desire humans have to be loved. As soon as we entered Enrica, the government run orphanage, each member of our team quickly had childrens’ hands intertwined with ours, following us like a shadow, as Tresor gave us a tour.

Later while the girls were getting new dresses, which had been donated from the U.S., they also received a card from the donor. The girls had me read the notes in the cards to them. They couldn’t understand most of what I was reading (my French doesn’t exceed much past, “bonjour” and “merci,” so I couldn’t translate), but based off of the smiles on their faces and giggles, they didn’t need to. Sometimes love needs no translation.

However, no greater example of the need for love came than when we visited La Compassion Home orphanage. I was holding one of the little girls, Daniella, and she kept squeezing her arms and legs tighter around me. With each tight embrace it was as though if she squeezed hard enough maybe the hug wouldn’t end.

God’s ability to work through Tresor, his family, and Mwangaza was evident at each place we visited and through every story we heard in Kinshasa. Much like the kids’ hands intertwined in ours, God’s presence has been woven into the lives of the people connected to Mwangaza.