Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Summer 2012 Issue | Page 25

hundreds of people who would
otherwise have no such resource. And
there is spirit!

Every church we visited was filled
with men, women and children who
opened their hearts and extended their
hands to us. Young boys automatically
walked with you, hand in hand. Women
offered a joyful embrace.

Perhaps the most remarkable
display of hospitality came in the Buvira
parish outside of Goma. There, on a lava
field within sight of a still-active volcano,
live thousands of refugees, primarily
from Rwanda. Their huts have holes in
their makeshift ceilings – scant cover
during the rainy season that lasts nine
months. There is no electricity and no
water, other than what can be caught
from the rain or carried two miles
up a hill. And yet the priest of Buvira
welcomed us to his home, offering us
bananas, soft drinks and bread.

It’s that spirit that’s remarkable
given all that the people of the Congo
have had to face. In Goma, we heard
from three priests whose churches had
recently been ransacked or destroyed

Photo: Courtesy Carey Chirico

Carey Chirico joins members of a sewing program for orphaned girls in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo.

by the “negative forces.” One priest
was kidnapped while giving his sermon.
Another spoke of the pounding on the
door of his house at 4 a.m., and the
robbery of all of his wife’s clothes. He
seemed beaten down. And yet he would
go back and start over.

On Pentecost Sunday, Carey and
I had the opportunity to preach at
the cathedral and at a neighborhood

church, respectively. It was a blessing
to be able to share our reflections
on the day when the Holy Spirit
descended upon the disciples. I told my
new friends in the Congo that I could
feel the Spirit in their work, and that
their spirit had strengthened my own.
In the people of the Congo, I could see
the face of God. t

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Summer 2012 / VIRGINIA EPISCOPALIAN

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