A Response

A significant number of students spent the night with their friend. The following day, the rest of us arrived for the funeral. A long day of songs and messages was given to an audience of 400 plus. At one point, one of the minister’s informed the congregation and community they needed help digging the grave as the ground was tough. Immediately 6 or 7 UCBC students rose and departed towards the cemetery to assist for the next 2 to 3 hours. It was also students who carried their friend’s mother to her final resting place, and it was the students that laid her in the ground and covered the coffin with soil.

It’s hard to appreciate such an event as you witness such a loss. But the response of the students gave testimony to the community. What is transpiring at UCBC extends far beyond individual transformation, but is reaching out with fingers that bring hope to Congo.

People approached us afterwards in disbelief and awe, “What’s the secret? What do you do?” Frankly, there are days I wonder the same thing. Simple answer…God, prayer, and faith in a Gospel and the Cross that is not bounded by culture, tribe, war, poverty, wealth, ignorance, color, and countless others that inhibit our true image.

Within the vision of CI-UCBC is the phrase to develop leaders that implement “Kingdom” values. “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”: The response of the students is evidence that these values are possible in the harshest of contexts.