glocal.dan: CEPIMA: Caring for the forgotten & despised

CEPIMA, where the most broken and mentally unsound people come in Beni to meet Jesus and be healed. Never have I been humbled enough to meet so much brokeness face to face. Walking in was a party, walking out was a different outlook on life... the people greeted us as if we were rockstars, mostly because this team, not me, had been there last year, and had spent quality time praying with these people, and even gave enough money to help move their ministry along for quite some time, even buying them two motorcycles that they could use to help people out of the city. Even now, over a month after this experience, it's hard to simply say what I experienced. I would have a hard to explaining what it's like to pray for a boy who was so emotionally abused he just stared at a wall. I would have a hard time telling you about Jean Claude, a former Mayi Mayi rebel, who was so traumatized from what he'd seen and done that he was like a small child holding onto his daddy. I would have a hard time telling you about Naama (II). I would have a hard time conveying to you the joy of the people who worked there because of the miracles they've seen. They really don't have a "model" there other than some Mending the Soul materials and a bible. They don't even have a trained psychologist. Just a pastor, some nurses, a few old drugs, and a passion and trust for the Lord that overcomes all other shortfalls. No state funding, no board of directors, no models and protocol, just a willingness to be Christ and share him with these devastated people. Christ heals them, they plan on it, and he eventually does... that's how God works.. he performs miracles...

I've never cried so much in my life. It was too much for me to handle... this is the wages of sin... the wages of war... the wages of tribalism, of hate, of ignorance, of greed, of colonialism. And these people were paying that price. I praise God for his abounding mercies, and that He is healing each and every one of these people as they learn of him and trust him, in their hearts, even as their minds are lost....