Tabitha Center

Claudine Selenga teaching the women in the vocational center.

The Tabitha Center is a new ministry here in town started by Claudine Selenga.  She began this ministry after having a Bible Study with her own daughters and some neighborhood girls.  The study she was doing with them was called "Choose Life" published by Would Relief.  Claudine found that these neighborhood girls were very confused about basic facts of life.  She realised the great need throughout Kinshasa for young women to have basic training on their position in life, options for living outside of prostitution, and valuing others.

Figuring out the pattern to a favorite skirt.

Kinshasa is a city with approximately 12 million people.  Many girls come to Kinshasa with hopes of completing school and   then getting a job to support themselves and their families.  Life in Kinshasa is very expensive and many families cannot afford to finance their children all the way through school.  Often the girls drop out and resort to prostitution.  Many children in families in Kinshasa are thrown out on the streets either after being accused of sorcery (witchcraft) or a step parent refuses to accept them into the new marriage to a biological parent.  One-third of the children on the streets are girls and many of them resort to prostitution.

Claudine has a desire to reach out to these girls and help them with training in tailoring, cosmetology or cooking in order to find better options for living.  The first Tabitha Center was opened in the neighborhood of Bendal next to a bar.  The building had been a brothel until the ministry took it over to make it into a vocational school. 
When I visited several weeks ago, I noticed their daily schedule on the door.  Each day begins with Bible and then studying "Choose Life".  Then the vocational training begins.

When I arrived it was already close to 10 a.m. and only one girl showed up.  When I enquired as to why, I was told that many of the girls already have their own children and they have to wait for someone to babysit for them.  Others need transportation to get across town.  I asked if they would begin at the beginning of the schedule when the girls arrived.  The answer was, "Of course!"  So the girls will get Bible teaching and life training even with a relaxed schedule.
There is a great need for these vocational schools to be located in neighborhoods throughout Kinshasa so girls do not have to travel by taxi to get to school.  Claudine's vision is to begin 15 vocational training centers by April 2014.  I just had supper with the mission director, Jim Snyder, on Thursday last week.  They had just dedicated another center.  In five years they want to see 1,000 centers opened in Kinshasa being directed by women in the church who can teach what they know already.

Personally, I like this dress and would like one made for me.

Reach Global, the American extension of the mission is hoping to team with the Tabitha Centers and send out teams to encourage the women serving in these centers.  They also are financially assisting to start the programs.
If you are interested in assisting with this ministry to can receive more information by contacting

Ready to get to work!

Reach Global
901 E 78^th St., Minneapolis, MN  55420
You can follow this link to give a donation. Then follow the "give" link.  Then you can specify for the Tabitha Center Project #2200-5414.

Today, March 10, 2014, I went to visit the Tabitha Center again.  Claudine was there with several women to meet me and tell me about the center.  I took my friend Tasha and her daughter with me.  I really enjoyed talking with Claudine.  My Lingala has not improved over the last 10 years since I have been working so much with English speaking students or students learning English.  It was refreshing to speak Lingala with somebody from Tandala area again.

 Claudine was waiting to start their day with some other ladies when I arrived.  It looked like they were in between classes.  Two of the ladies that came had just finished up the classes with Claudine at the Bendal Center and were getting ready to do an internship in other neighborhoods. 

 It was nice to meet Claudine face to face finally.  We are still getting to know each other and hope to spend some time with some English lessons in the near future.

 Just recently the Bendal Tabitha Center started teaching the women how to do hair.  This will give the women another vocation to earn money for their families. 

 Yes, we drove my truck to the center.  I still appreciate those who gave so that I could have this truck to get around in Kinshasa.  I also greatly appreciate my husband who keeps it repaired and in shape.

Adah and I got to pose with the ladies.

Tasha and I plan to go back with our fabric to ask the Tabitha Center to help us with our sewing.
For a most recent update on the Tabitha Center click on this link: Installation #9 and #10.

Throw Them Away?

I was focusing on the little girl to the right and my camera didn't move.

Last week we had the honor of having two of our pastors from Ohio come and visit us.  We also got to show them around Kinshasa and even the village of Kikongo in Bandundu Province.  During our touring we took them to a couple of children homes.  I usually go to a Catholic home just outside of town to visit orphans, Kibondo orphanage, but we chose to take them to two other homes right within the city.  The first one we visited is run by two missionaries.  They have delegated overseeing the home to Papa Nono.  There are about 15 boys who live there right now.  Each one has a different story but for some reason, their parents can’t or won’t take care of them and they have found their way to Elikia (Hope).  Here they are given a bunk to sleep on, no mattress, but with a mosquito net.  They also receive at least two meals a day.  This seems very harsh but it is so much better than being on the street and not knowing when you will get another bite to eat.  Along with this they also have their school fees paid.  Also this home wants to be sure that each boy is taught about Jesus and what it means to follow Him.

This little deaf boy, Giovani stole my heart.

Papa Nono does not stop there with his child care.  He also had five other children with him that he is caring for in his own home, three girls and two boys.  These children have been approved for adoption.  They are true orphans.  As I looked at them I could see that they had some nutritional problems, that red hair was not genetic.  So I asked what they had been eating.  They get plenty of fufu  (manioc roots) but very little protein. Fufu is not known for its nutritional value but it does make people feel full.  It sounded like they would get some greens too but I doubt that it was often enough.  So I stored in my brain, “These children need some beans right now”.

Lydia and Papa Nono with 3 of 44 children at the home. 

Lunch or dinner?  They got greens with their fufu!

Papa Nono has also begun a separate childrens’ home, Ma Famille. This home was started because the Congolese Government was looking for people to open their homes to more children from off the streets.  Papa Nono kept expressing that these children had been “kobwaka” or “thrown away”.  I use this word for my trash or old wash water every day.  Papa Nono has a team of people who go out and look for children who are living on the streets.  They bring them to the home, and from there they look for the children’s families and ask why they were thrown away.   Their hope is to either return them to their home or to find new homes for these children.  Since they are just starting up, the adoption process is just beginning.  Right now Papa Nono says he has 12 children available for adoption from Ma Famille.  While I am excited for this new ministry, I also move with caution. There are many adoptions happening here in Congo but it is extremely important that all is legal both here in Congo and in the adopting country.  Some families actually do adopt here but there is a large amount of international adoptions happening.  It is too easy for parents to “kobwaka” their child thinking they will get a good education in America or Europe but still be their child.  I appreciate that the U.S. Embassy is beginning  to investigate to be sure that each of these children are adoptable. 

A recent verse I have been studying is James 1:27 “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress and keep ourselves unstained by the world.”  Does one visit to them give us the check mark that we need to fulfill this verse?  What does this mean for the country of Congo which is considered “Christian” on the statistics charts?  How do we as Christians  live this?  Where should we start?  I am not going to answer this but I will keep asking and praying.  I am asking what God wants me to do next.  I am asking for God to change the hearts in this country, that the father's would turn their hearts to their children and practice Deuteronomy 6: 4-7. I am asking that God will provide for these children one by one as individuals and not as a mass.