The Refugee-Brother Fataki

During our last visit to Yaoundé, we went to the chapel on Saturday for an interview.  When we arrived the team of missionaries and the person to be interviewed were standing outside the locked gate.  They announced that the man with the key was "en route." We have discovered that in this part of the world that  means that he will be there in 2 minutes or it could be 2 hours. We waited anyway, hoping for the quick "en route." I'm so glad that we didn't leave.

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The man with the key arrived in about 15 minutes and Brent went to do the interview. I had about a half hour to wait.  So, I began to talk with this man..  He wasn't Cameroonian. He was Congolese.

  

When I asked how long he'd been a member of the church, he said that it had been one year since he found the church.  He said that it had given him "life again." Then he told me his story.  He was born in the Eastern Congo, near Goma.  That's the area that you hear about when you hear horror stories about the Congo. It's been war torn for many years. The battle's still raging and terrible things happen. Life is very fragile there and the innocent suffer in this conflict.  He said that his parents, wife and two children, and several brothers and sisters, literally his whole family, died at the hands of soldiers. He watched it happen, but could do nothing to save them.  He said that he too "died that day!"  But he, along with one remaining nephew and his family, walked   nearly 1,000 miles through the forest to find a place of refuge. They walked for months, eating what they could find and sleeping on the ground. They ate small animals raw because of fear that starting a fire would cause them to be discovered.  He said that sometimes they ate grass and dirt to fill their stomachs.  Eventually, they arrived at Kinshasa and were officially declared  refugees and sent to Cameroon. 

Brother Fataki said that life was very hard in Cameroon because he felt as if he had died with his family. He was without hope.  Then one day he was walking the streets and saw the big sign that we have on all church buildings.

He felt drawn to it and went inside.  Missionaries were there and began to teach him and he embraced the gospel with all his heart.  He said that the church had given him back life. Because of the gospel, he is alive again.  He now serves as a counselor in the branch.  He has not yet built much of a life and longs to have a family and a job.  But Brother Fataki is filled with faith and hope and it was an honor to meet him and share his story. 

I'm so glad that we waited when he was "en route" and that the Lord has given me enough of the gift of tongues to have this kind of conversation.   It would have been so sad to have missed the opportunity to meet him. I feel privileged to know such a man.