I met with the Stated Clerk of the Muoyo Lulua Presbytery and the President of the Muoyo Lulua Presbytery's Presbyterian Women.

Dear Loved Ones:

Met with the Clerk of the Muoyo Lulua Presbytery. There are 12 churches in this presbytery. He was a very nice person and a deeply committed Christian. Also met with the Moderator/President of the Muoyo Lulua Presbytery's Presbyterian Women's Group. What a wonderful leader! She is a go-getter! We had a long conversation about the needs that have become so primary in my view here...mainly getting the hospital up and working. And, setting up solar power that provides the hospital with the power to do what it has to do. Right now, it is a disaster. Operations on women by flashlight, rooms that are dark, damp, dirty. Women giving birth and dying. Babies being born premature and dying because there is no power or incubators to keep them warm and alive. Caesarian Section Births that are done in the dark, often causing the women to suffer reproductive damage, scarring, and other debilitating hardships.

Really, it is the women and children here who suffer the most. They have many, many babies because they want to have many babies who are not necessarily spaced properly a part, thus leading to a reduction in energy, medical problems, and health problems for the women and babies. If a woman cannot conceive, she is labeled by the society as a scorcerer and/or witch. She is shunned from the community and eventually dies out in the wilderness. Very, very cruel and harsh!!!

Thus, having a baby is a critical means of survival here in the Congo. If one is a woman and one cannot have a baby, one dies. Unfortunately, it's as simple and as cruel as that.

This is an offense to me because I am a feminist and cannot conceive of human beings (especially women) being treated like property...witches..."things" to be used and discarded...to be shunned to die in the wilderness. This makes me mad. I realize that there is very little that I can do about it and know that I am very blessed to live in a land that, compared to most of the world, provides women with almost-equal and inalienable rights that empower woman to make the world a better place...and, in my estimation a less "male" place...one which seeks to strive for a more balenced society that is, in and of itself, an express of male and female values, which God created to be complimentary and beautiful.

But, as I have seen here and in so many of the other second and third world countries that I have visited, what we have in America is at the same time is as wonderful as it is surreal and unrealistic when compared to most of the rest of the world.

I am now being reminded by the poverty that I am seeing, living in, and experiencing that I come from "La-La Land"! The United States of America, the place that is blessed by God to have it all...while the rest of the world has so little. I have no idea what is happening in America right now. We don't get the papers and the radio only works part of the time. I know that a new president is going to be elected soon, but elected for what? To make sure that America grows more powerful and more wealthy? To make sure that everyone in America is given the rights that they are entitled to just because they are American? To pay back with legislation and exectuve orders those who have given the candidates the most money? To make all the Americans happy? Right! To represent only the people who elected him/her to office...and let all the rest of the people who didn't vote for him/her wither on the vine?

Elect a President...for what? To see if he/she will be "the one"...the human "messiah" who will finally make everything right? Who will inspire us? Who will give us hope? Who will make the changes necessary? Who will do this and will do that...all so that he/she will be able to build a big library at the end of his/her term and celebrate his/her legacy?

It's all a game, isn't it? Let's elect someone who is the closest thing to a messiah that we can. Let's role the dice and hope that it comes up 7. Let's give the most powerful office in the world to the person who says what we want to hear...who produces the most "Oprah Moments"...who thrills the most people...and who promises to do what will please the most people. The Election of a President: The Ultimate Popularity and Beauty Pageant/Contest!

I'm sorry for venting like this, but since I have been here, I have seen 3 children die, a woman being operated on at night by surgeons whose only light was a flashlight, I've prayed with men and women who have tuburculosis, malaria, ovarian cysts and tumors, leprosy. I've seen woman giving birth on a "birthing table" from the 1940's...experiencing pain and complications that no human being should have to go through. I have seen the medical problems caused by sexual abuse, having too many children over a too short of time, and malnutrition.

I watched a child die, whose body was covered with sores that were the result of advanced starvation. I prayed with a woman who had malaria...only to return to where she was lying to find that she was gone and had died.

IT IS ALL UNACCEPTABLE! And, please forgive me, it all makes ANY issue of suffering, distress, injustice, fairness and/or politics that is being used in this rediculous presidential political campaign look like Disney World, compared to what's going on here.

How can we possibly think that ANY issue that is "of critical importance" to ANYONE in America compare to the hell that I am witnessing here?

This has got to stop! I fear that we, as a nation, can do so much more for the world (without putting ourselves in jeopardy)...but for some reason, we are not doing it. Don't get me wrong, I love my country and I sincerely believe that God has blessed our nation with blessings that are overflowing! However, the same God who has blessed American and us with so much also clearly says to every human being, "To those who have been given much, from them much will be required."

What does God require from us? It's a good question. And, if we don't meet that requirement, what will happen? to us? to our nation? to the world.

I'm getting too deep here and need to get some rest. Will comment later.

Until the next time...

In Christ's Precious Love,

Dr. Chris Looker