A Mother’s Courage
A Mother's Courage Furaha Bandu was working in her field with her husband when they heard gunshots.
Suddenly, people began running frantically in all directions, screaming in terror.
Congo’s brutal conflict had reached their community – and the rebel soldiers would show them no mercy.
As villagers ran into the forest, the soldiers killed any they could find.
Her heart pounding, Furaha picked up her two month old baby and ran for cover. She found her husband – but where were their five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter?
In desperation, the young mother begged her fleeing neighbors: “Have you seen my children?”
One neighbor stopped in her tracks to break the horrific news – Furaha’s children were killed by the soldiers as they cried for their mommy.
The Will To Live
Furaha and her husband were so filled with grief that at first they, too, wanted to die. But the will to live took over and they pressed on through the forest, eating plant roots and sleeping under the trees at night. “We were so afraid,” Furaha recalls.
When they came to a road, they came across a horrendous sight – the bodies of people who had been massacred.
They walked another 10 miles until they arrived at a church in Kirotshe.
There, the pastor told them not to walk any further.
 With World Relief’s assistance, the church provided food to Furaha and other families fleeing the violence.
World Relief built a school next to the church, and today Furaha serves in the church with her husband and trains other women in sewing and dress-making.
Furaha is the face of Congo’s war. She has suffered incredible heartache. And yet she has found the courage to press on – and the faith to believe that God has a purpose for her life.
You can help courageous women like Furaha. Please click here to donate to World Relief.
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