By Jodi Blackam, program management advisor

I have visited 13 countries over the past eight months. It has been an awesome privilege. The final country team on my list to be trained was the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They have a number of new projects that we just started, so we delayed the training until now so that it could benefit the new staff as well.

I didn’t really know what to expect travelling to the DRC. My husband Chris had been there in 2007 when we sent an emergency response team to address the crisis in Goma. Now the staff is based in Bunia, which is farther north, and is in a more remote location.

Two of our Uganda staff traveled there last month to help conduct a survey, and their stories were very intriguing.

When I arrived, I had to get used to the sound of French—well, a mix of French and Swahili—and it doesn’t sound like the French I learned in school or the Swahili you hear in East Africa. They told me a saying they have is that Swahili was born in Tanzania, grew up in Kenya, died in Uganda, and was buried in Congo.

The DRC is a fascinating place. It is known for so many things, and sadly, not many of them are good. When I was studying for my master’s course, Control of Infectious Diseases, the DRC was often mentioned as the breeding ground for new diseases. The humidity, dense forest, and heat become like a Petri dish for organisms to mutate and develop new strains. It’s not really what a country wants to be known for.

From a development perspective, it is also famous for the wrong reasons. In almost all development indicators, the DRC falls at the bottom of the list. Last year, it was classed as one of the worst five countries for women to live in. It has the highest rates of rape in the world and the worst maternal and child mortality.

The country is huge but very insecure. There are rebel groups that are permanently based in the communities and live side by side with the villagers.

The area our staff is working in doesn’t receive much international or donor attention since there are only three rebel groups, rather than the much higher numbers in other parts of the country. However, the LRA is definitely still active and causing devastation in the DRC.

It is in this environment that our team is working. They are out there in harsh conditions, in insecure environments, trying to meet the needs of the people who are suffering while sharing the love of Christ.

I am proud of what they are doing, and it was a pleasure to be with them for the week and to play my small part in helping them grow as an office.

By Teesa Klear

Our son Sam had two seizures caused by high fever when he was an infant. We learned he has Brugada Syndrome, a rare heart arrhythmia that causes his heart to race dangerously at times. At almost 10 months old, he was one of the youngest boys in the world to receive an internal defibrillator. This defibrillator has already shocked his heart over 40 times, bringing it back to a normal rhythm.

Sam will never be able to participate in contact sports. He is 5 years old now, and he will never belong to a soccer team. He will never know what it’s like to celebrate the “big win” after a football game. He can’t even swing on his belly on a swing at the playground.

You see, his defibrillator is in his belly, in the only spot his tiny body can accommodate it. And still, it’s a tight fit. He has to be mindful, even at the age of 5, to protect his defibrillator.

God has blessed us with the privilege of raising him. He is a very bright boy who started kindergarten a year early. He put his faith in Jesus Christ at just 4 years old and was baptized on Easter by his father.

About a year ago, my husband was reading the book “Radical” by David Platt. The Holy Spirit spoke very clearly to him that he should sell the extra vehicle we had and give the money to the poor. At first, I was a little peeved at hearing we couldn’t keep the money to pay our own bills. But, after praying about it myself, the Holy Spirit gave me the same message—sell the vehicle and give the money to the poor.

We weren’t exactly sure which “poor” we should give the money to, so we continued to pray for God to guide us. About a month ago, Sam and I watched the movie “Three Hearts” that Samaritan’s Purse produced about the Children’s Heart Project (CHP).

Sam was especially touched by the little girl, Toggie, who had never seen running water before. He was moved to tears as the three patients went to the hospital for their surgeries.

When the movie ended, he asked me what we could do to help. He said he wanted to help save the life of a child with a heart defect like his.

Sam asked his Dad to pray about donating money to CHP. It’s no coincidence that two weeks after making that decision, our vehicle sold for the exact amount needed to bring one child to the United States for treatment.



Sam was able to visit Samaritan’s Purse and personally present the check . He wrote a letter to the girl, “Little Sweet Baby”, telling her he hopes she has a great surgery. He also picked out his own pictures to send to her for encouragement. There were pictures of Sam in the hospital preparing for his last surgery, one taken afterwards when he was eating a huge cupcake at the hospital, and one of our family.



While at Samaritan’s Purse, we learned Little Sweet Baby’s real name, about her family, her upcoming surgery date, and that we could Skype with her when she has recovered from surgery. Even though she has no knowledge of Sam’s connection to her, her sweet face is up on our fridge and we are praying for her by name every day.

Sam is excited to be able to share our gift with her, to help be part in saving her life, and to share Jesus Christ’s love with her. After all, as I always tell Sam and my other children, “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15, NIV).

We thank God for Sam, for his desire to give a gift to make a difference in another young life, and for the little girl who shares a heart like his.

By Jeff Nelson, staff carpenter in Japan.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the sacrifices made by Christians in the past generations. It lead me to do some research on the early Christians in Japan while I’ve been working for Samaritans Purse.

To my surprise, I have found many sites here that commemorate the early Christians, and I’ve also uncovered many original sites that amplify the impact that the early Christians had, as well as the devastating effect of the persecutions that began in the late 1500s.



Francis Xavier is known as the first Christian missionary to go to Japan, in about 1549. The impact he made was so great with many coming to faith in Jesus that the Shogunate government felt threatened by the overwhelming amount of converts. It has been estimated that there were as many as 400,000 Christians by 1587 when the systematic persecution of these Christ followers began.

The persecutions started with interrogations leading to torture and death to those who would not recant their faith in Christ. With a growing list of sites that I researched and explored, I decided to organize a field trip for volunteers on a sunny Good Friday.



We started out at the Christian Martyrs Museum of Okago. We came face to face with the reality that 309 martyrs lost their lives in one small valley between Tome and Motoyoshi in the Tohoku Region.

As we toured the museum, we saw relics of the past that revealed the secret nature that had overtaken the Christian church and evidence of an underground church. They were known as the “Hidden Kirishitans” and continued with their faith in secret, sometimes using old Buddhist and Shinto ceremonies to hide their Christian beliefs.

As we spoke with the director of the museum, she revealed to us that she was not a Christian but was Buddhist. She said there were only two local Christians that she knew of in the valley. We offered her a “Steps to Peace With God” tract and told her we were volunteers working in the region to rebuild homes. She was very thankful that we had come from around the world to help.



She also showed us a Bible that she had received from a friend; it was one of the Bibles Samaritan's Purse hands out to locals. We continued to talk to her with questions about the early Christians. We asked about a cave we had seen in a picture that the early Christians used to worship in and she said it was on private property.

We pressed her a little further, and she called someone to see if we could get permission to find this hidden cathedral in the mountains. Shortly after the call, the curator of the museum showed up and offered to lead our group to the cave site. It was 1.5 kilometers up in the mountains on a rugged logging trail, so we set out on another leg of our adventure. After a few wrong turns and some backtracking, we eventually found the site.

We had many questions for our guide, and as we talked with him he also revealed to us that he was not a Christian, and he told us that he felt God was pursuing him but was not yet ready to commit. The Japanese tend to ponder God’s call for a long time before accepting His Son, and so we were content to have witnessed a place that was used to worship our Lord and Savior by a group of believers who likely eventually perished for their strong commitment to God.

“To live is Christ and to die is gain.” Our lives on this earth are but specks of sand in the hourglass of time, and yet we still mourn for the persecuted and the martyred. We honor their commitment to stand up under torture for the sake of Jesus Christ.

They knew that their faith meant death, and yet they still accepted Him gladly. My hope is that these early martyrs will instill a strong faith for the coming generations of Christians in Japan, a visible reminder that what comes after this life is more important.

After our hike, we stopped at a Christian church that was built by a Swiss team in 1952 and is no longer being used. We rung the bell that was brought here from Switzerland, and as we walked through the old church, we could sense the Spirit of the Lord was there.



Fourteen of us gathered together in that empty church and prayed for the revival of the valley, for Japan, and to honor those who perished a martyr’s death for the sake of the Savior.

As I think back to that day, I can still hear that bell ringing out into the valley as if to say, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”

Karol Hunt has been volunteering with Samaritan's Purse since 2006. She brought a group of college students from Tabor College to work on our rebuilding project in Tuscaloosa. “I want to pass on some of the things I’ve been able to do and teach them about disasters and to help people who will never repay them,” she said. See Karol's story below, and Click here for more information about volunteer opportunities in Tuscaloosa and other locations.