Faith Leads to Hope | Sojourners

Faith Leads to Hope

“I Am Congo” is a groundbreaking video series featuring five amazing people living their lives amid the deadliest war in the world.

Christians are called upon to tell and retell the story of hope, grace, and change that we see acted out in the scriptures. It is through hearing and responding to this story that our own lives and stories are transformed today. It is through the telling of stories that we learn about the lives and worlds of those who live next door or those who are halfway across the world.

Extreme poverty, famine, war, and disease can seem like overwhelming problems with no hope or solution. But faith can move the largest mountains even in our world today.

These are stories of hope. These are the stories of the people who call the Democratic Republic of Congo home—in their own words.

In eastern Congo, we meet a human rights lawyer who fled a volcanic eruption with just her law book and became an advocate for rape survivors. An artist pulls together a film and music festival every year in a city with few paved roads, let alone a theater. In a national park bigger than Yosemite, a conservationist protects endangered mountain gorillas caught in the middle of decades of conflict.

“I Am Congo”— a series more than a year in the making by the Enough Project’s Raise Hope for Congo campaign—features professional video storytelling on an issue largely ignored by the mainstream media and unknown to many.

The goal is simple: to introduce more people to the Congo and empower them with solutions to help end the conflict there.

Too often, stories from Congo focus on the extremes: either killing, raping, and crushing poverty or “feel-good” stories that ignore the chaos. These extremes not only fail to capture the full picture of Congo; it leads many to turn away.

“I am Congo” tells the full story of the Congo and its juxtapositions: natural beauty collides with decay; humanity struggles against a constant drumbeat of war; brave community leaders overcome personal tragedies to fight the status quo of corruption and conflict.

I Am Congo – Faith Leads to Hope, is intended to highlight the work that God is already doing in a war-torn region of the world and raise awareness among Christians to the conditions and struggles of God’s children around the world.