A survivor story from Goma's Nyiragongo volcano, as recorded by Pator Raha;

Catherine Nabintu was 35 years old, recovering at home from a C-section 3 days earlier when the unthinkable happened! The volcano suddenly exploded.

She sat weak and terrified, holding her wee infant as ir was announced that people must evacuate the city immediately. They heard that the lava was rapidly consuming people and homes. It was the beginning of a frantic evacuation.

She says  “there was nowhere to run to, nobody to turn to for help except God alone”.

She had been keeping her children in the house so they would not get lost in the massive crowd as they were trying to escape the terror. Everyone was running and no one knew where to go. She testifies “It was a chaos, everyone ran to save his own life”

When the lava began to flow behind her house, she seized her 3 children and left her house empty-handed with no money, no food, and no time to plan.

“Could you imagine with me that situation so critical? In my eyes, it was the end of the world! Total chaos! I had no idea if I left my house open or not? Did it matter? I didn’t know what would happen next. Everybody was traumatized, behaving in a deranged fashion! It was the end of the world to my own eyes!”

They walked for the next 6 hours with no destination. They became overwhelmed, exhausted, and so so tired, making it impossible to think.

They eventually arrived in Bukavu, 181km from Goma. She had no relatives there and knew no one. Here is her story, “Miracles still happen, even today!

I was not there long before I met with Wezesha’s team (Pastor Raha and our team) doing identification of volcano’s victims. I registered for food aid distribution. 

We had prayed to God for His miracle to get food. It is very hard to describe the hardship we endured…. for one week we had no food, just boiling water, and surviving on anything I could get from good people.

I received food aid with great joy and satisfaction, flour, rice, oil, sugar, salt, and bread!

Thank you very much, Canadian people!”

Because of all of you, our faithful supporters!

TOGETHER Building Africa