CELEBRATING A LIFE
Earlier this year, the CKI family suffered a great loss with the death of Pastor Marrion P’Udongo. In addition to being a dear friend, he was the soul of our organization, possessing both the tenacity and cunningness to make things work in extremely difficult situations. As journalists like to say, he was one hell of an operator, and he will be missed.
As many of you know, Marrion had been sick for a while. Back in 2010, he suffered renal failure that required a kidney transplant, which hundreds of his friends and supporters helped make possible through their generous donations. But the donor kidney never quite worked, causing him years of pain and discomfort. After it finally failed, we were in the process of helping him receive another donation, this time in India, when his health deteriorated to the point where doctors could do no more. He died just hours after flying back to Africa, his wife Julienne by his side. He was laid to rest in Bunia, where his heart had always been.
For most of his adult life, Marrion worked as a circuit preacher, traveling out from Chrisco church in Bunia into the scattered villages of the vast Ituri province. He often traveled for days to preach a revival, enduring washed-out roads, bad weather, and militia that preyed on travelers. During Congo’s long war, Marrion moonlighted as a fixer and interpreter for international journalists, guiding them beyond front lines and checkpoints otherwise impassable. In a war where tribal affiliation marked you for murder, Marrion traveled freely. The hardest militia commanders and child soldiers knew him and trusted him. His presence carried calm and reassurance, the promise of God’s mercy, and peeled back the insanity for brief moments.
His humanitarian work during the war was immeasurable: he counseled scores of women and girls who’d been raped and helped them find doctors, convinced many child soldiers to surrender and rehabilitate, and clothed and fed prisoners and provided them lawyers. In one of his most remarkable moments, in 2003, he sheltered nearly a thousand of his congregants during ethnic pogroms in Bunia and led them safely to a United Nations base.
Not only does Marrion leave behind the children at St. Kizito, whom he loved and championed each day, but also his wife and four kids of their own. To help Julienne pay expenses and send the kids to school (tuition isn’t free in Congo), we’re taking donations here.
And as always, we continue to raise money for our kids at St. Kizito, funds that provide them with a healthy childhood and education so hopefully they grow up to become the next generation of Congo’s leaders. Because as Marrion liked to say, “It’s not enough to just preach about heaven. We must know how to help people live while they’re still on earth.”
Thank you.