From an Ituri Rainforest: Change a Heart, Change a Nation

I wrote the below post on events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo three years ago (see link here or at bottom), shortly after a ministry colleague and I had traveled to Nairobi, then she continued on for a hair-raising trip into the Ituri region of the DRC, where we had local ministry partners. At that time I was buried deep in Afghanistan fictionally, resulting in my two most recent Tyndale House Publishers titles, Veiled Freedom and Freedom's Stand. Though Joseph Kony had already running around the region's rainforest with his murderous, drugged up boy soldiers of the Lord's Resistance Army for some years, neither Kony nor the Ituri conflict made many news headlines. I had certainly no expectations then of writing a novel set in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But what I did know then was that:

1) The civil war in northeastern DRC, already responsible for more than five million dead in the last decade, and fueled by the boundless treasure of the zone's many conflict minerals, showed no hope humanly speaking for a peaceful resolution.

2) The only true hope of changing the situation in the DRC, the mess that is the Ituri conflict zone, or any other people and society was the same as it has always bee. Change that truly transforms society comes through changed hearts, not circumstances. And hearts change when they are restored to personal relationship with their Creator and heavenly Father through the transforming love of Jesus Christ.

I did write a novel set in the Ituri rainforest, Congo Dawn, scheduled for release February 1, 2013. Its tagline:

"If absolute power breeds absolute corruption, what happens when a multinational corporation with unlimited funds hires on a private military company with unbridled power? Especially in a Congolese rainforest where governmental accountability is only too cheaply for sale and the ultimate 'conflict mineral' is up for grabs."

I had not re-read that blog post until today, as I am preparing for the marketing of Congo Dawn. But as I do so, I realize how much of the below post's theme threads through the pages of the book. And how apropos it is to this current season in my own birth nation. Once again we are facing an election season, hoping and dreaming to bring about change in our society through making change in our elected officials. But whether the Congo or North America, true change must begin from within. Change a heart, change a nation.
  READ ORIGINAL POST: From the Eye of the Storm: Change a Heart, Change a Nation