My name is Malinyota Fabyola. I am a woman deeply affected by the war in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Day after day, it strips me of everything.

Since violence broke out in Goma, my life has become a long journey of suffering. We were driven out of Katindo Camp and forced to take refuge in abandoned houses on the city outskirts.

One night, government reservists looted our home. They took away my husband and my eldest son, who was only fifteen years old. To this day, I do not know where they are or if they are still alive. The uncertainty tears my heart apart every single day and follows me into my nights, often preventing me from sleeping.

I found myself displaced with nothing. There are days when I go without eating at all. When I see my children crying from hunger, and I am unable to give them anything, I experience the shame of having to beg for help and being rejected, neglected, and despised. If we get sick, I cannot pay for treatment.

I live in constant fear—especially at night. My deepest pain is that I cannot protect my children. All of this formed a dark world around me. I cried alone, asking myself why life had become so hard. Many times, I thought that my life no longer had any value.

When my heart was completely broken and I no longer expected anything from anyone, the Every Home teams arrived. They brought us the Good News and humanitarian assistance. But what moved me the most was the way they looked at us and spoke to us—with respect, gentleness, and compassion. For the first time in a long while, I no longer felt like a forgotten, displaced person, but like a loved and dignified human being.

That day marked a turning point in my life, because it was the day I received a gospel message that completely transformed me. As I read it, I broke down in tears. Every line seemed to tell my story. I understood that despite the war, poverty, and abandonment, my life still had immense value in the eyes of God. I discovered that Jesus Christ knows my pain, my sleepless nights, my tears as a mother, and my fears. And he gave his life for me.

That same day, I made the most important decision of my life: to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior.

I pray everyday with the servants of God, and I feel that my life is gradually changing through the time I spend in discipleship as part of a Christ Group. The pain has not disappeared all at once, but despair is leaving my soul.

I have regained hope. I no longer feel abandoned. I know that God is walking with me. I am rediscovering dignity and the strength to move forward. I no longer walk in darkness. I know that Christ is alive, and he holds my life and the lives of my children in his hands.

I give thanks to God for Every Home, which has become an instrument of his grace in my life. They not only give us food, medicine, clothes, and shoes; they restore our hope. What war destroys and poverty humiliates, the love of Jesus Christ lifts up.