CONGOCAST.ORG

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The Story

Robin Tabbiner and Wendy Merritt are from Wilmington, North Carolina, a beach town where life moves at a slower pace - a town where it's not uncommon to wear flip-flops to the office or leave work early with your surfboard in tow.

The women met in 2005, when Robin joined Wendy’s small group, a women’s bible study she lead through Port City Community Church. Robin, who had graduated from college the spring before, had been planning a move to Africa - she was just waiting for the right time and opportunity. Wendy was leading a very “normal” life – after college, she had settled down in Wilmington, bought a house and was working for a local mortgage brokerage firm; it had never crossed her mind to pick up and move halfway around the world.

Over time, it became clear to both women that their paths had crossed for a reason; within one year of meeting each other, they would move to the Democratic Republic of Congo to serve women and girls victimized by sexual violence. Through an organization called Answering the Call, Robin and Wendy were connected with a pastor in eastern Congo. Upon entering the Congo in August 2006, they rented a house and began building relationships with rape victims, serving children at two feeding centers and organizing events for local youth.

Once we learned of their plans to move to a country that our own State Department warns us to stay away from, we knew we had to tell their story. For three months before Robin and Wendy left for Congo, we spent time interviewing them, as well as their families and friends; they left the country armed with a video camera and plenty of tapes to document their experience, hopeful that their story and the stories of the Congolese women and children they went to serve would move us to get involved. Here’s how you can.

TO FOLLOW MORE OF THE STORY AND TO CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE VISIT: www.congocast.org