Allen Horst, an Iowa farm boy, volunteered in 1960 for two years of service with the Pax program of Mennonite Central Committee, the relief and service arm of Mennonite churches in North America. He expected to build houses in West Germany, where housing for refugees was still in short supply as a lingering effect of World War II. Meanwhile, in Africa, the Belgian Congo had just won independence from its Belgian rulers, and the country erupted in tribal wars and economic chaos. Transporting emergency food supplies to starving people in the countryside called for truck drivers. Allen agreed to transfer from Germany to the Congo to help meet that need.
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