A member of the 1974 and 1975 men's soccer teams,
Pakisa Tshimika had big dreams of becoming a star for the rising FPC soccer program. His freshman season he became just the second player in school history to score a hat-trick when he netted three goals in a win over Cal Lutheran. These dreams would be cut short however after a tragic car accident prior to the 1976 season left him paralyzed from the neck down.
Overcoming nearly insurmountable physical disabilities, as well as personal tragedies, Tshimika has used his life to serve others and be an inspiration to all who encounter him. Though his story is filled with grief and tragedy, it is suffused with an unfailing grace and hope as his work in the field of public health has made an enormous impact in his native country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It began with his courageous comeback from the paralyzing auto accident. Having no medical insurance at the time, no agency was willing to work with him. However, a massive fund drive coordinated by the Fresno Pacific campus community eventually brought him to Community Hospital. He later returned to campus, attending classes in a wheelchair. He graduated from FPC with a degree in natural science in 1978, before going on to earn a master's and eventually a PhD in public health from Loma Linda University.
In 1980 he returned to his native Zaire (now D.R. Congo) to head a public health agency and was instrumental in changing the nation's infrastructure. Today the Congolese health zone system is recognized as one of the best designed and decentralized systems in all of Africa.
In 1999 he returned to Fresno and started the non-profit "Mama Makeka House of Hope", which promotes and supports initiatives for health, education and community empowerment in underserved communities both in the D.R. Congo and the Central Valley.
Tshimika has never stopped making progress physically, and today has regained the use of his hands, and is able to walk with a cane. His remarkable story is chronicled in his autobiography
Grief, Grace, and Hope.
