2 posts in two days?? Crazy...
This is an update I wrote for our YWAM website, so thought i'd post it here too...
Greetings from Burundi!
We are a team of five people currently situated in Bujumbura, Burundi on the DTS outreach. We've had a busy time so far of being involved with a lot of different ministries including working ina hospital, an orphanage, running reconciliation seminars and courses and also playing football with streetkids! Things have been busy for us, but good.
As a team we have been so aware of God's hand of protection on us as we travel through the centre of Africa. We have been blessed by health (for the most part) incredible ministries to be involved in and some incredible contacts (now friends) who have welcomed us more warmly than we could have imagined or expected.
Rwanda and Burundi are beautiful countries that are blessed with natural resources and sunny climes, but that have also seen a history of conflict, hatred and division that has scarred the land and the people here over the last half century. As a team, our prayer is that we will be a group that brings Christ and his healing forgiveness and gift of reconciliation to these places. We know that there is nothing within US that can do this, rather, we are simply here trying to be willing vessels of his power, authority and grace to the people living here. We are blessed and privileged to be used in this way, and it is a gift to be here and see God choosing to work through and use us.
With four weeks left, we are heading to the middle of Burundi today to work with Youth for Christ at an orphanage they run. Our team was there last year and had an incredible time of ministry and getting to know the children and workers there. Please pray for us as we continue on our journey and seek God for us and for those we are meeting!
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Long time
It's been a while...
I think i might have blogged myself out in Rwanda! But, here i am again, three weeks on and i think it's about time to do another quick update.
We've had a great time here in Bujumbura, Burundi so far. It's been great catching up with people from last year and spending time at new ministries. The places that we've been working have been a bit hit and miss over the last few weeks, there's been a few places that we were expecting them to be very organised and have a lot for us to do, and when we arrived, they just didnt really have anything for us to do, so we had to try and find our own things. But, when it's been good, it's been amazing.
Last week we were working at this centre called Mont Sion, which is a Catholic outreach centre in the north of the city. We just got this incredible welcome from them, we're shown amazing hospitality, and kept busy and working for the whole time we were there. In the mornings we were working at this building site for a home they are building for boys who are living on the street. We were excavating land for a garden and when we got tired of wheelbarrowing (ingolofanoing: for those who have been following this blog...) we were sanding and varnishing wooden furniture.
Then in the afternoons we were running reconciliaiton and forgiveness seminars for young people in the area. These were well attended, and we had a great week of sharing our stories and hearing some of theirs. We also found ourselves featuring on Burundian TV because of this.... We never saw it ourselves but have met a few people who saw us on there!
Then on the sunday we shared at the mass of 5000 people, big experience, we shared stories and a song. We were just really thankful for the welcome we got and the obvious organisation that went into the week.
So, tomorrow we're heading to the middle of the country to a place called Gitega to work at an orphanage run by Youth for Christ. We were there last year, and i think i put a video up of our time there last year, so if you're interested you can skip back a few months through this blog for where i'll be and what i'll be doing... If i remember correctly there is a lot of playing and a lot of dancing... Good at the first one, not so sure about the second one...
Some highlights from our time in Bujumbura:
- Last night we ran a fellowship evening in Alison's house. I was leading worship, and at the end of one song, a Burundian lady called Nadine spontaneously took over and led us in the same song, but acapella and Africa style...incredible moment.
- Cake at Alison's house...
- Seeing hippos in the river outside the animal park, then paying 5000 francs to get into the animal park and seeing no animals...
- No mosquito bites!
I think i might have blogged myself out in Rwanda! But, here i am again, three weeks on and i think it's about time to do another quick update.
We've had a great time here in Bujumbura, Burundi so far. It's been great catching up with people from last year and spending time at new ministries. The places that we've been working have been a bit hit and miss over the last few weeks, there's been a few places that we were expecting them to be very organised and have a lot for us to do, and when we arrived, they just didnt really have anything for us to do, so we had to try and find our own things. But, when it's been good, it's been amazing.
Last week we were working at this centre called Mont Sion, which is a Catholic outreach centre in the north of the city. We just got this incredible welcome from them, we're shown amazing hospitality, and kept busy and working for the whole time we were there. In the mornings we were working at this building site for a home they are building for boys who are living on the street. We were excavating land for a garden and when we got tired of wheelbarrowing (ingolofanoing: for those who have been following this blog...) we were sanding and varnishing wooden furniture.
Then in the afternoons we were running reconciliaiton and forgiveness seminars for young people in the area. These were well attended, and we had a great week of sharing our stories and hearing some of theirs. We also found ourselves featuring on Burundian TV because of this.... We never saw it ourselves but have met a few people who saw us on there!
Then on the sunday we shared at the mass of 5000 people, big experience, we shared stories and a song. We were just really thankful for the welcome we got and the obvious organisation that went into the week.
So, tomorrow we're heading to the middle of the country to a place called Gitega to work at an orphanage run by Youth for Christ. We were there last year, and i think i put a video up of our time there last year, so if you're interested you can skip back a few months through this blog for where i'll be and what i'll be doing... If i remember correctly there is a lot of playing and a lot of dancing... Good at the first one, not so sure about the second one...
Some highlights from our time in Bujumbura:
- Last night we ran a fellowship evening in Alison's house. I was leading worship, and at the end of one song, a Burundian lady called Nadine spontaneously took over and led us in the same song, but acapella and Africa style...incredible moment.
- Cake at Alison's house...
- Seeing hippos in the river outside the animal park, then paying 5000 francs to get into the animal park and seeing no animals...
- No mosquito bites!
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Moving on..
So, three weeks down, seven to go! Tomorrow sees us packing up our bags, saying our farewells and hoping our taxi driver arrives at 5:40am to take us to the bus station.. if all of the above go as planned (mostly the taxi driver...) we will be leaving Kigali, Rwanda and moving on to Bujumbura, Burundi.
It's been a fantastic time here in Kigali, the team has been great, and we've met some incredible people and worked with some great ministries, but it does feel like time to move on to Burundi. I'm excited to see the people we worked with last year again, as well as work with a few new people, and to work with Alison and Meg again (two of the students from last years team who are working in Bujumbura now).
I'm trying to think of something in the last week that I should talk about here... We've been up to a lot, but probably the biggest thing was our adventure in Bukora last week. Certainly it was remote, and when the crooked taxi driver wouldn't come and get us when it was time to leave because he claimed we weren't giving him enough money (which we were... we were offering double what we should have paid in fact!) we had to walk for two hours through farmland (bags and all!) to get to the main road to catch a bus back to Kigali (this was also the start of one of the craziest journeys of my life.... but that's a story for another day... and now can you see why I'm worried about the taxi tomorrow morning?!)
While in Bukora we went to a health clinic, talked, prayed and spent time with some of the patients, and also went to a refugee camp. This was a difficult experience, to see the way these people are being forced to live. As we were meeting the people, seeing their homes and playing with the kids, I was so struck by the injustice of it all. The fact that these people's live are being forced on hold while they wait for the government to someday get around to building a house (the houses cost less than $1000 to buy land and build a house on) and while these people wait, they are forced to live in these “houses” which are literally nothing more than some sticks, a tarpaulin and some walls they've made out of cow dung. The injustice of the whole situation struck me hard, and I realised that this is not the kingdom of God at work. Not at all. This was my prayer as we walked around and spent time there, to realise that these are people with real lives that are just waiting for these lives to start again.
One thing I also learnt this week is that whenever I talked about Bukora to people, I said I was going to the “middle of nowhere”. After we got back, I was reading a book (Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell... not so great, but a fantastic last page!) and there was a line that struck me that said “Every nowhere is a somewhere for someone”. I realised the truth of this and was challenged by it. Bukora is a place where people live out their lives, where they are born, grow up, plant crops, marry, raise a family and die... What right do I have to call this place where these people “do life” NOWHERE? Would I like it for people to say that about where I live? I'm not so sure...
So, in conclusion, our time in Bukora was great. It was a challenge indeed... Especially our night time visitors the rats on the second evening... But we survived and live to meet another day!
Roll on Burundi...
A few short highlights from the last week:
-Kigali reunions... 5 out of the 8 members of last years team were reunited in Kigali! Along with this years team, we went to see a world cup qualifying match between Rwanda and Algeria...not the greatest football, but good atmosphere and craic made for a great afternoon!
-We were so close to the Tanzanian border in Bukora that we talked the guards into letting us run across the bridge and into Tanzania... there was a pretty incredible waterfall on the bridge too! Good pictures to follow...
-Last night we spent dinner at a restaurant to celebrate the first three weeks of outreach, and also to say farewell to Amalia who's heading back to Canada for her sister's wedding!
-Yesterday it was hatching day for the ants...the flying ants.... THOUSANDS upon thousands of flying ants were emerging from hills all over the base... the birds were having a field day!
-Lowlight: The final death of my mp3 player... Now I no longer even have “Oh Holy Night” to lull me to sleep at night...
It's been a fantastic time here in Kigali, the team has been great, and we've met some incredible people and worked with some great ministries, but it does feel like time to move on to Burundi. I'm excited to see the people we worked with last year again, as well as work with a few new people, and to work with Alison and Meg again (two of the students from last years team who are working in Bujumbura now).
I'm trying to think of something in the last week that I should talk about here... We've been up to a lot, but probably the biggest thing was our adventure in Bukora last week. Certainly it was remote, and when the crooked taxi driver wouldn't come and get us when it was time to leave because he claimed we weren't giving him enough money (which we were... we were offering double what we should have paid in fact!) we had to walk for two hours through farmland (bags and all!) to get to the main road to catch a bus back to Kigali (this was also the start of one of the craziest journeys of my life.... but that's a story for another day... and now can you see why I'm worried about the taxi tomorrow morning?!)
While in Bukora we went to a health clinic, talked, prayed and spent time with some of the patients, and also went to a refugee camp. This was a difficult experience, to see the way these people are being forced to live. As we were meeting the people, seeing their homes and playing with the kids, I was so struck by the injustice of it all. The fact that these people's live are being forced on hold while they wait for the government to someday get around to building a house (the houses cost less than $1000 to buy land and build a house on) and while these people wait, they are forced to live in these “houses” which are literally nothing more than some sticks, a tarpaulin and some walls they've made out of cow dung. The injustice of the whole situation struck me hard, and I realised that this is not the kingdom of God at work. Not at all. This was my prayer as we walked around and spent time there, to realise that these are people with real lives that are just waiting for these lives to start again.
One thing I also learnt this week is that whenever I talked about Bukora to people, I said I was going to the “middle of nowhere”. After we got back, I was reading a book (Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell... not so great, but a fantastic last page!) and there was a line that struck me that said “Every nowhere is a somewhere for someone”. I realised the truth of this and was challenged by it. Bukora is a place where people live out their lives, where they are born, grow up, plant crops, marry, raise a family and die... What right do I have to call this place where these people “do life” NOWHERE? Would I like it for people to say that about where I live? I'm not so sure...
So, in conclusion, our time in Bukora was great. It was a challenge indeed... Especially our night time visitors the rats on the second evening... But we survived and live to meet another day!
Roll on Burundi...
A few short highlights from the last week:
-Kigali reunions... 5 out of the 8 members of last years team were reunited in Kigali! Along with this years team, we went to see a world cup qualifying match between Rwanda and Algeria...not the greatest football, but good atmosphere and craic made for a great afternoon!
-We were so close to the Tanzanian border in Bukora that we talked the guards into letting us run across the bridge and into Tanzania... there was a pretty incredible waterfall on the bridge too! Good pictures to follow...
-Last night we spent dinner at a restaurant to celebrate the first three weeks of outreach, and also to say farewell to Amalia who's heading back to Canada for her sister's wedding!
-Yesterday it was hatching day for the ants...the flying ants.... THOUSANDS upon thousands of flying ants were emerging from hills all over the base... the birds were having a field day!
-Lowlight: The final death of my mp3 player... Now I no longer even have “Oh Holy Night” to lull me to sleep at night...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)